From Interviewers to Friendly Visitors: Bridging Research and Practice to Meet the Needs of Low-Income Latino Seniors

This article describes a community-based participatory research (CBPR) effort conducted in a low-income, predominantly Latino community, which bridged traditionally-separate domains of practice and research by engaging neighborhood residents in a collaborative capacity-enhancement process for meeting the needs of vulnerable elderly residents. What began as a simple needs assessment to facilitate program development became a mechanism for engaging neighborhood residents in a collaborative social capital development process. The article describes the origins of this community-based effort, its consumer-led transformation from traditional needs assessment to service provision, resulting benefits and challenges, and implications for meeting the needs of vulnerable populations.