Cases

Resources that share examples, experiences, outcomes, and reflections on particular community-based research endeavors.

How Students Are Leading Us: Youth Organizing and the Fight for Public Education in Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s students have long been a major force in the battle for public education, and for the past decade and a half they have fought valiantly against the encroachment of neoliberalism, the idea that market-based logic can solve non-market problems more efficiently and effectively than governmental or public sector agencies. Leading this charge have been two prominent youth organizing groups, the Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) and Youth United for Change (YUC). Both PSU and YUC have been at the forefront of recent organizing efforts to protest and propose alternatives to the shuttering of 23 schools, the firing of 3,859 educators and support staff, and the elimination of extracurricular programs and arts education from the public schools for the 2012-2013 school year. (more…)

By anaantunes, ago

Promoting Environmental Justice Through Community-Based Participatory Research: The Role of Community and Partnership Capacity

This article presents the results of a cross-site case study of four Community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships in the United States that research environmental health problems and worked to educate legislators and promote relevant public policy. The authors focus on community and partnership capacity within and across sites, using as a theoretical framework Goodman and his colleagues’ dimensions of community capacity, as these were tailored to environmental health by Fruedenberg, and as further modified to include partnership capacity within a systems perspective. The four CBPR partnerships were situated in New York, California, Oklahoma, and North Carolina and were part of a larger national study. Case study contexts and characteristics, policy-related outcomes, and findings related to community and partnership capacity are presented, with implications drawn for other CBPR partnerships with a policy focus. (more…)

By anaantunes, ago

Promoting Health and Safety in San Francisco’s Chinatown Restaurants: Findings and Lessons Learned from a Pilot Observational Checklist

In collaboration with university and community partners, the San Francisco Department of Public Health used an observational checklist to assess preventable occupational injury hazards and compliance with employee notification requirements in 106 restaurants in San Francisco’s Chinatown.  Supported by a larger community-based participatory research process, this pilot project helped to spur additional innovative health department collaborations to promote healthier workplaces. (more…)

By anaantunes, ago

Community-Based Participatory Research: A Strategy for Building Healthy Communities and Promoting Health through Policy Change

This report combines lessons and best practices from around the country with insights drawn from six case studies set in California. Background and context are provided, along with promising practices and sample resources and tools to assist local leaders in planning their own community-based participatory research (CBPR) inspired projects. (more…)

By anaantunes, ago

Ethical Dilemmas in Participatory Action Research: A Case Study from the Disability Community

This case study explores the use of Participatory Action Research (PAR) by and with a community of people with disabilities in addressing a polarizing issue in that community: death with dignity or physician-assisted suicide legislation. Following a brief review of the debate within the community about this issue and the goals, methods, and findings of this project, the authors examine four key ethical challenges. These are dilemmas in issue selection when the community is deeply divided over a problem area, inclusion and exclusion in study team makeup and sample selection, insider/outsider issues, and how best to use findings in ways that can unite and strengthen the community. The implications of these issues for health educators and others engaged in community-based PAR efforts are presented. (more…)

By anaantunes, ago

Imagining Participatory Action Research in Collaboration with Children: An Introduction

When thinking about issues that affect children, community psychologists have most frequently conceptualized important stakeholders as parents and extended family members, family advocates, teachers, mental health professionals, and other adults in children’s lives. These adults may be consulted in interviews or focus groups, usually responding to the problem as conceptualized by the researcher. Increasingly, adult stakeholders and older youth may take on more participatory roles. Rarely, however, are children consulted or asked to help formulate the problem definition or proximate solution. Indeed, research is typically done for children, but not with children. This special issue is a collection of papers about participatory action research with children who are middle school age or younger, and is intended to stimulate dialogue and to offer alternatives when conducting research that affects children. (more…)

By anaantunes, ago

Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University

Publicly engaged academic work is taking hold in American colleges and universities, part of a larger trend toward civic professionalism in many spheres. But tenure and promotion policies lag behind public scholarly and creative work and discourage faculty from doing it. Disturbingly, the authors’ interviews revealed a strong sense that pursuing academic public engagement is viewed as an unorthodox and risky early career option for faculty of color. (more…)

By anaantunes, ago