A Participatory Internet Initiative in an African American Neighborhood

Realities and Myths of Safety Issues for Community Researchers Working in a Marginalized African American Community

“…We felt inspired by the community's hope and faith in their neighborhood. We felt satisfied with the intervention and believed the project was successful in many ways (Masi, Suarez-Balcazar, Cassey, Kinney, & Piotrowski, 2003;Suarez-Balcazar, Kinney, Masi, Cassey, & Muhammad, 2005). Leaders were using the WebTV as a tool to access information and resources and to communicate with one another to advance their community development efforts.…”

“…These stories were collected during our bimonthly phone interviews with the block leaders. The stories included narrative descriptions of successful uses of the WebTV (see Suarez-Balcazar et al, 2005). We collected 450 stories in three years.…”

Ecological theory and research in multicultural psychology: A community psychology perspective.

“…Some of the more recent special issues have been Culture and Community Psychology (Kral, Ramírez-García, Masood, Dutta, & Todd, 2011), Stories of Diversity (Bond & Harrel, 2006), and Multi-Level Community-Based Culturally Situated Interventions (Schensul & Trickett, 2009). In addition, multiple papers and chapters, impossible to enumerate here, have been published with culture at the center of the studies (e.g., see Balcazar, García-Iriarte, & Suarez- O'Donell, 2006;Suarez-Balcazar, Kinney, Masi, Cassey, & Muhammad, 2005;Trickett, 2011). This focus emphasizes the conscientious choice of community psychologists to study oppressed and marginalized populations, with a strong recognition of the role that culture plays in determining the way some groups are discriminated against.…”

Using the Internet to conduct research with culturally diverse populations: Challenges and opportunities.

“…A study by Suarez- Balcazar, Kinney et al (2005) serves to illustrate intervention research using Internet technology among people of color. The goal of the study was to introduce the Internet as an intervention tool to provide local leaders with access to health information and health resources using the project's Website.…”

“…Examples of this use include psychological testing (Naglieri et al, 2004), measuring attitudes and behaviors (Barry, 2001), and conducting needs assessments (Balcazar, Garcia-Iriarte, & Suarez-Balcazar, 2007). Second, researchers have used the Internet as part of an intervention (Suarez-Balcazar, Kinney, Masi, Cassey, & Muhammad, 2005). The third use includes using the Internet as a tool for mapping social indicators, settings, and behaviors of interest and facilitating the sharing and archiving of research data (e.g., Pokorny et al, 2005).…”