Community Approach to Research Partnerships @ Emerson

The Community Approach to Research Partnerships (CARP) aims to collaboratively establish academic and community partners...

Active

Since 2016

Emerson College, Boylston Street, Boston, MA, USA

The Community Approach to Research Partnerships (CARP) aims to collaboratively establish academic and community partnership models based on mutual benefit, understanding and trust. Existing partnership models do little to assure that academic research goals meet community needs. This project works to amplify the voices of community-based organizations and ensure that they play an active role in deciding such key issues as the relevance, goals and ethics guiding research in their own communities. The Community Approach to Research Partnerships (CARP) emerged out of the Boston Civic Media Consortium, a network of civic media researchers and organizational partners in Boston. A series of interviews, discussion groups, and facilitated workshops with members across the academic and community stakeholder spectrum will contribute to the creation of a document that organizations can use to structure their institutional collaborations. In addition to building the capacity of local organizations and improving end-user designs, the outcomes of the project may serve as a national precedent for how community groups can enter academic partnerships from an equitable negotiating position.