Community-Academic Research Partnerships

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Welcome to the Community-Academic Research Partnerships module. Through this series of videos, we hope to provide research faculty and non-faculty community partners with innovative conversations about community and academic research partnerships.

The video presentations are given by experienced community-academic investigators affiliated with research institutions from around the country. Though interested viewers may have experience in traditional research approaches, these presentations may provide new and innovative insights regarding the nuances of community-academic research.

This module offers a foundational overview of community-academic research, approaches, strategies in overcoming obstacles, and research examples. The information may be useful as a means of assisting in the sound building of collaborative research partnerships and research, enhancing provider practices and health within communities.

We do suggest that these videos be watched in a particular sequence - see below. In the first two videos, Weerts and South-Paul discuss the overarching importance and nuances of establishing community partnerships in research. Next, Stoecker, Anders, Mondloch, and Cramer-Walsh identify what communities and community organizations want from academic partnerships. Joe and Adams delve more deeply into specifics by providing obstacles, innovations, and insights from their own research experiences. Finally, Thomas provides a detailed example of a successful community- academic partnership.

Please note that with each video there is a brief summary provided and specified readings regarding the presenter's topic.

Suggested viewing sequence:

Date		Presentation
01/26/2009		Community-Academic Partnerships: What Communities Want R. Stoecker, C. Anders, A. Mondloch View description Randy Stoecker, in conjunction with Crystel Anders and Amy Mondloch discuss key elements of developing and sustaining community academic partnerships. These include: 1. Collaborating from the early stages---building the project together 2. Both partners sharing a passion for the project 3. Perceiving partnerships as a mutual teaching/learning experience 4. The importance of academic partners caring about and respecting the community 5. Communicating expectations and agreeing on desired outcomes 6. Planning roles and responsibilities and what resources are needed 7. The importance of partnerships producing something that can be used by the community 8. Maintaining and managing the relationship through continual communication 9. Managing conflict 10. Addressing who owns the data and how to handle sensitive data
01/20/2009		Health Research Partnerships with American Indian Communities A. Adams View description Alexandra Adams, MD, PhD leads a family-based intervention project - Healthy Children, strong families - to reduce obesity and cardiac risk factors in American Indian children. This participatory research project, a partnership between four Wisconsin Tribes, great Lakes inter-Tribal Council and UW researchers, is a randomized controlled trial examining the effect of a home visiting intervention on reducing metabolic risk and improving lifestyles in the children and their primary caregivers.
10/22/2008		Perspectives from the Public: How Wisconsinites View UW-Madison K. Cramer Walsh View description Katherine Cramer-Walsh, PhD, shares the results of her recent study which examined peoples’ perceptions from around the state about the UW-Madison. She discusses outreach and important considerations in establishing research partnerships in communities around the state.
09/24/2008		Transforming Campus & Communities through Public Engagement: The Critical Role of Boundary Spanners D. Weerts View description Drawing on findings from a large-scale study of community engagement efforts at major research universities, this presentation invites participants to consider ways in which staff, faculty and institutional leaders can create more effective bridges to communities to address regional needs. The session tackles key questions such as, “How do we define and understand public engagement at major research universities? What are the roles of university boundary spanners in creating bridges to communities? How might we identify, develop and support boundary spanners to increase the effectiveness of current engagement efforts?” Weerts introduces a boundary spanning model to help practitioners and institutional leaders conceptualize and assess spanning roles at major research universities.
08/04/2008		A Successful Community-Academic Partnership to Address Health Disparities: The Healthy Black Family Project S. Thomas View description Stephen B. Thomas, PhD, introduces the Healthy Black Family Project with an emphasis on how the initiative was conceived and planned for, the partners represented, how this community-academic partnership is being sustained and the health disparities research that is 'nested' within the program structure. The Health Black Family Project uses County Health Department benchmarks to explore relationships between precursors of disease and health outcomes in predominantly African American neighborhoods. A set of community-based health promotion interventions are implemented within a framework designed to track progress and measure health outcomes. Program activities include: cancer prevention and control, family health histories, mental wellness, nutritional information and guidance, physical activity, self-management of chronic diseases, smoking cessation and stress management.
05/02/2008		Challenges in Sustaining Community-based Participatory Research J. Joe View description Jennie Joe PhD, MPH discusses challenges in community-based participatory research, avenues for overcoming barriers, strategies for sustaining community partnerships and capacity building in communities.
04/23/2008		Building Capacity for Successful Community-based Research J. South-Paul View description Clinical investigation has traditionally focused on conditions that are best studied in controlled environments. Furthermore, women have only been equitably represented among participants enrolled during the last 10-15 years. Thus, many of the findings of such studies have been difficult to translate into less controlled environments such as the community or into underrepresented minority and disadvantaged groups. Strategies to incorporate diverse populations groups into research in the academic health center and the community setting are discussed. One such strategy is the use of community advisory boards that provide community stakeholders a voice in the projects implemented in their communities. Incorporating community advisory boards as well as attending to the principles of community-oriented research facilitate and encourage research that contributes positively to the health of communities and the elimination of health disparities.