Community-Based Research (CBR)

Community-Based Research (CBR) is a partnership of student(s) and community-based members who “actively engage in research with the purpose of solving a pressing community problem or effecting social change” (Bortolin 2003, p. 49).  According to author L.T Smith’s groundbreaking Decolonizing Methodologies, “Community conveys a much more intimate, human and self-defined space, whereas ‘field’ assumes a space ‘out there’ where people may or may not be present. Community research relies upon and validates that the community itself makes its own definitions” (p. 126). Engaging with CBR means directly engaging with the FHaO community and their educational partners who have lived experience.  The goal is to address practical concerns or aspirations relevant to FHaO and the community’s development and transformation. The research project is rooted in a partnership where partners reflect on “their social reality and build collective capacity to challenge and change that reality” (Jacobson and Rugeley 2007, pg. 22).  CBR “relies upon and validates that the community itself makes its own definitions ” (Smith year, pg.126). Through CBR, I am able to develop an understanding of how power operates within various civil society organizations, and in turn, the broader political sphere in Toronto. I am able to uncover the process of community and the potential for policy change when communicating with organizers on the ground (Freudenberg et al. 2014, pg. 12). 

The reality of CBR is that it “bring[s] together researchers and communities to establish trust, share power, foster co-learning, and enhances strengths and resources, build capacity, and examine community-identified needs…Given that academically-based researchers involved in CBR are often from “outside” the community in which the research is taking place” (Israel et al. 2012, p. 14). It is important for me to recognize my positionality within the project. While I am attached to and a part of academia, I chose to have the research be independent of academia, so I created a website in the public domain rather than author a paper housed in the Claremont Colleges Library. As Randy Stoecker, Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology, explains in Research Methods for Community Change: A Project-based Approach (2012), academics center research rather than action or community development, whereas practitioners center action and then research as a more effective means of immediate change and community development.  Stoecker continues his critique, noting that research and action are “rarely are those two things brought together as fully as they can be” (p.4). 

In the spirit of Smith and Stoecker and utilizing CBR, I began my project early to build trust with community partners. I wanted to ensure that trust was established between FHaO and their educational partners and me before the in-depth interview process. We had many conversations over the course of several months to discuss different approaches to pedagogy (method of teaching), epistemologies (ways of knowing), and ontologies (ways of being). We talked about our aspirations for our immediate community and the world. We spoke about our values and what was most important to us.  I hold these conversations dear to my heart, and they continue to drive my research inquiry.