Resources

This opening section grounds readers in the core concepts of community-engaged research, community-based participatory research (CBPR), and co-design. These resources help distinguish meaningful partnership from more extractive or consultative approaches and offer a shared foundation before moving into critical practice considerations.

Israel BA, Schulz AJ, Parker EA, Becker AB. Review of community-based research: assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annu Rev Public Health. 1998;19:173–202. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.19.1.173.

This foundational CBPR review articulates principles of equitable partnership, co-learning, and long-term commitment in community-based research.

McKercher KA. Beyond sticky notes: co-design for real: mindsets, methods and movements. Beyond Sticky Notes; 2020.

McKercher critiques superficial engagement practices and provides practical strategies for embedding authentic co-design within institutional structures.

Suarez-Balcazar Y. Meaningful engagement in research: community residents as co-creators of knowledge. Am J Community Psychol. 2020;65:261–271. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12414.

Suarez-Balcazar advances a model of community members as knowledge co-creators and outlines principles for shared governance and sustained partnership.

Nixon SA. The coin model of privilege and critical allyship: implications for health. BMC Public Health. 2019;19:1637. doi:10.1186/s12889-019-7884-9.

Nixon introduces the coin model to conceptualize privilege and marginalization as structurally linked, supporting critical reflexivity about researcher power within health systems.

This section invites researchers to critically examine their positionality, power, and responsibilities within community-engaged work. It also explicitly situates this reflection within broader anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice.

Wilson S. Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Halifax (NS): Fernwood Publishing; 2008.

Wilson emphasizes relational accountability as the foundation of Indigenous research methodologies, positioning research as responsibilities within relationships rather than processes of data extraction.

Tuck E. Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harv Educ Rev. 2009;79(3):409–428. doi:10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15.

Tuck critiques deficit- and damage-centered research approaches and advances a desire-based framework that recognizes complexity, resilience, and futurity within communities.

Salami B, Bharwani A, Johnson N, Ladha T, Hart M, Dixit J, Benseler S. Integrating intersectionality into child health research: key considerations. Paediatric Child Health. 2024 Jun 28;30(2):73-77. doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxae033.

This paper outlines how intersectionality can be meaningfully integrated into child health research, highlighting how overlapping social identities and structural inequities shape health experiences, access, and outcomes. It offers practical considerations for designing research that reflects the complexity of children’s lived realities.

Hamed S, Bradby H, Ahlberg BM, et al. Racism in healthcare: a scoping review. BMC Public Health. 2022;22:988. doi:10.1186/s12889-022-13122-y.

This scoping review examines how racism operates across healthcare systems, shaping access, quality of care, and health outcomes. It highlights the structural and institutional nature of racism and underscores the need for research and practice approaches that actively address these dynamics.

Jacobson D, Mustafa N. Social identity map: a reflexivity tool for practicing explicit positionality in critical qualitative research. Int J Qual Methods. 2019;18:1–12. doi:10.1177/1609406919870075.

This paper introduces the social identity map as a practical reflexivity tool that helps researchers make their positionality visible and examine how intersecting identities shape relationships, decision-making, and power within research.

Collins KA, Huyser KR, Johnson-Jennings M. Planning for your CANOE journey in community-engaged research with Indigenous communities. Lancet Glob Health. 2025;13(9):e1642–e1647. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00262-1.

The CANOE framework offers guidance for navigating expectations, accountability, and relational responsibilities in Indigenous-engaged research.

Ramanadhan S, Alemán R, Bradley CD, et al. Using participatory implementation science to advance health equity. Annu Rev Public Health. 2024;45(1):47–67. doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-060722-024251.

Ramanadhan and colleagues integrate participatory approaches with implementation science to strengthen the uptake and sustainability of equity-focused interventions.

This section explores how meaningful research partnerships are built and sustained over time. It moves beyond one-time engagement toward ongoing collaboration grounded in shared priorities, power-sharing, and mutual accountability. These resources highlight what it takes to build trust, support community leadership, and maintain relationships beyond individual projects.

Organizing Committee for Assessing Meaningful Community Engagement in Health & Health Care Programs & Policies. Assessing meaningful community engagement: a conceptual model to advance health equity through transformed systems for health. NAM Perspect. 2022 Feb 14. doi:10.31478/202202c.

The ACE model provides a framework for evaluating meaningful engagement through shared power, mutual value, and bi-directional learning within systems transformation efforts.

Himmelman AT. On coalitions and the transformation of power relations: collaborative betterment and collaborative empowerment. Am J Community Psychol. 2001;29(2):277–284. doi:10.1023/A:1010334831330.

