Employing Community Engaged Research Methods to Strengthen the Impact of Social Work Intervention Research

Community engaged research (CER) methods can increase the impact of interventions by grounding their development in the experiences of service users and people involved in the delivery of services. The growing recognition of the power of CER to increase the impact of health interventions among funders and professional organizations has led to a proliferation of definitions and calls to action. Despite differences in emphasis and framing, definitions of CER generally incorporate two key elements. First, CER methods include an array of strategies involving community members across the different stages of research (i.e., development to dissemination). Second, the development of authentic and reciprocal partnerships with impacted communities is a key aspect of CER. While Participatory Action Research is the most recognized and one of the longest standing forms of CER, it is only one of a growing number of recognized approaches including antiracist research, where community engagement is one of three central principles focused on action research to dismantle racism embedded in research and institutions (Goings et al., 2023). This roundtable includes four social work intervention researchers who collectively have over 60 years of experience employing community engaged research methods in their research. Each panelist works with communities that experience health disparities driven by social marginalization, racism, and oppression, including people with mental illness involved with the criminal legal system, sexual minority young adults with depression and suicidality, young adults from low-resourced communities with serious mental illnesses, youth in out-of-home care, and substance use prevention among Black adolescents and emerging adults. In this round table panelists will provide examples from their research and facilitate idea generating discussions among session participants around the following three topics: (1) Community engaged research approaches that can be used to increase the social impact of interventions across the stages of intervention research (i.e., development, design, testing, analysis, dissemination, action); and (2) Practical examples of community engaged research strategies that support the development of authentic and anti-oppressive relationships with service users, practitioners, and other impacted community members in intervention research. (3) Barriers to using community-based research methods in social work intervention research and strategies that can address them. The goal of this session is to engage discussions that highlight the range of approaches to CER that social workers are using in intervention research and identify practical strategies that researchers can use to employ CER at different stages in the research process. This roundtable will also help to ensure that the voices of social work researchers are represented in the growing dialogue among funders, foundations, and professional and scientific bodies about CER, thereby elevating the needs of diverse communities and highlighting their contributions to CER.