Resources for Community-Based Participatory Research
Key Terms
Built Environment
When collecting data, we must always take into consideration the community and the built environment.
What is the built environment?
EPA: “The built environment touches all aspects of our lives, encompassing the buildings we live in, the distribution systems that provide us with water and electricity, and the roads, bridges, and transportation systems we use to get from place to place. It can generally be described as the man-made or modified structures that provide people with living, working, and recreational spaces. Creating all these spaces and systems requires enormous quantities of materials.”
American Public Health Association: “The built environment is the human-made features of our communities — sidewalks, public transportation, housing and more. The way we design and build our communities affects our physical and mental health.”
CDC: “The built environment includes the physical makeup of where we live, learn, work, and play—our homes, schools, businesses, streets and sidewalks, open spaces, and transportation options. The built environment can influence overall community health and individual behaviors such as physical activity and healthy eating.”
Asset Mapping
Asset mapping provides information about the strengths and resources of a community. Once community strengths and resources are inventoried and depicted in a map, you can more easily think about how to build on these assets to address community needs and improve health. (UCLA)
Asset-Based
Strengths Driven
Opportunity focused
Internally focused
What is present that we can build upon?
May lead to new, unexpected responses to community wishes
Deficit-Based
Needs Driven
Problems focused
Externally focused
What is missing that we must go find?
May lead to downward spiral of burnout, depression, or dysfunction
Six Categories of Community Assets
Physical Assets: land, buildings, transportation, and facilities contributing to community strengthening.
Economic Assets: what residents produce and consume in the community, formally and informally, through local businesses or bartering and trading relationships.
Stories: memories of current and past residents that may describe the potential of a community.
Local Residents: residents' skills, experiences, capacities, passions, and willingness to contribute to community strengthening.
Local Associations: associations run by volunteers, such as athletic clubs, faith-based organizations and other contributing groups.
Local Institutions: public spaces such as schools, libraries, parks, government entities and non-profits.
https://www.vistacampus.gov/what-asset-mapping
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis can offer helpful perspectives at any stage of an project. You might use it to:
Explore possibilities for new efforts or solutions to problems.
Make decisions about the best path for your initiative. Identifying your opportunities for success in context of threats to success can clarify directions and choices.
Determine where change is possible. If you are at a juncture or turning point, an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses can reveal priorities as well as possibilities.
https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/swot-analysis/main
Windshield Survey
Windshield Surveys are helpful ways to visualize trends within a community.
"A windshield survey is conducted from a car and provides a visual overview of a community. Conditions and trends in the community that could affect the health of the population are noted. This data provides background and context for working in the community or for conducting a community assessment." (Washtenaw Community College)
Windshield-Survey-document-assignment.pdfLiterature Reviews
"A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say 'literature review' or refer to 'the literature,' we are talking about the research (scholarship) in a given field. " (Purdue University)
Journals and databases
The Claremont Colleges Library gives free access to academic journals and databases.
Peer-reviewed journals are publications that produce academic materials specific to certain disciplines. Journals are perfect tools if your research is contained in a distinct area of study. Notable journals include Science and Nature.
Databases are interdisciplinary tools that include multiple individual journals. Databases are great tools if you are researching a broad topic. Notable databases include Web of Science and PubMed.
Survey Design Resources
Designing a high quality survey can be challenging and time consuming for a beginner. Use these helpful links to learn more about what makes an effective survey!
Data Mapping
Mapping data is useful when geography is important to your research.
The two items below are helpful when exploring demographic data.
Data Visualization
Always consider your audience when communicating data visually.
Poster Presentations
Poster presentations can be helpful in academic contexts, or when you are displaying information over a long period of time.
PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoints are a great way to keep an audience engaged while you are speaking! They also are helpful way to present data visually.
StoryMaps
Story Maps are a streamlined way to tell compelling and visually interesting stories. They are also very intuitive to use!