Identifying Community Needs and Resources in a Native Community: A Research Partnership in the Pacific Northwest.

Indigenous communities have engaged in needs and resources assessments for thousands of years. By blending CBPR/TPR approaches with community-driven assets and needs assessments, academic and community based researchers can work together to better understand and identify community strengths as well as issues of concern in Native communities. This best practice approach can set research agendas that are relevant to Native communities and result in interventions and health promotion programs that are respectful of Tribal sovereignty and that incorporate unique traditions and strengths of Native communities. A successful research partnership to develop and implement a needs and resources assessment using CBPR/TPR approaches is presented using a case study that can be used as a model for other research partnerships.