Deadline: 22-Apr-22
The Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network (SIREN), a national research acceleration and dissemination initiative focused on health care strategies to improve social risks and social conditions, is pleased to announce a Fall 2022 National Research Meeting focused on applying a racial equity lens to social care research and practice, with the goal of improving the health equity impacts of social care.
SIREN will hold a free, virtual National Research Meeting in September and October 2022 applying a racial equity lens to social care research.
Objectives
The objectives of this meeting are to:
- Critically examine how racism in all forms (e.g. interpersonal, institutional, systemic) impacts social care programs and social care research; and
- Identify how social care research can become a stronger tool for advancing racial health equity.
Goal: The ultimate goal is to improve social care research in order to improve the racial health equity impacts of social care practice.
The multi-part, virtual meeting will take place on Thurs Sept 15, Tues Sept 27, and Wed Oct 12, 2022, from 9am-12pm PT / 12-3pm ET.
Themes
- Where and how does racism manifest in social care programs and research? What frameworks or models can help us think about how racism, whether individual, institutional, or systemic, impacts the availability and effectiveness of social care programs and strategies? How do racial inequities related to economic opportunity and social determinants of health intersect with the implementation and effectiveness of social care programs and associated research?
- What do we know about the impacts of social care programs and interventions on racial health equity? How do social interventions affect communities experiencing racism differently than racially privileged communities? How does racism affect the experience of patients receiving social care or the experiences of communities working with health care organizations on social conditions?
- How can social care practice and research be conceptualized, designed, and implemented to better advance racial health equity? What practice and research questions related to racial health equity and social interventions have not yet been asked? How can social care practice and research advance anti-racism and racial health equity efforts? How can research teams, study methods, and measures do better and differently to achieve racial health equity?
Guiding Principles
The following principles guide our planning process:
- The work will be stronger the more it is shaped and guided by the people who are intended to benefit. They therefore seek to give particular attention and meeting space to perspectives of people with lived experience of racism and socioeconomic challenges.
- They aim to feature speakers who represent a diversity of social identities, lived experiences, perspectives, and professional roles.
- Decisions we make regarding content, speakers, process, and logistics will take as their starting point the experience of those most disadvantaged by the current systems (i.e., not just racism but also sexism, ableism, etc.).
- They must take an unflinching look at the field and ask hard questions of their selves, in particular about the ways racism shapes both social care practice and research, and the ways in which these impacts are often invisible to those with socially privileged identities (e.g. white, male, native English speaker, heterosexual, white-collar professional, etc.).
- They will hold space, not take it up. They aim to create space for these conversations without leading them, particularly given that we are a white-led organization.
Presentation Formats: They welcome proposals for both full 50-minute sessions and individual 12-minute research presentations (that we will then assign to a multi-presentation session). Full sessions can be proposed in any format that will best achieve the goals of the session, such as panel presentations, roundtables, moderated discussions, interactive workshops, etc. Full session proposals should incorporate at least 20 minutes of audience engagement activities. They encourage you to think creatively about how to engage participants and combat “Zoom fatigue.” The meeting will be conducted using the Zoom Events platform and will include the following features for audience participation: Q&A, chat, polls, and/or breakout rooms. Sessions are limited to a maximum of 3 speakers and 1 moderator. For full sessions that propose several individual presentations, the submission process will provide the opportunity to indicate whether each presenter would like to be considered for an individual presentation should the full panel not be accepted.
Meeting Audience: The immediate goals of the meeting focus on improving social care research. Therefore, the primary audience for the meeting is researchers, including from both health care and social/human services research fields. However, since research should be guided and shaped by those who are the intended beneficiaries of the strategies being studied, they encourage submissions (and participation) from people with lived experience of racism and economic challenges and/or that shed light on the experiences and perspectives of people with these lived experiences. Submitters who do not have this experience are strongly encouraged to include people with lived experience of racism and economic challenges in their proposed sessions. Likewise, they welcome submissions as well as participation from social care practitioners, payers, policymakers, funders, and advocates, both in medical and human/social services sectors, as their perspectives are also key to ensuring research is addressing relevant questions.
Selection Criteria
Submissions will be reviewed by SIREN staff and the National Research Meeting Advisors based on the following criteria:
- Responsiveness: Extent to which the submission relates to and helps advance the goals of the meeting.
- Lived Experience Focus: Extent to which the submission includes or features the perspectives of people and communities with lived experience of racism and economic challenges.
- Actionability: Extent to which the submission provides information that can be used to improve the health equity impacts of social care research.
- Innovation: Extent to which the submission provides unique information, data, or perspectives that help advance the goals of the meeting.
- Methodological Rigor (for research presentations only): Extent to which the research uses valid and appropriate research design and analysis methods.
- Engagement (for full session only): Extent to which the submission proposes a format that will actively engage participants.
For more information, visit https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/national-research-meeting