Community participation is an essential part of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR). In fact, it may be the most important aspect of this newly emerging orientation to research. CBPR involves scientific inquiry that equitably involves community stakeholders, or participants, as well as investigators at all levels of the research process from design to dissemination.

CBPR involves a partnership between the community and the investigator(s) where each group shares equal ownership of the process and the products of research collaboration. Thus, it is a paradigm shift away from the traditional top-down approach where community based research is both initiated and conducted by the investigator. CBPR is a participatory approach which results in a partnership between the community and the investigator.

Discover the ways in which communities and local coalitions work together. Explore community profiles from some of the neighborhoods in the greater Boston area: