Recruiting Under-Represented Racialized Young Adults to the Stem Cell Registry: How We Applied a Community-Engaged Research Approach and Lessons Learned

Over the past two decades health researchers have increasingly applied principles from community-based or community-engaged research to address health disparities and improve healthcare access and outcomes for under-served communities. Many countries rely on a hematopoietic stem cell registry to help match unrelated donors to patients. Research indicates that people who are racialized wait longer for a match than those of White/European ancestry. As such, many countries, including Canada, make efforts to raise awareness of stem cell donation and recruit under-represented racialized young adults to the registry. This paper describes our efforts to apply community-engaged research principles to a qualitative stem cell recruitment project in Canada and lessons learned. We contribute to methodological scholarship that provides in-depth description of the methods used and steps taken in community-engaged research to offer transparency and detail that enables critical engagement. We offer suggestions to improve co-learning, equitable power-sharing, and building relationships over time.