I just cannot resist responding to this one.  I am an academic involved
in community-based research.  I am currently working on two projects
where the university did NOT receive the funds because they (I) was not
eligible to do so. I did NOT pull out of the projects, but remain as
principal and co on two separate projects with the funds being received
by my community partners.  There are people - academic and community-
finding ways to do this in an ethical and respectful way.  How will this
affect my academic career - a new academic?  I am not sure.  Regardless,
this is the work that I am passionate about, with people I care about
and who respect the way that we work together.  It is possible and the
work is being done for the right reason by some - let's start to
acknowledge that.

Fay Fletcher
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Extension
Adjunct Professor, Centre for Health Promotion Studies
4-20 University Extension Centre
8303-112 Street
Edmonton, Alberta  T6G 2T4
Phone: (780) 492-2283
-----Original Message-----
From: Social Determinants of Health [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Chrystal Ocean
Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2006 12:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SDOH] Brokering university knowledge to community agencies

Gail, I appreciate your response. Thank you very much. 

Now I'm going to speak to the list as the VOICE of COMMUNITY - read in
booming tones -, on behalf of a large number of groups with which I'm in
contact in BC. 

Among the problems from our perspective are the assumptions by many
that:

1. our knowledges and praxis require framing into jargonese because
policymakers will not heed our voices otherwise.
2. most community groups are incapable of doing their own research
without
academic assistance.
3. community groups see the need for more research.

The answer to #1 is robust activism. Assumption #2 is false. So is
assumption #3. As Theresa mentioned, people have literally been
researched
to death. We've seen far too many suicides and death by welfare in our
communities. ACTION is needed; we've had it with research.

"Really the funding is controlled not by universities or communities but
political agendas and parties." And governments fund research, which
they
assume to be the sole province of universities. 

Yes, there are programs like CIHR and CURA, but the university is
automatically given the research lead. Community groups must scramble
and
waste already limited resources to get government funding; we wind up
competing with one another for the scare dollars. Universities get
funding
all the time. With one exception, in every case that we're aware of in
which
there is supposed to be community-university collaboration - a
partnership,
in other words -, the university controls all the money. In the one
case,
the university was still the official recipient of the funding, but the
university partner handed over half the money to the community group to
manage. This is an empowerment issue and is vitally important to
marginalized groups.

"Communities do not always have the skills." Some groups within a
community
may not, but we've yet to find a community that, as a collective of
individuals, doesn't have all the skills it needs. Lack of funding is
again
the problem, not lack of skills.
 
"On the 'critical appraisal skills' for research, this is seen to be one
of
the prominent reasons that research is not used by people making
decisions."
For politicians, rather than 'reasons', I'd substitute 'excuse'. They do
not
lack the information, or the understanding of same, to make decisions;
they
a slew of staff to do the interpretation if need be. No, it's not lack
of
critical appraisal skills for them; it's lack of will. 

"This was not comment on the intellect of the community people, but
people
in general who could benefit from understanding a particular bit of
information, or research." Perhaps it's researchers who need to learn to
speak plain language.

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