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In this manuscript we explore the use of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to build campus-community collaborations. While these collaborations may result in mutual benefit, the process may easily be derailed as a result of complications. We examine the strengths and weaknesses of the collaboration that produced the GirlPower Photovoice Project, a project that engaged middle school girls in an exploration of the factors that both improve and impede the health of their communities. Consistent with the Photovoice method, participants used photography to document their realities and then explored the resulting images in a group setting. We share the lessons learned from this collaboration from the perspective of both the academic and the community partners. In their own voices, both partners explore those factors that made the collaboration a success and those that hindered it. These include ensuring adequate time for relationship and trust development between the partners, advocating for a more fluid and organic process from the university institutional review board, and ensuring buy-in from all community agency staff-not just the executive director. In the end, we distill suggestions for others who wish to undertake a similarly risky yet significantly rewarding and important endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In considering the significance of the small-scale start-up in social service agencies and community development, the authors address how community-based participatory action research can serve as an innovation strategy in social service administration. The authors link prototyping to action research, social research and development, and evaluation. They then consider how multiple forms of evaluation as action learning can facilitate the creation and implementation of distinctive small scale start-ups, the appraisal of proof of concept, and the realization of the aims of local and intentional community development through processes of collaborative intrinsic innovation useful to address local social issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's experiences of warfare and postwar recovery are qualitatively different from those of men. However, to date, the processes whereby women recover from the gendered impacts of war have not been sufficiently explored. In order to address this gap in the literature and to inform policies and services aimed at women recovering from warfare, a qualitative investigation was conducted of the process whereby women in one rural community in northern Mozambique attained wellbeing in the wake of war. Findings indicate that factors at all levels of the socio-ecological system were significant in supporting women's attainment of postwar wellbeing. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugee women's experiences and needs are qualitatively different from those of men. However, women's experiences have long been overlooked in favor of a male-centered paradigm that governs the response to survivors of warfare. To close this gap in science and practice, a needs assessment was conducted with 31 refugee women. The findings revealed the importance of considering the impact of refugee women's sociodemographic characteristics on their experiences in resettlement and the significance of their need for basic resources. Meeting these needs may facilitate the resettlement process and ameliorate the gendered effects of resettlement on refugee women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One way in which community-based initiatives have sought to overcome challenges to resident participation in neighborhood change processes is through the implementation of neighborhood mini-grant programs. However, the mechanisms by which these grants function and any related limitations have not yet been empirically evaluated. This paper seeks to close this gap in the literature. Findings from an evaluation of one mini-grant project are reported. Overall, it was found that mini-grants were successful at generating preconditions for action in targeted neighborhoods. However, sustained resident involvement in neighborhood change activities was only engendered by a small number of mini-grant projects. Recipients of these particularly impactful grants shared similar key characteristics. Implications for practice are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place-based approaches to community change have become increasingly popular strategies for addressing significant social problems. With their intentional focus on ‘place,’ most efforts have sought to gain greater understanding into how neighborhood contexts affect people. However, while both aggregate characteristics and social dynamics of neighborhoods have been subject to scrutiny in the literature, less attention has been paid to understanding how the environmental characteristics of neighborhoods and communities as places have meaning for residents. The present study used an innovative methodology called Photovoice to obtain a greater understanding of themeanings residents ascribe to the salient characteristics of their neighborhoods and communities. As part of a place-based initiative, 29 adult and youth residents in seven distressed urban neighborhoods photographed and dialogued about the meaningful physical attributes of their community. According to participants, place characteristics provided cues about their personal histories as members of the community; communicated messages about the value and character of the community and its residents; defined social norms and behavior within the community; and provided markers that could remind residents of who they are and inspire a sense of possibility for who they could become. Implications for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the field of community psychology has given considerable attention to how research and evaluation methods should be designed to support our goals of empowerment and social justice. Yet, as a field, we have given much less attention to whether the use of our methods actually achieves or supports our empowerment agenda. With the primary purpose of beginning to establish the norm of reporting on the impacts of our methods, this paper reports on the findings from interviews of 16 youth and adults who had participated in one participatory evaluation method (Photovoice). Two specific questions were examined: (1) What is the impact of participating in a Photovoice effort; and (2) How does the method of Photovoice foster these impacts? Overall, participants noted that they were significantly affected by their experiences as photographers and through their dialogue with neighbors during Photovoice group sessions. Impacts ranged from an increased sense of control over their own lives to the emergence of the kinds of awareness, relationships, and efficacy supportive of participants becoming community change agents. According to participants, Photovoice fostered these changes by (a) empowering them as experts on their lives and community, (b) fostering deep reflection, and (c) creating a context safe for exploring diverse perspectives. The implications of these findings for the science and practice of community psychology are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many recent efforts in the field of community psychology have been dedicated to moving from values to action in incorporating diversity into our work. An essential aspect of this goal is designing research that provides opportunities for underrepresented perspectives to be heard. The of refugee women, in particular are not typically incorporated in research, planning for service provision, and policy design. This article explores methodological challenges involved in conducting research with refugee women who are marginalized both within broader U.S. contexts and within their own communities. Six guiding principles are presented: 1) develop strategies for involving marginalized refugee women; 2) consider the advantages and limitations of quantitative and qualitative methodologies and be innovative about combining them; 3) prepare for extensive time and effort for quantitative measure construction; 4) consider gendered decision-making structures in the lives of refugee women and their potential impact on the research process; 5) plan for refugee women common triple burden of working outside of the home, managing their households, and adjusting to life in a new country; and 6) attend to refugee women's cultural norms about and unfamiliarity with the interview process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]