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Welcome to the Community Based Research Institutecbrilogo

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Our goal at the Community Based Research Institute is to support and promote research that is collaborative, community-based, innovative, and that transforms practice and/or societal values.  The Institute invites research questions from the community and collaborates with students and faculty from a variety of disciplines, including Psychology, Political Science, Anthropology, Health Sciences, Child and Youth Care, and, Sociology among others to address the questions. This collaboration promotes a reciprocal relationship as it will allow community members to define their own research questions, and at the same time provide students with the unique opportunity for developing and carrying out real-life interdisciplinary research. An evaluation is carried out after each project to determine strengths and areas that require improvement.

Community Based Research Institute objectives:

  • Promote the development of collaborations for research that are more closely linked to and serve community based work;
  • Develop a vision, guidelines and structure for social research that is dependent on the values, desires and needs of the community;
  • Create opportunities for an exchange of knowledge between community- based workers and academics;
  • Build capacity in the community and the University to conduct community based research by increasing knowledge of methods, and scientific processes of community based research.

Description of Collaborative Community Based Action Research

Collaborative community based action research involves the systematic planning of recurring cycles. These cycles can generally be described as information gathering, decisions for action, critical reflection, repeated as often as necessary and finally, interpretation and dissemination. Relevance to the community is assured by having the questions originate from the community.  The research is action oriented and has a goal of sustainable change, that is, communities should be better off for having participated in research. 

KEY PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY BASED RESEARCH

      1. Recognizes the community as a unit of identity
      2. Builds on strengths and resources within the community
      3. Facilitates collaborative, equitable involvement of all partners in all phases of the research
      4. Integrates knowledge and action and mutual benefit
      5. Promotes co-learning and an empowering process
      6. Involves a cyclical process
      7. Disseminates findings and knowledge to all partners