Community-based Participatory Research: Benefits and challenges in studying and addressing health inequities

Date:

Monday, 11 November 2019

Time:

1.30pm –  2.30pm

Venue:

Seminar Room 1, Level 8
Tahir Foundation Building (MD1)
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
National University of Singapore
12 Science Drive 2, S(117549)

Synopsis:

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is an evidence-based partnership approach to research which intentionally involves researchers, community members and other stakeholders in all aspects of the research process. This feature distinguishes CBPR from other research approaches in the community setting. The benefits of CBPR include 1) ensuring that the topic reflects a major issue that the community prioritises, 2) building trust between the community and researchers, 3) helping formulate research plans/interventions that meet the criteria of strong science and are socially and culturally acceptable, improving their likelihood of success, 4) promoting capacity building among all partners and 5) enhancing the translation of research findings into health- promoting policies and practice.

This session will provide an overview of the importance of CBPR in health promotion, core principles that underlie this approach, and case studies that illustrate the continuum of community-engaged research. The contributions of community and other stakeholders to improving the “relevance, rigour and reach” of research addressing health inequities will be discussed, as will ethical and methodological challenges.

About the speaker:

Meredith Minkler, DrPH is Professor Emerita and Professor in the graduate group at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, where she served as a Professor for almost 40 years and co-founded the University’s Center on Aging. She continues teaching and partnering with communities to study and address health and social inequities through community-based participatory research (CBPR) and related approaches. Her current work addresses helping communities transform the built environment to promote health and social wellbeing and studying long- term community and policy impacts of CBPR. Dr. Minkler is co-author or editor of 8 books including Community Organizing & Community Building for Health and Welfare (2012, 3rd edition) and Community- Based Participatory Research for Health: Advancing Social & Health Equity (2018, with Wallerstein, et al., 3rd edition). She has worked with numerous universities, government agencies and NGOs in the USA and other countries around the world.