Himmelman distinguishes cooperation, coordination, and collaboration, clarifying how decision-making authority shifts across partnership types.

Adams R, Blondeau S, Bilek M, et al. On our terms: Six principles for engaging people with lived experience of homelessness in advocacy, research, and policy making. Self-published; 2025.

This framework outlines six principles for how to engage people with lived experience, foregrounding autonomy, compensation, leadership, and power-sharing.

Bridges S, Munaza J, Sharma D, Khurrum H, Syme R. DIY Community Engagement Event Toolkit. N2 Public Engagement Committee. N2: Network of Networks; 2024.

A practical toolkit offering logistical and facilitation guidance for planning and delivering community engagement events.

This section explores how to meaningfully engage children, youth, and people with lived experience in research and design. It emphasizes moving beyond inclusion toward shared influence, with attention to power, accessibility, safety, and support. These resources highlight how to create conditions where lived experience is recognized as expertise and meaningfully shapes decisions.

Centre for Community Child Health. Voice of the child toolkit. Melbourne; 2025.

This toolkit provides structured approaches for meaningfully incorporating children’s perspectives into research and service design.

Raeside R, Tsang TL, Wong SH, Todd A, Partridge SR. A guide to setting up a youth advisory group. Sydney: Youth Well Lab; 2025.

This guide outlines practical steps for establishing and sustaining youth advisory structures, including governance and facilitation considerations.

Thulien M, Anderson H, Douglas S, et al. The generative potential of mess in community-based participatory research with young people who use(d) drugs in Vancouver. Harm Reduct J. 2022;19:30. doi:10.1186/s12954-022-00615-7.

This paper highlights the relational and non-linear realities of CBPR, emphasizing the productive role of complexity in sustaining authentic partnership.

Canas E, Booth R, Pervez R, et al. The experience of youth-participatory action research in a social innovation lab: A methodological and organizational approach. Action Res. 2023;22(4):327–344. doi:10.1177/14767503231205238.

This paper explores methodological and organizational considerations when embedding youth participatory action research within innovation lab settings.

Youth Well Lab. HAPYUS: Health Advisory Panel for Youth at the University of Sydney.

This website provides a good example of a sustained institutional youth advisory structure within a university-based research environment.

This section explores how research findings can be meaningfully returned to communities and translated into policy, practice, and systems change.

Blackstock C. First Nations children count: enveloping quantitative research in an Indigenous envelope. First Peoples Child Fam Rev. 2009;4(2):135–143.

Blackstock demonstrates how quantitative research can align with Indigenous governance frameworks and community priorities.

Jenkins EK, Kothari A, Bungay V, Johnson JL, Oliffe JL. Strengthening population health interventions: developing the CollaboraKTion Framework for community-based knowledge translation. Health Res Policy Syst. 2016;14(1):65. doi:10.1186/s12961-016-0138-8.

The CollaboraKTion Framework supports structured community-based knowledge translation through iterative collaboration.

Maurer M, Mangrum R, Hilliard-Boone T, et al. Understanding the influence and impact of stakeholder engagement in patient-centered outcomes research: a qualitative study. J Gen Intern Med. 2022;37(Suppl 1):6–13. doi:10.1007/s11606-021-07104-w.

This qualitative study examines how stakeholder engagement influences research processes and outcomes within patient-centered outcomes research contexts.

Schlechter CR, Del Fiol G, Lam CY, et al. Application of community-engaged dissemination and implementation science to improve health equity. Prev Med Rep. 2021;24:101620. doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101620. 

This article presents applied examples of community-engaged dissemination and implementation science aimed at advancing health equity.

BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute & Women’s Health Research Institute. Patient Partner Onboarding for Research: Guidance for research teams.

This document outlines onboarding requirements and institutional expectations for engaging patient partners in research at BCCHR and WHRI.

BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Research Patient Partner Onboarding Sorting Tool.

This is an operational tool to determine onboarding pathways and requirements for patient partners.

BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Engaging with Community Groups, Clinical Research Support Unit (CRSU).

This institutional guidance outlines procedural considerations for building respectful and sustained partnerships with community organizations within BCCHR.

The CPSH has created a document to help BCCHR Investigators and their staff and trainees to better understand the ways to acknowledge and compensate the contributions of community members and participants engaged in co-designed and community-based participatory research:

CPSH Recommendations on Providing Honoraria for CBPR Co-Designed Research

Coming soon.