Summary
The Community Power and Policy Partnerships Program at the Othering & Belonging Institute, University of California, Berkeley, partners with community-based organizations so those most affected by inequities can lead transformative change. The program supports partners to facilitate participatory processes in which residents set priorities and drive solutions that strengthen community well-being and belonging.
Their Transformative Research Toolkit was developed over three years with organizers and artists affiliated with the Institute. The toolkit guides cultural workers, organizers, and community leaders to build power, shift narratives, and influence policy through transformative research - defined as research that positively changes the people directly involved, their communities, and the structures shaping their lives.
Policy & Practice Implications
- Community organizations can use the toolkit’s reflection questions to discuss harms caused by formal research. These reflections help clarify their relationship to research processes which is an essential early step in doing transformative research.
- Community workers, organizers, and community leaders can apply the toolkit’s six-phase process to plan research - from setting goals and selecting questions and methods to data collection, analysis, public action, and impact evaluation.
- Policymakers can embed epistemic equity by recognizing diverse forms of knowledge as valid evidence, requiring community governance in research, and funding relationship-building so findings translate into policy and investment shifts.
Image source: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/Transformative%20Research%20Toolkit_8_WEB.pdf
