Learning Center

At ReCODE | health, we strive to increase research literacy and capacity among researchers and community members through our educational initiatives including courses, webinars, and publications.

About BRIC

BRIC was initiated in 2002 with funding from the National Institutes of Health. Our goal was to educate community members, including Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Promotores, who were assisting academic researchers. CHWs and Promotores were involved as members of the research team to assist with Latino health research studies, yet had no formal research training. Without appropriate training, researchers were concerned about the scientific integrity of their community based/placed research. An initial goal of BRIC was to develop culturally-tailored, language-appropriate, formal research education that included an introduction to the scientific method and the importance of conducting research ethically and responsibly.

The BRIC course entitled “An Interactive Guide for Promotores/Community Health Workers was first released in 2005 and updated in 2017 and is available in both Spanish and English. The course can be reviewed as self-paced training or used in group training to help research staff learn about their roles and responsibilities across the lifespan of a particular research study. This BRIC training can be used to satisfy NIH requirements for human research education.

Recognizing that researchers also needed to be trained to design and carry out research involving Latino and other underrepresented populations, our team partnered with the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute to develop Designing Research for Diversity. Designing Research for Diversity applies the principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice across the lifespan of a research project. The course is designed to acquaint researchers with how to include underrepresented and vulnerable populations in behavioral and biomedical research. We have incorporated use cases that depict authentic challenges that arise in community-based research as well as when recruiting under-represented populations into clinic-based research. Recorded interviews with experts in community-based research and service projects are used to expand awareness about how to build partnerships and avoid common mistakes. This course is available for self-paced learning and delivery in a classroom setting through CREST.

Our Courses

An Interactive Guide for Promotores de Salud/Community Health Workers 

This course is designed to increase research literacy and awareness of ethical research practices among community members involved in academic research. Our target learners are research team members, including Promotores and Community Health Workers, who assist with designing and implementing community and clinic-based health research.

Why do Promotores/CHWs need BRIC training? 

Promotores/CHWs are essential members of the research team and, as such, should have access to effective and relevant training. Most research ethics education is designed for academics who have extensive training in research design and methods. We designed BRIC to build research capacity among individuals with little formal academic research training yet involved with the design, implementation, and reporting of community health research. If Promotores/CHWs have an understanding of how research is designed and implemented, they will be better able to carry out their responsibilities when supporting a research study.

Designing Research for Diversity

This course is designed to increase awareness about engaging, recruiting, and working with diverse populations in research.

Why do academic trainees need to learn how to design research to include diverse communities?

The inclusion of diverse communities in research studies is critically important to informing healthcare policies and practices. Researchers who plan to involve diverse populations in research will benefit from learning how to plan and conduct respectful and responsible research through respectful and authentic partnerships.