WINRS created its Community Advisors on Research Design and Strategies (CARDS) program in 2010 with a vision of bringing unheard voices into research. Seven years later, the CARDS are still going strong, meeting twice every month with researchers from UW–Madison and other institutions. How have we managed to sustain this unique program of lay advisors from under-represented communities? What do researchers say about the program? Does CARDS feedback actually make research materials more clear and inviting to prospective participants? A pair of papers in the February issue of Research in Nursing & Health answer these questions and more about the CARDS program.
In “A Case Study of Engaging Hard-to-Reach Participants in the Research Process: Community Advisors on Research Design and Strategies (CARDS)®”, we describe the participants in the program, our process for helping researchers obtain useful feedback from the CARDS® on research materials, and what we have learned from seven years of facilitating meetings between the CARDS and researchers.
A companion paper, “Can Lay Community Advisors Improve the Clarity of Research Participant Recruitment Materials and Increase the Likelihood of Participation?” describes a mixed methods study that examined whether the use of research materials revised by the CARDS increased the likelihood that potential participants would enroll in a study. We’re excited about these publications and hope they’re useful to your work!