October 4, 2001
Campus-community partnerships highlighted
Academic researchers have sometimes been criticized for going into communities, gathering data, publishing articles and leaving communities with little or no benefit.
A growing group of researchers around the country are encouraging “community-based participatory research,” which brings communities and academic researchers together as partners to study what the community is interested in learning, and then uses the results to bring about positive social change.
The UW Health Promotion Research Center is conducting two symposia this fall in Seattle on community-based research, with co-sponsorship by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health and Seattle Partners for Healthy Communities. Funding has been provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Sarena Seifer, research assistant professor of health services in the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine, has led the organizing effort with a multidisciplinarty planning committee of researchers, community partners and students. She is also executive director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, a national organization.
The two programs will be Friday, Oct. 12, and Friday, Nov. 16. Both will be held at the UW Center on Human Development and Disability from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each program includes presentations, time to talk with the speakers, and a workshop session. The symposia are open at no cost, but participants need to register with Rose Coroneos at rosecor@u.washington.edu.
Friday, Oct. 12
“From Town-and-Gown to Professor-in-the-‘Hood,” featuring pairs of public health researchers and community leaders from two nationally recognized centers for community-based research. The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center will be represented by Alex Allen, executive director of the Butzel Family Center, Detroit, and Barbara Israel, professor in the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Eugenia Eng, professor of public health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Lucille Webb, director of Strengthening the Black Family in Raleigh, will speak on their cooperative efforts.
Friday, Nov. 16
Panel on community-based participatory research in the Pacific Northwest, featuring June Strickland of the UW School of Nursing; Althea Roberts from the Nooksack Clinic, Sharyne Shiu-Thornton of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Beruke Giday of the Refugee Women’s Alliance Domestic Violence Program, Sue Sohng of the UW School of Social Work, and James LoGerfo from the UW Health Promotion Research Center.
For more details on the programs and research, see the Web site at http://depts.washington.edu/hprc/.
