Community Ecosystem Mapping: A Foundational Step for Effective Community Engagement in Research and Knowledge Mobilization

Community engagement is a key strategy for achieving various goals, such as social and environmental change, sustainable development, health promotion, and community building. It involves collaborations and partnerships with the community that help mobilize resources, impact systems, rectify partner dynamics, and function as catalysts for modifying policies, programs, and practices. It also ensures mutual trust among all parties involved, giving community members greater personal agency and involvement potential. We have learned a range of practical aspects of community engagement with communities, particularly with immigrant/racialized communities, by running a community-engaged program of research on the health and wellness issues of immigrant/racialized communities in Calgary, Canada. In this article, we focus on a crucial early step of community engagement—understanding the community ecosystem. The community ecosystem refers to its human, social, and cultural makeups. Understanding this ecosystem requires conscious efforts to comprehend the demography, participate in socio-cultural events, identify community spots, reach out to hard-to-access groups, find the community champions and communication channels/organizations, and reaching out to them to establish relationships. Understanding the community ecosystem allows us to identify the pivotal factors, key actors, and pulse of the community that we are engaging with. This enables us to build mutual trust and goals for research and knowledge mobilization. Subsequently, an empowered, continual, and collaborative partnership becomes possible, resulting in sustained and desirable outcomes.


Introduction
Community engagement is identified as a crucial approach for social and environmental changes, sustainable deve lopment, health promotion, community building, and much more. 14The community engagement process has been described as "a powerful vehicle for bringing about environmental and behavioral changes that will improve the health of the community and its members.[It] often involves partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems, change relationships among partners, and serve as catalysts for changing policies, programs, and practices." 5Due to the multifaceted nature of community engagement, the process has proven to be beneficial in a variety of contexts including philanthropy, communitybased research, social advocacy, community organizing, policy making, and more. 15Community engagement allows the building of mutual trust between all stakeholders involved, therefore empowering members of the community with personal agency and capacity for engagement. 1,2,4Implementing community engagement for research is beneficial for both members of the community and researchers. 3,4Taking this approach allows for creating an empowered, continual, and collaborative partnership between 2 parties, thereby leading to sustained and desir able outcomes.Involving the community in the full gamut of the research process is the core principle of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) or Community Engaged Research (CEnR). 6,7By doing so, researchers can shift the dynamic of the traditional researcherparticipant relationship (i.e., researchers driving the research process with minimal assistance from the community) to a more symmetric partnership, where the community and resear chers have equal decisionmaking power regarding the research process. 3,6,7esearchers need to strive to diligently engage the com munity in meaningful ways rather than merely partake in tokenism.The National Academy of Medicine in the United States recommends that researchers put emphasis on strengthening partnerships and alliances with community members to achieve effective and meaningful community engagement. 8This is particularly critical for conducting research involving underresourced and vulnerable commu nities such as immigrant/racialized communities.Research is often not the priority of the community members, espe cially those who are predisposed to additional life struggles such as immigrant communities with resettlement chal lenges, racialized communities with racial discrimination, and the various societal challenges of the 2SLGBTQI+ [TwoSpirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or who use other terms related to gender or sexual diversity] communities.To some extent, it is the research ers' responsibility to identify the community needs and engage them to develop a sense of belonging regarding the research process and to build trusting relationships.Despite wide recognition of the importance of community engage ment with immigrant/racialized communities, little guid ance is available about what steps can be taken during a community engagement process toward building a sustain able relationship with these communities.

Community-Engaged Research With an Immigrant/Racialized Community
We developed a communityengaged program of research on the health and wellness issues of immigrant/racialized communities in Calgary.As a part of this, we worked with a SouthAsian community, the BangladeshiCanadian com munity, on primary care access issues 912 since 2013.Taking a community engaged approach, our work started with reaching out to the community members in an effort to build a relationship with the community so that we could conduct research together. 1315We ensured that the engagement efforts were embedded within a participatory approach and provided allout efforts to build a sustainable relationship with community members.Regarding community engage ment, we realized from our initial experiences we need to know the community very well to devise the engagement strategies to conduct a thorough community engagement process.In this article, we reflect on this aspect of an applied community engagement strategy.

