Entering a community-engaged project is exciting for both new and more experienced researchers. But that high energy and enthusiasm can fade when they find themselves face to face with the real-world complexities of community-engaged research.
When academic researchers and community representatives such as nonprofits, community clinics, and local public health agencies team up, differing perspectives and expectations naturally emerge. Common friction points include roles and responsibilities, differing goals, resource limitations, unclear power dynamics, and unrealistic timeframes.
These moments are not signs that a partnership is failing. They are part of the work.
The most meaningful breakthroughs in community-engaged research happen when teams intentionally create space for partnerships to grow and adapt. That growth often occurs not only during shared successes, but in moments of tension and recalibration.
When approached thoughtfully, moments of strain can become catalysts for stronger, more resilient relationships.
How? By utilizing these seven essential practices for building stronger, more resilient research partnerships.
Seven partnership practices for healthier relationships
Partnership in action: the core of our work
The Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s community-engagement team, CEARCH, is grounded in these seven partnership practices, integrating them into everything we do. From program design to evaluation, building and maintaining partnerships is a core focus.
Management Council
Our Management Council is a prime example of how our team exercises power sharing. As the assistant director of CEARCH, I co-lead the council with a community co-chair, bridging two levels of authority so we can work together, united in power and purpose.
The council structure ensures all decision-making is a collective, formalized process where community voices aren’t just heard—they’re the central authority in every vote and consensus. As a leadership model, its existence relies on continuous trust-building, assuring that all members can show up authentically and follow through on commitments.
The Management Council’s ultimate goal is to implement a structure that allows community voices to remain central to all decisions, driving mutual benefit across partnering community organizations and the University of Minnesota.
Workshops
Our community-engaged research workshops further demonstrate our commitment to building healthy, sustainable partnerships. Each workshop is co-facilitated by an academic and a community partner who engage in trust building and shared decision making throughout the planning process.
During the planning phase, partners participate in resource sharing, inventorying their individual assets. This combination of institutional subject matter expertise with the knowledge of local communities enhances the program’s impact at every level.
We prioritize a rigorous trust-building process, creating a transparent environment where partners can show up authentically. We recognize that conflict and conflict resolution are both an essential part of this growth. So rather than avoiding disagreements, facilitators are encouraged to work through tensions to reach lasting, innovative, mutually-beneficial solutions.
And while our staff provide oversight for project objectives, our primary focus is on fostering relationships rooted in mutual benefits and power sharing, where our community partner agency is validated and their expertise is treated as equally valuable as academic knowledge.
Training for community health workers
The partnership practices were essential in the design and establishment of our Community Health Workers (CHW) research workforces initiative.
Power sharing and shared decision-making were pivotal in making space for the three additional local and state partners joining our effort. We were able to work together to build a holistic practice capable of welcoming and integrating all levels of expertise, including individual CHWs from across the state who now serve as additional subject matter experts.
These CHWs and other organizational partners combined their expertise to co-create the CHWs 101: Introduction to Research course.
Our team embraced conflict resolution as a means to both balance differing perspectives as well as strengthen the course’s relevance. CHW voices were centered throughout this interactive process, and focus groups during the curriculum review practice built further trust. We reviewed course evaluations and partnership feedback through a continuous reflection process. In the end, we created more than just a course. We built an authentic, transparent, and lasting relationship.
Why these practices matter
The seven partnership practices don’t exist in isolation from one another. They function best together to guide a cohesive, integrated approach to forming long-lasting community relationships. And rather than a hierarchical, top-down academic action, research becomes a collective journey, one that validates communities as equal partners.
This focus on building healthy, long term relationships will lead to more than just general research or program development. It will transform the research landscape, creating spaces where community members and academic researchers can work together toward healthy, sustainable impacts.
By committing to these practices, and ensuring that the iterative process of reflection is a common denominator across all partnerships, our future relationships will be built to last.
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