Community Perspectives on Engagement
Sarena Seifer has sent a summary report about a Wingspread conference on "Community Partner Perspectives on Community-Higher Education Partnerships" convened last April by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health with the collaboration of several other organizations. This meeting involved just community members, many working with Research 1 universities - but there were "no academics in the room". The recommendations from the conference:
Community partners have the responsibility to share their collective wisdom and knowledge about community-higher education partnerships with community members, colleges/universities, and funding agencies.
Community involvement and capacity building is needed at the local, regional, and national levels. Supports are needed to develop community members as civic leaders, change agents, and community-based researchers.
Community partners should develop principles of participation to clarify terms of engagement and expectations in their partnerships with higher educational institutions.
To facilitate greater understanding, community partners must familiarize themselves with the culture and daily realities of their academic partners, and vice versa.
Community partners must work together with academic partners/allies to change the culture of higher education into one that values and supports communities as equal partners.
Community partners must work together with academic partners/allies to elevate the credibility and recognition for the life/work experience of community partners and the context/environment in which they do this work.
Funding agencies need to reexamine funding priorities, as well as how funding is structured, reviewed, distributed, and evaluated, to ensure that these advance and do not undermine the potential for authentic community-higher education partnerships.
Community partners should form a collective body to reduce the feelings of isolation experienced by many community partners and increase capacity through mentoring, networking and advocacy.
These recommendations, if put into practice, could make a huge difference in the effectiveness of our public engagement efforts.