CUMU Conference 2019

What is the difference between community relations and community engagement? Where can these two roles collaborate to foster strong, reciprocal relationships between higher education and the communities they serve? Are they really just the same thing?

York University has a long history of Community Engagement initiatives. Very recently, a new Community Relations Unit was formed which necessitated a strategic planning process to guide that work. This raised numerous questions about what community relations means, what the difference is between community relations and community engagement and where the opportunities for collaboration exist. This session will explore these questions as well as the development of the community interaction continuum that looks to answer these queries and ultimately provide a framework to support a coordinated approach between these roles using social justice, equity and inclusion as core values through which to align the work and the benefit of having each of these roles within your institution.

This Lightning Presentation looks at the role of data collection, strategic planning, and assessment of community engagement in working to integrate an institution-wide understanding and approach in meeting the University of Louisville’s metropolitan mission. UofL has established standardized processes to track our work in the community and to assess impact at every level; from the student, faculty, community partner, and individual school and college levels. This Best Practices session will provide an overview of the institutional data collection, strategic planning, and assessment practices for partnerships, outreach, curricular engagement, and engaged scholarship activities. It will look at the significance of planning and assessment for our urban mission, provide examples of how data is used, and will address challenges in the institutionalization and sustainability of these processes.

Through BTU: Partnerships at Work for Greater Baltimore, Towson University is moving the dial on capturing, supporting, and sustaining the work taking place with its community partners. Learn about TU's Partnership Agreement, the tool for managing expectations, outcomes, and next steps on behalf of TU and its partners.

In January, 2018, Marquette University announced the President’s Challenge Award, designed to put the University’s Community Engagement Strategic Plan into action. The Award connects faculty, staff, and students with community partners; each applicant team is required to have faculty from humanities, STEM, and social sciences, and have at least one major community partner. In this presentation, we describe the process of this initiative and the first winner of the award, “Next Step Clinic: A Partnership Targeting Mental and Developmental Health for Milwaukee’s Underserved Children and Families.” Ten Marquette faculty from eight departments and five colleges partnered with Mental Health America of Wisconsin, Next Door Foundation, two area church networks, and other nonprofits to develop the proposal. This proposal will seek out and serve families adversely impacted by racial and socioeconomic health disparities, with a focus on families who are impacted by trauma and developmental delays. The clinic will be located at a community partner, Nextdoor Foundation. Marquette Communications students will build marketing media campaigns, and Marquette Computer Science students will build a software platform to ease communications amongst the team, families, and clinicians. Psychology, Counseling, and Speech Pathology graduate students will provide direct clinical services to families while under the supervision of licensed Marquette clinical faculty. Impacts will include immediate abatement of a community need, while also addressing capacity by training more future clinicians and professionals. Ways in which a university can motivate faculty to partner with community agencies, while fulfilling education and strategic mission initiatives, will be detailed.

Benjamin Franklin started the first public one right here in Philadelphia.

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr both patronized the same one in New York City.

Thomas Jefferson said he couldn’t live without the resources that they provide.

America’s founders loved their libraries and anyone partnering with their communities should too. This lightning talk will discuss how one academic library has created and provided resources that have supported, contributed to, and sustained their campus’ community engagement efforts. Attendees will gain ideas on how they can engage their libraries to keep their own partnerships going.

Cal State LA’s identity as an anchor institution is woven throughout its logos, symbols, taglines, videos, stories, and messages. Incorporating the anchor mission narrative into these various forms of representation helps shape, reflect, and reinforce the university’s anchor identity.

Central to Cal State LA’s branding and identity building is its relationship to its community: 83% of students come from Los Angeles, including 75% from within a 14-mile radius of the campus. Roughly 70% of alumni reside in Los Angeles. The university’s main logo consists of a shield depicting the city’s skyline, with high-rises ascending upward meant to invoke a limitless future

A foundational idea has been the consistent, university-wide application of messaging emphasizing community and student success. University President William A. Covino launched the effort with his focus on “engagement, service, and the public good.” More recently, messaging has incorporated the tagline “Cal State LA is ranked number one in the United States for the upward mobility of its students.” Place helps brand the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, We Are LA: The Campaign for Cal State LA.

We propose a Lightning Presentation on the impact of place branding on the mission of anchor institutions.

Simon Fraser University's Vancity Office of Community Engagement was initiated in December 2019 within the School for Contemporary Arts in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver as part of the Woodward's redevelopment. The Office has also recently opened a satellite office at a former police station within the neighbourhood. With a focus on programming and partnerships in the three areas of 1) arts, culture and community 2) Social and Environmental Justice and 3) Urban Issues, this presentation will discuss some of the successes and challenges during the start-up period of this office both within the institution and in the community.

The culture of perfection that pervades today's college campuses is damaging to student mental wellness. According to the American College Health Association, 62% of college students report having felt “very lonely” within the past year. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among college-aged students.

The Reflect Organization was founded at the University of Pennsylvania to address this issue and has grown to become a national mental wellness nonprofit. Reflect’s college and university chapters are dedicated to empowering students to foster a culture of authenticity, self-love, and allyship on campus.

The latest developmental research has shown that with the right support, just one caring person can break the cycle of adversity in a young person's life. This lighting presentation will draw on this research, focusing on how each audience member can be that one caring person, forging a more resilient, well community.

Issues facing healthcare in the U.S. are lack of access to care and a lack of primary care providers in underserved areas. Chronic conditions associated with the social determinants of health are widespread and disproportionately affect vulnerable groups. Nurse practitioners are a solution to address these issues. However, a lack of practitioners functioning as preceptors and academic-practice partnerships in underserved areas are affecting the number of students who are prepared to meet the diverse needs of underserved populations upon graduating.

This Clinical-Academic Network for Developing Leaders (CANDL) project, funded by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), examines the impact of establishing academic-community partnerships, preceptor education and support, and clinical placements for nurse practitioner students in underserved urban and rural settings for two-years. Strategies aim to prepare graduates to work with underserved populations through community collaborations.

Designated faculty formed partnerships with underserved community sites. Project strategies were implemented over an 18-month period for twenty FNP students. Post-graduate surveys will reveal outcomes for employment intentions for the student participants. Baseline data for self-efficacy related to working with underserved populations for all twenty students demonstrated an increased confidence level providing care to underserved populations.

Preceptors are offered education through interactive modules and have reported increased confidence-level and efficacy as clinical educators before and after their online training. Data has been collected and indicates increased preceptor self-efficacy, especially regarding faculty support and educational tools that outline student performance expectations.