Dear Rosemary,
Thanks for your question! It is great that you are creating a guide with a university partner about engaging in research with newcomer communities. When considering requests to engage in research with newcomer communities, it would be important to ensure that the interests and needs of newcomers are central to the research agenda of prospective researchers. Ideally, having members of the newcomer communities themselves plus service providers from your agency at the table during these discussions about research partnerships would help ensure that the needs and interests of those directly affected by the research are central to how the study is designed and conducted. In terms of an agenda for such meetings, it can be helpful to pose a number of questions to the students and researchers interested in pursuing these partnerships to ensure that the research projects are in alignment with the needs of the affected newcomer communities. Here are some questions you could use to engage prospective researchers in a discussion about the purpose, benefits, and relevance of the research partnerships that students and researchers are seeking with your agency:
- What inspired you to engage in research with this specific community?
- What is the purpose of this research project? Why is this project necessary?
- What do you expect will be the benefits of this research for members of this specific community?
- How have you engaged in relationship building with any members of the community already?
- How will members of the community be engaged in the research process, if at all? If you do not anticipate involving community members in the research process, please explain the rationale and benefits of doing so.
- How will the research findings be shared with members of the community?
Hopefully you will find that asking prospective researchers a series of questions such as those listed above will help foster meaningful and honest dialogue about the relevance and utility of the proposed projects to your agency and the newcomer communities you serve.
If you are interested in outside researchers offering to help your organization evaluate any of its services, this page of the Community Toolbox may be helpful: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/evaluate/evaluation/choose-evaluators/main. A more generally helpful resource on participation in research can be found here [including the link on Questions to Ask]: https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-and-outreach/about-research-participation/index.html
We hope this answers your question, but please feel free to follow up if you have any more questions!