Building Research Capacity for Community Organizations:
Strategies from the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities
Ben Rucker MPH,1,2 Sherida Morrison MA,1,3 Kevin Rak MA,1,4 Aisha Davis MSW,1,5 Monique Reed PhD, 1,6 Gina Curry,1 Jen Brown MPH,1
1Alliance
for Research in Chicagoland Communities, Center for Community Health, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, 2Chinese Mutual Aid Association, 3Demoiselle 2 Femme,
4Hope Response Coalition, 5Proactive Services 6Westside Health Authority
Background
General/
invited
Established in 2008 and based at Northwestern University, ARCC
(ARCC- www.ARCConline.net) supports and promotes communityengaged research (CEnR) and is governed by a community-academic
steering committee.
workshops
Figure 2
ARCC’s mission is to promote and support a community-engaged
approach to research that leads to improvement in community health.
Technical
Assistance
Building organizational research capacity for communities is one of
ARCC’s primary goals.
Consultation
ARCC partners identified the range of elements that comprise
organizational research capacity. Figure 1.
ARCC developed and implemented a range of activities to address these
elements. Figure 2.
Online
Resource
Directory
Seed
Grants
Funders have included Northwestern University, a local community
foundation, and National Institutes of Health
Partnership (rules
Value on research
participation/use
Access to funding/
fiscal capacity
Organizational
Capacity
Identified
research priorities/
agenda
Navigation of
university/
funder systems
Mechanisms for
dissemination
Peer
Network
Programs
CBPR/research
knowledge & skills
of engagement,
connections)
Discussion
Intensive
Capacity
Building
Individuals w/
capacity
Technological
capacity
Figure 1
ARCC Online Resource Directory created in 2013 to house tools
and templates created and gathered by ARCC CBO partners.
• Conducting and reflecting on internal assessments can help CBOs consider
their research purpose and how to create an organizational research agenda
or set of priorities. Understanding how research contributes to the
organization’s mission is key to countering perceptions that research is an
‘add-on’.
ARCC Community Capacity Building Strategies
• Conducting small seed or pilot research projects may provide a hands on
‘learn by doing’ experience. Participating as a reviewer in the seed grant
program also built grant writing and project design skills.
Workshop topics include CBPR 101, lessons from longstanding partnerships,
navigating university and funder systems, collaborative data analysis. Total: 47
workshops held.
• Creating opportunities for CBOs to move from students to teachers and
mentor other CBOs strengthened knowledge and bi-directional learning.
One-on-one technical assistance with partnership/project development and
proposal preparation. 12 ARCC seed grants resulted from connections
brokered by ARCC.
Seed grants- Hands on learning opportunities to collect pilot data and prepare
for larger research projects. Funded 6 rounds: 71 applications, 30 grants
funded, approx. $590K- 13 partnership building, 17 CBPR implementation.
Intensive capacity building programs have focused on organizational
assessment and capacity building (developing/implementing action plans),
preparing federal grant proposals, development of organizational research
purpose/priorities. 22 CBOs participated.
Online Resource Directory- www.ARCCresources.net- online website with
materials, tools, and templates related to CEnR. Resources include E.g.,
template Memorandum of Understanding, examples of CBO Research
Principles and Values document, guidance for collaborative research
dissemination, partnership evaluation tools.
• It’s important to consider how to build organizational capacity beyond
individual staff members because of staff turnover.
• CBOs built leadership capacity as they became more engaged in advocating
for support and change within academic institutions and leadership.
Next Steps
• ARCC seeks to support and continue to build a growing network of CBOs
and FBOs that are interested or involved in research that can serve as
resources for each other and research collaborators.
• As demand increases, ARCC is developing and adapting mechanisms for
building capacity for CBOs participating in other types of engaged
research including patient centered outcomes research and clinical
research.
Acknowledgement: This work is supported by the National Institutes of Health Clinical and
Translational Award UL1RR025741, & Northwestern University.