Translating Research Into Real-World Impact Through Community Dissemination and Evaluation

Recommendations

Learn About Policies That Impact the Community Before Starting Research

• Investigate the policies — local, state, federal, and institutional — that shape conditions in the community and collaborate with community partners to identify how these policies influence their lives. Understanding the effect of policies on the community helps uncover root causes beyond individual behaviors and ensures your research is relevant, actionable, and supportive of policy change.

• Reflection Question: What significant issues affect the community you are working with, and how might these issues be connected to specific policies that created, contributed to, or prolonged the problem?

  If you are unsure where to start, consider this example: 

  If you are conducting research on food insecurity within Indigenous communities, explore tribal, state, and federal policies related to land access for traditional food practices (such as hunting, fishing, and farming). Examine whether existing food assistance programs fall short in providing appropriate foods and assess how physical and economic barriers further limit access to resources in rural Indigenous communities.

Explore How Decisions Are Made at Local, Tribal, State, or Federal Levels 

• Identify and engage key decision makers and influencers by using legislative and transparency tools (e.g.GovTrack.us) 

• Reflection Question: How might involving community leaders at various levels — local, tribal, regional, state, or federal — shape the direction, credibility, and implementation of your research project?

  Consider your current project and the goals and objectives you aim to achieve. Are you focusing on certain diseases, regions, communities, age groups, cultures, or a combination of these? Have you engaged policymakers or advocacy groups at this point in your research, or developed a plan to engage at a certain point?

Develop Key Messages to Uplift Community Issues and Promote Policy Change

• Engage community members in co-creating messaging that centers and elevates community needs, concerns, and values. Collaborate to develop messages that balance scientific rigor with community relevance to strengthen support from policymakers. Work with partners to identify preferred communication formats. Invite partners to co-create materials, co-host events, and participate in co-authorship, co-presentations, and other community-led dissemination efforts.
• Collaborate with community-based organizations to co-develop and evaluate dissemination, implementation, and intervention efforts that are locally informed, appropriate, sustainable, and supportive of evidence-based policy change.

• Reflection Question: How can you tailor messages to be clear, concise, and relevant to specific communities?

  Reflect on whose voices shape your research message and whether community members are involved early and meaningfully in defining priorities, language, and framing rather than only reacting to a finished message. Consider what ”relevance” means for this community, how “clarity” would be defined from the community’s perspective, and how you will know if the message worked.

Consider a Dissemination Plan

• Develop a dissemination plan that shares findings in accessible, meaningful, relevant, and actionable ways that empower communities and stakeholders to act. Match formats to audience needs and access levels, and utilize trusted messengers as dissemination channels by selecting media formats in partnership with community members.
• Use multiple media formats to meet a range of audience preferences and align with the intended action. Consider these recommendations for the following audiences:
  • For Community Members and Advocacy Groups, consider using plain language summaries, infographics, storytelling, videos, community forums, or social media.
  • For Health Care Practitioners and Service Providers, consider using toolkits, training sessions, webinars, or short videos that highlight practical applications.
  • For Academic or Scientific Community Members, consider using published peer-reviewed journals or conference presentations.
  • For Policymakers, consider using policy briefs or one-pagers with clear implications and recommendations — including real stories, data, economic or health impact — and request specific actions.

• Reflection Question: How does tailoring your dissemination process to specific audiences influence the reach, relevance, and real-world impact of your research, including how findings are understood, trusted, and acted upon?

  Consider a previous dissemination effort. Did you consider how trust, language, culture, and past experiences with research shaped how that message was received? Was that message delivered by a trusted messenger or through already-used channels, or primarily through academic/institutional channels? Deeper reflection helps ensure dissemination is not just effective in spreading information, but also intentional in advancing trust and meaningful impact.

Create an Amplification Network

• Engage community networks, faith leaders, local business owners, media personalities, community health workers, and others with a strong community presence who can amplify your message and connect with audiences beyond traditional health or research channels. This network can shape public opinion, sway decision-makers by raising visibility for your issue, mobilize community support, and contextualize findings in meaningful ways. Build coalitions of academic institutions, nonprofits, and community leaders that blend community voices with institutional support to send a powerful message that an issue matters. This increases political pressure and legitimizes your call for change, making it harder for policymakers to ignore.

• Reflection Question: What communication and dissemination avenues are already available and accessible, and who would you need to partner with to develop new ones?

  Identify your organization’s current communication methods and channels, such as websites, social platforms, e-mail blasts and listservs, newsletters, and physical outreach, etc. Now, consider other sources of communication and media that you come across during the week and where they originate. Start tracking if any of these sources post about partners, collaborations, or community news, and seek out key contacts. 

Develop Evaluation Methods

• Establish mixed-method evaluation approaches to assess program effectiveness and impact across multiple domains, including changes in knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, practices, and relevant policy or systems outcomes. Use tools that make sense for the community, such as short surveys, conversations, group discussions, or tracking participation and outcomes as the project moves forward — not just at the end. 
• Create accessible and appropriate spaces for community partners to share feedback, reflections, and recommendations. Feedback mechanisms may include regular check-ins, facilitated discussions, community advisory meetings, or anonymous input tools. 
• Apply evaluation findings to refine strategies, improve efficiency, and prioritize approaches that demonstrate meaningful impact. Use data and community insights to identify which activities are most effective, which require adaptation, and where resources can be reallocated to maximize benefit. Don’t forget to let community partners know how their feedback was used, so they see its impact.

• Reflection Question: How can consistent evaluation and intentional iteration strengthen the quality, relevance, and impact of your research over time?

  Think about something you learned at the end of a project. Whose feedback helped shape that learning — community partners, members, or others? Were you able to use that feedback during your research? Did it affect trust or participation, and did it bring up any new challenges or ideas?

Key Terms

Scientific rigor: Scientific rigor is the strict application of the scientific method to ensure unbiased and well-controlled experimental design, methodology, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of results (NIH.gov).

Community relevance: The integration of participants’ needs, beliefs, and cultural practices into research design, combining scientific rigor with community-grounded approaches to ensure research is both valid and meaningful to the community (Parsai et al., 2011).

Community-led dissemination: A dissemination approach in which community partners or members lead decisions regarding how and where information, research findings, or project outcomes are distributed, prioritizing local voices and knowledge systems to expand reach, enhance understanding, and support relevance.

This resource was developed by CEACR, as part of a webinar supported by the NIH Common Fund. The development of this resource was funded by NIH CEAL under contract number OT2HL158287. The opinions expressed are those of CEACR and do not represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, the NIH, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.S. Government.