Engagement

 CEEJH engages communities using the principles outlined in the community engagement continuum (see graphic). Using this framework, CEEJH aims to increase levels of community involvement, impact, trust, and communication throughout all engagement and research activities. A cornerstone of CEEJH’s work is use of the community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework which uplifts community and cultural knowledge systems, members of frontline and fenceline community members as subject matter experts, and dictates that the community of concern is involved in all stages of the research process- study questions, study design, data collection methods, data collection, data analysis, dissemination, and translation of the research to action.

However, CEEJH aims for all outreach to communities to ultimately lead to a community-driven approach characterized by  leadership and decision making at the community level. This approach embodied by the (COMR) framework as the gold standard, allows for communities and their needs to be centered across engagement activities and research processes. 

CEEJH aims to create bridges to communities through commonalities. While researchers are often interested in specific research questions and outcomes, communities are interested in how the research will be used to solve their problems.  To engage communities authentically and meaningfully, CEEJH works with communities to prioritize issues of concern, describe the negative social, economic, environmental, and health impacts related to the issues of concerns. CEEJH then discusses with prospective community partners if there are opportunities to collaborate and what are the benefits of collaboration for the community. Community benefits may include increased capacity, skill building, and health benefits, while CEEJH may have the opportunity to pilot newly developed tools. This mutual understanding and relationship building leads to the establishment of a new partnership or resetting of long-term partnerships. 

In many research enterprises, researchers try to engage communities on questions that they are interested in.  However, to be most effective in authentic research that is not extractive and colonial, CEEJH tries to engage communities on environmental justice issues by connecting with items that are everyday, proximal, and pocketbook to all individuals including frontline and fenceline residents.  These items include food, faith, family, health, and jobs. Understanding community needs by focusing on food,faith, family, health, and jobs allows CEEJH to authentically engage communities and work towards shared goals and community-centered outcomes.