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Resident
Engagement Through Action Research for Community and Family
Strengthening
Research Method:
Participatory Action Research
Project Director:
Marlene Berg, M.U.P.
Grant:
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Dates of Study:
2001-2006 |
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Abstract
The Action Research for Community and Family Strengthening project
is a five-year effort to create, implement and assess a Participatory
Action Research training model designed to promote the engagement
of Hartford residents in building stronger families, strengthening
community social supports, and participating in community economic
development efforts. The project expands ICR's work in Participatory
Action Research Training and Development by training residents
in action research methods to identify major community issues
and supporting their engagement in social and political action
around these issues. PAR involves politically, economically
and socially marginalized groups in an inquiry process in which
they identify the issues they believe are most critical to their
wellbeing. The design of the research maximizes group involvement
and ensures the use of results. Participants designate the issues
they want to research, develop a research project, collect data
using methods of their choice, analyze and disseminate results
and work toward using them to bring about desired change. Inherent
in the research process is the identification of strategies
for change, and desired endpoints.
Part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 22-city Making
Connections initiative, Resident Engagement Through Action
Research begins with a 15-week training model in which residents
learn participatory action research methods and begin to use
the results of their research to address critical issues in
their neighborhoods. |
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Goals and Objectives |
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Develop a group of committed
resident action-researchers linked to one or more community
agencies in two areas of the city of Hartford. |
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Develop with these residents
an action research approach designed to focus on addressing
issues related to strengthening families and enabling
them to build social and economic capital. |
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Facilitate an action research
process that uses resident-generated information to build
strong, pro-family, neighborhood-based networks for activism
and outreach. |
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Link residents in both the
North and South ends of the city with urban development
efforts. |
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Expand and promote the process
as a training model for other issues in Hartford, as well
as for other Making Connections cities and beyond. |
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Project
Details
ICR received a planning grant for
the project in 2001, and the full project began in 2002 with
neighborhood ethnographic research in targeted city neighborhoods.
This research was designed to understand issues from the perspectives
of residents and to recruit resident action researchers for
subsequent training. As of March, 2003, three groups of resident
action researchers have been organized. Examples from the first
three training groups illustrate how the model can be tailored
to the specific composition and interests of the residents while
at the same time incorporating standardized core components.
The first group comprised
of Puerto Rican and other Latino residents from the Frog-Hollow
and South Green neighborhoods in the south-end of the City of
Hartford, focused on understanding and creating strategies to
improve student health, educational and social outcomes. Following
the presentation of their research results, a core group of
residents continued their involvement in the project by: serving
as mentors and role models for the next south-end group, creating
a manual for parents, engaging in the work of the Casey Initiative's
Results Committee and with the Hartford's Local Learning Partnership,
and in sharing the model with other cities in the Making Connections
Initiative.
A north-end group from
Hartford's Upper Albany and Clay Arsenal neighborhoods brings
together Afro-Caribbean and Native American residents. This
group is researching the issue of neighborhood conditions through
a strategy that uses a square block as a microcosm of the larger
neighborhood. They anticipate generating actions to improve
neighborhood conditions on their study block while using the
"making change-one block at a time" strategy for extending
this model to other blocks in the north-end. A second
south-end group, comprised primarily of parents from one
school, Maria Sanchez Elementary, is using research to explore
economic conditions of neighborhood residents, particularly
those families whose primary language is Spanish. This cohort
has developed its research/action strategy in collaboration
with the school and will be working with the school and community
organizations to develop strategic solutions to address this
critical need.
These three groups of resident researchers will be joined by
an additional three over the next years of the project. As residents
are trained in PAR methods and disseminate their research results
to organizations and institutions that serve their neighborhoods,
they will become a critical nucleus for increasing civic participation
and affecting resident-driven change. One of the goals of the
project is to have these resident action researchers from different
backgrounds and geographic locations work together to learn
about each other and advocate for their communities. See pictures
from our joint meetings.
A projected outcome of the five-year project will be a resident
engagement-training model that can be used in other urban areas
throughout the U.S. |
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Link
to Research Methods page
Links to External Sites:
Annie
E. Casey Foundation, Making Connections Initiative
Click
here to read a recent article in the Hartford Courant
about the Resident Engagement program.
ICR's
Resident Engagement Project was recently featured in the Fall
2003 Making Connections Hartford Newsletter (pg. 4-5). Click
here to read the article in English
and Spanish.
(PDF Files)
Click
here
to get Adobe Acrobat to read PDF Files.
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