Scott Krummenacher, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies, partnered with Karisa Gilman-Hernandez, the Executive Director of the Dutchtown South Community Corporation, to research waste management in the Dutchtown neighborhood.
This conversation with Scott explores his partnership with Karisa, the value of partnering with community members throughout research, and advice for scholars interested in community-engaged research.
Q: How was your research partnership with Dutchtown South Community Corporation initiated?
In 2019, the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at WashU Law published the Environmental Racism in St. Louis report. Dutchtown South was one of the partners on the report, and one of the key areas the organization asked the Environmental Clinic to explore in the study’s follow-up work was, ‘What do we do about waste management, and how equitably are neighborhoods being served?’
I had an existing relationship with Dutchtown South, having served on an advisory committee of theirs a decade ago, and this work aligned with my research in environmental justice. I could develop a methodology and conduct research to answer some really fundamental questions about solid waste.
Q: What is the significance of poor waste management in communities?
At one level, it’s a degree of disrespect for the community where they are not being given equal treatment and basic dignity. That’s demoralizing for a neighborhood. Think of what that means in terms of the civic relationship that a neighborhood has with their public officials and their government.
Then, imagine the health concerns. These alleys are breeding grounds for diseases of all different kinds. They become places where pests and rodents proliferate and spread disease.
And then there are these indirect ways in which people experience these spaces. My son plays in the alleyway, rides his bike in the alleyway; it’s safe for him to do that. However, when we look at the data that we’ve collected, having a child in an alleyway with poor waste management is wildly unsafe. They could be exposed to toxic and hazardous materials, broken glass and other harmful solid waste.
Q: How have you approached partnering with Dutchtown South in this work?
Dutchtown South were the initiators. They brought this issue to the Law Clinic and explained why this work is important and what they needed. They’re also the experts. It’s often the case that the researcher wants to control what is the truth. I more so think of myself as someone who’s part of a knowledge community. We’re working together to answer these questions, and Dutchtown South has expertise that I don’t have, so I need their expertise to answer the question.
A: How have you and Karisa navigated your community-engaged research?
We make sure to have consistent interactions, ensuring that we are co-creating this work. This type of process goes further than saying ‘We had a meeting, I gave you the answer to that question, and now we’re done.’ Instead, it’s, ‘Here’s what I’m finding. What do you think about it? How does that look to you?’
One of the things I’ve found through this work, is that it’s important to explore not only the ideas of your direct research partner, but also what other neighborhood stakeholders are thinking. We’ve gone to several neighborhood meetings and said, ‘Here’s what our data looks like; can you tell us if this matches your experience? Are there things we need to know that we don’t know right now?’ It’s a continual dialogue about this set of research questions.
We’ve also hosted ‘Trash Bashes’ to get feedback from residents. We train them on the GPS application that we use to collect data, we go out into the field with them, and we follow their lead. We had residents of the neighborhood walking the alleys, geotagging the dumpsters. It was through this partnership with residents of Dutchtown that we realized that in many alleyways, the issue is not with the dumpsters, but with the conditions of the alleyway. Because of this resident-driven data collection, we changed how we carried out data collection and which issues received more attention.
Q: Can you talk about the value of working with community members on data collection?
It makes your research better. The questions that I would ask from my office, are very different than the questions I ask today, having walked every alleyway in Dutchtown, having talked to the people who live there and who know the questions to ask. It gives you a fully informed research design.
Q: How might the data you and your partners have collected be useful for solving waste management issues in Dutchtown South?
When we started, there was not much of a response from the city, but recently, they’ve been really open to the idea of receiving this data and getting more information about how they can better execute waste management. There are so many variables that can contribute to a problem and that can be addressed if you have the data.
Q: What advice would you give to someone trying to build a community-engaged partnership?
Center community and always focus on the question of, ‘Who benefits from the work that you’re doing. Is it just you? It is you and your partner?’ Thinking through those layers is crucially important.
It’s also vital to think about the sustainability of the work that you’re doing. Even when this project is over, I’ll still have a relationship with Karisa where she knows she can come to me with other questions. It really matters to think through what a partnership looks like after a project is over.
I’ve worked with Dutchtown South for over 10 years, and that’s meant working with three different Executive Directors. That’s three different sets of working relationships, so your commitment is to the person, and it’s also to the organization, it’s to the neighborhood. That kind of longevity is really important, and it means that the partnership doesn’t go away. It’s an ongoing process.