A review of community-engaged research approaches used to achieve environmental justice and eliminate disparities

Using the Community Engagement Framework to Understand and Assess EJ-Related Research Efforts

“…The highest level of engagement, described as community-led, was demonstrated when communities set their own research questions, selected partners for collaboration, and managed the implementation of solutions and dissemination of findings [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99]. Fewer studies were categorized as being low-engagement, in which: information flowed in one direction from researchers to community (outreach) [100]; information fed to the community and was also extracted from the community (consult) [52,[101][102][103][104]; or communication was bidirectional, cooperative, and involved community participation (involve) [44,51,[105][106][107][108][109][110].…”

“…However, while this CBPR term was cited among half of the articles in this review, the fidelity of this practice was not always adhered to. On the community engagement continuum, CBPR would traditionally fall into the "collaborate" stage [109], in which community would be partnered with and fully involved in all stages from development to solution; however, about 25% of these articles were actually conducting research at a much lower level of engagement. Among these, the understanding of the CBPR orientation varied greatly, where some implemented participant inquiry methods such as photovoice [52,105], citizen science [51,105], or performance theater [104], and others defined CBPR practice within the context of focus groups and group discussions [44,[100][101][102].…”

A Scoping Review of Capacity-Building Efforts to Address Environmental Justice Concerns

“…The practice of building capacity focuses on strengthening the characteristics that enable a community to identify, mobilize, and address social and public health problems [32]. However, the breadth of capacity-building efforts in the EJ sphere has not been thoroughly characterized in the academic literature, and we are aware of only six review articles have been published since 2002 to summarize various aspects of the literature [33][34][35][36][37][38]. They include: (1) an analytical review evaluating 44 EJ research studies on their scientific merit for purposes of policy and management decisions [33];…”

“…(2) a review of six National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)/Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research implementing community-based participatory research (CBPR) to identify priority strategies to address environmental health concerns (i.e., establishing community trust, identification of community leaders, building on existing working relationships, assessment of community knowledge, and community involvement in development and implementation) [34]; (3) a systematic review assessing the influence of CBPR to address environmental health disparities and make community-level change [35]; (4) an in-depth analysis of four EJ related case studies representing CBPR partnership projects focusing on promoting sustainable environmental change and healthy public policy [36]; (5) a systematic review of EPA's published funding opportunities from 1997 to 2013 for community-engaged research addressing environmental health and environmental inequities [37]; and (6) a review of action-oriented research highlighting six case studies addressing environmental justice and health issues with varying application of CBPR along the continuum of community engagement [38]. These reviews stressed the importance of community involvement and equitable collaboration in addressing environmental health concerns [34][35][36][37][38]; however, research translation into environmental and policy change were only narrowly discussed [33][34][35][36][37][38]. As a collective body, these reviews have made a significant contribution towards advancing EJ research, but there are still knowledge gaps related to the diverse scope of approaches employed at the community level to enhance capacity to address environmental issues.…”

Introduction to Part I

“…From its beginnings, the US environmental justice movement has involved community members in identifying local environmental and health problems, collaborating with scientists and other experts to find evidence of environmental racism, and using their research to advocate for community empowerment (Bullard 1990). Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been at the forefront of research that connects environmental justice and citizen science (see Minkler and Wallerstein 2003;Corburn 2005;Israel et al 2005;Wing 2005; Minkler et al 2008;Wilson et al 2018). This "collaborative approach to research equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, and researchers in all aspects of the research process" (Israel et al 1998, 177).…”