When community members are engaged as full partners in an assessment, this describes what?

• A. Community-based participatory research
• B. Rapid needs assessment
• C. Asset mapping
• D. The CHANGE model

Answer: (A)

Engaging community members as full partners in an assessment is a hallmark of community-based participatory research. In this approach, people affected by the health issue and researchers share decision-making from start to finish. Community members help define the problem, design data collection tools, collect and analyze data, and decide how results will be used to drive action. The goal is to produce knowledge that is directly relevant to local priorities and can lead to tangible improvements, with power and benefits shared rather than placed only on researchers.

This contrasts with more traditional or rapid assessments where outside researchers often drive the process with limited input from the community. Asset mapping focuses on identifying local resources, not necessarily on equal partnership in the entire assessment, and the CHANGE model is a framework for community health improvement that involves stakeholders but isn’t defined by full, equal partnership in the assessment process itself.