BE-HEALED

A Community Based Particapatory Partnership to understand help seeking linkages to mental health for Black men

Our application of community-based participatory

research (CBPR) is guided by CBPR Core Principles (Israel et al., 1998; Israel et al., 2005;

Israel et al., 2008). Specifically, principle 2 (builds on strengths and resources of the

community), 4 (integrates knowledge and action for the mutual benefit of all partners), 5

(promotes and co-learning and empowering process that attends to social inequities), and 8

(disseminates findings and knowledge gained to all partners) will be integrated across all of our

goals and objectives. First, goal 1 will invite existing community leaders to expand our existing

community-academic partnership. These leaders will include individuals with strong

connections to our lead community and academic partners, including leaders representing

Black churches, the Higher Ground Project, and fatherhood programs. Community partners will

all contribute to planning and implementing the activities in support of Goal 2. In collaboration,

core members of the community-academic partnership will identify Black men across multiple

generations to participate in a series of stakeholder table events. Individuals participating in the

stakeholder tables will share their lived experiences and realities related to mental health and

treatment, as well as their ideals, visions, and expectations of acceptable treatment to actively

generate knowledge. After each stakeholder table event, core team members will share notes

with the stakeholder table participants to ensure accuracy and transparency. Rather than

presenting an intervention design to community members for “tailoring” to the community

needs, the stakeholder table serves as a platform for participants to articulate their preferences

and ideas for mental health care, thereby empowering them to shape the structure, content,

and methods of delivery of these services. Stakeholder table participants and core partners will

engage in a discussion of ideas shared and identify key takeaways at the final stakeholder table

event. Key takeaways will become the focus of further knowledge dissemination through

community conversations. These broader dialogues serve as a vehicle for gathering additional

feedback and ensuring that the findings resonate with the community's collective experiences.

The iterative feedback loop created through these community conversations exemplifies the

CBPR tenet of collaborative learning and shared decision-making, and ultimately, fosters a

sense of ownership, empowerment, and investment among community members in the

outcomes of the research process. We want to emphasize however that the primary purpose of

this initial stage of research is to develop a strong working relationship and to develop the

capacity to conduct subsequent steps in the CBPR process.