Participatory action research: moving beyond the mental health ‘service user’ identity
This paper discusses the process of a participatory action research study that was facilitated by a mental health nurse and involved six people who use statutory mental health services as co-researchers. The process of recruiting and training the service-user researchers is described. The paper also highlights the perspective of the service-user researchers on the process of being involved in the research, as well as the impact that this involvement had on them considering a move beyond the mental illness identity. Hutchinson, A., & Lovell, A. (2013). Participatory action research: moving beyond the mental health ‘service user’ identity. Journal of Psychiatric…
Combining photovoice and focus groups: Engaging Latina teens in community assessment
This article presents a study that combined photovoice (a CBPR methodology) with focus groups to engage Latina teens and their parents in identifying barriers to physical activity and initiating policy actions to address them. The authors also investigate the effectiveness of applying photovoice as both an evaluation tool and a leadership/advocacy intervention in this study. Hannay, J., Dudley, R., Milan, S., & Leibovitz, P. K. (2013). Combining photovoice and focus groups: Engaging Latina teens in community assessment. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 44(3, Supplement 3), S215-S224. Full Text.
Keeping the Scholarship of Engagement in the Review Process
This article summarizes advice and suggestions on how to prepare for and navigate the tenure and promotion process as an engaged scholar. While many of the suggestions are specific to those seeking advancement in the context of the scholarship of engagement, most are relevant to all who seek tenure and promotion. Gelmon, S. & Agre-Kippenhan, S. (2002). Keeping the scholarship of engagement in the review process. Full Text.
Developing strategies for reducing cancer disparities via cross-institutional collaboration: Outreach efforts for the partnership between the Ponce School of Medicine and the Moffitt Cancer Center
This article reports on a collaborative academic institutional partnership between a minority-serving institution and a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. This partnership launched an outreach program to address cancer health disparities in two Hispanic communities in Puerto Rico and Florida. This article outlines the program’s initial collaborative strategies and activities in community outreach, cancer education and research that mutually benefit the Hispanic communities in both Puerto Rico and Florida. Lessons learned and challenges faced by the Outreach Program are presented. Gwede, C. K., Castro, E., Brandon, T. H., McIntyre, J., Meade, C. D., Munoz-Antonia, T.,…Quinn, G., P. (2012). Developing strategies…
Let’s start at the very beginning: the impact of program origins and negotiated community-university partnerships on Canadian radical humanities programs
This article examines the community-university partnerships and the planning process of three Canadian Radical Humanities programs: programs that offer university entry-level humanities to adult learners on the margins of society. Examining these three iterations reveals (1) the importance of clarifying roles and expectations in community-university partnerships, and (2) the significance of program origins, particularly the introduction of frame factors shaping student options and the potential for institutional change. Groen, J. & Hyland-Russell, T. (2012). Let’s start at the very beginning: the impact of program origins and negotiated community-university partnerships on Canadian radical humanities programs. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 31(6),…
Beyond Activity, Place, and Partner: How Publicly Engaged Scholarship varies by Intensity of Activity and Degree of Entertainment
Common descriptors of engaged scholarship—what faculty do, where they do it, and with whom they partner—do not characterize how faculty members collaborate with community partners in engagement activities. This study questioned whether two process-oriented constructs, level of activity and degree of engagement, are useful ways to describe how faculty members go about their collaborations with the public. An interpretive content analysis of 173 promotion and tenure forms demonstrated differences in intensity of activity and degree of engagement by gender, race, age, teaching assignment, joint departmental appointment, appointment length, Extension appointment, and discipline. The authors present the findings and conclude with…
The origins and overview of the W. K. Kellogg Community Health Scholars Program
This paper describes the history, components and evaluations of the W. K. Kellogg Community Health Scholars Program (CHSP). From 1998 to 2007, CHSP trained 46 postdoctoral fellows to develop and enhance skills in working with communities and engage in community-based participatory research (CBPR). Its design and implementation exemplified the partnership principles at the core of the training it provided. Evaluations have shown that CHSP has had substantial impact not only on its participants, but also on academic institutions, community-based organizations (CBOs), policies relating to research funding and implementation, and professional organizations. A key element in this impact has been the…
