Community–academic partnerships (CAPs) are being increasingly used to study and address health disparity issues. CAPs help to create new bodies of knowledge and innovative solutions to community problems, which benefits the community and academia. Supported by a grant, a partnership was formed between an academic research team and a community health organization to analyze and interpret data collected from the caregivers of asthmatic African American children living in urban low-income households. Using a case study approach, we discuss how we built a healthy CAP and the lessons learned from the process. Our analysis was guided by the six main factors that facilitate success in developing collaborative relationships, including (1) environment; (2) membership; (3) process and structure; (4) communication; (5) purpose; and (6) resources. Based on these six factors, we describe our collaboration process, challenges, and areas for improvement. We aimed to provide a “points-to-consider” roadmap for academic and community partners to establish and maintain a mutually beneficial and satisfactory relationship. Collaborating with community members and organizations provides unique opportunities for researchers and students to apply their skills and knowledge from textbooks and the classroom, engage with community members, and improve real-life community needs. Building a constructive CAP involves efforts, energy, and resources from both parties. The six major themes derived from our project offer suggestions for building a healthy, collaborative, and productive relationship that best serves communities in the future.
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This content will become publicly available on August 22, 2024
Transdisciplinary academic-NGO collaborations for the resilience of food, energy, and water: a case study on the INFEWS-ER experience in post-disaster Puerto Rico
The communities of Puerto Rico are highly vulnerable to climate change as the archipelago has experienced a multitude of compounding crises and extreme weather events in recent years. To address these issues, the research, analysis, and design of grand challenge solutions for disaster-prone regions like Puerto Rico can utilize collaborative transdisciplinary efforts. Local non-governmental and community-based organizations have a pivotal role in the reconstruction processes and the building of community and environmental resilience in underserved communities. This paper contributes an empirical case study of an online transdisciplinary collaboration between a group of academics and a Puerto Rican non-governmental organization, Caras con Causa. From participant observation, it includes a document analysis of meeting notes with cohort members who were involved in a collaborative National Science Foundation Project, The INFEWS-ER: A Virtual Resource Center Enabling Graduate Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems, with Caras con Causa between October 2020 and April 2021. Caras con Causa focuses on uplifting Puerto Ricans by creating and administering environmental, educational, economic, and community programs, highlighting disaster relief and resilience to help Puerto Rican food, energy, and water systems. Eight key discussion themes emerged from the document analysis: team organization, collaboration with Caras con Causa, deliverables, team contributions, context understanding, participation outcomes, technology setup, and lessons learned. We analyze each of the emerging themes to explain how academics may use transdisciplinary skill sets in addition to standard disciplinary-based approaches or techniques to enhance the institutional capacity of a non-governmental organization doing community resilience work to benefit local food, energy, and water systems. While the learned lessons in this non-governmental organization-academic collaboration may be context-specific, we provide insights that may be generalizable to collaborations in comparable transdisciplinary settings.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1833225
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10494048
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Environmental Science
- Volume:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2296-665X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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