Rationale for Including Community-Based Research to Improve Health
Increasingly, health funders and policymakers at the national, state, and local levels are requiring that those proposing new interventions and related research to demonstrate that there is wide-spread community involvement in the preparation of funding applications. The reasons for this are:
Reducing disparities and moving toward health equity
Accelerating the translation of research into local practice
Building a foundation for the sustainability of new interventions and continuous quality improvements
Community is defined as consumers of health care and their advocates, traditional and non-traditional providers of healthcare, local and state policymakers. With the assumption that genuine community-academic partnerships are the best way to improve health locally, the RWJ CSP has been committed to not only providing classroom content on community-based participatory research but also encouraging that Scholars, over their two year fellowship, spend 15 percent of their time doing a local health research projects that allows applying the principle so community-based participatory research.
Objectives of the Yale RWJ Clinical Scholar Community-Partnered Research Projects:
1. To understand health, research, and interventions from a community/consumer perspective.
2. To have made a definable contribution to some aspect of the health of New Haven while the Scholars are at Yale.
3. To provide opportunities for Scholars to develop skills in working as a team in addressing health issues, applying quantitative and/or qualitative skills to the benefit of community health, and translating research into action.
4. To instill in Scholars a sense of responsibility to the communities in which they work.
Each community project must have a consumer knowledgeable partner or consortium of partners engaged in as many aspects of the research project as is feasible including:
Defining a research issue of importance to the community
Defining a research question
Developing a research approach
Collecting data
Analysis and interpretation of the data
Disseminating the findings to audiences who can influence change
Several structures have been put in place to facilitate Scholar-community relationship building, developing and implementing community research projects:
A curriculum that leads Scholars through the principles and processes of community-based research. This curriculum relies on local and national case studies and is taught by Yale faculty and local leaders
A systemic summer orientation to New Haven, its neighborhoods and its health leadership
Dedicated community research faculty to build, nurture, and sustain community relationships
A Steering Committee on Community Projects that provides feedback on project ideas; links Scholars with other key players in the community who can inform and/or partner on projects; and acts as an ambassador for the Program in the community. This committee is comprised of community leaders and community-respected academicians.
Annual funds provided by the Dean of the Medical School to support
Scholar/community driven research projects
Anticipated Outcomes of the Community Research Experience:
1. Education and training in community-based and collaborative research that will have transferability to other settings.
2. Strengthening relationships in New Haven for the benefit of community-based projects of current and future Scholars.
3. Creating products for the benefit of the New Haven community and others. Examples include:
Grant writing assistance for the New Haven Public Schools to obtain funds for an exercise program
Survey construction, administration, and analysis of teachers and fifth grade students in New Haven public schools to evaluate the program of increased exercise in the classroom
A report of community leaders perspectives on the use of data to improve health
How a community health organization implements a controlled trial intervention
A Photovoice exhibit of the roots and effects of violence by New Haven youth
A report evaluating the New Haven Street Outreach Workers Program to Reduce Violence
Survey questions about teenage pregnancy for the Behavioral Risk Survey for students in New Haven
Building the basis for a project to increase access to healthcare for the uninsured
4. Translating the community research experience into a scholarly manuscript.