Understanding the Community Ecosystem
The first thing that needs to be done for strategic community engagement is to understand the community's ecosystem.An immigrant/racialized community's ecosystem includes its human, social, and cultural makeup.For instance, the demographic distribution and interactions among various

Summary Box
1.An exhaustive endeavor to learn about an immigrant/racialized community is crucial for the development of effective community engagement strategies for equitable and empowered involvement of the community in research.2. Understanding the community ecosystem is a prerequisite to developing engagement strategies.A community ecosystem includes its human, social, and cultural makeups of a community.3.This entails making deliberate efforts to understand the community demographics, taking part in sociocultural activities, locating community spots, identifying difficult-to-access groups, and recognizing and reaching out to the community champions, communication channels, and organizations.4. Initially, this may seem a rather huge task, however, once a better understanding of the community eco system is achieved it leads to sustainable strategies of community engagement followed by an effective and meaningful program of research.5.The researchers need to be mindful that the community ecosystem is an ongoing process.Especially, due to the immigration patterns in Canada the demographics and dynamics of the communities are always evolving, thereby requiring regular updating of the knowledge of the community ecosystem.
community members with different capacities and roles are important.These include community leaders, general mem bers, the community's internal support systems and mecha nisms, and relationships among different segments of the community, such as those between different faiths and between affluent and economically disadvantaged individu als.Other interactions involve neighborhood characteris tics (eg, crime rates and environment), the interactions with other communities, and the relationship and attitude(s) with the host country and native people that collectively define the community. 16Without having a properly informed idea about the community we plan to engage, the engage ment efforts face the risk of falling short, thereby becoming confined to a smaller section of the extended community.In our experience, the efforts for this need to happen across a number of elements (Figure 1).

Map the Community Demographic
Researchers need to understand the community demo graphics before attempting an engagement effort within the community.The distribution of age, gender, socio economic status, education or professional background, current job domain, recency of immigration, routes of immigration, and religious affiliationbased distribution are some aspects to consider.These ultimately help to gain an understanding of the community structure.We found that information about these issues from official sources is very limited, especially about the racialized/immigrant communities.In the context of our work, we endeavored to collect information from a range of sources, which helped to shape our understanding.We looked for whatever infor mation was available through various federal, provincial, or local government data sources such as Census Canada data, 17 Calgary Civic Census data, 18 and more.We extended our search to the published literature and reports.We also conferred with the communityconnected elders (in terms of length of stay in Calgary), leadership position holders in BangladeshiCanadian sociocultural organizations, as well as community members who work in different com munityserving organizations such as immigrant service provider organizations (ISPO) or faithbased organizations.Our experience of lack of availability of data is similar to a recent synthesis report that highlighted the lack of data for research on visible minorities. 19miliarize the Community Socio-Cultural Norms  20 on the sociocultural norms that ultimately fur thered our community engagement strategy remarkably.When we extended our research toward another immigrant/ racialized communities, we emphasized efforts to understand the sociocultural norms of those communities as well.

Recognize the Community Champions
Gaining support and developing relationships with the com munity champions (activists, influencers, and leaders) is critical for the success of a communityengaged program of research.This is because these relationships go a long way to enhance the process of community engagement.Based on our experience, we defined community activists as indi viduals from the community who are proactive in enacting social change and who demonstrate natural leadership qual ities.We defined community influencers as those who are wellknown and revered in their community as celebrities or beloved figures, such as musicians, artists, and language instructors.Lastly, we defined a community leader as some one who has an official leadership role in any kind of com munity organizations.We reached out to the community champions and asked them to allow us some time to meet and showcase our ideas regarding community engagement and research.We met at coffee shops or community centers and asked for their opin ion and direction on how best to go ahead with our plan.
We had an interesting observation at the initial stage: We saw that most of the community spearheads are men due to the sociocultural norm in the community.As a result, we devised an unorthodox plan to identify and connect with outwardly less visible women champions of the community.We began by approaching a few women we personally knew and informing them about our efforts.Then, by taking a snowball approach, we requested them to put us in touch with their women colleagues, friends, or family members they thought we should be contacting.We found that the women community spearheads were more enthusiastic about taking part in the community engagement and research pro cess and were also proactive about conveying the informa tion of the project to other potential community members.As women often play the role of "social glue" in the social relationships within the community, this approach of engag ing women boosted the outreach of the project.Over time, some women evolved into being more engaged than others and became core members of the research team (now identi fied as community scholars and citizen researchers).

