Community-Engaged Research (CEnR)
Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) Community-engaged research has emerged within medicine and public health as an approach to research designed to understand and expand access to healthcare for all, reduce healthcare gaps, and improve community and population well-being.
Community engagement often is viewed as a continuum that spans from outreach (less engaged), consultation, involvement, and collaboration, to shared leadership (more engaged). As such, the community engagement literature is extensive and features a wide range of theories, approaches, strategies, and methods, reflecting the numerous ways community engagement is defined, implemented, and evaluated. Despite this variety, community-engaged research includes several common key elements such as:
- Collaboration with groups of people connected by geographic proximity, shared interests, health conditions, or other share challenges.
- Partnerships among community members, organizational representatives, and academic researchers that emphasize common principles and trust to foster meaningful collaboration.
- A focus on identifying healthcare needs and priorities and leveraging community resources to improve health and well-being.
- Research as an approach for systematically understanding healthcare-related challenges and advancing community and population health.
