Applied Research Partnership with the Ritter Center (Service)

Working with Global Public Health students during their junior year in the Health Research Methods and senior year in Senior Capstone classes serves as proof of concept for how IIHR will engage with community partnerships. In the winter of 2022, Marin HHS and The Ritter Center approached Dr. George to develop a research study to better understand the needs of the homeless population in Marin. As Dominican University is the academic center for Marin County, collaborations like these can be mutually beneficial. This research partnership was designed to better understand the root causes of homelessness, methods of ongoing medical care obtained, and changes in services needed post-COVID among individuals experiencing homelessness in Marin.

Together as a class in the Spring of 2023, the students, the community partner and Dr. George developed answerable research questions: 

• What were the circumstances that led to homelessness?
• How are individuals maintaining health and well-being while experiencing homelessness? 
• What can community organizations like Ritter Center do to better prevent homelessness in the wake of COVID-19?

The learning objectives of the academic classes at Dominican University and the community partner’s needs allowed students to experience first hand the necessary steps of a successful research project. The alignment of projects like these take the research expertise from the professors, willingness and academic ability of the students, and the needs of a community partner. Examples of these aligned goals include: 

• Development of appropriate measurement tools to assess the research questions
• IRB approval for human subjects research
• Training student researchers to connect and gain the trust of the target population
• Engaged with the community over several months to become a trusted face in the community
• Collection of primary research data
• Proper techniques to analyze the data to answer the original research questions
• Scientific writing to communicate with the broader community

Projects like these help community organizations obtain project goals, help students interact with their community professionally as a public health researcher, and align with faculty scholarship goals.

The perpetual feedback loop with the community and the classroom has proved successful.