Strengthening Federal Programs and Practices through Community Engagement

Community engagement in research involves collaborating with community members as integral partners and valuing lived experience as essential expertise (Urban Institute, n.d.). But the federal context can introduce unique complexity to undertaking community-engaged research due to some of the characteristics of federally-funded projects, such as their scale, multisite nature, and contracting requirements. Some federal staff may feel unequipped to use such methods.     

This report summarizes results from an environmental scan of federal research and evaluation projects conducted in the past 10 years that involved community engagement. The report also describes the CAMPE project’s Community Advisory Board (CAB), whose members reviewed and commented on several OPRE documents and materials related to research processes over an 18-month period. 

• Federal community-engaged research and evaluation can range from projects informed by community members to projects driven by community members.
• In addition to informing single research and evaluation projects, community-engagement approaches can also inform the processes and procedures that broadly affect research and evaluation activities (e.g., research procedures or guidance documents).
• The CAMPE project demonstrates how community advisory boards can inform federal office or agency-wide research processes and guiding documents. 
• The CAMPE CAB generated specific recommendations for OPRE’s internal editorial Style Guide, the Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency Learning Agenda, a sample OPRE study informed consent process and form, and a sample OPRE study survey. The CAB recommendations emphasized factors such as precision, clarity, equity, respect, human-centered language and framing, and community benefit. 

Researchers from the Urban Institute reviewed federal research and evaluation projects conducted in the past 10 years that involved community engagement. The team reviewed 14 research projects in detail and interviewed 11 project teams. Researchers sought to address several questions, including the following:

• What methods of community engagement have federally-funded research and evaluation studies used?
• What are example community-engagement activities along the continuum of community-engaged research approaches used within the federal context? 
• How did projects navigate community-engaged research approaches within the federal context? 
  • What are supportive aspects within the federal research context?
  • What are challenging aspects within the federal research context?

Urban Institute researchers also recruited, onboarded, trained, and supported a 13-member CAB to review and comment on several OPRE documents and materials related to research processes. These documents and materials included OPRE’s internal editorial style guide, OPRE’s Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency Learning Agenda, a sample OPRE study informed consent process and form, and a sample OPRE study survey. OPRE selected and shared materials with CAB members and provided relevant background and information about the request. Urban facilitated CAB meetings over an 18-month period and drafted final memos and products summarizing the CAB’s recommendations. 

The goals of the CAMPE CAB were to:

• Provide OPRE staff with the opportunity to learn from CAB members’ first-hand experiences.
• Document best practices for community engagement in multiple research activities through the development and facilitation of a CAB.
• Generate input and guidance to improve the quality of specific research tools and processes, including surveys, informed consent procedures, a style guide, and a learning agenda.
• Enhance CAB members’ understanding of federal research processes.

Falkenburger, Elsa, Marla McDaniel, Mikaela Tajo, Soumita Bose, Shubhangi Kumari, Chitra Balakrishnan, Lauren Farrell (2024). Strengthening Federal Programs and Practices through Community Engagement, OPRE Report # 2024-181, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.