Figure out the Community's Hard-to-Access Groups
Guided by the social justice perspective and principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion, we wanted to understand the different hardtoaccess subgroups of the community (such as 2SLGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, and religious minorities), who may or may not be visible in the initial demographic examination.This is important because by knowing about them we can make active efforts to reach those inaccessible community subgroups through our com munityengaged program of research.This has been the most difficult part of our engagement and unfortunately, we cannot claim much success in this regard.We believe that the generic community engagement strategy is not effective in reaching the hardtoreach populations.Instead, we may need to devise focused and tailored strategies for the spe cific subgroups.Nevertheless, due to our overall commu nity engagement activities, we think they are aware of our intentions and efforts in the general community engage ment.And hopefully it increases the likelihood of engaging the hardtoreach groups as we continue our efforts.

Identify the Community Events
A good strategy is also to have knowledge about various events that take place in the community regularly.For example, in the BangladeshiCanadian community in Calgary-there are 2 major festivals that happen in a year.One is celebrating the Bangla New Year's Day, which occurs in the Spring.Another occurs during the Fall and it revolves around cultural activities related to the harvesting seasons in Bangladeshi tradition.Community members flock in huge numbers to take part in the festivities.Also, there are religious festivities of 2 Eid celebrations and mul tiple Puja celebrations, both of which are celebrated on rela tively larger scales.Knowing about these occasions allowed us to be present at events where we could interact with the community members or show them our presence.It's prac tically impossible to show up to all of the festivals, rather we chose a couple of these events where we could maxi mize our engagement efforts based on our resources, time, and available manpower.

Inventory the Community Spots
Finding the spots that the community visited as part of their everyday lives was another crucial factor that assisted us in our engagement activities, especially for the research portion.We took an inventory of ethnic Bangladeshi community memberowned grocery stores, restaurants, businesses (travel agent offices, immigrant consultant offices, and boutique shops), and places of worship such as mosques and temples.This helped us plan outreach and knowledge dissemination strategies toward the community members.For instance, with the owners' consent, we frequently posted research fly ers, brochures, and event information in various locations.

Find the Community Communication Channels
In our experience, we found that the racialized/immigrant communities tend to lie outside of the traditional main stream research communication channels.These communi ties are not a significant portion of the audience of mainstream print or TV media.Rather, at the societal level, they are more used to "ethnic media" or "social networking sites."Social networking sites have already become a com munication channel of preference during this era of digitali zation.During the COVID19 pandemic era innovative ways of communication through social media exploded.Indeed, social media has increasingly become an alternative to even ethnic print or TV media for the racialized/immi grant community to acquire information.Also, social con nectedness through social networking sites have received momentum.For our engagement purposes, we identify the ethnic media, and social networking site channels which could be used for the engagement purposes.For example, the BangladeshiCanadian community uses Facebook as their predominant mode of social connectedness and com munication, and our outreach strategy has a special focus on this communication channel choice of the community.

Catalogue the Organizations Active in the Community
Many organizations are active in immigrant/racialized communities and engage in a variety of activities, including cultural, educational, religious, developmental, and chari table enterprises.These organizations also have a variety of organizational structures, including forprofit entities, enti ties registered as charities, or notforprofit organizations, while others have an informal structure.Also, members of immigrant communities tend to maintain social networks through their previous or current professional or educa tional networks.There are a number of sociocultural groups within the BangladeshiCanadian community in Calgary.For instance, professional associations (eg, agriculturalist association), alumni groups (eg, University of Dhaka alumni), religious affiliation (eg, Islamic study group and Hindu prayer group), and cultural activities (eg, Bangla cul tural group and theater group).The goal of contributing to the general social development of society is what unites these groups.We made contact with these groups in an effort to establish relationships and earn their conviction and support before beginning research on issues and proj ects at the grassroots community level.

