Are you a community researcher or peer researcher living with HIV? We are conducting focus groups to better understand how COVID-19 has impacted your life and community-based research (CBR) employment experiences. We want to hear from people whose employment as peer researchers has been positively or negatively impacted, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also want to develop key recommendations for academic researchers, community-based HIV organizations, and peers for COVID-19 and any future pandemics.
Seeking participants who:
- Have work experience as peer researchers, peer research associates (PRAs), or community scholars
- Are living with HIV
- Are 18 years of age or older
- Have access to a device with internet access
- Live in Canada
You will be invited to participate in a 90-minute, video-recorded online focus group with 4-6 participants about your employment experience as an HIV peer researcher. The focus group will be co-facilitated by a member of our research team and an HIV peer researcher. A Knowledge Keeper who is part of our team has also been invited to attend the focus groups. Groups will be conducted on Zoom.
If you are interested in participating in a focus group, you will be asked to attend a one-on-one info session over Zoom with the project research assistant ahead of time. They will confirm your eligibility to participate in the focus group and review the informed consent document with you.
If you decide to participate, they will ask you to:
- complete a demographic survey with them;
- share a contact email so that we can send your honoraria by e-transfer or electronic gift card; and
- select one object that represents you to bring to the focus group for the purpose of group introductions.
Focus groups will last for 90 minutes and you will receive a $60 honoraria by e-transfer or electronic gift card.
This community-based research project is led by Zack Marshall and PAN and is part of a larger initiative called Shift: Working for Change in Participatory Research. This work is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant and the Centre for Research on Children and Families at McGill University.
If you have questions about the study please contact Zack Marshall at [email protected] or Janice Duddy from PAN at [email protected]
Detailed information about this research can be found on the Consent Form. If you are interested in participating, please click this link (or go to https://calendly.com/shift-project/recruitment) to confirm your contact information and select a meeting time, and we will be in touch shortly to confirm a one-on-one info meeting with our project research assistant.