“We just want to tell the story”: A mixed methods exploration of partners’ motivations to join and stay engaged in community- research partnerships

Community engagement and partnerships are at the core of public health. To address long-standing disparities, there is an urgent need to partner with community members and community-based organizations to co-create health interventions and programs. Community-academic partnerships (CAPs)—one model for community partnerships—can increase the capacity and implementation of evidence-based and culturally responsive public health practices. While effective, there is a need to address gaps in understanding perceived motivations and gains among and between partners, particularly in the context of engaging marginalized communities. This mixed methods project explored motivations to join and continue to engage in a CAP designed to advance health equity in Flint, Michigan. Using a survey and qualitative interview, twenty-five community and academic partner representatives were invited to participate. Motivating factors were categorized as individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community level contexts. Overall, findings demonstrate how motivational factors are interactive and multi-dimensional with varied contexts, emphasizing intrinsic drives in individual contexts, social support and external organizational resources through interpersonal and organizational contexts, and demonstration of concrete outcomes in community contexts. Findings from the study can be used to improve design of community partnerships that seek to advance health equity by attending to key factors that drive motivations to engage with marginalized communities.