As a CDC-funded Prevention Research Center (PRC), the UAB Center for the Study of Community Health engages in multidisciplinary research to promote health and prevent disease in priority health areas, in joint effort with community partners who guide the direction of the research by shaping the research questions, helping to gather, analyze, and interpret the data, and sharing the results.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is based on the assumption that communities are more likely to participate in, accept the results of, and put those results of research to use if they have participated and provided input across all stages of the research project.

The Prevention Research Center network developed the following definition of (CBPR) in 2007. The PRCs strive to put this definition into action within their core research projects and other funded research.

CBPR is a joint effort that involves researchers and community representatives in all phases of the research process. The joint effort engages community members, employs local knowledge in the understanding of health problems and the design of interventions, and invests community members in the processes and products of research. In addition, the collaborative is invested in the dissemination and use of research findings to improve community health and reduce health disparities.