What is Community-Based Participatory Research? (CBR/CBPR) is a research approach developed out of the recognition that traditional social research has failed to reflect or appreciate the needs and interests of communities and community members. For members of marginalized or stigmatized groups, this failure has been most extreme, leaving them with a sense of being ‘the objects of study’ rather than being recognized as collaborators in the research processⁱ. Uniquely, CBR/CBPR is an approach that strives to recognize the strengths of the community as the core of any research endeavour and promotes the equitable involvement of all partners in the research process including academic researchers, community agencies and community members. Those who use CBR/CBPR seek to make their research more action-oriented and relevant to the community with which they work. 

What is Arts-Informed Research?Arts-informed research uses various art forms to generate knowledge, whether by collecting data, analyzing data, or disseminating research results. Out of the eight studies in this Collaborative, six employed a variety of arts-informed research methodologies. All our respective arts-informed studies provided study participants who had experiences of homelessness with the opportunity to use art to capture and express their daily experiences and challenges as they related to health, poverty, social exclusion and other day-to-day struggles, as well as to their hopes, vision and resiliency. Homeless citizens have found that being part of arts-informed research has afforded them a space to think critically about problems and solutions from their communities' perspectives, and to work toward social changeⁱⁱ. Further, the arts used in these research projects help to elaborate, contextualize and expand upon what has escaped broader social attention: namely the strengths of people who are homeless. Although the six arts-informed projects in this Collaborative employed different arts-based research methods and worked with people with different identities and experiences of homelessness, they came to many of the same conclusions. A consensus was reached across all eight projects on the recommendations about what needs to be done to address homelessness.

i) Flicker, S. & Savan, S. (2006). A snapshot of CBR in Canada. Toronto: Wellesley Institute; Israel, B. A., Schulz, A. J., Parker, E. A. & Becker, A. B. (1998). Review of community-based research: Assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual Review of Public Health, 19, 173-201; Minkler, M. & Wallerstein, N. (2004). Community-based participatory research for health. New York: Jossey-Bass.

ii) Halifax N. V. D., Yurichuk, F., Meeks, J., Khandor, E. (2008). Photovoice in a Toronto community partnership: Exploring the social determinants of health with homeless people. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action, 2(2), 129-136; Sakamoto, I., Ricciardi, J., Pyler, J. & Wood, N. (2007). Coming together: Homeless women, housing and social support. Toronto: Centre for Applied Social Research, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.