ABSTRACT
Employing narrative reflections based on personal research and community engagement experiences, community-based participatory research theory, and the principle of accompaniment, this narrative chapter guides readers through some of the common pitfalls researchers face while creating and executing community-based and not just community-placed, community-engaged, and participatory public health research. The authors argue that using culturally responsive, deep listening to engage with community narratives is the fertile soil from which accompaniment relationships grow. If tended with care and love, the fruits of these labors are the march toward epistemic justice and health equity. This chapter also offers brief reflective activities to assist researchers so that they may begin to sow the seeds of less harmful and more inclusive, asset-based, and enduring community relationships.
