What is Community Based Research?

Community Based Research (CBR), also known as involved or collaborative research, comes in many guises. Essentially, CBR is:

"conducted by for and with the participation of community members... community-based research aims not merely to advance understanding but also to ensure that knowledge contributes to making a concrete difference in the world."     

                                                     (The LOKA Institute, 2002)

CBR differs from traditional research in a number of ways (see Figures 1 and 2). In CBR, the community’s involvement is not limited to the role of research subject, or the location of the study. Community members, together with trained researchers, are collaborators and learners in the research process (Strand K et al., 2003).

Community members may be formally structured community organizations, or informal groups of individual community members (including researchers) who share interest in a common issue or geographic area. Communities are often complex, overlapping networks of stakeholders who do not always hold the same values.

Rather than adopting a rigid model of what does or does not constitute CBR, the Hub highlights some provisional hallmarks of CBR (see table 1). It is important to note that these values are being further developed and refined as part of an ongoing consultation exercise with the wider BCMHARN community.

Figure 1: Traditional Research Schema

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Figure conceived and created by Dr. Colleen Reid and Dr. Elana Brief

Figure 2: Community Based Research Schema

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Figure conceived and created by Dr. Colleen Reid and Dr. Elana Brief

Community based approaches can be incorporated into many different research methodologies, such as population surveys, interviews, focus groups, observational tools, geographic mapping, policy analyses, epidemiological studies, and ethnographies (Israel et al., 2005). The term CBR includes a wide variety of collaborative approaches, including but not limited to participatory action research, collaborative inquiry, and action research. Although there are theoretical and methodological differences among these methods, they are all committed to a research process that will benefit research participants and contribute to tangible change.

Rationale

At its best, CBR has the ability to reveal more complex understandings of health and health differences. Fostering CBR in mental health and addictions research in British Columbia could:

• Build a fuller understanding of mental health and substance use issues by using a community-centred approach to research
• Provide community members with skill-building, education, and employment opportunities, in turn potentially addressing mental illness and addiction-related stigma
• Ensure that research is grounded in real-life issues because research questions are valuable to the community in question. As a result, CBR may be seen as very relevant by health authorities, service providers, consumers, and families. This, in turn, may increase the uptake of the research findings
• Provide additional leverage for research funding, as some funding agencies have developed Requests for Applications (RFAs) that specifically target CBR initiatives

In addition to these potential opportunities, the unique nature of CBR brings new challenges not normally encountered in the practice of more traditional scientific research. CBR can take a long time to complete, be complex to coordinate, and require researchers to be skilled in addressing sensitive ethical issues.

Although CBR is gaining recognition as a valuable tool, it is under-utilized in BC in comparison to the rest of Canada (Flicker, 2007). In particular, CBR in the arena of mental health and addictions research in the province is still evolving, despite a clear desire for greater involvement in the research process at the community level.

References

Flicker, S., Savan, B., Kolenda, B., and Mildenberger, M. (2007). A Snapshot of Community-Based Research in Canada: Who? What? Why? How? Health Education Research Advance Access. Vol. 23 no.1, 106–114.

Israel BA, Eng E, Schulz AJ, Parker EA. (2005). Methods in Community-Based Participatory Research for Health. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Israel, B.A., Schulz, A.J., Parker, E.A., Becker, A.B. (1998). Review of community-based research: Assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual Review of Public Health. Vol.19, 173-202.

Loka Institute. (2002) About the Community Research Network Conference: What is Community Based Research? Available at: http://www.loka.org/conf2002/2002_conference.htm. Accessed: 1 Nov 2005.

Minkler M, Wallerstein N, (eds.). (2003). Community-Based Participatory Research for Health. 1st ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Reid, C., and Brief, E. (in print) Community Based Research Primer. Women’s Health Research Network (WHRN)