Phases of “Pre-Engagement” Capacity Building: Discovery, Exploration, and Trial Alliance

Background: Academic prevention researchers who engage limited-resource communities may find that organizational or community capacity for prevention is low. Community organizations, neighborhoods, and academic partners may lack shared issue awareness, mutual interests, and interactive skills necessary for collaborative intervention. Existing capacity building models either ignore a ‘pre-engagement’ phase or acknowledge it without offering strategic detail. An exploratory or developmental phase before active engagement can be achieved through co-located work in a community setting. The construct, “ecology of practice,” provides conceptual background for examining how “shared work” introduces and prepares partners for future collaboration consistent with community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles.

Objective: This paper presents two case studies where pre-engagement capacity building involved partners who were initially unaware, disinterested, or unable to engage in preventive interventions. These cases illustrate how mutual participation in shared “ecologies of practice” enabled an exchange of cultural knowledge, skill, and language that laid the groundwork for future preventive intervention.

Methods: A trajectory of developmental work in each case occurred over 5 years. Historical timelines, interviews, and personal communications between community and academic leaders were reviewed and common themes identified. A model of “pre-capacity building” emerged.

Conclusion: Capacity-building models that detail strategies for developing equitable engagement in under-resourced settings will more effectively move best practices into vulnerable communities. Preventive interventions must be translated equitably if health disparities are to be reduced.