Engaging University and Community Partners for Positive Change

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Engaging University and Community Partners for
Positive Change
Presentation by Phil Nyden Loyola University
Chicago Center for Urban Research and Learning
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Overview

• CURL model
• barriers to university-community partnerships
• factors that break down barriers and facilitate
  partnerships
• what is the attractiveness to collaborative
  research? to faculty? to students? to
  universities? to community partners?
• what strategies can be used to promote and/or
  create strong, sustained partnerships?

Loyola University of Chicago
Center for Urban Research Learning
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Loyola University of ChicagoCenter for Urban
Research and Learning (CURL)
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Collaborative Research Model

• not research on the community, but
  research with the
  community
• recognizes knowledge in the university and
  knowledge in the community
• adds chairs at the research table

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Community as partners at all levels of research

• conceptualization
• designing the methodology
• collecting data
• analyzing data
• writing reports
• dissemination of results

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CURL Team-Based Research Action Projects

• faculty
• graduate students
• undergraduate students
• community organization leaders/
  staff/members
• CURL staff

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What are the barriers to effective
community-university partnerships?
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Barriers the discipline defines research
priorities

• university-based research focuses on
  furthering knowledge in the
  discipline
• social change is not the primary goal
• the theoretical is favored over the practical

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Barriers Community-based research is seen as
biased

• without unbiased outside
  researchers, data analysis
  might be manipulated to
  serve political ends
• involving representatives of the population to
  be studied in the research process raises
  potential of bias in collecting data

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Barriers Community-based research is perceived
as parochial

• research is seen as limited in scope and less
  powerful in its application

• traditional academic culture gives higher value
  to the national or global than to the local

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Barriers Tenure and promotion guidelines

• publications and contributions to
  the field favored over impact
  on society
• demonstrated contributions to the improved
  quality of life in society not generally a
  category on the balance sheet
• indifference and even hostility to community
  engagement

Loyola University of Chicago
Center for Urban Research Learning
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Barriers Communitys past experience with
university research

• only the object of research, not a participant in
  research
• limited practical relevance to community
  development or improved service delivery
• more of thumbs up/thumbs down evaluation research
  of existing programs

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Loyola University of Chicago
Center for Urban Research Learning
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On the other hand, there are factors that can
break down barriers and facilitate partnerships
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For the community, collaborative partnerships
have potential for building increased capacity

• gain familiarity with the research process knows
  how to manage research
• develop independent research skills
• improve practices in community organizations

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For the community, collaborative partnerships
have potential for building increased capacity

• move from research to action gets information
  into hands of constituencies

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For the university, partnerships also build
capacity

• promote interdisciplinary
  research
• create a stimulating
  environment for faculty and students
• engage in research that is used and does not sit
  on a library shelf
• increase visibility of university in community,
  region, nation, world

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For the university and the community,
partnerships are beneficial

• integrate university and community knowledge into
  the learning environment
• build an environment where learning takes place
  in multiple directions
• provide an understanding of connection among
  knowledge, power, and social change
• produce an understanding of what is possible.

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For university faculty, partnerships...

• provide a real environment for teaching and
  learning
• produce a dynamic learning environment with
  challenges, unpredictability, constant
  questioning (the qualities of a good classroom)

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For university faculty, partnerships...

• open the door to more research opportunities than
  can be completed in lifetime
• give access to significant research funding and
  publication opportunities

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For university students, working in
university-community partnerships provide...

• an antidote for civic disengagement
• you can have an impact
• demystifies the policy
  making process

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For university students, working in
university-community partnerships helps to...

• gives a real face to social issues they are no
  longer academic abstractions
• see connections among disciplines

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A Closer Look at Center for Urban Research and
Learning (CURL)
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Support for team members

• faculty fellowships
• graduate fellowships
• undergraduate--fellowships and course credit
• community fellowships
• CURL staff

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Funding

• government-funded grants
• foundation-supported projects
• endowment
• leveraging university resources
• matching resources for faculty released time
• student fellowship awards and course credit
• volunteer time

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Examples of CURL Collaborative University-Communit
y Projects
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CURL Project What creates and sustains
racially/ethnically diverse communities?

• concept emerged from activist-researcher
  discussions
• solution-focused, not problem-focused
• policy maker and activist attention
• media interest in research

Center for Urban Research Learning
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CURL Project What creates and sustains
racially/ethnically diverse communities?

