| ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER |
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| Year : 2011 | Volume
: 24
| Issue : 3 | Page : 638 |
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Capacity building through focus group training in community-based participatory research
KL Amico1, ML Wieland2, JA Weis2, SM Sullivan3, JA Nigon4, IG Sia2
1 Brigham and Women's Hospital / Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2 Mayo Clinic, College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA
3 Department of Nursing, Winona State University, Winona, MN, USA
4 Hawthorne Education Center, Rochester, MN, USA
Correspondence Address:
K L Amico
Brigham and Women's Hospital / Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
USA
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
PMID: 22267359
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Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) emphasizes collaborative efforts among communities and academics where all members are equitable contributors. Capacity building through training in research methodology is a potentially important outcome for CBPR partnerships.
Objectives: To describe the logistics and lessons learned from building community research capacity for focus group moderation in the context of a CBPR partnership.
Methods: After orientation to CBPR principles, members of a US suburban community underwent twelve hours of interactive learning in focus group moderation by a national focus group expert. An additional eight-hour workshop promoted advanced proficiency and built on identified strengths and weaknesses. Ten focus groups were conducted at an adult education center addressing a health concern previously identified by the center's largely immigrant and refugee population. Program evaluation was achieved through multiple observations by community and academic-based observers.
Results: Twenty-seven community and academic members were recruited through established relationships for training in focus group moderation, note-taking, and report compilation. Focus group training led to increased trust among community and research partners while empowering individual community members and increasing research capacity for CBPR.
Conclusions: Community members were trained in focus group moderation and successfully applied these skills to a CBPR project addressing a health concern in the community. This approach of equipping community members with skills in a qualitative research method promoted capacity building within a socio-culturally diverse community, while strengthening community-academic partnership. In this setting, capacity building efforts may help to ensure the success and sustainability for continued health interventions through CBPR. |
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