TCRC Research Projects
As part of its mission to facilitate collaboration between university and community partners, TCRC annually provides seed funding to proposals that both ask a research question of interest to the community partner and report results back to the community.
What is Community Participatory Research?
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach to research in which community partners are involved in all aspects of the study, including deciding on what research to do, being listed as investigators, being in the budget on grant proposals, serving on the study team during the research, and helping to disseminate findings-including serving as co-authors on publications. CBPR is one form of community engaged research (CEnR) that we frequently support; some other forms of research that involve less intensive work by the community partner will also be considered for TCRC funding.
Featured Projects
Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH)
The largest and most impactful study funded by the TCRC to date has resulted in valuable scholarship and vital community interventions.
Social Connectedness and Community Climate Resiliency
TCRC awarded a 2021-2022 seed grant to study how social connectedness, or the complex web of inter-relationships between residents in a community, can serve as a resiliency factor when extreme weather events occur, such as flooding and urban heat islands. Co-led by Rev. Vernon K. Walker (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather/CREW), Justin Hollander (Tufts UEP), James Intriligator (Tufts Engineering), and Josh Ellsworth (Tufts Friedman School), the research used surveys, interviews, and "social listening" (mapping social media use) to measure levels of social connectedness. These tools can help communities gauge and strengthen connections between residents and community hubs, and create usable channels for information sharing, better preparedness, and faster recovery in the face of climate related disasters.
Related Articles:
- Read "A democratic university–community administrative body dedicated to expanding community-engaged research: The Tufts Community Research Center (TCRC)"
- Read more in Tufts Now, "Who Has your Back in a Weather Emergency?"
- Listen to James Intriligator on the Boston Neighborhood Network
- Editorial in the Bay State Banner, "Social ties critical to surviving disasters"
- Read the study on UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR's Prevention Web)
- Read The Guardian's study on the impact of mutual aid and climate disaster recovery featuring Rev. Vernon Walker
Other research projects:
- Past microgrant projects
- Assessing and Prevention Obesity among New Immigrants
- Motivating Action to Address Climate Change by the Residential Sector at the Community Level
- Nuestro Futuro Saludable: The Jamaica Plain Partnership for Healthy Caribbean Latino Youth
- Immigrant Youth: Health and Resilience
- Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK)
- Cultivate Your Food Economy: Community Tools and Data for Building a New Food Economy
- Measuring Phosphorus Loads in Alewife Brook
- Mitigating the Stress Effects of Racism on Health through Youth Empowerment
- Increasing Utilization of Preventive Care in Asian American Women in Massachusetts