Community Based Participatory Research

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has received growing attention over the past several decades as international, domestic, funding agencies and researchers have renewed a focus on an approach to health that recognizes the importance of social, political and economic systems to health behaviors and outcomes. The long-standing importance of this approach is reflected in the 1988 Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) landmark report The Future of Public Health and many other publications. The report indicates that communities and community-based organizations are one of six potential partners in the public health system and that building community-based partnerships is a priority area for improving public health. CBPR is not a method but an approach to research and practice that involves the active collaboration of the potential beneficiaries and recognizes and values the contributions that communities and their leaders can make to new knowledge and to the translation of research findings into public health practice and policy. CBPR - as it is often referred - is a collaborative approach to research that recognizes the value of equitably involving the intended beneficiaries throughout all phases of research and program planning, implementation, and evaluation. CBPR is also an important approach to advance health and social equity and is essentially a way to promote and operationalize health and social equity in research settings. This course will provide an examination of the relevant literature in CBPR with a focus on the history, theoretical framework and application of CBPR within public health programs and research, with special emphasis on the role of CBPR in advancing health and social equity.