Community-Based Participatory Research
What is Community-Based Participatory Research?
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach to developing models for understanding health and the risk factors for disease, and for promoting healthier lives for individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities. Major factors contributing to health are beyond the reach of traditional medical practice and solutions to many of today’s health problems can frequently be found in the affected communities themselves. In CBPR, community members and research team members collaborate with one another throughout every stage in the research process.
The GoodNEWS project is founded on CBPR principles. The approach is an alternative to traditional population-based biomedical research approaches, benefits researchers and communities, and ensures that intervention strategies are culturally appropriate. By seeking to build trusting partnerships with congregations and the community at every stage in our research, we believe we can contribute to reducing risk factors in a community at the level that brings the most lasting change – the level of daily living.