A Practical Guide to Getting Started With Community-Engaged Research
Getting Started with Community-Engaged Research
Community-engaged research (CEnR) is a collaborative approach in which researchers and community members partner to develop and implement a line of research that is motivated by and responsive to the needs, interests, and values of a community. CEnR leverages the knowledge and skills held by youth, families, communities, and researchers by engaging them in the research process, thereby ensuring that research is relevant, ethical, and beneficial to a community.
Defining “Community” and “Researcher”
A community is a social group whose members share one or more commonalities—such as race, gender, geographic experience, or life experience—that connect them through values, interests, goals, and/or kinship. A researcher is an individual trained to carry out research activities. For the purposes of this resource library, we will refer to community and researcher using these definitions.
Within CEnR, all individuals involved may be members of a community, researchers, or both. Their roles are often fluid, as community members contribute to research and researchers can be embedded within the community, emphasizing the collaborative and interconnected nature of CEnR.
The Basics of CEnR
CEnR is grounded in principles originating from practices that combine local knowledge with action. This approach meaningfully integrates community insights with empirical expertise and scientific processes to generate evidence and answers to questions and concerns held by the people most affected by research. Importantly, CEnR also invites the community to determine the use of knowledge that is produced. By prioritizing communities’ needs and knowledge, this approach helps align research results with the priorities of those most impacted.
History of CEnR
CEnR has deep roots in research with Indigenous peoples around the world—cultures in which knowledge creation and sharing have traditionally been collective, participatory processes. In these contexts, researchers emphasize the integration of local knowledge, culture, and experiences with action to address community needs. For these communities, skepticism toward traditional research stems from a documented history of exploitation and exclusion. This includes, but is not limited to, studies conducted without informed consent, research that reinforced harmful stereotypes, and studies in which participants and their communities received no direct benefit. In response, approaches like CEnR emerged to ensure that research is done with the community rather than at its expense. CEnR methods prioritize community ownership, respect for cultural knowledge, and the co-creation of solutions that benefit researchers and the community.
How to Use This Guide
This guide provides practical insights and strategies for researchers who are new to CEnR. CEnR offers a powerful way to collaborate with communities, ensuring that research is relevant, impactful, and mutually beneficial. However, successfully engaging in CEnR requires thoughtful planning, an understanding of its opportunities and challenges, and the use of effective strategies. This guide is designed to help you, as a new CEnR researcher, navigate key aspects of CEnR, providing practical insights and tools to support your research journey.
Each section is designed to support you on your CEnR journey:
- Benefits and Challenges: Examines the advantages of CEnR, such as increased relevance and impact of research, as well as common challenges such as power dynamics and resource constraints.
- Spectrum of Engagement: Describes varying levels of community involvement, from consultative to fully collaborative models, helping you determine the right fit for your project.
- 5Rs Framework: Introduces practical guides for researchers to reflect on their approach to designing, carrying out, and evaluating their CEnR work.
- Research Stages: Outlines the key phases of a CEnR project, from building partnerships to disseminating findings in ways that benefit the community.
- Summary: Synthesizes key takeaways from this guide.
Common CEnR Approaches
CEnR encompasses a variety of approaches, each of which offers a unique way to engage communities in the research process. Below are several widely used CEnR approaches.
- Action Research: Collaborative inquiry aimed at solving real-world problems through cycles of action and reflection.
- Community-Based Participatory Research: A partnership approach in which community members and researchers work together throughout the research process.
- User-Centered Design Research: Research that focuses on understanding the needs and experiences of end users to guide the design and development of solutions.
- Design-Based Implementation Research: A collaborative approach that focuses on designing and implementing interventions in real-world settings, emphasizing iterative refinement.
- Participatory Evaluation: An evaluation method in which stakeholders, including community members, are actively involved in all stages of the evaluation process to ensure relevance and shared ownership of results.
Learn more about various CEnR approaches in Vaughn and Jacquez’s Participatory Research Methods – Choice Points in the Research Process.
Development of This Guide
This guide was developed through a comprehensive literature review of existing research on CEnR and informed by our team’s collective expertise in implementing CEnR approaches. At Child Trends, we have conducted over 50 CEnR projects, applying these approaches across various research contexts. Examples of our work include:
- Adapted Measure of Math Engagement: A project that developed a measure of math engagement by collaborating directly with students and educators.
- Centering Youth Experiences: Youth Participatory Action: A youth participatory action research project that elevates young people's perspectives on community safety and well-being.
- The Foster Youth Initiative Project: An evaluation project involving young people who have experienced foster care serving on an advisory board to interpret findings and recommend ways to support their well-being and success, in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, and nationwide.
- The Probation Experience Project: A research project that collaborates with youth and families impacted by the juvenile justice system, centering their experiences to inform policy and practice changes that improve system outcomes.
- Early Childhood Equity Movement: A project that engaged communities in co-developing strategies to make family support services more accessible and responsive to local needs.
By combining insights from research and real-world practice, this guide provides practical strategies to help researchers integrate CEnR into their work, foster meaningful collaboration, and produce research that is both rigorous and responsive to community needs.
Notes
All authors contributed equally to developing and refining this practice guide.
Acknowledgements
Deana Around Him, Katy Falletta, Danielle Hegseth, Hannah Lantos, Brittany Mihalec-Adkins, Kelly Murphy, Asari Offiong, Christina Padilla, Manica F. Ramos, Rachel Rosenberg, Renee Ryberg, Vanessa Sacks, Emilia Sotolongo, and Laney Taylor contributed to the development and refinement of this resource.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation, grant #2200437. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Holquist, S. E., Lewis Wallace, Q., Reyes, O., & Scott, A. (2025). A practical guide to getting started with community-engaged research. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/1002z2510w