title: Bringing Community and Academic Scholars Together to Facilitate and Conduct Authentic Community Based Participatory Research: Project UNITED.
abstract: Cultural competency, trust, and research literacy can affect the planning and implementation of sustainable community-based participatory research (CBPR). The purpose of this manuscript is to highlight: (1) the development of a CBPR pilot grant request for application; and (2) a comprehensive program supporting CBPR obesity-related grant proposals facilitated by activities designed to promote scholarly collaborations between academic researchers and the community. After a competitive application process, academic researchers and non-academic community leaders were selected to participate in activities where the final culminating project was the submission of a collaborative obesity-related CBPR grant application. Teams were comprised of a mix of academic researchers and non-academic community leaders, and each team submitted an application addressing obesity-disparities among rural predominantly African American communities in the US Deep South. Among four collaborative teams, three (75%) successfully submitted a grant application to fund an intervention addressing rural and minority obesity disparities. Among the three submitted grant applications, one was successfully funded by an internal CBPR grant, and another was funded by an institutional seed funding grant. Preliminary findings suggest that the collaborative activities were successful in developing productive scholarly relationships between researchers and community leaders. Future research will seek to understand the full-context of our findings.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. LEWIS060@cba.ua.edu.
authors.forename: Dwight
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. YERBY002@cchs.ua.edu.|Department of Community and Rural Medicine, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. YERBY002@cchs.ua.edu.
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yerby
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. MTUCKER@cchs.ua.edu.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.affiliation: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. PPAYNE-FOSTER@cchs.ua.edu.|Department of Community and Rural Medicine, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. PPAYNE-FOSTER@cchs.ua.edu.
authors.forename: Pamela Payne
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. KHAMILTON1@crimson.ua.edu.
authors.forename: Kara C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: Evaluation and Assessment Unit, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. MFIFOLT@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Fifolt
authors.affiliation: Evaluation and Assessment Unit, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. LHITES@uab.edu.|Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. LHITES@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Lisle
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hites
authors.affiliation: Institute for Communication and Information Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. MKALSIP@ua.edu.
authors.forename: Mary Katherine
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Shreves
authors.affiliation: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. SPAGE@cchs.ua.edu.
authors.forename: Susan B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Page
authors.affiliation: Institute for Communication and Information Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. KBISSELL@ua.edu.
authors.forename: Kimberly L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Bissell
authors.affiliation: Black Belt Community Foundation, Selma, AL 36701, USA. FJONES@blackbeltfound.org.
authors.forename: Felecia L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Lucky
authors.affiliation: Institute for Rural Health Research, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. JHIGGIN@cchs.ua.edu.|Department of Community and Rural Medicine, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. JHIGGIN@cchs.ua.edu.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Higginbotham
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D000407:Alabama / Q000453:epidemiology; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D016730:Program Development; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D012423:Rural Health / Q000208:ethnology*
keywords: collaboration; community based; cultural competency; grantsmanship; obesity; participatory; research literacy; rural