• two-types of communities
• diverse by design
• diverse by circumstance (new immigrant groups)
• changing way advocates promote diversity
• connection to work on sustaining mixed-income
  communities

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CURL Project Impact of Welfare Reform on
Mixed-Income Communities

• idea developed from breakfast meetings with
  different community partners
• linked CURL with advocacy organization and
  traditional social service agency
• three reports and impact on state legislation

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CURL Project Developing Culturally Sensitive
Approaches to Addressing Domestic Violence

• community organization was aware of CURLs other
  collaborative work
• needed evaluation of impact of its programs

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CURL Project Developing Culturally Sensitive
Approaches to Addressing Domestic Violence

• connection to national network of organizations
  serving South Asian community
• exploring expansion of project
• international
• organizations serving women in other ethnic
  communities

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CURL Project Documenting Changes in Affordable
Housing

• gentrifying community
• arguments among developers, affordable housing
  advocates, and city re extent of affordable
  housing loss
• CBO lobbied state representative to provide
  funding for study

Loyola University of Chicago
Center for Urban Research Learning
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CURL Project Documenting Changes in Affordable
Housing

• advisory committee from all sectors of community
• data from report viewed as credible by all
  involved
• other communities interested in research

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Creating a regional network to promote
university-community/government partnerships
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Policy Research Action Group (PRAG)

• Created in the late 1980s
• developed from the grassroots by activist
  faculty and community leaders
• collaborative research model
• four universities
• more than 15 community partners
• over 175 collaborative projects
• www.luc.edu/depts/curl/prag

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Policy Research Action Group (PRAG)

• produced an environment of collaboration in
  Chicago
• collaborative and participatory research still
  minority research approaches, but this provided
  visibility and a support network
• became a self-help network
• contributed to the development of more than six
  collaborative centers in Chicago
• if funding disappears, still have network now

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Lessons learned in building and sustaining
partnerships
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Lessons learned in building and sustaining
partnerships

• start small
• concentrate on projects that will produce
  tangible outcomes, not just the process itself
• develop interdependent partnerships
• accomplish end results that individuals or
  individual institutions could not achieve on
  their own
• organize/match expertise to produce a sum that is
  greater than its parts
• recruit people who are committed to the project
  and the process

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Lessons learned in building and sustaining
partnerships

• create a partnership culture
• everyone shares credit
• help each other promote work in their
  work/institutional setting
• open environment welcome new members to
  partnership (individual/institutional)
• create trust

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Lessons learned in building and sustaining
partnerships

• harness the tensions of university-community/gover
  nment relationships
• both academics and community activists willing to
  criticize and arguethis is OK, it provides
• different perspectives helpful in understanding
  complex issues
• a more complete knowledge base
• also, it is not community-driven research or
  university-driven research its collaborative
  research

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Lessons learned in building and sustaining
partnerships

• develop resources to sustain the collaboration
• political support (from institutional leaders)
• funding
• grants
• endowments
• income/funding from multiple sources
  (diversification)
• fellowshipsuniversity (faculty students) and
  community
• ongoing centers/networks
• staff dedicated to developing sustaining
  collaboration
• leverage other resources with what
  funding/resources you do get

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Lessons learned in building and sustaining
partnerships

• understand that individuals are motivated to
  participate by factors other than just money
• collaborations enable participants
• to become part of social-change process
• to connect with like-minded colleagues
• to join a support network which provides guidance
  on research projects

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Some strategies for building on strengths and
overcoming obstacles

• visibility and information sharing
• publications
• web presence
• reports
• books
• periodicals

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Some strategies for building on strengths and
overcoming obstacles

• media attention

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Some strategies for building on strengths and
overcoming obstacles

• working groups
• researchers practitioners
• citywide or regional

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Some strategies for building on strengths and
overcoming obstacles

• doing political work within disciplines
• visibility of collaborative methods
• translating research for use by practitioners
• building a following of people experienced in
  partnerships
• emphasizing that this is research
  with a constituency

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Strategies for change change hiring tenure and
promotion procedures/guidelines

• reduce discipline-bound control of faculty
  personnel policies
• increase university-wide incentives to promote
  engaged scholarship.
• creating a national and international networks of
  peers to judge faculty doing collaborative
  research
• service as a primary, not residual, evaluation
  category

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Strengthen existing or create new collaborative
centers that can serve multiple functions as

• institutional advocates for collaborative
  research
• places where multiple collaborative efforts can
  be concentrated and made more visible
• brokers of information and resources
• technical assistance centers for collaborative
  projects

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Creating new collaborative centers that can serve
multiple functions as

• alternative socialization venues for faculty
  students, and community partners
• conveners of collaborative researchers to discuss
  ongoing projects

Loyola University of Chicago
Center for Urban Research Learning
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Gains have been made in promoting collaborative
research in universities the community, but
there is still substantial work to be done.