Contemplate That All of the Aspects of a Community Ecosystem Are Dynamic in Nature
It is important to note that all the aforementioned factors need to be part of an ongoing process.The community itself is dynamic, and various factors are constantly evolving over time.Due to shifting immigration patterns in Canada, the demographics of the communities continue to change over time.New people always step into positions when the community's leadership changes, and the champions go on to new endeavors.While the old connections disappear through attrition due to normal change, it's critical that new connections be made by the researchers with similar effort and intention.Therefore, it is crucial to continuously be aware of the dynamics of the community in order to plan for effective and meaningful community participation.

Strengths and Challenges of the Approach
Community ecosystem mapping involves gathering, ana lyzing, and visually representing data about the sociocul tural fabric of a community prior to commencing research endeavors.This approach, while advantageous in several aspects, also presents certain challenges in the realm of communitybased research.
This method offers researchers valuable insights to tailor their studies to address the specific needs, strengths, opportunities, and obstacles within the community.By comprehending the issues and potential solutions that hold significance to the community, researchers can harmonize their research objectives and methodologies accordingly.Moreover, it facilitates the establishment of trust, rapport, and collaborative relationships with community stakehold ers.Through their involvement in data collection and anal ysis, their wisdom and perspectives are respected, fostering a foundation of cooperation.Furthermore, community eco system mapping enables researchers to pinpoint pivotal junctures for systemic change and societal influence.This entails identifying the interdependencies, interplays, and dynamics within the community structure, providing a canvas to explore the ways in which research outcomes can influence, or be shaped by, these dynamics.
On the other hand, this approach does present some challenges.It requires substantial resource and time invest ments which is often overlooked while conducting a research project.Its applicability can also be constrained in multifaceted and intricate communities, as it might not capture the entirety of subtleties, perspectives, and con flicts present within and among different factions-such as ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status, religion, and the like.Moreover, community ecosystem mapping is sus ceptible to the biases, reach, and assumptions of the per sons who are undertaking it.Their distinct agendas, expectations, and interpretations could influence the data collected and analyzed.Hence, researchers employing this approach need to remain cognizant of its merits and limita tions, effectively planning their research endeavors in accordance with its nuances.

Conclusion
While working for our program of research we realized that our initial understanding of the community ecosystem was more incomplete than we had originally considered.Being a member of a community, organization, or group does not automatically mean that the researchers know or have access to all aspects of the community, organization, or group for research purposes.Moreover, we also recognized that no singular source is good enough to get community ecosystemrelated information for ethnic minority commu nities.We need to strategize and work on that extensively.An important factor to note is that the mapping of the community ecosystem is an iterative process and needs to be approached as if we are creating a living document.Certainly, time is needed for initial exploration, and this is definitely time consuming, but the yield of the process is very helpful for any community engaged program of research.Furthermore, this exploration creates an avenue for engaging with a diverse spectrum of community mem bers.Keeping the community informed of ongoing findings is consistently valued, contributing to a sense of inclusivity and transparency throughout the process.In the context of understanding a particular community, these aforemen tioned undertakings can serve as powerful engagement mechanisms, especially when executed through ongoing interactions with community members as the mapping journey unfolds.

Recommendations
Based on this experience, we recommend that future researchers or practitioners who use this approach need to: Plan ahead and allocate sufficient time and resources for the data collection, analysis, and visualization of the community ecosystem.Remain open to adaptation and flexibility in response to the everevolving dynamics within the community.Treat the community ecosystem as a living document, fostering a strategy for regular updates to the mapping, reflecting its current state accurately.Solicit feedback and insights from community stake holders throughout the entire process, valuing and acknowledging their reservoir of knowledge and perspectives.Acknowledge personal limitations in terms of posi tionality, social networks, and reach within the com munity.Maintain awareness of these constraints while engaging in the process.Articulate the results and implications of the mapping to the community in a manner that is both accessible and resonant, fostering a meaningful understanding.Leverage the mapping as a foundation for discerning the community's requirements, strengths, opportuni ties, and challenges.Align research objectives and methodologies harmoniously with these insights.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Elements of understanding the community ecosystem.