Benefits, Barriers and Enablers of University—Community Research Collaboration: Input from Health and Social Service Agencies

Abstract

Increasingly, it has become clear to social marketers and others that partnerships among organizations are needed to accomplish behavior change and achieve social objectives. While many still take an organization- centered approach, there has been a marked increase in the number of community-based collaborative research endeavors connecting academics and community agencies in mutual investigation of salient problems. Currently, much of the literature on these efforts is reported by academicians and reflects their perspectives or perceptions of agency viewpoints. More input is needed from the agency perspective to ensure a more balanced understanding of the significant role community partners play in the development and implementation of research that leads to improved health status of communities and other social objectives. To this end, focus groups were conducted to give community-based agencies the opportunity to share their insights and give their perspective regarding the benefits and barriers to effective collaboration. Representatives of agencies from the Chicago area with experience in collaborative research participated, and results were reviewed and corroborated by additional community agencies. The most common benefits sought by agencies were evaluation and needs assessment. Participants cite the failure of researchers and agencies to take the time to understand and try to meet each other's needs as the main barrier to effective collaborative efforts.