Meaningful Engagement in Research: Community Residents as Co‐creators of Knowledge

Abstract

Community psychologists have contributed significantly to the body of literature on community-based participatory research (CBPR) and its application in understanding and addressing health and community participation disparities. At the core of CBPR are mutually beneficial partnerships with communities, whereby community members' voices are heard and they become co-researchers, helping guide the research process. In this article, I argue that for community psychologists to change the landscape of community participation, health, and well-being disparities experienced by many vulnerable populations who often face multiple forms of oppression, CBPR needs to be transformative and emancipatory. Stakeholders must be meaningfully involved as co-creators of knowledge and promoters of social justice embracing a human rights agenda. Drawing from work conducted with Latinx immigrant families with youth who have disabilities, I propose the following strategies moving forward: promoting meaningful participation of community members as co-creators of knowledge; promoting meaningful conversations that matter to communities; promoting civic engagement, activism, and advocacy; promoting an assets-and strengths-based approach to research; and promoting culturally relevant interventions. Community psychologists have the opportunity to make significant contributions to addressing disparities when community residents' knowledge is valued and recognized.

Barriers to and facilitators of community participation among Latinx migrants with disabilities in the United States and Latinx migrant workers in Canada: An ecological analysis

“…To create innovative practical solutions and interventions, community psychology should produce new knowledge of participation equity in collaboration with the Latinx community. As such, the Latinx community needs to be meaningfully engaged in research efforts to advance this agenda (see Suarez -Balcazar, 2020). This requires a stronger understanding of the interaction between the person and the environment, a commitment to social justice and health equity, a promotion of community-engaged research, and the active pursuit of systemic policy changes.…”

RoMoMatteR: Empowering Roma Girls’ Mattering through Reproductive Justice

“…RoMoMatter will also contribute to the development of methodologies that generate spaces of collaboration between scholars, civil organizations, policymakers, and activists led by Roma women and girls to advocate for the control of their bodies and their lives. Traditionally, Roma women—more so girls and adolescents—have occupied a peripheral position in the different stages of research and action processes, despite repeated calls to increase their leadership as co-researchers and allies [ 37 , 41 , 55 , 56 ]. The methodological approach inspired by reproductive justice allows us to confront a system of knowledge generation that continually pathologizes divergent voices and violates their rights in order to maintain oppressive conditions.…”

Levers for Change and Unexpected Outcomes of a Participatory Research Partnership: Toward Fostering Older adults’ Social Participation to Promote Health Equity

“…Building on previous interviews and focus groups, the comic strips provided a situational analysis to produce new discourses and co‐create new service possibilities in partnership with various stakeholders. This collective process challenged dominant modes of knowledge production by fostering dialogue with a diversity of voices and helping stakeholders to make sense of their experience and share a valued identity (Sonn et al, 2013; Suarez‐Balcazar, 2020). The emergence of these benefits was unexpected, and they were captured through qualitative reports by stakeholders.…”