Methodological reflections on research with racialized communities and stigmatized topics: Towards a model of transformative engagement

Abstract

Through our participation as the Calgary site for the Strength in Unity (SIU) project, a pan-Canadian randomized controlled trial, our team anticipated learning much about the seldom researched area of racialized men’s experiences with mental health stigma and their responses to novel interventions. Distinct from the study’s formal objectives and research queries, we encountered significant recruitment challenges, which engendered unanticipated but welcomed learnings concerning culturally sensitive recruitment practices. To help build the capacity of researchers to meaningfully and respectfully engage ethnoculturally diverse populations, this article discusses five major approaches to participant recruitment and engagement used by the Calgary-based SIU team, as well as the strengths and limitations of each identified approach. In this critical commentary we examine conventional recruitment processes employed in Calgary during early stages of the broader SIU study, thereby illuminating unanticipated barriers to the success of these accepted recruitment practices, as well as report lessons learned that may benefit projects endeavoring to use community-based recruitment strategies to engage participants from diverse cultural groups, particularly for projects considering matters stigmatizing (real or potential) to the community or communities of interest. From our serendipitous learnings we proffer the terminology, “transformative engagement” to characterize a novel process for social work researchers (and/or allied health professionals) to engage with communities and peoples in meaningful, respectful, lasting, and transformative processes, that move beyond traditional and even culturally-sensitive research recruitment practices.