What is Community Engaged Research (CER)?
Community engaged research is a process that incorporates input from people who the research outcomes will impact and involves such people or groups as equal partners throughout the research process. This involvement may include co-designing research questions to solve problems, making decisions, influencing policies, and creating programs and interventions that affect their own lives.
Community engagement “often involves partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems, change relationships among partners, and serve as catalysts for changing policies, programs, and practices.” (CDC 1997)
I think a wealth of knowledge, information and experience is had when academic researchers and community members engage in authentic community-based participatory research.
The reason that these two entities come together in every community across the U.S. is because community members have knowledge and resources about the community and researchers have knowledge and resources about research.