Community Dialogues for Action

Over Darlyne Bailey’s 3+ decades of research experience in communities both large and small, she has constructed a form of participatory research called Community Dialogues for Action (CDAs). The SJI is committed to using this form of research to effectively engage community-based experts as “co- inquirers” in designing and conducting the research to determine how to address the structural inequities that directly affect them. CDAs begin by  putting together a research team of of community members and other stakeholders. Team members work together to identify research questions and begin to explore the answers through gathering data and studying to understand the data, to generate recommendations and disseminate their findings. CDAs elicit the thinking and amplify the voices of those who are usually left out of the policymaking conversations that directly impact them, a process critical for equitable and sustainable systems change.