Strategies to co-create participatory dissemination

Abstract

Traditional dissemination has shown gaps in successfully reaching communities that are most affected by the research. These gaps lead to limited reach, accessibility, utilization, and influence of findings. Participatory dissemination can address these gaps by embedding core values and priorities of communities in dissemination strategies. However, guidance on how to conduct participatory dissemination is not well understood and underreported in the literature. Even less guidance is offered on how to implement participatory dissemination with communities that are marginalized, in particular. To address these gaps, the current article describes a practical framework for co-creating participatory dissemination strategies with multiple case studies to illustrate its application. The case studies explore how communities can be engaged as critical learning partners to connect community insights to data through creative methods, using art, photos, poetry, and collaborative sensemaking. Common challenges and opportunities across studies are discussed with considerations offered for the broader field to prioritize longer term investments in relationships and promote communities’ agency in shaping actionable results.