Routes to Power and Impact: Community-Engaged Neighborhood Research across Methods, Career Stages, and Scales

One of the hallmarks of social work research is the unique attention paid to the relationship between people and their environment. This attention to the social and physical environment has led to sustained interest among social workers in research focused on neighborhood effects. Our disciplinary imperatives to respect self-determination and promote dignity in the communities we work with have prompted conversation among neighborhood-focused social work researchers on the array of approaches used in research on, in, and with communities and the implications for those communities. This roundtable aims to promote honest discussion among social work scholars using case studies of community-engaged research to consider the impacts on knowledge, meaningful engagement, and community impact.

This roundtable was conceived because, despite its promise for practical impact, and despite social work’s ability to make unique contributions, a focus on neighborhoods with an eye towards community engagement is not simple in practice. The methods are many, and often challenging. Quantitative approaches require expertise in multivariate statistics as well as attention to challenging issues like selection bias and disentangling individual and neighborhood effects. Qualitative approaches require methodological expertise and extensive time building trust and rapport with community members. Approaches to community engagement run the gamut from community-placed research with little meaningful engagement to participatory approaches that aim to engage the most affected, most marginalized residents of communities where social workers practice. Determining which combination to select from such a large menu of approaches can be a barrier that prevents more social workers from engaging in neighborhood-level research.

We will open with brief remarks from panelists representative of various career stages, methods, and approaches to engagement. Each will present community-engaged neighborhood- focused research and provide space for discussion of how attendees might incorporate these methods and lessons learned. This includes 1) an NIH-funded mixed-methods, longitudinal study of the impact of neighborhood redevelopment in a public housing community presented from the perspectives of an associate professor and a doctoral student; 2) a dissertation study using an ethnographic approach to understand gentrification, incorporating photovoice and walking interviews 3) a university-funded, participatory research project to implement and evaluate a faith and evidence-based mental health intervention in a Pittsburgh neighborhood developed by African American clergy and academics of faith by an assistant professor, 4) an NIH-funded K01 study that worked with a youth research advisory board to develop and implement a geographic ecological momentary assessment (GEMA) to understand youths experiences of activity spaces and identify targets of intervention, and 5) an AmeriCorps-funded study led by a regional steering committee to develop and implement an advocacy and organizing training for residents to address cross-cutting equity issues impacting their communities. Our goals for this roundtable are to provide an honest look at lessons learned from community-engaged research in and with neighborhoods and to continue to build a community of scholars committed to promoting equity through meaningful community engagement that centers neighborhood-based knowledge while also recognizing the limitations that research institutions and methods can place on neighborhood focused research and advocacy.