Community-based participatory research (or CBPR) is an approach to research that demands equitable and collaborative partnerships between community members and academic institutions. Like other approaches to research, CBPR aims to address important questions through scholarship and study, but differs in its purpose — to answer questions posed by communities in order to implement real and sustainable changes to the problems communities identify.

Across the globe, public health practitioners conduct CBPR to support communities in the development of sustainable interventions that improve health and wellbeing. CBPR must amplify the power that communities possess and center solution creation, rather than research — for the sake of research.

It isn’t easy work — partnership building takes time — communities often prioritize things that academics do not — and humility for academia has always been a challenge. And yet, the work can be magnificent, and meaningful and of high impact. Join us for a dynamic discussion about integrating CBPR into your own work.

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Chair:

Zahirah McNatt, DrPH

Assistant Professor and Godley-St. Goar Chair of the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine, UGHE 

Dr. Zahirah McNatt is the Godley-St. Goar Chair of the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine and Assistant Professor at the University of Global Health Equity. She also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Dr. McNatt has been a consultant in the areas of global health, humanitarian systems and human rights. She has more than 13 years of experience in the Middle East, East Africa, the Americas & Southeast Asia, working on health systems strengthening in partnership with governments — and research in humanitarian settings. Dr. McNatt earned her doctorate from Mailman School of Public Health and has published in BMC Conflict & Health, the Journal of Refugee Studies, BMJ, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization and PLOS ONE.

Speakers:

Dr. Sophie Yohani 

Associate Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Alberta

Dr. Sophie Yohani is an associate professor of Counselling Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta. She is a registered psychologist with training in global mental health, elementary education, and extensive experience in community-based research and community psychology. Dr. Yohani’s research explores conflict-related trauma and psychosocial adaptation of women, children, and families based on pre- and post-migration experiences and program implications in education and community settings. Her current research projects use community-based participatory methods to explore the psychosocial adaptation and wellbeing of Middle Eastern and African refugees in Canada. Dr. Yohani also engages in various community projects aimed at mental health capacity building, intercultural understanding, and the integration of newcomers to Canada. As a member of the African Canadian community, her work has also included community-based initiatives and projects aimed at enhancing the settlement, integration and wellbeing of African immigrants. 

Nosipho Faith Makhakhe

PhD Candidate, Department of Psychology, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Nosipho Faith Makhakhe is a PhD candidate in health promotion at the university of KwaZulu-Natal in the department of psychology (Durban, South Africa). My research engaged female sex worker peer educators in designing a community-based intervention plan to address the challenges pertaining to the uptake and retention of female sex workers on oral pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention. Apart from the PhD research I have done work with other key populations such as men who have sex with men and long-distance truck drivers. I am also a teaching assistant in the department of health promotion where I lecture students in courses such as the personal is the professional where students are assisted to develop critical reflexivity and interrogate dominant societal discourses and decipher power relations and agency in society. I also lecture health promotion ideology and community practice where I take students through the process of designing and implementing community-based interventions with the local communities situated around the university.