Building community research capacity in Chicago: Community-based organizations peer mentoring on CBPR

Equitable community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships require dedicated skilled communities interested and able to actively participate in all phases of research. The Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC) mission is to grow collaborative sustainable partnerships between Chicago-area communities and Northwestern University for research that leads to measureable improvement in community health. Funded by two local foundation grants, eleven community- and faith-based organizations (CBOs) serving on the ARCC Steering Committee led a project in collaboration with Northwestern's CTSA to build and institutionalize CBO research capacity. In Phase 1, ARCC CBOs assessed and built their own organizational and individual capacity. In Phase 2, ARCC worked across their diverse organizations (ethnic/racial, lifestage, geographic, and structure- coalition, direct service, advocacy) to synthesize lessons learned from their own experiences and create tools based on these learnings. In phase 3, ARCC used a competitive call to accept a new cohort of 6 CBOs. Over 12 months, ARCC CBOs peer mentored and facilitated learning for these CBOs through a series of workshops, one-on-one mentoring sessions, and technical assistance. By program completion, all participating CBOs increased their CBPR capacity, over half participated in other capacity building activities, and one-third are actively developing or conducting CBPR projects. CBOS shared lessons learned and opportunities within their networks extending the reach and spread of the capacity building. While CBOs' limited resources and staff turnover were challenges to building organizational memory and engagement, all expressed benefiting from the strong continuing partnership with each other and ARCC.