What is meant by community engagement?
Developing personal relationships with leaders or other representatives of a community; understanding the needs, desires, and characteristics of a community; or making research more understandable and acceptable to a community is "engagement". Communities can be defined geographically (e.g., people living near freeways, border communities, specific neighborhoods), by a chronic disease or health condition (e.g., Down's Syndrome, asthma), by a disability (e.g., deaf, hearing impaired), by ethnicity, race or religion (e.g., immigrants from Africa, Latinos), by a common experience (e.g., international war veterans, homeless, prostitutes), or by demographics (e.g., elderly).
What is the nature of ‘consultation’ on community engagement?
The CTRI Community Resources team has experts in health disparities research, recruitment/retention methods, and outreach to specific types of communities who can provide advice on ways to improve a research proposal. Ideally consultation should occur when a proposal is being drafted, however assistance can be provided at any stage during the research project.
Examples of possible consultation requests include
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Suggestions for subject recruitment and/or retention enhancement
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Methods for addressing health equity and health disparities during study design
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Introductions to key community agency personnel (e.g., community clinics, health fair sponsors, veterans associations, disease-specific organizations, ethnic groups)
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Venues to solicit input from end-users of research (i.e., health care providers, insurers, community members, community leaders) so that research design or methodology are tweaked to make research results more adoptable and relevant
To access these resources, please click the "Request CTRI Services" button above. If you have any questions, please contact Community Resources at ctri-community@ucsd.edu.
What resources and materials are available to help with community engagement?
ResearchMatch is a NIH-sponsored national registry of volunteers who have indicated a willingness to learn more about research studies. This registry aims to be an effective, useful and complementary recruitment tool that connects researchers with appropriate potential subjects. ResearchMatch is not just for clinical trials. It is available at no cost. For more information about ResearchMatch click here
The following videos are available to help you explain research to the community and help with participant recruitment.
Click on a link below to view and download a video:
“Seniors Making a Difference” (10 min) English
“¿Por qué debemos participar en studios de investigación?
(“Why should we participate in Research Studies?”) (10 min) Spanish
How is research made safe? (3 min) English, Spanish
What is a control group? (2 min) English, Spanish
What is random assignment? (3 min) English, Spanish
Who can participate in research? (2 min) English, Spanish