Evaluation of community-academic partnerships after participation in an intensive CBPR training program

Scientists suspect that up to 70% of breast cancer (BC) could have an environmental cause, yet the link between BC and the environment and social disparities in BC has been inadequately researched. CRIBS (Building Sustainable Community-Based Research Infrastructure to Better Science), an NIEHS-funded partnership aimed to stimulate community-based participatory research (CBPR) and address these gaps in BC research. The partnership grew out of long-standing collaborations among the California Breast Cancer Research Program of the University of California, Plumbline Consulting and Coaching, and Commonweal. In January 2012, twelve community-academic teams from across California were chosen in a competitive application to begin an intensive training program (ITP) that included face-to-face training, online training in a web-supported learning community, mock grant review, and technical assistance. We describe the qualitative evaluation of the CRIBS ITP Program and the partnerships. In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 participants: 18 community and 13 academic partners. Interview data were analyzed using ATLASti and standard qualitative methods. Participants reported benefitting most from the face-to-face training and the mock review; both academic and community partners gained important knowledge about BC science and about CBPR. Most felt that the time spent with their team during the face-to-face training was critical to developing their partnership, and many community members felt empowered. As one participant who had felt voiceless in previous research projects said, “I now understand, as a community member, my role is just as important as the researcher.” Implications for training and funding for CBPR will be discussed.