Community Based Participatory Research and Collective Impact: Examining Early Care and Education Enrollment Systems

Following principles of action research and using an anti-oppressive approach to uplift the voices of parents with lived experiences in early care and education (ECE) enrollment systems, our study sought to identify barriers to ECE enrollment and co-create system and policy solutions with parents, ECE staff, and the research team. To do so, we integrated community-based participatory research (CBPR) and collective impact practices into the study’s design. In this paper, we examine what happens when CBPR is utilized to build, understand, and foster collective impact practices among the research team and community vis-à-vis a research topic. We draw on the original study’s methodologies and post-hoc interviews with research team members to understand how conducting the research with shared goals, shared power, and frequent communication led to outcomes that exceeded our predictions and paved the way for deeper learning on three areas where collective impact and CBPR supported the success of the other: (1) trust and relationship, (2) power dynamics, and (3) advocacy and systems change.