CBPR Best Practices

How can a CBPR-approach increase minority recruitment and retention for clinical trials?

• Research suggests that recruitment and retention of community members is maximized as they become invested partners from start to finish.
• Be sure that they are present in the full spectrum of the research process and the community's concerns are taken into consideration.
• CBPR researchers approach community members as partners, not as subjects.
• Having community partners play a role in recruitment may significantly improve the effectiveness and retention of minority participation in research, as it adds trustworthiness to the researcher and the study.

Educate, engage & inspire the community

• Maintain regular, transparent communication between community and academic leaders.
• Formulate mutual goals, roles, and rules of engagement.
• Work together with leaders and/or focus groups from the community to design and implement tests and hypotheses.
• Community partners should receive financial and other resources that facilitate their participation.
• Involve community members in the analysis and interpretation of data, presentations and manuscript preparation, and determining how the results will be distributed.
• Disseminate the research findings to the communities where the research was conducted. Feedback from the community can shed light on pros and cons, and likes and dislikes - all of which can be help when conducting future research.