Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS)

As an extension of its community-based participatory research (CBPR) capacity-building efforts, the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (Detroit URC) completed a six-year, $2.8 million study called Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS): An Innovative Tool for Assessing Long-Standing CBPR Partnerships.

Funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) as part of its “Advancing Science, Improving Lives” Strategic Plan, the MAPS project developed a clear definition of success in long-standing CBPR partnerships, a specific set of factors that contribute to it, and a practical tool for measuring those factors that others across the U.S. can use to assess and strengthen their own partnership efforts to achieve health equity.

As the driving force behind MAPS, the Detroit URC Board oversaw all aspects of the MAPS project. During the MAPS project, the Board was comprised of representatives from the University of Michigan (U-M) Schools of Public Health (SPH),  Nursing, and Social Work, and from the following organizations in Detroit:

The MAPS project received additional input and guidance from a 16-member Expert Panel (see link below for more information), consisting of an equal number of community and academic members from across the U.S. The three academic Principal Investigators for the project were as follows:

  • Barbara L. Brush, PhD, ANP-C, FAAN is the Carol J. and F. Edward Lake Professor in Population Health in the U-M School of Nursing, and former Faculty Director of the Michigan Institute of Health and Clinical Research’s Public Partners and Community-Based Organizations section. She brings years of community-engaged research and practice experience to the study team.
  • Barbara A. Israel, DrPH is a Professor in the U-M SPH Department of Health Behavior and Health Education (HBHE), Director of the Detroit URC, and a leading scholar in CBPR. Dr. Israel is also the co-editor of Methods for Community-Based Participatory Research for Health. She has extensive experience in the conceptualization and implementation of CBPR efforts, including etiologic and intervention research, partnership evaluation, dissemination, translation and capacity building.
  • Laurie Lachance, PhD, MPH is Associate Research Scientist at the U-M SPH Department of HBHE and Evaluation Director of the Center for Managing Chronic Disease at U-M SPH. Dr. Lachance has extensive experience conducting evaluations for large-scale, national public health programs and partnership initiatives that work toward increasing health equity. Her work utilizes community-based approaches and includes efforts aimed at policy, systems, and health behavior change.

Community-based co-investigators included Detroit URC Board members Angela G. Reyes, MPH, of DHDC and Zachary Rowe, BBA, Friends of Parkside. 

The MAPS team also included these researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health Department of Health Behavior & Health Education: Professor Cleopatra Caldwell, PhD., Director of the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health; Research Scientist Chris Coombe, PhD, Detroit URC; and Professor Amy Schulz, PhD., Director of the Healthy Environments Partnership (HEP). It also included Professor Shoou-Yih (Daniel) Lee, PhD., from Virginia Commonwealth University, College of Health Professions; and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Paul Chandanabhumma, PhD, from the University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine.  

MAPS was officially launched in August 2016. The project’s Federal Award Identification Number is RO1NR016123. For more information, please contact The Detroit URC at detroiturc@umich.edu or (734) 647-6029.

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