The Role of Community Engagement in Research
Community Engagement in a research project can take many forms.
Inform: Disseminate information to a particular audience or community through a website, social media, printed materials, talks or meetings.
Consult: Gather information or ideas from community through surveys, interviews, focus groups, forums or townhalls
Involve: Direct involvement of community stakeholders requires ongoing communication with the community partner to understand their concerns and desires at multiple points throughout the project.
Collaborate: Partner with community stakeholders in every aspect of the research project from designing an intervention, execution of the project and analysis of the results.
Shared Leadership: Final decision making is at the community level.
If you do not know how to incorporate community engagement into your project, please contact us and we can work with you to identify appropriate community stakeholders.
We also have funds available through our minigrant program to support formative and summative research activities that strengthen community partnerships related to health disparities research. If you have any questions about this, or are interested in applying, please contact us.
The Tamarack Institute’s Index of Community Engagement Techniques is a thorough guide of community engagement practices organized by engagement level: https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/library/index-of-community-engagement-techniques.