Community-Based Participatory Research
APPEAL utilizes the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to understand a range of issues in tobacco control, from factors that influence tobacco use among AA/NHPI communities to the types of pathways AA/NHPI stakeholders utilize to effect tobacco control policy change. According to the WK Kellogg Foundation, CBPR is defined as “A collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings.” In this vein, APPEAL engages its longtime community and academic partners to jointly drive the research and ensure meaningful translation of the research findings to practice.
Through CBPR, APPEAL aims to contribute to the science of community engagement in tobacco control policy change and potentially help state and local public health agencies and coalitions plan more carefully to engage diverse communities throughout the process of tobacco control policy change. APPEAL’s CBPR studies can potentially help to influence how tobacco control programs (and other health areas like obesity control) are designed and funded and perhaps replicate similar capacity building approaches in marginalized communities, thereby taking us one step closer to the elimination of tobacco and other health disparities.