Participatory action learning and action research for self-sustaining community development: Engaging Pacific Islanders in Southeast Queensland
This paper describes a university-community initiative aimed at improving educational opportunities within a Samoan community in Southeast Queensland, Australia. The initiative demonstrates how participatory action learning and action research processes were used to build the capacity of the Samoan community to address self-identified community needs. These strategies enabled community members to develop and sustain their own projects, and equipped them to pass this ability on to other community members, creating long-term project continuity. Green, A., & Kearney, J. (2011). Participatory action learning and action research for self-sustaining community development: Engaging Pacific Islanders in Southeast Queensland. The Australasian Journal of University-Community…
Development of Project Wings Home Visits, a mental health intervention for Latino families using community-based participatory research
This article details the steps undertaken to develop Project Wings Home Visits, a collaborative school-based, community-linked mental health promotion intervention for Latino adolescents and their families. The intervention was developed using a CBPR approach that involved the cooperation of a community health care system, a public high school, and a university. The process of Project Wings Home Visits demonstrates the benefits and challenges of using CBPR in creating and implementing health promotion interventions. Garcia, C., Hermann, D., Bartels, A., Matamoros, P., Dick-Olson, L., & Guerra de Patino, J. (2012). Development of Project Wings Home Visits, a mental health intervention for…
Supporting community safety through university-community partnerships: Exploring models of engagement
This paper highlights four six-year long projects to explore various models of university-community engagement supporting violence prevention and community safety. These case examples, from the Center for Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships at UNC Greensboro, address issues such as funding, community collaboration, sustainability, leadership, evaluation, and communication. Frabutt, J.M. (2010). Supporting community safety through university-community partnerships: Exploring models of engagement. Journal of Community Engagement, 1(2), 1-13. Full Text.
Accountable to whom? A critical science counter-story about a city that stopped caring for its young
This article sketches a participatory action research project, Polling for Justice (PFJ), which was designed by youth and adults in New York City to evaluate the impact of neo-liberal public policies on young people. PFJ examined young people’s experiences of urban public policy using a critical participatory research approach in which young people had power to shape inquiry into their experiences, decide how to interpret the findings, and then take a lead role in action, in part through radically inverting conventional understandings of who/what should be held accountable. Using the story of PFJ, the authors propose that reconsidering accountability at…
Sometimes there are no notes: An auto ethnographic essay of a collaboration at the engagement interface
This autoethnographic essay represents the authors’ critical reflection on their experiences partnering with Liz Lerman and Dance Exchange (a dance company) artists on a collaborative evaluation of “The Matter of Origins”, a contemporary art and science dance performance. They describe meaningful moments in their collaboration, and reexamine those moments in the broader context of scholarly community engagement. Based on this reflection, the authors identify themes including ethnographic approaches to collaboration, shared systems of meaning, and developmental evaluation to understand the complex experiences that took place at the engagement interface. The essay concludes with suggested reflective questions for scholars to consider…
Seeing ‘With my Own Eyes’: Strengthening interactions between researchers and schools
This paper describes a participatory action research (PAR) project initiated by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), as part of their Wellcome Trust Research Programme’s (KWTRP) community engagement strategy in Kilifi. The project, called the School Engagement Programme (SEP), partnered students and teachers from secondary schools, and scientists from KWTRP, to design and implement a set of interventions aimed at promoting school awareness of locally conducted research, and positive attitudes towards school science and health research. The article presents findings from an evaluation of the SEP, which was conducted through surveys and discussions with teachers, students, researchers, and other stakeholders….
