Key Points: Minority communities (e.g., racial/ethnic groups, low-income communities, sexual minorities) are disproportionately affected by the health harms resulting from tobacco use. Many minority communities have adult smoking prevalence rates that are higher than the national average.

There is increased interest in understanding and addressing tobacco use among minority communities. However, conventional research undertaken in these communities has often been controversial and has not always resulted in findings that benefit communities or reflect their experience. Community-based participatory research (CBPR), a collaborative process involving community members and researchers, seeks to overcome the limitations of conventional research strategies by engaging communities as equal partners in the research, using local knowledge and strengths in understanding the problem and developing solutions, and investing the community in both the process and the products of the research.

Increasingly, CBPR is being used in public health research, including tobacco control. This panel will review examples and lessons learned from Clearway MinnesotaSM-funded CBPR projects. The presenters (from Indigenous People's Task Force and the University of Minnesota) will provide an overview of their CBPR research projects, discuss the processes used to partner with communities, summarize key findings, and share lessons learned from undertaking this process.

Learning Objectives: Describe CBPR and discuss opportunities and challenges to this research method.

Benefits: The information presented will provide the audience with a perspective on using CBPR to help both communities and researchers address the health harms resulting from tobacco use.