Community Engagement as a Methodological Practice

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Community Engagement as a Methodological Practice

• Uzo Anucha
• School of Social Work, York University
• Metropolis, British Columbia
• October 22, 2009

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Presentation Outline

• Community-Engaged Scholarship
• What, Who, Where, Why, and How?
• The Community-Dialogue Approach
• Community Dialogue Projects
• The Assets Coming Together for Youth Project
• The Ethno-cultural Women and Breast Health
  Project
• Discussion
• Building a Sustainable, Equitable
  Community-University Research Partnership

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Community-Engaged Research

• Universities and funding agencies are
  increasingly encouraging community-engaged
  scholarship in which community partners
  collaborate in defining the focus and
  implementation of research.

• If a university is a repository of knowledge then
  some of this knowledge should spill over to the
  neighboring communities. A university should not
  be an island where academics reach out at higher
  and higher levels of knowledge without sharing
  any of their findings Muhammad Yunus

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Community-Engaged Scholarship

• The scholarship of Engagement means connecting
  the rich resources of the university to our most
  pressing social, civic and ethical problems, to
  our children, to our schools, to our teachers and
  to our cities.... Ernest Boyer in The
  Scholarship of Engagement

• Community-engaged scholarship has shifted our
  views on
• The What, Who, Where, Why, and How of research
• Research dissemination
• Research impact

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Community-engaged scholarshipA shift in..

• What is research?
• Traditional research (TR) theory
• Community Engaged Research (CER) theory
  practice
• Who does research?
• TR profs and students
• CER profs and students community stakeholders
• Where to do research?
• TR university
• CER university community

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Community-engaged scholarshipA shift in..

• Why do research?
• TR knowledge / understanding
• CER knowledge / understanding helping / making
  things better /creating change
• How to do research?
• TR method
• CER method dialogue

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The Community-Dialogue Approach

• The Community Dialogue Approach (CDA).
• CDA re-imagines community engagement as a
  methodological practice and research as a
  community dialogue that must fully engage the
  community.

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The Community-Dialogue Approach Two Key Features

• First A commitment to extensively involve the
  community during all phases of the research
• from defining the focus of the research to
  implementation and dissemination of the research.

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The Continuum of Community Involvement in Research
None
A Lot Top-down
Consultation Collaboration
Partnership Community-led TR CER
(Adapted from Winer and Ray 2000)
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Involving the Community some things to consider

• Embrace a broad definition of community and
  look for ways to widen the margin
• Develop fundable roles for community members
• Build capacity within the community - ideally,
  work yourself out of a job but leave a trace

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The Community-Dialogue Approach Two Key Features

• Second A commitment to tell multiple stories of
  the issue / community that is the focus of the
  research. Multi-methods / multi-focal research
• allows for the inclusion of multiple voices to
  inform an understanding of an issue under study.
• avoids the danger of a single story about an
  issue / community.

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Why is a Single Story of a Community so
Dangerous?

• Click here Chimamanda Adichie The danger of a
  single story Video on TED.com 

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Assets Coming Together for Youth Project
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The Assets Coming Together for Youth Project

• The ACT for Youth Project (2009 - 2014) brings
  together a cross-sectoral alliance of community
  stakeholders and an interdisciplinary network of
  scholars in a program of research, capacity
  building, knowledge transfer and evaluation that
  is focused on developing a comprehensive youth
  strategy for youth in urban communities using the
  Jane-Finch community as a case study.
• Funded through a SSHRC CURA Grant

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Two Conceptual Frameworks

• Positive Youth Development (PYD) Youth are not
  problems but assets for their communities
• Social Justice Approach A perspective that
  recognizes that youth in urban communities
  experience social, political and economical
  forces such as racism, sexism, poverty,
  zero-tolerance, unemployment, etc that are
  toxic to their well-being.

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ACT for Youth Project Team

• A cross-sectoral alliance of community
  stakeholders and an interdisciplinary network of
  scholars
• 31 project team members
• 13 community members
• 15 academic members
• 3 graduate students
• 27 community partners
• Youth-led / Youth-centred Organizations
• Multi-service Community Organizations
• Faith-based Organizations
• Provincial / National Organizations
• Coalitions

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Governance Structure
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Research Impact and DisseminationA Mix of TR
and CER..

• How do we want the J-F community to remember
  that the ACT for Youth project was there?
• Changed the conversation / public discourse about
  youth in the J-F community
• Increased research skills of youth, community
  practitioners and students
• Increased the communitys awareness of how to
  create pathways to developmental assets for youth
• Generated local-level data that will inform the
  communitys selection of tested and effective
  initiatives for PYD

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Research Impact and DisseminationA Mix of TR
and CER..

• Translated knowledge through youth-focused
  dissemination
• forums and workshops
• arts-based approaches exhibitions,
  documentaries
• published materials such as manuals, guides,
  curricula, policy-relevant publications as well
  as academic books and papers
• Enriched curriculum in professional and
  interdisplinary programmes in universities.
• Trained students who are knowledgeable on how
  research can be directly linked to policy and
  action
• ??

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The Ethno-Cultural Women and Breast Health Project
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The Ethno-cultural Women and Breast Health Project

• Community-based health promotion research
  project focused on better understanding the
  barriers and facilitators to accessing breast
  health in Windsor/Essex County within the context
  of language and cultural differences.
• The project focused on ethno-cultural women from
  continental Africa and Asia (South Asians, East
  Asians and West Asians) who experience language
  and cultural challenges.
• This project was funded by the Canadian Breast
  Cancer Foundation Ontario Chapter,
  Community-based research grant

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Multi-Methods.

• In-depth interviews with 80 ethno-cultural women
  to explore their knowledge of breast cancer
  beliefs regarding breast cancer perceptions of
  health and breast screening practices.
• Sampling criteria included ethno-cultural women
  from continental Africa and Asia (South Asians,
  East Asians and West Asians) who were 45 years
  old or older
• Interviews were conducted by community liaisons
  in the first-language of participants, taped with
  their consent, transcribed verbatim and
  translated into English.
• The community liaisons used an interview guide
  that was focused on illuminating the life world
  of participants and their personal experiences
  with breast health and/or breast cancer
  treatment.
• Participants were paid a small honorarium

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Promoting Breast Health for Ethno-cultural Women

• Findings informed the development of a health
  promotion workshop to increase the knowledge of
  women from ethno-cultural communities on breast
  cancer and the importance of breast screening
• we collaborated with community organizations
  especially, ethno-cultural and religious
  organizations in hosting and delivering the
  workshops.
• we drew on the expertise of members of these
  organizations in delivering the workshops.
• workshops were offered in the language that women
  preferred and in a setting that they were
  comfortable in.
• we drew on culturally-appropriate materials to
  enhance the delivery of the workshops.

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Promoting Breast Health for Ethno-cultural Women

• The project partnered with settlement
  organizations and cultural /religious
  associations in delivering 18 health promotion
  workshops (HPW) to 256 women.
• The objective of the HPW was to provide a safe
  and culturally appropriate environment for
  ethno-cultural women to engage in dialogue about
  breast health
• Pre and post test evaluation of the workshops
  indicated that there were positive intervention
  effects for the women in all areas including
  general breast cancer and screening knowledge,
  perceived benefits to clinical breast exams and
  mammograms, as well as perceived barriers to both
  clinical breast exams and mammograms

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Comments and Questions?
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Discussion

• Building a Sustainable, Equitable
  Community-University Research Partnership

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For information on our community-dialogue
projects, check out our website
www.yorku.ca/aswreg Uzo AnuchaTel
416.726.2100 x 23080email anucha_at_yorku.ca