Building Our Toolkit: Research Informed by and for Our Community
Last year we shared some insight into how we do community-engaged research (CEnR) here at IWES. A large component of that is our Institutional Review Board, or IRB. To recap, an IRB is an ethics committee that protects the privacy, rights, and well-being of people participating in research studies. Our IRB reviews the work of our divisions and programs and advises us equally on both how to comply ethically and create projects that benefit our community.
Unlike similar boards housed within academic or medical settings, this board was built from the ground up by and for the community!
Not only do we train our board members to consider federal compliance and community equity with equal weight, but we also aim to increase our community’s capacity around ethics, justice, and community engagement in research.
Last year, we conducted a series of interviews and surveys asking founding, past, and present board members about their own experiences navigating research ethics and their visions for collective education.
Our founding Chair offered this advice:
“You always start with ‘what are the needs of the community? And how can we best meet them? And how will this research [make] getting those needs met possible?’ IWES does those two things, and your IRB is there to make sure that happens.”
Another veteran board member shared,
“As a way to increase capacity or increase the service to the community, do more training like that, host talks about what the IWES IRB is and what its purpose is, and why ethics matter in community-based research and community-based services.”
Building Confidence and Capacity
With this feedback in mind, board members and administrators crafted a series of training sessions and extended an invitation to IWES staff, partners, and peers, with members of the board participating as both attendees and presenters. On August 30th, we were excited to host our first training of the Fall series, “Intro to IWES IRB,” offering attendees the opportunity to familiarize themselves with both federal law and best practices in CEnR, familiarize themselves with the processes and key tools specific to the IRB at IWES, and get to know this year’s board affiliations, areas of expertise, and populations of experience.
Our series resumed September 27th with “The Art of Submission,” which aimed to build confidence among project leads submitting to the IRB, explore tools to guide in submitting and managing an active IRB protocol, and practice preparing various types of submissions.
As stated by Gabby Roude, our Research and Evaluation Manager,
“This session took the mystery out of submitting a project for IRB review, but more importantly, this series is really helping to increase our organization’s – and hopefully our community’s – confidence in research!”
This November, our “Best Practices in Community-Engaged Research” training will introduce the different community-engaged research methods, highlight the differences between traditional, academic review processes versus community-enhanced review, and build up project leads’ confidence distinguishing community work from community-based research – research located in the community – or community-driven research – research designed, carried out, and reported on by the community.
What’s Ahead for Our IRB
Even as this first series rolls out, board members continue envisioning how the series will grow, including adding a session focused on designing research tools, conducting surveys, and facilitating interviews. Ultimately, we aim to make this full training series accessible and free to anyone interested in learning more through a virtual format. We are also very excited to welcome our new community Board Co-Chairs, Astacia Shari Carter and Charles Medley, who are in the process of onboarding with outgoing Chair Dr. Krista Mincey this Fall.
Interested in learning more or accessing one of these training recordings? Contact Jen Latimer, IWES Project Manager and liaison to the IWES IRB.