How to make friends with potential community partners?
For the last in our little series on community engaged research and CBPR (check out the previous pieces here and here), I’m going to cover one of the more personally intimidating parts of community work. Making friends with communities. While I’ve mentioned a couple of times throughout this series that communities are interested and willing to partner with academic researchers, I can promise you the chance of a community partner waiting to meet you outside your office door, or even sending you a cold email, is very small.
Now I can hear you all saying, “but I’m nice, and I would meet with a community partner, or reply to an email.” I am sure that’s true. However, I want you to ask yourself this, how would a community partner find you on your university’s website? Does your work line up neatly with what someone outside of the university would understand your department to do? How is your work described in your online bio? Would the description be clear to a non-university stakeholder? If you are anything like me the chances that the average community member knows enough about the kind of work that I do to track me down on my departmental website and get in touch is very low.
I was reminded of this recently when I was asked to provide some insight into how community partners could find and start relationships with academic researchers. As I started thinking through the structure of universities, schools, and departments, our websites, our calendars, and the ebb and flow of semesters, I realized it would be no small feat to find a research partner let alone catch them at a time of the academic year when someone is likely to reply.
So, if community members aren’t tracking us down, how can we get in touch with them to share about how our work could help improve their lives? Well, it’s going to mean our going out and meeting them in their spaces. Even as I type this, I can see you all cringing at the idea of getting out of our familiar academic spaces and showing up in community spaces or at meetings not knowing anyone 😬. Just like making friends for many of us as grown-ups is hard, making friends with communities can be equally daunting.
But never fear! As a dyed in the wool introvert, I’m here to tell you, if I can do it, you can too. First, start by getting really clear on who you want to get in touch with. Are you interested in working with non-profit organizations (and which ones), clinicians, patients, teachers, students, parents/guardians, government officials, administrators, average citizens … ? (you get the idea) Second, where are these people? Where to they gather? How do they organize themselves? Do they have a governing body or organization? Do they have an online presence where you can look for some additional insights about them? Do your homework.
Once you have a good sense of who and where they are, it’s time to introduce yourself. I know this is hard, but I promise it will be worth it 😉. Okay, so where to begin, I always find it’s more impactful if I go to the partner in real life. If you are interested in working with a non-profit organization reach out to the director/CEO, or a member of the outreach team, and ask for an in-person meeting (but keep in mind that many non-profits are run by people who also have day-jobs, so be prepared to meet outside of regular business hours).
Once you get the meeting, share your skills and how you think they might be helpful. Remember these initial meetings are about listening to what the community might need. This isn’t about what you can get, but what you can do to meet their articulated needs. Finally, as you learn about the community plug in your skills and resources to help.
Making community friends will take time and require you to be uncomfortable while you gain trust and show them your intentions. Unfortunately, academic partners have a long history of making promises to communities that were never delivered. As you work to make these partnerships, you will have to overcome this legacy. This means being tenacious in your pursuit of these partnerships. But in my experience, if you keep showing up and demonstrating through your actions that you are there for your community you will have life-long partnerships which I guarantee will transform your research and amplify your impact.
Considering starting your community engaged research journey, but want to help? Contact me (Meagen.rosenthal@gmail.com) I’m ready to work with you ☺️.
(Words: 775)