Community-Engaged Research Modules
Participatory Research with People Impacted by Incarceration
Learn practical steps – guided by formerly incarcerated people themselves – on how to cultivate research with, by, and for those impacted by incarceration.
In order to design truly impactful, community-responsive interventions to address the health disparities among people impacted by incarceration, research and practice interventions must be developed and implemented in authentic partnership with those most impacted. The process of community engagement allows knowledge production to occur in partnership with communities directly impacted by the work, while also aiming to reflect community voices, expertise, needs, and assets in the research being conducted.
This training, developed with a Community Research Council of formerly incarcerated people, includes:
An overview of lessons learned, unique benefits, and systemic challenges of community-engaged research with people impacted by incarceration.
Real-world examples like budget justifications, meeting agendas, and recruitment materials.
Reflection questions for researchers to consider with their own work.
Reflections from formerly incarcerated people who have participated in Community Research Councils.
Check out all of our resources:
● Training in PDF form
● One page graphic overview of a community engaged research project
● Spectrum of community engagement
● Reflections from Community Research Council members
Community-engaged research is a process and set of values, not a specific set of methods or a checklist. There is a spectrum of community-engaged research, and engagement approaches and activities depend on many factors including project timeline, funding, institutional barriers.
Who this training is for?
This is a guide for people who want to integrate participatory research into their existing work with populations impacted by incarceration. This is not a guide for people who have never worked with currently or formerly incarcerated people, thus, it will not go into detail providing background information about this population and about the U.S. legal system. While this guide is specifically focused on work involving people impacted by incarceration, lessons learned can be broadly applicable to other community-engaged, health equity-focused research.
How this training can be used?
● Asynchronous learning
● Team or group learning sessions
● The training software tracks progress, so you can track your progress throughout the training
About the authors
This guide was developed by a team at the University of Minnesota who has been engaging with directly impacted community members in our work at the intersection of public health and legal system involvement for well over a decade. It was developed and written in collaboration with a Community Research Council composed of nine formerly incarcerated people who gave birth or were postpartum while incarcerated who are located across the U.S., many of whom are also involved with advocacy work and work directly supporting pregnant incarcerated people.