DIY in Your Research Design – Tools of Togetherness
Dr. Priscilla Medeiros, Knowledge Mobilization and Community Engagement Specialist at the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children, presented a lecture titled “Tools of Togetherness: Designing and Planning a Community-Engaged Research Project” at the DIY-Diversity and Inclusion in Your research design at the SickKids Research Institute event on May 2. She provides a summary of her presentation.
Community engagement is increasingly seen as an important element of health research. Community engagement is the process of meaningfully involving communities affected by research findings in the research process. It is based on principles that respect the right of community members to be informed, consulted, involved and empowered.Community engagement occurs across all stages of research to support establishing priorities and implementing a program, project or service change.
This presentation provided an overview of the continuum of community involvement; highlighted resources for designing and planning a community-engaged project, and; discussed opportunities and services available at the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children to increase the capacity and knowledge of members on community engagement, which includes the Community Engagement Series and Community Engagement Consulting Service.
One resource that was highlighted in the lecture was the Unity Health Toronto Resource Guide, which supports learners in expanding their knowledge of equitable approaches to engaging community in their research studies. This resource and others related to community engagement are available on the Centre’s online library here.
Engaging to understand the needs and priorities of communities can have positive short- and long-term impacts on both the research and on the communities whom researchers collaborate with.
