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Building a Positive Community-Academic Partnership Learning Exchange

in West BaltimoreChrysalinn Archie1, Ulysses Archie1, Chelsea Perry2, Mikal Veale3, Laundette P. Jones4

1Baltimore Gift Economy, 2Morgan State University, 3 Choice Imagery, 4University of Maryland School of Medicine

INTRODUCTION

OUR APPROACH

METHODS

RESULTS

This project was supported by University of Maryland Baltimore, Center for Global Education Initiatives (CGEI) Community Based Research Award

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

• Held 2 interest meetings:

• UMB Community Engagement

Center (CEC)

• Local Retirement community

• Conducted 3 focus-group interviews

• Community focused group

• Faculty focus group

• Combined community-faculty

focus group.

• Topic guide was used to facilitate

discussion and perspectives on factors

contributing to barriers to health and

community-academic relationships

were reported.2

Typical faculty-led

seminar

Faculty AND Community member

both leading the seminar

A mutually respectful teaching/learning

environment where everyone can learn from

each other and benefit from the experiences

and perspectives.

Take one Community-Academic

Partnership (LJ-CA-UA)

Faculty from 6 different UMB

schools (Dental, Law,

Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy,

Social Work)

Adults (>18) who live, work,

and worship in the

Baltimore Metro area

Co-Facilitators:

Laundette Jones, PhD, MPH

Chrysalinn Archie, Co-Founder

Baltimore Gift Economy/

•Build From Success: Begin with the success of one Community-

Academic Partnership (Laundette Jones – Faculty UMB +

Chrysalinn & Ulysses Archie (co-Founders, Baltimore Gift Economy)

•Scale Up to build more partnerships: Faculty recruited from the 6

University of Maryland, Baltimore professional schools and non-

faculty adults (>18) who live, work, and/or worship in the

West/SouthWest Baltimore metropolitan area.

•A debut of an interactive co-lecture

entitled “Stress” was presented by

Dr. Jones and Ulysses Archie during

the annual Institutional Mini-med

school. (200+ participants)

An annual tuition-free

lecture series provided by

UMSOM faculty, during

which the lay public learns

about diseases and their

prevention.

Faculty Focus Group

Outcomes: The focus groups are currently being

transcribed, but here are a few key comments below.

Community focus group:

“Every aspect of the community that the University is

involved in, they need to have people involved who

live in that community. Their voices need to be

heard and incorporated into what they are doing.”

“Partnerships can start by tackling some of the most

glaring imperfections that just don’t have to be.”

Faculty comment from combined focus-group:

“It’s paradoxical that we have this University with all

these resources, but we don’t know how to share it

[with the community].”

Community Focus Group

Combined Focus Group

• The findings from the focus groups demonstrate that both UMB faculty

and community members are interested in understanding the values

and the potential benefits of establishing a co-learning experience.

• Four major themes emerged from the discussions that will need to be

addressed prior to developing the novel program:➢ Better understanding and awareness of diverse communities

➢ Building Trust

➢ Establish value of co-teaching

➢ Time & funding

• Our findings from the current pilot study are being used to pursue

other modes of funding (e.g. NIEHS) to expand the community

academic partnership.

Community-academic partnerships (CAPs) have evolved as a

transdisciplinary approach to address and reduce health disparities.1-3

These partnerships are intended to bring together the various

stakeholders from the local communities (e.g. community members,

public schools, local businesses) and academic communities (e.g.

faculty, staff, students) to share power, establish trust, foster co-

learning, enhance strengths and resources, build community capacity,

address community-identified health needs.1-3 The President of the

University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), Dr. Jay Perman, ranks

Community engagement in West Baltimore as a high priority and has

worked to develop initiatives and infrastructure (e.g. The Community

Engagement Center (CEC) that build trusting relationships between the

school and surrounding communities. The proposed project was

designed to build upon these initiatives by developing a novel program

to support learning exchange between the school and surrounding

communities to ultimately improve the quality for all.

1. Drahota A et al.,. Community-Academic Partnerships: A Systematic Review of the State of the

Literature and Recommendations for Future Research. Milbank Q. 2016 Mar;94(1):163-214.

2. Caldwell WB, Reyes AG, Rowe Z, Weinert J, Israel BA. Community Partner Perspectives on

Benefits, Challenges, Facilitating Factors, and Lessons Learned from Community-Based

Participatory Research Partnerships in Detroit. Prog Community Health Partnersh. 2015

Summer;9(2):299-311.

3. Dave G et al., Conceptualizing trust in community-academic research partnerships using concept

mapping approach: A multi-CTSA study. Eval Program Plann. 2018 Feb;66:70-78.

Handout/Flyer