The Power of Community-Based Participatory Research to Improve Practice: Lessons Learned from Domestic Violence Partnerships

Over the last few decades, growing numbers of domestic violence (DV) researchers have embraced a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach (e.g., Edleson & Bible, 2001; Schechter, 1990; Yoshihama, & Carr, 2002). Use of CBPR for building knowledge and evidence about effective DV services has helped to address critical challenges in the field. For instance, advocates and survivors have too often felt marginalized in the face of research that overlooks their wisdom and investigates issues that are not relevant for their work and lives. By placing equality and justice at its core, CBPR helps to ensure that research will be meaningful and useful to the individuals and communities most affected by DV.

Nonetheless, implementing CBPR can be daunting even for experienced researchers. CBPR strategies and approaches must appropriately reflect community and researcher needs, funding project foci, setting, and discipline. Issues of data confidentiality, research ethics, and participants' safety further complicate CBPR in the context of DV research. Communities and researchers may also come from different backgrounds and perspectives, which in turn can lead to miscommunications and misunderstandings if such differences are not acknowledged and addressed. Moreover, CBPR methods must be rigorous to ensure research validity and robustness. To further exacerbate such challenges, CBPR scholars typically conduct research within disciplinary or university siloes, disconnected from each other, with few opportunities to share ideas and intellectual frameworks. Taken together, this state of affairs is particularly taxing for researchers given the unique challenges that arise in collaborating with programs and communities.

To help address such challenges, this 90-minute workshop will provide participants with knowledge, strategies, and skills for incorporating CBPR methods in their work. Though emphasis will be placed on CBPR within the field of DV, the content and examples are broadly applicable to CBPR with other vulnerable populations and under-resourced programs (e.g., anti-human trafficking programs, homeless programs, rape crisis centers).

The workshop will review the following topics: 1) overview of CBPR theory, generally, and within the field of DV specifically; 2) values and procedures associated with CBPR; and 3) common challenges inherent to CBPR. Next, each speaker will describe the specific CBPR DV projects in which they have been involved, with attention to products, impact of the research, specific challenges and solutions, and lessons learned along the way. To expose audience members to an array of CBPR approaches, speakers will focus on projects that vary in scope (e.g., regional collaboration vs. researcher-practitioner partnership) and partners (program staff vs. community members). Attendees will receive practical handouts on various aspects of CBPR (e.g., balancing institution and community demands, crafting a Memorandum of Understanding).

The workshop will conclude with a small-group activity, in which participants will be asked to reflect on a series of questions to help them identify potential barriers that hinder involvement in CBPR. Speakers then will facilitate a collaborative discussion within small groups to brainstorm strategies for minimizing those barriers and cultivating existing assets. Throughout the workshop, there will be opportunities for attendees to participate and build relationships that endure beyond the conference.