Chicago Community, Media & Research Partnership 
Our Mission
Haga clic aquí para leer en español.
The Chicago Community, Media & Research Partnership started in September 2019, with a mission to explore how community media outlets can effectively share health research with communities and populations experiencing health disparities in order to improve their health decision-making. Guided by a nine-member Task Force and collaboratively led by Public Narrative and the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC) at Northwestern University, the project was funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), a federal institute dedicated to connecting communities with evidence-based health research to support their health decision-making.
Our Framework
Over two years, our partnership built the capacity of a broad group of community and patient stakeholders, community media journalists, and health researchers to meaningfully connect and understand each other’s perspectives, assets, and needs. This informed the development of a framework showing how health research findings can best reach and serve under-served populations in Chicago, via community media. We're excited to now share the results of our work together: a framework for making research accessible through community media. The framework (below) provides a set of key questions to guide research partnerships through the process of sharing relevant, actionable health information in impactful ways. This approach harnesses the powerful opportunity of more directly engaging diverse communities through media they trust and use.
This framework is just one step towards making health research more accessible. Across all three stakeholder groups we heard that there’s a need for structural change within research and media. Public Narrative and ARCC are exploring ways to further this work, and we’re sharing the suggestions we heard from the task force and listening session participants with universities and funders that have the power and resources to implement necessary changes.
Click here to see the full framework with questions, and click here to read a summary of all that went into it, including examples of necessary structural support suggested by stakeholders throughout the project. Click here to access our project poster. Haga clic aquí para leer en español.
Workshop: Introduction to Community Media for Chicago Health Researchers (3/30/22)
What is community media? What are the advantages of engaging community media when disseminating health research? When and how should you engage community media? This online workshop covers the basics of community media in Chicago, and focuses on practical ways for health research institutions and community-engaged health research partnerships to utilize community media when connecting with communities and sharing findings. Designed for health researchers and engaged health research partnerships (also open to community stakeholders and communications staff at health research institutions).
Speakers include Jhmira Alexander (Executive Director, Public Narrative), Yazmin Dominguez (Coordinator, Chicago Independent Media Alliance), Jesús Del Toro (Editor-in-Chief, La Raza), Maudlyne Ihejirika (columnist/reporter, Chicago Sun-Times), and Jackie Serrato (Editor-in-Chief, South Side Weekly).
Project Leaders
The project leaders are Jen Brown, MPH, Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC); Jhmira Alexander, President and Executive Director of Public Narrative; Rebecca Johnson, PhD, Independent Researcher specializing in community engagement and partnership; and Mareva Lindo, Director of Media Engagement at Public Narrative.
Task Force
- Phyllis Rodgers, Executive Director, PEER Plus Education & Training Advocates
- Candace Henley, Executive Director, Blue Hat Foundation
- Taneka Jennings, Deputy Director, HANA Center
- Jesús Del Toro, Editor-in-Chief, La Raza
- Maudlyne Ihejirika, President of both the NABJ-Chicago Chapter & CJA
- Yazmin Dominguez, Coordinator, Chicago Independent Media Alliance
- Jackie Serrato, Editor-in-Chief, South Side Weekly
- Darius Tandon, PCORI-funded researcher at Northwestern University
- Shyam Prabhakaran, PCORI-funded researcher at University of Chicago
Partnership Updates
- October 2019 Partnership Announcement: "Announcing the Chicago Community, Media & Research Partnership"
- March 2020 Update: “When you give people involvement, you will have a better outcome”
- July 2020 Update: "As we expected, the South Side is being the hardest hit in this pandemic"
- February 2021 Event: Virtual Community Listening Session (bilingüe)
- April 2021 Event: Paid listening session for community media journalists
Partnership in the news
- "Reasons why Blacks are hit hardest by COVID-19 require prioritizing access to health care" by Maudlyne Ihejirika, Chicago Sun-Times, Apr 14, 2020
- Activist loses nephew to gun violence: ‘If you think this can’t happen to you, think again’ by Maudlyne Ihejirika, Chicago Sun-Times, Jul 20, 2021
From top left: Project partners Jhmira Alexander, Young Woon Han (HANA Center), Jesús del Toro (La Raza), Maudlyne Ihejirika, Jackie Serrato (South Side Weekly), Taneka Jennings (HANA Center), Rebecca Johnson, Jen Brown, Mareva Lindo, and Darius Tandon, 02/13/20
Click here to learn more about the PCORI Engagement Award that supported this partnership. To get involved or receive updates about this project, contact partnerships@publicnarrative.org.