Strategies for Community Engagement with Autistic Adults and Caregivers in Early Childhood Autism Research
This tool describes strategies for conducting community-engaged research with autistic people and caregivers in inclusive, satisfying ways.
Researchers need to work with community members to develop therapies and supports that meet community needs and priorities. This tool describes why community-engaged research is necessary, information about ways to improve equity in autism research, and strategies for engaging with community partners through all stages of the process.
There is no “one size fits all” approach to community engagement. Your specific strategies will vary based on many factors such as your prior engagement with the community, your experience with community engagement, your stage in the research process, available resources, and more. We hope this tool provides sufficient information to allow you to creatively individualize your approach for your unique situation.
Furthermore, community engagement is a developing methodology used across disciplines, and composed of many diverse frameworks and approaches. This tool is one of many resources available to support this type of work. We highly recommend you consult multiple resources, such as those included as additional resources in our tool, to learn more about this methodology.
This tool was created by Jordan Lee, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Kristen Bottema-Beutel, Sam Brandsen, Jenny Mai Phan, Murielle Standley, and Megan Y. Roberts, with additional contributions from the project advisory board.
Development of this tool was funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI®) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award (EA-CB-26927). The views presented in this tool are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute® (PCORI®), its Board of Governors or Methodology Committee.
© Megan Y. Roberts, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Jordan Lee
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Users must give credit to the creators, and may copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form and for noncommercial purposes only.