From Applied Research to Participatory Action, Part II: Y Ahora, ¿que? Community Dialogues and Rediscovering Our Communities

Abstract

Abstract In this article, we relay our collaboration as part of a community-based, participatory action project involving Spanish-speaking community leaders, an anthropologist, and university students in San José, California. Building from earlier collaborations to support community-based leadership, we employed focus group methods in a collaborative project to facilitate community dialogues to identify salient issues for community and leader attention. By recognizing community members as agents (rather than targets) of change and interventions, we wanted to respect and reinforce local adaptive and creative capacities. We therefore endeavored to support participants as they activated their social networks and organizational ties to initiate dialogues and build actionable agendas.