reaching out and reaching in: impacts of a university-community outreach and engagement program
TRANSCRIPT
Reaching Out and Reaching In:
Impacts of a University-Community
Outreach and Engagement Program
Community Development Society
Renaissance—From Vision to Action
Dubuque, IA July 20-23, 2014
Susan Erickson, ASLA
PLACE Program • Partnering Learning and
Community Engagement
– College of Design, 7 academic departments
– Pairs community development needs with student academic projects and faculty research projects
I wonder if some of the students at the University
could help us?
Let’s look a little closer
And closer
And soon we’ll be making lemonade.
Program overview
• Begun in 2000
• 134 projects of record
• Involving 1615 students
• 115 different communities
Eventually we asked…
So what? Let’s investigate PLACE program
impacts.
Vocabulary anarchy!
• Outreach
• Engagement
• Service learning (without the hyphen)
• Service-learning (with the hyphen)
• Participatory Action Research
• Community-based Design/Research
• Experiential Learning
• Participatory Planning and Design
Benefit to four primary
audiences
how much do we know about service-
learning?
Students Faculty
Educational institutions
Communities
(Howard, 2003)
And the literature says…..
Very little!
•It’s difficult to study
– Community is complex, many variables
– Much attribution and contribution,
– Causation???
Literature review
– Do with and not for the community partner Ward & Wolf-Wendell
– Build bridges, don’t burn them Stoecker & Tryon
• What would we hear if we listened to community partners about their experiences in partnering with academic institutions?
–Sandy and Holland, 2006
So we asked…and listened
• Qualitative research
– Interviews with community stakeholders
– Randomly selected from projects
Findings: raw data
Findings: Four data themes Process Community-
University Relationship
Outcomes Holistic themes
•Program Structure
•Community-Student Interaction
•Community Contributions
•University Contributions
•Final Report/ Presentation
•Final Document
•Learning Experience for students
•Community-Professor Interaction
•Setting Expectations
•Relationship
•Expanded community capacity
•Use of Final Report
•Enhanced project legitimacy
•External variables
•Value to community
•Leadership changes
•Benefit to other entities
Theme One: Process
• Program Structure
• Community-Student Interaction
• Community Contributions
• University Contributions
• Final Presentation
• Final Document
Process, summary
• Community members were enthusiastic about impacts of the PLaCE program
• High value on interaction with students, their enthusiasm, and fresh perspective.
• New ideas/creative designs
• Final presentations are valued
Theme Two:
Community-University
Partnership
• A mutually beneficial relationship:
– Learning Experience for Students
– Community Development Assistance for Community
Community-University
Partnership, summary
• Relationship with University is valued
• Communities are willing to work with the academic calendar.
• Interaction with professors can be a highlight
• Communication is important
• Relationship is strong and worth maintaining
Theme Three: Outcomes
• Expanded Community Capacity
• Use of Project Report
• Enhanced Legitimacy
Outcomes, summary
• Expanded community capacity
• Physical improvements occurred
• Plans were used
• Increased legitimacy internally AND externally
• 4/17 projects engaged with private design professionals
Holistic themes • Moving Forward
– Economy is a factor
– Need a strong advocate
• Value to Community
– Balance on benefits
spectrum
– Changes of Leadership
– Report can be helpful
• Benefit to other entities
To summarize….
• Direct impacts – Parks
– Plans
– Signage
– Branding
• Indirect impacts – Expanded community
capacity
– Enhanced legitimacy • Internally
• externally
• It’s not easy to find
the impacts, a lot of
inquiry is necessary.
• And sometimes you
have no control over
the impacts….
Most important lessons:
• Importance of a
structured program
– Dedicated staff
– Set clear expectations
• Look for a wide range
and diversity of
impacts, direct &
indirect
• Choose partners
carefully
• Reality of external
influences
• Assessment is
important
Recommendations
no matter how much information is collected, it is useless if it is not sent back out. This is perhaps the most neglected part of assessment (Young, 1998)
A challenge to you!