"The history of health in Dayton": A community-academic partnership

Academic institutions have always found it a challenge to persuade communit y members to participate in academic research projects. Starting an open di alogue is usually the critical first step. To begin this dialogue with community members in Dayton, Ohio, in 1999, sta ff from Wright State University decided to organize a community forum, "The History of Health in Dayton." The forum was intended as the first project of a new research organization, the Alliance for Research in Community Heal th (ARCH), established with federal funding from the Health Resources and S ervices Administration in 1998. ARCH was created as a bridge between the De partment of Family Medicine of Wright State University School of Medicine a nd the Center for Healthy Communities, a health advocacy and service organi zation committed to health professions education. ARCH's mission is to impr ove the health of citizens of Dayton through research involving community p articipation. Through ARCH, community members help researchers define priorities, resolve ethical issues, refine procedures, and interpret results. Guidelines for p articipatory research, proposed by the National Primary Care Research Group in 1998 and adopted by the alliance, emphasize the importance of open dial ogue among researchers, subjects, academics, and community members. The initial response to the forum was enthusiastic, with a majority of comm unity residents expressing interest in attending future presentations.