Community-Based Participatory Research: A Partnership Approach for Public Health (Self Paced-No CE)

PLEASE NOTE: No CE or certificate are available in this free version of the course.

If you are seeking CE or a certificate of completion, you will need to enroll in the paid CE version: https://www.mitrainingcenter.org/courses/cbprs0625ce

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, organization representatives, and academic researchers in all aspects of the research process.

This course was originally released in 2009. Given its success as a foundational course, updates were made in 2017 and again in 2025 for this new, web-based version.

Note on Accessibility: This training includes closed captions, ASL interpretation, a written transcript, and a copy of the slides.

Estimated time for course completion is 8.5 hours

Audience

Academic researchers from multiple fields, including public health, education, nursing, medicine, social work, urban planning; health and human service practitioners; and members of community-based organizations

Learning Objectives

• List the rationale, definition, and core principles of CBPR
• Recognize how the concepts of anti-racism and equity are central to CBPR
• Describe strategies for forming, maintaining, sustaining, and evaluating CBPR partnerships
• Discuss qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and interpretation
• Explain the development process of a mixed methods study using a CBPR approach
• Explain methods of dissemination and translation of research findings
• Identify benefits, challenges, and recommendations for using CBPR for research and social change

Primary Instructors

Barbara A. Israel, DrPH, MPH

Previously a Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the School of Public Health, University of Michigan and former Director of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (Detroit URC)

Chris M. Coombe, PhD, MPH

Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Equity at the University of Michigan School of Public Health

Robert J. McGranaghan, MPH

Founding Director of the “Community-Campus Partnership (CCP)” for the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Sponsors

This course was updated in 2025 by and is maintained by:

The Region V Public Health Training Center is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB6HP31684 Public Health Training Centers ($970,593). The Detroit Urban Research Center’s work on these updates was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences  (award #9R25ES031549-05). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by Region V PHTC, HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

Updates made in 2017-2018 were supported by the Michigan Public Health Training Center and Detroit URC. The Michigan Public Health Training Center is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB6HP27881 Region V Public Health Training Collaborative. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government. 

The Detroit Urban Research Center’s work on these updates was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award #1R25GM111837-01. Related materials do not necessarily represent views of NIH. Also supported by the University of Michigan.

Original Sponsor Statement:

Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center -- Michigan Public Health Training Center (MPHTC), University of Michigan School of Public Health -- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars® Program at the University of Michigan -- Yale University Medical Schools -- Community-Based Public Health, Office of Public Health Practice, University of Michigan School of Public Health.

The MPHTC is funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Individual authors are responsible for this content and do not necessarily represent the official views of HRSA. Funding from the MPHTC has made production of this training possible.

Technical Information

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Contact us at rvphtc@umich.edu with questions.