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This article describes the development, implementation, evaluation framework, and initial outcomes of a unique campus-community training initiative for community-based participatory research (CBPR). The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Center for Community Health Partnerships, which functions as the institution's Clinical Translational and Science Award Community Engagement Program, leads the training initiative known as the Community Engaged Scholars Program (CES-P). The CES-P provides simultaneous training to CBPR teams, with each team consisting of at least one community partner and one academic partner. Program elements include 12 months of monthly interactive group sessions, mentorship with apprenticeship opportunities, and funding for a CBPR pilot project. A modified RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework guides the process, impact, and outcome evaluation plan. Lessons learned include challenges of group instruction with varying levels of readiness among the CBPR partners, navigating the institutional review board process with community co-investigators, and finding appropriate academic investigators to match community research interests. Future directions are recommended for this promising and unique dyadic training of academic and community partners.

Current public health priorities emphasize the elimination of health disparities, translational research, and transdisciplinary and community alliances. The Center for Community Health Partnerships is a proactive initiative to address new paradigms and priorities in health care through institutionalization of community-university partnerships. This report highlights innovative strategies and lessons learned.

An earlier investigation by academic and community co-investigators led to the development of the Partnership Readiness for Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Model, which defined major dimensions and key indicators of partnership readiness. As a next step in this process, we used qualitative methods, cognitive pretesting, and expert reviews to develop a working guide, or toolkit, based on the model for academic and community partners to assess and leverage their readiness for CBPR. The 75-page toolkit is designed as a qualitative assessment promoting equal voice and transparent, bi-directional discussions among all the partners. The toolkit is formatted to direct individual partner assessments, followed by team assessments, discussions, and action plans to optimize their goodness of fit, capacity, and operations to conduct CBPR. The toolkit has been piloted with two cohorts in the Medical University of South Carolina's (MUSC) Community Engaged Scholars (CES) Program with promising results from process and outcome evaluation data.