“We just want to tell the story”

Abstract

Community engagement and partnerships are at the core of public health. In order to address long-standing disparities, public health researchers must partner with community members and community-based organizations to co-create health interventions and programs. Community-research partnerships (CRPs)—one model for community partnerships—can increase the capacity and implementation quality of evidence-based and culturally responsive public health practices. While CRPs have been found to be effective, there is a need to address gaps in understanding perceived motivations and gains among and between partners, particularly in the context of engaging marginalized communities. This mixed methods study explored motivations to join and continue to engage in a CRP designed to transform health systems in Flint, Michigan. Using a survey and semi-structured interviews, 25community and research partner representatives were invited to participate in the study to identify and describe motivating factors and perceived gains driving their engagement. Identified motivating factors were categorized as individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community level contexts. Findings demonstrate how motivational factors are dynamic and multi-dimensional with varied contexts, including intrinsic values in individual contexts, social support, relationships, and external organizational resources through interpersonal and organizational contexts, and demonstration of concrete outcomes in community contexts. Implications for longer term mutual benefits that equip the capacities of partners are discussed. Findings from the study can be used to improve design of CRPs by attending to factors that motivate marginalized communities to engage with the research process