Bringing Community and Academic Scholars Together to Facilitate and Conduct Authentic Community Based Participatory Research: Project UNITED

Dwight Lewis, Lea Yerby, Melanie Tucker, Pamela Payne Foster, Kara C. Hamilton, Matthew M. Fifolt, Lisle Hites, Mary Katherine Shreves, Susan B. Page, Kimberly L. Bissell, Felecia L. Lucky and John C. Higginbotham
Additional contact information
Dwight Lewis: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Lea Yerby: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Melanie Tucker: Department of Family Medicine, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Pamela Payne Foster: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Kara C. Hamilton: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Matthew M. Fifolt: Evaluation and Assessment Unit, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
Lisle Hites: Evaluation and Assessment Unit, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
Mary Katherine Shreves: Institute for Communication and Information Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Susan B. Page: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Kimberly L. Bissell: Institute for Communication and Information Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Felecia L. Lucky: Black Belt Community Foundation, Selma, AL 36701, USA
John C. Higginbotham: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Cultural competency, trust, and research literacy can affect the planning and implementation of sustainable community-based participatory research (CBPR). The purpose of this manuscript is to highlight: (1) the development of a CBPR pilot grant request for application; and (2) a comprehensive program supporting CBPR obesity-related grant proposals facilitated by activities designed to promote scholarly collaborations between academic researchers and the community. After a competitive application process, academic researchers and non-academic community leaders were selected to participate in activities where the final culminating project was the submission of a collaborative obesity-related CBPR grant application. Teams were comprised of a mix of academic researchers and non-academic community leaders, and each team submitted an application addressing obesity-disparities among rural predominantly African American communities in the US Deep South. Among four collaborative teams, three (75%) successfully submitted a grant application to fund an intervention addressing rural and minority obesity disparities. Among the three submitted grant applications, one was successfully funded by an internal CBPR grant, and another was funded by an institutional seed funding grant. Preliminary findings suggest that the collaborative activities were successful in developing productive scholarly relationships between researchers and community leaders. Future research will seek to understand the full-context of our findings.

Keywords: community based; participatory; collaboration; cultural competency; grantsmanship; research literacy; rural; obesity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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