Working together: A methodological case study of ‘Engaged Scholarship’
This paper explores the University of Queensland’s Boilerhouse Community Engagement Centre (UQ Boilerhouse) as a case study for engaged scholarship in practice. Informed by principles of participatory action research (PAR), the paper describes the three stages of the methodological framework guiding the work of UQ Boilerhouse: project development and design, data collection and analysis, and reporting and project evaluation. In conclusion, the paper examines ways in which PAR can effectively promote participatory democracy, and discusses particular constraints and challenges of the PAR process. Cuthill, M. (2010). Working together: A methodological case study of ‘Engaged Scholarship’. Gateways: International Journal of Community…
The Journey of a Community-Engaged Scholar: An Autoethnography
In this piece, the author describes his own career path to becoming a tenured full professor who regards community-engaged scholarship as central to his work. Using an autoethnographic style, the author reflects on the motivations, influences, and experiences that have informed his professional identity as a community-engaged scholar. His reflections address the tensions facing community-engaged scholars as they navigate faculty roles and rewards in higher education. Cutforth, N. (2013). The Journey of a community-engaged scholar: An autoethnography. Quest: Journal of the National Association of Kinesiology, 65(1), 14-30. Full Text.
Survivor voices: Co-learning, re-connection, and healing through community action research and engagement (CARE)
This paper examines the community-campus partnership between the Trauma Healing Project (THP) and the University of Oregon Psychology and Counseling Services Department, examining Survivor Voices, a community-based PAR mixed methods study that was developed and implemented through this partnership. This collaboratively designed study aimed to understand from survivors of abuse “what hurt” and “what helped” from the process of dealing with trauma and what recommendations these survivors could provide about trauma healing. Methods, quantitative/qualitative results, and challenges/lessons learned are presented, as well as a section reflecting on how the partnership and PAR methods can be useful tools in a community’s…
Evidence-based practice and teacher action-research: a reflection on the nature and direction of ‘change’
This study looked at the impact of a scholarship initiative supporting classroom teachers to undertake action-research projects on a topic of their own choice with the assistance of a mentor. Data collected from interviews with teachers and analysis of teacher action-research reports pointed to a multi-faceted concept of practice unfolding from individual inquiry and dialogical conversations with colleagues and university mentors. Colucci-Gray, L., Sharmistha, D., Gray, D., Robson, D., & Spratt, J. (2013). Evidence-based practice and teacher action-research: a reflection on the nature and direction of ‘change’. British Educational Research Journal, 39(1), 126-147. Full Text.
Studying and addressing urban immigrant restaurant worker health and safety in San Francisco’s Chinatown District: A CBPR case study
This paper highlights eight ways in which CBPR has been shown to add value to work with urban underserved communities. Challenges of using CBPR, particularly with urban immigrant populations, are also discussed. The authors then describe the Chinatown Restaurant Worker Health and Safety Study, a CBPR project conducted in San Francisco, California, and draw on study processes and outcomes to illustrate each of the benefits and challenges of CBPR. Finally, the authors discuss lessons learned, through the Chinatown study and other studies, for the effective use of CBPR with urban immigrant communities. Chang, C., Minkler, M., Salvatore, A. L., Lee,…
Videovoice: Community assessment in post-Katrina New Orleans
Videovoice is a health advocacy, promotion, and research method through which people use video cameras as a tool to research issues, communicate knowledge, and advocate for change. This paper explores a videovoice project carried out in post-Katrina New Orleans by a community-university-filmmaker partnership, in which 10 community members participated in an 18-week training and community assessment. The authors describe how the final product (a 22-minute film) successfully communicated knowledge to many audiences (live premier, YouTube, DVD distribution) and mobilized community action on three issues: affordable housing, education, and economic development. The paper concludes by discussing particular challenges of videovoice and…
Served or unserved? A site suitability analysis of social services in Atlanta, Georgia using geographic information systems
In this study, investigators utilize a Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) research framework with multiple community partners to understand accessibility to social service providers in a subset of lower income zip codes across Atlanta, Georgia. The study has practical and actionable implications for lower income urban communities, and methodological implications for the disciplines of geography, public health and planning. Case, C., & Hawthorne, T. L. (2013). Served or unserved? A site suitability analysis of social services in Atlanta, Georgia using geographic information systems. Journal of Applied Geography, 38, 96-106. Full Text.
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