Nothing About Us Without Us: Research in Partnership with Queer Appalachian Communities Presented By Community Health Scientists John Chaffin and Dr. Scott Rhodes.  

 “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” – Ralph G. Nichols

Scientific exploration is, at its core, seeking understanding, looking closer, digging deeper, and analyzing more. Somehow, though, many scientific studies of social phenomena and/or public health metrics are undertaken without ever asking their subjects to participate in designing research methods, collecting and analyzing data, or interpreting results. It’s reasonable, perhaps, not to ask the remipedes why they seek shadows, or to bypass the input of natural systems when calculating the orbits of moons and typhoons, but trying to understand humans (a notoriously confusing species) without involving those humans in the research process doesn’t make sense.

Join us at the Asheville Big Science September Salon on Wednesday, September 3rd, for a presentation titled Nothing About Us Without Us: Research in Partnership with Queer Appalachian Communities, presented by John Chaffin, Community Health Worker Coordinator at the Western North Carolina AIDS Project (WNCAP) and Dr. Scott Rhodes, Professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Chaffin and Rhodes will explore the concepts behind community-based participatory research (CBPR), a collaborative approach in which researchers engage community members equally as partners, and the ways in wich CBPR leads to better science and more sustainable, community-based solutions. The presenters will share their use of CBPR in developing and evaluating interventions for improving health outcomes for marginalized communities in Appalachia, specifically populations enduring higher rates of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and hepatitis C.

As WNCAP’s Community Health Worker Coordinator, Chaffin serves communities across 18 primarily rural counties in Western North Carolina. He leads client-centered navigation services and works to overcome barriers (both geographic and social) in connecting people living with HIV to medical care, housing support, legal assistance, and other essential resources.

Dr. Rhodes serves as the Chair of the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy at Wake Forest University. For three decades, Dr. Rhodes has focused on improving health outcomes in populations that experience disproportionately high disease burdens. Scott has championed and advanced community-based participatory research (CBPR) at local and global levels by developing, implementing, evaluating, and refining a remarkable number of intervention projects.

The event will be held at The Mule on 131 Sweeten Creek Rd, Asheville, NC 28803. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. Have a drink with old friends, meet new ones, and get ready for some serious science in a seriously un-serious setting. Presentation starts at 7:00 PM. Then, stick around for a lively Q&A, discussion, and general mingling.