Building a Registry of Research Volunteers Among Older Urban African Americans: Recruitment Processes and Outcomes From a Community-Based Partnership

Purpose of the study: An emerging strategy for increasing public participation in health research is volunteer registries. Using a community-based participatory research framework, we describe recruitment processes and outcomes in building a research volunteer registry of older urban African Americans. The specific research question examined retrospectively was: How does a community outreach partnership between older residents and academic researchers of the Healthier Black Elders Center facilitate recruitment of older urban African Americans for a research volunteer registry? Design and Methods: We adapted program evaluation methods, specifically, the logic model, for clarifying how community outreach health education activities supported development of a research volunteer registry of older urban African Americans. Results: Paralleling the 7 years in which an annual health reception was held, enrollees in a research volunteer registry increased from 102 to 1,273 enrollees. Implications: Targeted outreach to underrepresented groups to build a registry of volunteers for health research may be a promising strategy for addressing recruitment disparities in African Americans' research participation.