Making Methodological Decisions in Real-world Community Settings—Matt DeCamp, MD PhD

The July Community Engagement Forum featured a presentation by Dr. Matthew DeCamp on methodological decisions for engagement in real-world settings. Dr. DeCamp, Associate Director of Community Engagement at CCTSI, discussed the differences between community-engaged research and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), emphasizing that no single engagement method works for every research context or community. He introduced the DICE Methods tool (dicemethods.org) developed to help researchers consider engagement methods based on planning, implementing, and disseminating research, and shared findings from a CHEER study involving six community-academic partnerships that explored which engagement methods best fit specific community contexts. The presentation covered how different engagement methods like stakeholder advisory panels, community engagement studios, and appreciative inquiry have varying advantages depending on research stage and community needs, with appreciative inquiry being the most preferred method across all studied communities. Participants raised important questions about cultural competency, representation, and the responsibility of researchers to educate themselves about the communities they work with, to which several forum attendees shared their experiences and approaches to building trust and understanding in community partnerships. Learn more about ACCORDS at https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/ACCORDS