Community Partnerships

Effective community-campus partnerships do not happen by accident. They are built intentionally, sustained through ongoing communication and trust, and grounded in a genuine commitment to equitable, reciprocal collaboration. This course examines the essential concepts, values, and practices that community engagement professionals need to develop and maintain partnerships that are meaningful for all involved: institutions, community organizations, students, faculty, and community members alike.

Structured around seven core modules, learners will explore the community engagement professional's distinctive boundary-spanning role in partnership work; the varied motivations and goals that different partners bring to collaboration; and the historical and structural contexts, including power, privilege, and institutional history, that shape partnership dynamics.

The course takes seriously the importance of asset-based thinking, moving away from deficit-framed approaches toward practices that lift up and incorporate the strengths of community members and organizations. Learners will also examine the practical dimensions of partnership work, including communication strategies, conflict resolution, and the logistical realities that can complicate even well-intentioned collaborations.

A particular emphasis is placed on reflective, justice-centered practice, the ongoing work of examining inequitable systems and power relations as they operate within community-campus partnerships and centering equity as a professional commitment. Preparation of students and faculty for collaborative work, partnership sustainability, and knowing how and when to conclude a partnership are also addressed.

Throughout the course, learners are invited to reflect on their own professional contexts, examine their current partnership practices, and develop new tools for their work.

Course Objectives

Consider the role of the community-engaged professional as institutional liaison including representing engaged learning on campus, guiding preparation for faculty, students, and developing tools in collaboration with community collaborators
Understand the collaborator motives behind engaged partnership
Identify theories of asset-based community engagement, including approaches to partnership, that respect and engage collaborators in reciprocal planning.
Describe activities that immerse you in local community, its assets and networks, and the community’s relationship with your institution
Articulate phases of partnership development and strategies for deepened, sustainable collaboration
Dive into relationship building and communication strategies for planning, articulating, and sustaining collaboration
Plan for student, faculty, and partner preparation and training
Examine strategies for conflict resolution, collaborative evaluation, and celebration
Synthesize and expand module strategies into deepened and sustained partnerships through praxis – theory into action