Recommendations

Based on the results of this study, the CBCRP should:

  1. Continue supporting, strengthening, and possibly even expanding the CRC awards. Support would be most useful in providing technical assistance to the CRC teams to ensure full collaboration during all phases of the project, including data analysis and dissemination.
  2. Develop best practices materials which provide models of collaboration throughout the research project and examples of meaningful inclusion of members of the broader community to help teams adhere more closely to community-based participatory research principles.
  3. Require the development of memoranda of understanding by CRC teams and board resolutions from the involved community organizations that specifically delineate agreements regarding power sharing, communication, personnel turnover (including the possibility of the community principal investigator leaving), ownership of data and other project related outcomes, handling of budget, dissemination of results to community and to scientific audiences, use of affiliations in publication materials, use of community-based organization identification in publication materials, and a conflict resolution plan.
  4. Provide funding for dissemination of successful project results to allow partnerships to continue working together through this important step.
  5. Participate in efforts to recruit researchers to conduct community-based participatory research. Consider supporting programs that focus on recruiting community members (especially women of color) to earn advanced research studies degrees and supporting efforts to make institutional change that reward community collaboration in academia.
  6. Continue to explore the relationship between outcomes and partnership characteristics in these awards.
  7. Further explore reasons for the lower-scoring outcomes and partnership characteristics uncovered in this evaluation and consider interventions to improve these variables.
  8. Continue to evaluate CRC awards and disseminate findings to larger audiences.

Based on the results of this evaluation, collaborative research teams should:

  1. Invest in the relationship. Participate in activities that allow for the development of respect, understanding, and trust.
  2. Share power and work throughout the study, especially during data analysis and dissemination.
  3. Prepare for disruptions and turnover, and have clear agreements about how individuals will be replaced, trained, and integrated into the team.
  4. Have written agreements among the collaborative team and with the leadership and board of directors of any involved community-based organizations. Include as many elements and potential eventualities of the project as can be considered.
  5. Discuss expectations about dissemination including how and when study results will be reported and to whom.
  6. Communicate openly and frequently about the process of the collaboration, not just the project and outcomes.
  7. Involve larger groups of community members in the collaboration as research team members, research assistants, and advisors.
  8. Involve the staff and board from any participating community organizations to ensure shared ownership of the project and its outcomes, and to ensure that capacity building is a core component of the project.

Based on the results of this evaluation, evaluators of community-based participatory research should:

  1. Continue to evaluate the effectiveness of community-based participatory research projects.
  2. Expand on and strengthen numeric likert scales as evaluation tools.
  3. Consider weighting the importance of partnership characteristics and outcomes.
  4. Investigate the qualities of individuals and of partnerships that enhance communitybased participatory research and allow for trust to build.
  5. Conduct cost/benefit evaluations on collaboration at each step of the research study (such as the data analysis step) and the inclusion of more individuals from diverse backgrounds (i.e., race/ethnicity, education level, socio-economic status) on the collaboration team.