54 Community Engagement and Collaboration | Introduction to key considerations for community engagement within KMb

By this point in the module you should have a good understanding of what community engagement is within the KMb process. Moreover, you should see how community-based collaboration may help to facilitate more effective and authentic uptake and integration of research knowledge by and with context experts. From all of the above sections of this module, it also should be clear that community engagement within the KMb process can be very complicated and is an ongoing process. Community engagement requires specific support and time to build relations and sustain mutual trust with everyone involved. Moreover, considerations about how and when to engage with communities/context experts should be based within continuua of engagement that will vary depending on the community in question, as well as the projects’ purpose, timeline, and desired deliverables.

In this section of the module we consider several key considerations for community engagement within KMb. It is important to note that the information within this module section is presented in a broad list of considerations, which is not exhaustive of all possible considerations. This is because KMb and community engagement considerations are best shaped and informed by community and project specific contexts and needs. One key consideration that is not fully highlighted here is data management and we recommend that you refer back to module 2 to learn more about data management and consider how those principles may apply to your community engagement work (e.g., data sharing agreements, etc.).

NOTE: As you make your way through this section of the module, you will be asked continually to reference the module worksheet.