title: Dissemination as Dialogue: Building Trust and Sharing Research Findings Through Community Engagement.
abstract: A fundamental feature of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is sharing findings with community members and engaging community partners in the dissemination process. To be truly collaborative, dissemination should involve community members in a two-way dialogue about new research findings. Yet little literature describes how to engage communities in dialogue about research findings, especially with historically marginalized communities where mistrust of researchers may exist because of past or present social injustices. Through a series of interactive community presentations on findings from a longitudinal study, we developed a process for community dissemination that involved several overlapping phases: planning, outreach, content development, interactive presentations, and follow-up. Through this process, we built on existing and new community relationships. Following each interactive presentation, the research team debriefed and reviewed notes to identify lessons learned from the process. Key themes included the importance of creating a flexible dissemination plan, tailoring presentations to each community group, establishing a point person to serve as a community liaison, and continuing dialogue with community members after the presentations. Core strategies for developing trust during dissemination included engaging community members at every step, reserving ample time for discussion during presentations, building rapport by sharing personal experiences, being receptive to and learning from criticism, and implementing input from community members. This process led to a deeper understanding of research findings and ensured that results reached community members who were invested in them.
authors.affiliation: AIDS Project Los Angeles, 611 South Kingsley Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90005. Email: bmcdavitt@apla.org. Dr McDavitt is also affiliated with University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California and Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, California.
authors.forename: Bryce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McDavitt
authors.affiliation: Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California.
authors.forename: Laura M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Bogart
authors.affiliation: AIDS Project Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California.
authors.forename: Matt G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Mutchler
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California.
authors.forename: Glenn J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California.
authors.forename: Harold D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: AIDS Project Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Kieta D. Mutepfa, UCLA CARE Center, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Sean Jamar
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.affiliation: UCLA CARE Center, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Kieta D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Mutepfa
authors.affiliation: AIDS Project Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Kelsey A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Nogg
mesh_terms: D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000379:methods*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D035502:Trust