Planning for Dissemination for Participatory Community-Engaged Research: A Dissemination Curriculum and Planning Protocol

Proactive, action-oriented dissemination planning is still too rare for community-engaged research teams. To fill this gap, a national program for community-engaged research teams addressing health inequities developed a training to support dissemination planning. Our objectives in this paper are to 1) describe the curricular components that support research teams’ dissemination planning processes; 2) share a template that can be used and adapted by other community-engaged, action-oriented research teams for proactive dissemination planning; 3) describe the high-level dissemination planning themes (i.e., goals, audiences) and initial strategies of 15 research teams that went through the training and dissemination planning process. A dissemination planning curriculum was developed and implemented over the first year of the research program. The curriculum consisted of an interactive webinar, didactic self-paced video modules, and two, two-hour workshops, alongside a dissemination planning template that all research teams completed. Reflection on the curriculum evolution and a systematic analysis of a set of 15 teams’ submitted dissemination plans generated themes applicable to future community-based researchers’ dissemination processes. Advancing health equity through the generation of community-engaged research requires a systematic and proactive approach to dissemination of research results to audiences to advance action goals. Elements of this curriculum and/or the planning protocol can be used by other community-engaged research teams.