It is the Center's vision to lead innovative, community-connected urban research and education and community engagement is the cornerstone to achieving this. The Center realizes that in order to move research to policy and practice it is essential for both community and academia to partner in the planning, implementation and evaluation phases of research. The Center also seeks to identify ways to remove barriers to research use and promote interaction among producers and users of research.
To this end, on November 2, 2009, a developing network of community-engaged health research academic institutions in the Milwaukee area; along with a community partner and the Milwaukee Health Department, jointly co-sponsored a community health research forum: Making Connections to Make a Difference. The organizations co-sponsored the event through participation in the forum planning process, identifying and inviting presenters, contributing to covering forum expenses, and working on the day of the event to assure its success.
The planning partners included:
- Center for Urban Population Health
- City of Milwaukee Health Department
- Medical College of Wisconsin
- UW-Milwaukee
- Center for Urban Initiatives and Research
- Helen Bader School of Social Welfare
- The University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UW ICTR):
- Community Health Connections
- Collaborative Center for Health Equity
- Walnut Way Conservation Corp
Key Forum Objectives
- To provide an opportunity to highlight a wide variety of research and other health initiatives and partnerships underway in Milwaukee,
- To present community-academic partnerships in various stages of development, and opportunities to focus on practical topics in developing community-academic partnerships,
- To utilize the forum as a starting point for strengthening the co-sponsors' collaborative efforts to help build and support community-academic partnerships and community-engaged research in Milwaukee.
Using both plenary sessions as well as a "World Café" approach, the day was intended to provide an informal, creative environment for sparking conversations about research, and for exploring opportunities for possible future collaborative research partnerships. The forum showcased 10 translational and/or community-based research projects (3 projects highlighted in the plenary, 7 projects highlighted in conversation cafés).
Approximately 100 people attended the forum, representing a diverse range of stakeholders, including community groups, academic institutions, healthcare systems, city government, and local funders.
