Ongoing Process of Negotiation Posted on February 15, 2006 Philip A. Fisher (bio) reminds researchers that the relationship with a community needs to be carefully maintained.

Once the tribe has signed on, another element of doing this effectively is to have a collaborative process for developing materials. I think it's really a key factor to try to set up what the roles and responsibilities are ahead of time. I think it's easy for researchers, especially if they're really committed to community-based work, to come in with the idea that once it's off and running, then the process is naturally going to take off in the tribe so they are just going to be able to sit back. Or alternatively, that now they've got approval, they're just going to run with things.

I think there is an ongoing process of negotiation around ownership, that is around whose responsibility it is to take different components of the project forward and see to it that it gets done, but the more of that that can be set up ahead of time, the better because otherwise, I think people are likely to, on both sides, be waiting for things to proceed.

Another element of the participatory process that we've developed involves using a facilitator throughout the process, and that can be really helpful. Typically, the facilitator is somebody who may not be of the community but who is Native themselves and so has sensitivity to what the issues are in the community and is trusted already at the outset, and at the same time has an understanding of research so that they can help to make sure that on both sides people are understanding how things need to proceed, that the researchers don't dominate the agenda with just the materials that they have. That can be really helpful in setting up and continuing to have clarity on what are the responsibilities that people need to take on.

Presumably, if your goal is to get the tribe or the community to really take ownership in the long run, then that's something that is an ongoing process is to have that discussion or that dialogue going on in the ongoing oversight of the tribe of how is this going to move into the community and have the community end up continuing to do it because the last thing anybody wants on either side is for the intervention to last as long as the funding lasts and then to disappear. It's certainly not the goal of prevention, and presumably, the tribe doesn't want things to go away when the money goes away.

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