Community-Engaged Research from Principles to Practice 1: Cultivating Community Engagement and Communication - Oct. 6, 2026

Research partnerships with communities are most impactful when they are built on a genuine foundation of engagement. However, community engagement can mean different things to different researchers, and that gap between intention and practice is where partnerships can break down. 

Join us for Session 1 of Community-Engaged Research from Principles to Practice, a six-session virtual series that explores practical, evidence-based approaches to building effective research partnerships with communities. This session builds understanding of what meaningful community and collaborator engagement looks like in practice.  

This session can be completed as a standalone workshop, though we encourage participants to complete the full series for a comprehensive foundation in community-engaged research in order to receive the Certificate of Series Completion. 

Developed by the Institute for Translational Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch and adapted by CRIS for the Canadian context and for researchers across all disciplines, each session combines interactive presentations, case studies from U of T researcher-community partnerships, and facilitated peer discussions. 

Moderator:
Dr. Barbara Fallon, Associate Vice-President, Research, VPRI; Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work 

Presenters:
Claire Hallmark, Program Director, Community Outcomes & Evaluation, Institute for Translational Sciences, The University of Texas Medical Branch

Dr. Sharon Croisant, Professor Emeritus, School of Public and Population Health, University of Texas Medical Branch

Dr. Lance Hallberg, Program Director Environmental & Public Health Education and Engagement, University of Texas Medical Branch

U of T Guest Case Study Presenters: 
Dr. Sarah Haines, Assistant Professor, Civil & Mineral Engineering

Dr. Nicholas Spence, Associate Professor, Health and Society

By the end of this session participants will be able to:  

• Articulate principles of community and collaborator engagement, including the spectrum of involvement from public outreach to community-led research  
• Demonstrate how to engage communities & other partners in research  
• Recognize the benefits and challenges of community and collaborator engagement, including common barriers to building and sustaining partnerships  
• Develop and implement a communication plan for collaborating with community partners and those impacted by the research  

Intended audience:   

This series is open to the University of Toronto and TAHSN faculty interested in building their community-engaged research competencies and their research teams. We welcome and encourage researchers to invite community partners to participate. Members or collaborators of the same team or project should register individually. 

Resources from the session:

Recording

Slides

Principles of Community Engagement, Third Edition 

Hallmark CC, Bohn K, Hallberg L and Croisant SA (2023) Addressing institutional and community barriers to development and implementation of community-engaged research through competency-based academic and community training. Front. Public Health 10:1070475. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1070475