Community Action Research Programme (CARP)

The ISHS Community Action Research Programme (CARP) contributes to the South African and global knowledge of transdisciplinary, community engaged injury prevention and safety interventions. CARP is positioned as a community-based action research initiative, and is focused on building, supporting and engaging communities exposed to different forms of violence and injury to promote safety, peace and liberatory, sustainable praxis. CARP brings together critical epistemological expertise, activism and networks of care to focus on the development, implementation, evaluation and adoption of home, preschool and community interventions. The programme contributes to the implementation sciences, as well as towards the stimulation of key services in marginalised, underserved communities.

CARP currently comprises a suite of prevention focused research platforms that were previously located within the Unisa-SAMRC Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit. These intervention research platforms place an emphasis on preventing injury before it occurs, following international research and policy experience that indicates that prevention is feasible, cost-effective, and sustainable. The intervention studies are attentive to vulnerable groups affected by priority interpersonal and community violence, traffic, and household injuries, especially burns. CARP is committed to the development of the next generation of researchers, interventionists and advocates in this field, and the public dissemination of safety information. You can be regulalry updated on CARP via the programme's Facebook and Instagram accounts.

These prevention focused research platforms are:

  • Uzwelano: Building Compassionate Communities (Stream I)
  • Uxolo: Demonstrating Community-Engaged Praxis (Stream II)
  • Burns, Poisoning and Energy Justice (Stream III)
  • Masculinity and Health Research Unit (Stream IV)
  • Critical Peace and Safety Studies Portfolio