Researchers set out to learn about the state of community based research (CBR) in the environmental health field. Working with students and community members, a literature review was created summarizing different CBR studies done in the field of environmental health. Surveys and interviews were also used to learn about different communities’ environmental concerns and experience with CBR projects in the past. An important part of the study was building the research skills of participants enabling them to conduct research of their own on different environmental concerns in the future. This community-level involvement is sometimes referred to as community based monitoring.