**Forthcoming in Progress in Community Health Partnerships (PCHP) 19.3. All rights reserved.**
ABSTRACT:
Background: Researchers often fail to disseminate their results to the communities they study.
Meanwhile, youth in historically marginalized communities face barriers that reduce their
likelihood of becoming researchers themselves.
Objectives: To bridge this research-community divide by creating the Chelsea Research
Festival, an annual poster fair held at a public high school in the majority-Latinx city of Chelsea,
Massachusetts.
Methods: The festival is co-planned by academics and community-based organizations. Posters
may be either about Chelsea or conducted by Chelsea community members, including youth.
Lessons Learned: Buy-in from local organizations, especially the school district, has been key
to success. Youth present their own posters alongside academics’, and report that the experience
is very meaningful. Persistence and consistency will be necessary to grow participation in the
festival and engage harder-to-reach groups.
Conclusions: Community events like the Chelsea Research Festival may be a useful model for
strengthening trust and engagement between academia and communities.