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Symposium

Behavioral and Social Sciences

Cultivating Trust in Research Partnerships With Older Adults Across the Community Engagement Continuum

Saturday, November 16, 2024
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST
Location: Room 2B

Community-engaged research is essential for identifying and supporting the needs of an aging society and ensuring effective translation of research findings. While not a new idea to the field of gerontology, engaged research models and frameworks are expanding, and researchers are seeing increased access to initiatives for building and sustaining community-engaged research programs. This symposium will feature emerging and established projects across multiple levels of the continuum of engagement, from informing, consulting, involving, collaborating, and ultimately to co-creating. Kim et al. will describe efforts to co-create programming and educational materials with and for Alaska Native caregivers, focusing on decolonizing methodologies. Halvorsen will showcase an ongoing academic-organizational partnership created to increase the research and evaluation capacity of a national nonprofit organization and its grantees. Gan will describe how diverse community members were engaged to understand and meet gaps in cognitive health promotion, resulting in the pilot of a mindful discussion program. Guest et al. will present on the formation and fruitful efforts of a resident advisory board at the University Based Retirement Community, sharing best practices for sustaining engagement. Mahmood et al. will report on a community-based participatory effort evaluating the role of built environment on mobility access across five cities in the Vancouver area. These exemplars will launch the symposium into a discussion about the utility of engaging older adults across the continuum, illustrating effective strategies for establishing trusted academic-community partnerships. We invite attendees to consider the value of this heuristic framework to plan and design fit-for-purpose community-engaged research projects.

Community Engaged Research Interest Group Sponsored Symposium

Learning Objectives:

  • summarize the continuum of engaged scholarship, from consulting, involving, collaborating, and ultimately to co-creating;
  • recognize elements of the continuum of engaged scholarship in example projects;
  • discuss challenges that commonly arise in building and sustaining university-community partnerships and collaborate to identify possible solutions.

Presentations:

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST
    Co-Creating Evidence-Based Programming and Educational Materials for Alaska Native Caregivers
  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST
    Building Research and Evaluation Capacity of Intergenerational Initiatives: Examples From the Field

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Cal Halvorsen, PhD, MSW (he/him/his) – Washington University in St. Louis

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST
    Brain Health in Community: Involving and Collaborating With Communities Yielded Unexpected Innovations

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Daniel RY Gan, PhD (he/him/his) – University of Toronto

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST
    Collaborative Research Development: Establishing a Research-Agenda at a University-Based Retirement Community

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: M. Aaron Guest, PhD, MPH, MSW (he/him/his) – Arizona State University

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST
    Older Adults With Disabilities as Coresearchers in Community-Engaged Research on Mobility and Access

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Atiya Mahmood, PhD (she/her/hers) – Simon Fraser University