April 25, 2025

From historical instances of misleading and deceptive practices occurring in many studies to ethical shortcomings, it is evident that a shift in the approach of research institutions is essential.

On April 3, 2025, the Promise Zone Research Connection (PZRC) hosted its inaugural West Philly Research Day to help address these concerns and create an environment that fosters trust and collaboration amongst research institutions and community members based in West Philadelphia. The event aimed to connect research institutions, local organizations and community members to engage in meaningful conversations to promote mutually beneficial outcomes of research for community residents.

Promise Zones were a federal designation by the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration that aimed to address the challenges faced by people living in deep and persistent poverty by creating connections to federal funding sources and resources. The West Philadelphia Promise Zone (WPPZ) encompasses Drexel and neighboring communities, including Mantua, University City and Powelton Village, as well as parts or all of seven other West Philadelphia neighborhoods.

The PZRC is a community-led committee of the WPPZ that was founded in 2015 in response to the dramatic increase of research as a result of the Promise Zone designation. Their mission is to promote research standards that recognize and support the broader interests of the WPPZ communities and to improve the quality of research by advancing best practices in community-engaged research. The PZRC created a Community Research Review Board in 2022 to provide valuable community feedback to researchers aiming to conduct research in their communities and became a nonprofit organization in 2023.

“The Promise Zone Research Connection is here to ensure collaboration between research institutions and our community-based organizations so that we can help yield research results that benefit the residents of West Philadelphia,” said Caleila Burrell, project coordinator of The Promise Zone Research Connection.

As an institutional ally, she emphasized several of the organization’s landmark achievements including the creation of its Community Research Review Board, its study of Philadelphia’s Institutional Review Boards’ practices related to community-engaged research, and the group’s receipt of an organizational development catalyst award from the Barra Foundation to enhance its capacity-building and sustainability.

“The Promise Zone Research Connection and its Community Research Review Board are powerful examples of what can happen when communities, researchers and their supporting institutions work together toward a common goal. It is essential that we continue to strengthen these partnerships, ensuring that research remains a tool for empowerment here in the Promise Zone, and hopefully, this model can be a transformative example for others who are doing this work,” said Rusgo.

The keynote address, presented by Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH, associate professor and chair, Department of Community Health and Preventions, Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, focused on the importance of community ethics in research.

“Researchers often struggle to recruit people in their studies who come from vulnerable or hard-to-reach populations. These populations have experienced very real trauma and mistrust of research and governmental institutions because of historical medical abuses. This means that these populations are not well represented in research and are not experiencing the benefits of the programs and services that result from research,” said Carroll-Scott.

She emphasized the importance of considering community-level ethical concerns, employing community-engaged research principles and including residents in the research process, from planning, outreach and recruitment through dissemination.

“You can teach community residents research methods. But you can’t teach scientists how to live in a community for decades. That community expertise and lived experience is invaluable for building trust and co-creation for research that is both more efficient and more ethical.”

The second hour of the workshop continued with a dynamic panel on conducting research in West Philadelphia through the lens of community and research partners. The panel featured speakers including Rita Nelson, resident, PZRC board member and secretary; Christina Brown, resident and surveyor, Drexel University; Hyden Terrell, PZRC board member and lead facilitator of the Community Research Review Board; and Hilena Addis, project manager, University of Pennsylvania, IGNITE study on Concentrated Investments in Black Neighborhoods.

The group underscored the importance of research institutions communicating with community members about the purpose and intent behind conducting research in their community. Panelists emphasized that clarity is essential to establishing respectful and meaningful relationships with the community.

“I think it is extremely important for researchers to be transparent because again, you’re asking the community to answer questions using their personal data. Where is this data going? Are you using the data to improve our community, or are you using it for a study? What is the purpose of all of this? We like the feedback [from researchers]. We want feedback,” noted Terrell.

Nelson echoed these sentiments, prompting the need for active engagement and collaboration from research institutions—also noting that community members may be able to assist with research efforts. “We need researchers involving residents from the very beginning to explain what they are trying to accomplish, because the community could potentially help researchers, and the researchers could help the community.”

The panelists also described the benefits of researchers working with a local organization like a Community Research Review Board that can help them to navigate unique community contexts and ensure their research is as ethical and successful as possible.

After the panel, audience Q&A and discussion started to pave the way for potential collaboration, as audience members both asked the panelists more questions and shared their personal or professional reasons for coming to WPRD and wanting to connect with researchers/community-based organizations. For the last hour of the event, the standing-room-only crowd of researchers and community leaders were given time to network and discuss collaboration ideas and opportunities. Although many cards and contact information were exchanged, the PZRC will follow up with registered participants and will share the list of attendees for further networking. Anyone interested in connecting, please contact Caleila Burrell at info@pzrc.org.

Event sponsors included The Barra Foundation, Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, and Drexel University’s Office of University and Community Partnerships.

By Myleah Herbert, marketing '25