Community Research
Excerpted from: Maryellen Kelly, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor @ Duquesne University, Pamela Reynolds, PT, EdD, Associate Professor @ Gannon University, 2004.
Definition
A collaborative approach to research that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, and academic researchers in the design and accomplishment of research projects aimed at meeting community-identified needs.
It is done “with” rather than “on” a community partner.
There is a critical action component with CBR such that the knowledge gained is combined with action to enhance the well-being of the community and its members.
CBR is a relatively recent iteration of Service-Learning in higher education.
Name Game…
- Community Based Research
- Community Based Participatory Research
- Community Based Action Research
- Community Based Participatory Action Research
Benefits of CBR
Faculty Focused
- Provides exposure, awareness, & increased sensitivity to community needs & assets
- Integrate teaching and scholarship with service
- Increases available scope of research topics and training sites
- Rewards of meaningful research
Community Partners
- Strengthens purpose & goals of mission
- Adds value: service, social, economic
- Increases relationship with university and faculty
- Increases access to experts for research, data analysis, program evaluation
To Academic Institutions
- Enhances mission and strategic goals
- Investment in faculty development
- Integration of SL into existing courses
- Educate committed and caring students
- Long-term community relationships
- Doing the right thing – “being a good neighbor”
Examples of Outcomes/Products
- Community Scholarship Products
- Resources : Tools and strategies to assess community assets/ strengths, concerns, and measure outcomes
- Program Outcomes: Increased community leadership and funding
- Dissemination: Presentation to community leaders and policy-makers
- Other program development grants
Tips for Portfolio Documentation
- Document as an ongoing process rather that a summary of outcomes. Programs usually never go forward as they are proposed
- Clarify intellectual question that guided your work. What propelled the work?
- Document individual contribution. Remember the “I” of “we”
- Balance reflection on process and outcome
- Describe the context of the work
- Relate community research and service to institutional mission
- Present a clearly linked picture of your scholarship
- Balance the scholarship in your portfolio
- Be selective