Essentials of Community-based Research

Community-based research (CBR) is the most commonly used method for serving community needs and effecting change through authentic, ethical, and meaningful social research. In this brief introduction to CBR, the real-world approach of noted experts Vera Caine and Judy Mill helps novice researchers understand the promise and perils of engaging in this research tradition. This book
-outlines the basic steps and issues in the CBR processfrom collaboratively designing and conducting the research with community members to building community capacity;
-covers how to negotiate complicated questions of researcher control and ethics;
-includes a chapter written by community partners, among the examples from numerous projects from around the world.

Vera Caine is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta and a Canadian Institutes for Health New Investigator. Her research focuses on life-course perspectives in the area of health equity and social justice, particularly when it comes to advancing health equity for people whose lives are affected by HIV, poverty, social exclusion, and discrimination. Using a visual narrative inquiry approach, Vera worked in close relation with five urban aboriginal women exploring their lives with HIV. Vera has also engaged in research alongside nurses, women at risk for or living with HIV during their early mothering experience, and most recently alongside children who are at risk for sexual exploitation. She is currently the chair of the board for the Boyle McCauley Health Centre (BMHC), a community health care center in the inner city of Edmonton, and is involved in sustaining and developing initiatives that reflect primary health care, value interdisciplinary work, and advocate health equity. Judy Mill is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta and currently is a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. She specializes in the social, political, cultural and economic determinants of HIV infection in vulnerable populations. Her recent research projects have been located in both Canadian and international settings and have focused on the influence of stigma on access to health services by persons with HIV; the involvement of nurses in HIV policy development in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean; and a mentorship intervention for nurses in HIV care. In addition to her public health nursing experience in Canada, Judy has worked for 8 years on international health projects in Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Judy acts as a partner to the Dean of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda to mentor nursing faculty in the area of research and scholarship. In addition, she is collaborating on the development of a Master of Science in Nursing program there.