TPC Journal-Vol 9- Issue 1

The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 1 7 networking, liaising). Researchers should practice cultural humility and be willing to work across the varying needs of communities with different cultures and identities. Therefore, researchers can help community partners recognize the strengths and resources already embedded in the current structure of their own communities. Finally, the experts agreed that CBPR researchers should communicate findings in ways that make skillful use of technology and are concise, clear, and appropriate so that the community may participate in the interpretation of results. Attitudes. The experts identified cultural humility, flexibility, and persistence as essential CBPR attitudes. This required that researchers share power—for example, implementing shared decision- making in their projects with their community partners. It is imperative that researchers recognize that every community has its own unique strengths. Likewise, CBPR researchers make a commitment to collaboration by sharing expertise, being accountable, and giving credit to their community partners for their contributions to knowledge production. This entails researchers valuing power sharing with their community partners, including shared decision-making in their projects, while still upholding scientific rigor. Moving beyond shared decision-making, CBPR researchers also recognize the importance of working together to find innovative ways of disseminating research results. At times, researchers will need to commit to building continued relationships and networks within the community beyond a particular project or funding phase. Activities. Finally, the findings confirm that carrying out CBPR necessitates particular experiences for counseling researchers. For instance, experts agreed that in order to foster effective partnerships, they need to practice deep listening and undertake participant observation at many different stages of their research. Other activities that experts consistently agreed were integral to the CBPR approach include frequent meetings, spending in-depth time getting to know the community, and collecting and analyzing data in collaboration with community partners. Counseling researchers commit to inviting community partners to participate throughout the research process, including organizing and planning meetings, data collection, data interpretation, findings dissemination, and even training or mentoring in research methods. All of these activities require a willingness to be educated about the community by the community members during the CBPR process. Implications for Counseling Practice and Counselor Education The CBPR competencies developed in this study serve to foster relationships between researchers and counseling practitioners in the community. Through these relationships, researchers, practitioners, and the communities they represent can work to reduce the gap between research and practice through enhanced community–researcher communication (Teachman et al., 2012; Wagstaff et al., 2018) and the translation of research outcomes into counseling practice (Wester & Borders, 2014). One aim of identifying the CPBR competencies was to provide mentoring to community partners, particularly counseling practitioners, on how to use research results to create effective community interventions. The goal is to close the gap between research and practice to improve treatment for our clients and improve communities. A common language for interprofessional collaboration. This study brought together experts from two key fields whose efforts resulted in 153 competency statements that reflect the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and activities necessary to successfully carry out CBPR research. These CBPR competencies provide researchers with a vehicle to facilitate interprofessional work toward a common vision of community well-being. For instance, all experts on the panel for the present study agreed that CBPR researchers understand that when the community puts forth a common effort and agrees on common goals, trusting relationships are established, leading to enhanced social networks and better use of