Current Environment:

 

C-CORE Research Team

C-CORE’s Research Team supports community-based participatory research (CBPR) that aims to serve community priorities, produce sustainable interventions, and lead to policy change.  The Research Team aims to expand the number of leaders in both academic and community settings who conduct research focused on addressing health disparities among children and families in Boston.  In particular, the Research Team:

  • Convenes community-academic teams with relevant expertise for specific projects

  • Provides technical assistance in CBPR research methods to community and academic partners

  • Ensures that study plans represent community interests and that results have the potential to lead to sustainable programs and policies that benefit the community

  • Oversees the selection of pilot grants

 Please click on the links below to learn more about C-CORE research projects:

The Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Approach

C-CORE aims to support community-based participatory research (CBPR), an approach that attempts to address health disparities by uniting community members and researchers as joint contributors throughout the research process, from shaping the research questions to disseminating results. Its goal is to develop innovative and effective programs that are responsive to community needs and lead to sustainable improvements in community health.

Often research advances fail to reach their full potential in “real-world” clinical and community settings, because researchers do not partner with communities to determine how best to address health disparities. Without community input, researchers have limited knowledge of which approaches best match a community’s needs and environment, and how to effectively communicate research findings in order to promote evidenced-based programs and community change. For example, public health efforts to disseminate a new vaccine might meet limited success because of a failure to take into account the potential for mistrust of healthcare and a reluctance to use new medical technologies. Researchers advising families to use a park to exercise will be ignored if the park is poorly lit and viewed as dangerous by community members. Community members who do not experience the benefits of research in which they participated may be unwilling to participate in future research projects. Through partnerships with communities, C-CORE aims to overcome such issues and develop programs and policies that are acceptable to and feasible within communities, and that arise directly from community needs and priorities.