Re-thinking recruitment for community-based research using service design methods: CLIC*: Communicating Life in Our Community/Communicando la vida en nuestra comunidad

Abstract

In summer 2011 the IU School of Medicine along with faculty from the Herron School of Art and Design embarked upon a study to learn more about the lives of Latino Adolescents and how to better engage them in research. While Communicating Life in Our Community / Communicando la vida en nuestra comunidad (CLIC) was developed to assist with research project recruitment in the Near West Side, the methods used in the study also point to a way to start a bi-directional, mutually beneficial dialogue between residents of Indianapolis and the School of Medicine. In effect, the CLIC study methods extended the scope of the project and built on its potential to extend to overall community development. Using methodology from design research, participants told the story of their daily lives with photography, video, blogs, and drawings. Through such activities, community participants in CLIC and researchers together started to develop an infrastructure for ongoing, bi-directional and mutually beneficial engagement.