[URBANTH-L]Call for Speakers: Building Community Capacity for Research

[Angela Jancius]

From: Sarena Seifer <sarena at u.washington.edu>


Dear COMM-ORG colleagues,

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health is pleased to announce the 
second call in our 2009-2010 Educational Conference Call Series. In the 
midst of the numerous recovery act funding announcements from the 
National Institutes of Health (NIH), we've been noticing a dramatic rise 
in inquiries to CCPH from community-based organizations that are either 
applying directly for research grants or as partners of academic 
institutions that are the lead applicants. We've decided to focus the 
call series on answering the most frequently asked questions, as part of 
the overarching theme of "Building Community Capacity for Research."  
Each call includes speakers who provide answers and insights from their 
direct experience, helpful handouts and links to relevant resources.

The audiofile, agenda and handouts for the first call, which took place 
on June 3 and addressed the "how and why" of obtaining a federally 
negotiated indirect rate and federal wide assurance, are now posted on 
the CCPH website at 
http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/pastpresentations.html.  Elmer Freeman, 
Executive Director of the Center for Health Education Research and 
Service in Boston, MA and Loretta Jones, Executive Director, Healthy 
African American Families II in Los Angeles, CA, were the featured speakers.

The next call, scheduled for July 15 from 3:30 - 5 pm eastern time, 
addresses the question of what organizational systems and supports need 
to be in place to do community-based participatory research (CBPR) in a 
community agency setting. The call is titled "Setting Up & Running a 
CBPR Department in a Community Agency: The Access Alliance Experience.  
To register for the call, go to 
https://catalysttools.washington.edu/webq/survey/ccphuw/78916

On the call, participants will learn about setting up and running a CBPR 
department within a community agency.  The call will feature speakers 
from Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services in 
Toronto: Yogendra Shakya, PhD, Director of Research and Evaluation; and 
Rabea Murtaza, Research Coordinator (see their brief bios below). Access 
Alliance was established in 1989 with four ethno-cultural communities 
coming together in response to their identification of significant 
barriers to services for immigrants and refugees.  As it celebrates its 
20th year anniversary, Access Alliance has established itself and become 
recognized as a Centre for Excellence in Community-Based Research on 
Newcomer Urban Health.

But this did not happen overnight...

In 2000 Access Alliance started re-defining its mandate by undertaking 
ongoing needs assessments and looking at its role within the sector of 
immigrant and refugee serving agencies and other community health 
centres in Toronto.  At that time, the Board of Directors directed the 
organization to prioritize the most disadvantaged immigrants and 
refugees. Since then Access Alliance has developed indicators of  
disadvantages to help it define those immigrant and refugee groups who 
face the most barriers to services.  Its current strategic priorities 
explicitly include providing leadership through advocacy and research.  
The organization is committed to increasing knowledge and enabling 
action for addressing social determinants of health that affect newcomer 
and racialized groups.

The Research Department of Access Alliance was established in 2004.  
Over the past 5 years, it has been involved in a large number of 
projects both as principal investigator and as a collaborating 
organization. The Research Department strives to be a leader in 
innovating and promoting CBPR dedicated to empowering newcomers and 
racialized communities to be active partners in research and to become 
agents of change for promoting health equity.  It conducts research from 
an anti-oppressive, anti-racist perspective and its projects tend to 
focus on racialized groups and health access.It also works on increasing 
the capacity of community organizations, academics and other 
stakeholders to work collaboratively with community members on CBPR 
projects.

Learn more about Access Alliance and its Research Department online at:
www.accessalliance.ca
www.researchforchange.ca

PLEASE NOTE: The call is free of charge for those dialing in from Canada 
and the US.  To maximize participation, we encourage you to gather 
colleagues to dial-in together using one phone line with conference call 
capabilities. Prior to the call, an email with instructions for dialing 
in will be sent to confirmed registrants. An audiofile and handouts from 
the call will be posted on the CCPH website at www.ccph.info within 2 
weeks of the call.

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Yogendra Shakya's research interests include neighborhood and 
community planning, poverty reduction, and determinants of health for 
immigrants and refugees. He has research experience in Nepal, Vietnam, 
and Canada. At Access Alliance, he is currently spearheading several 
CBPR projects exploring key determinants of immigrant health, including 
income security, housing, and access to healthcare.

Rabea Murtaza is a feminist, anti-racist and queer-positive community 
worker and facilitator. She has worked for over ten years in the areas 
of youth engagement, youth and newcomer employment services, peer 
counseling, crisis counseling, research and magazine publishing. She 
studied Physics and Political Science with a minor in Globalization 
Studies at McMaster University and Social and Political Thought at York, 
focusing on situated, relational, praxis-based feminist pedagogies and 
epistemologies. Rabea is a writer and works to create inclusive, 
radical, productive and fun spaces for people to learn hands-on skills, 
interpret, connect and explore new possibilities. At Access Alliance, 
Rabea coordinates research projects focused on mental health issues. She 
is also the Training Lead for the agency, and is responsible for 
coordinating the development and implementation of research training 
activities.

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Community-Campus Partnerships for Health promotes health (broadly defined)
through partnerships between communities and higher educational
institutions. Become a member today at www.ccph.info
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