Doing community-driven research: a description of Seattle Partners for Healthy Communities

Seattle Partners, an Urban Research Center (URC) funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a partnership of community agency representatives, community activists, public health professionals, academics, and health care providers whose mission is to improve the health of urban Seattle, Washington, communities by conducting community-based participatory research. This article describes the development and characteristics of Seattle Partners. Using primarily qualitative methods, including periodic in-depth interviews, evaluators identified the components necessary for Seattle Partners to maintain a collaborative and establish a research center driven by community interests. Seattle Partners is run by an unrestricted and inclusive board that has spent 5 years developing both an operating structure and various research interventions. Operating under Community Collaboration Principles, the board identified social determinants of health as the priority area in which to work. Collaboration, "small and concrete" accomplishments, skilled individuals, and funder support directly influence the success of the center. Decision making, project selection, and board composition have all been challenges to work through. Learning how to do and sustain the work are lessons being learned as Seattle Partners matures.