INTRODUCTION:
Researchers may inadvertently propagate structural inequity when conducting research in communities. This includes top-down, elitist research approaches in which academics assert their expertise through unfair knowledge practices that reinforce power imbalances, reducing community members to research subjects or token advisors with little real influence, used primarily as a means to an end. This raises some pertinent questions: Who sets the research agenda? How do we address structural blindness in asymmetrical power relations between researchers and community members? What will it take to do relevant research in contexts of persisting, intersecting structural inequities?

METHODS:
Utilising a knowledge translation framework, we posit that community engaged research in liaison with a local Community Reference Group (CRG) has disrupted structural inequity by facilitating: (i) a participatory process aimed at fostering local ownership, (ii) involving partnerships with stakeholders, (iii) an intentional process with projected tangible knowledge outputs and (iv) coupled with a proactive dissemination strategy targeting decision-makers.

RESULTS:
We present three local case studies to demonstrate practical application of the knowledge translation framework in the development and piloting of a community-based health promotion workshop, a crowdsourcing project and a community-based training intervention. This will include a live panel comprising CRG members, who will give feedback on their experiences with the mentioned case studies, and researchers who will reflect on their research experiences.

CONCLUSIONS:
Community-engaged research is a crucial and relevant method for involving communities in studies that concern them, embodying the motto "nothing about us without us." This methodology empowers and capacitates communities, recognising them as the experts on their own contexts and experiences with health and illness, while also disrupting the traditional power hierarchies in research.