Conference Announcement & Call for Papers

Third Annual 2011 Community Engaged Research (CEnR) Conference:
"Communication in Community-Engaged Research"

October 27-28, 2011

Co-Sponsors

JERHRE
Hobby Center for Public Policy, University of Houston Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R)
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) or community-engaged research (CEnR) is conducted on many topics: translational medical research, community health, employment, education, displaced communities, environmental protection projects, patients seeking information and opportunities to participate in clinical trials, and many others. Some communities are defined by region, others are virtual communities of persons with a shared sense of identity and issues. Much CEnR is conducted with the aid of communication technology whether it is focused on a geographic or virtual community. Creating and maintaining effective communication about the partnership between researchers/research institutions and communities is a major challenge. Conducting CEnR ethically and effectively requires various kinds of communication among stakeholders for various purposes. For example, it involves:

• Educating investigators, communities, ethics committees, research participants and the media to prepare them to approach the CEnR project wisely.
• Communicating to researchers various important lessons learned between "silos" of CEnR which do not ordinarily read one another's literature.
• Creating networks with community services, agencies, and individuals who can serve the research population.
• Planning and organizing pilot projects (e.g., action research projects) to guide planning of the main CEnR program.
• Creating user-friendly electronic media and software to manage communication among stakeholders.

Call for Abstracts: Proposals need not be limited to the topics above, but should fit into the overall conference theme: Communication in Community-Engaged Research. Those wishing to present their work are invited to communicate as soon as possible to discuss how it may fit into the emerging workshop, and then submit an abstract or concept paper. To discuss your proposed topic, please email you inquiries to joan.sieber@sbcglobal.net or phone 510 538 5424.

The Nature of Presentations: In keeping with prior JERHRE Houston CBPR Conferences, presentations should be brief (12 – 15 minutes), informal, and lively, to engage the audience so that productive discussion, questions and integration follow. Presentations should not be read (though you may use a few key words on an index card). Use of PowerPoint slides is discouraged. Abstracts accepted for inclusion should be followed by more detailed material (brief papers, websites or published papers), which will appear on the website of the Hobby Center for Public Policy as soon as they are received. Hence background and details will be available to all who wish to have them.

For other details about location, transportation, hotel reservations, registration, etc., please email inquiries to Mike Angel at University of Houston: mangel@uh.edu.

For up-to-date information as conference plans develop, see http://www.uh.edu/hcpp/cbprc.htm.