Carnegie Classification

Understanding Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi

Community engagement occurs when UM faculty, staff, and/or students partner with non-higher education collaborators in the public or private sectors to accomplish a goal that benefits all parties. These partnerships evolve over time, and the types of partnership may include: outreach, consulting, involvement, shared leadership, and community-driven. No single type of partnership is better than the other types. Instead, the partnership type is shaped by the duration and shared goals of the relationship.

Communities are not limited to geographically defined areas. Communities also include individuals or groups connected by shared interests or practices, situational similarities, or even culture and beliefs.

Community engagement occurs within all facets of the University’s research, learning, and service missions. Community engagement advances UM’s mission while benefiting society through the discovery, development, and/or dissemination of knowledge that ultimately improves the learning, behavior, and conditions of individuals and communities.

Whenever a University of Mississippi student, staff, or faculty member collaborates with a community partner to accomplish a goal that benefits all parties - that is community engagement.

See UM’s Model for Community Engagement, Community Engagement Definitions, Types of Community Engaged Partnerships, and Engaged Scholarship Model in Appendices 1 through 4.

Appendix 1. Model of Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi.

Model of Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi

Community Engagement describes collaboration between UM and partnering communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity while fulfilling UM'’s mission of scholarly learning, research, and service. Communities consist of groups of people in the public and private sectors who are affiliated by geographic proximity, special interests, or situational similarities at the local, regional/state, national, or global levels. A few examples of communities affiliated by geographic proximity may include: neighborhoods, municipalities, and other geographically-defined units. Communities within special interests may include: K-12 education systems, ethnic and cultural groups, business sectors, practitioner groups, hobbyist groups, and food service sectors. Communities within situational similarities may include: emergency preparation, response, and recovery efforts; economically impacted populations; health and well-being defined populations; racial identity groups, and stakeholder groups served by an agency.

Community-Engaged Learning

• Capstone
• Clinical
• Co-op
• Course-based volunteering
• Experiential learning
• Field experience
• Outreach
• Practice-based learning
• Practicum/internship
• Research project
• Service-learning

Community-Engaged Service

• Civic engagement
• Co-curricular service
• Community development
• Outreach
• Shared services/ infrastructures
• Training/ Consulting/ Facilitating
• Volunteering

Community-Engaged Research

• Contracted research
• Curriculum development

• Practice-based research
• Participatory action research
• Private-funded research
• Public-funded research
• Undergraduate research

Adapted from The International Association of Public Participation. The National Institute of Health - Principles of Community Engagement. second edition. NIH Publication No. 11-7782. 2011 Bowen et al When Suits Meet Roots, 2010.

Appendix 2. Council on Community Engagement Approved Definition of Terms Related to Community Engagement Approved September, 2018

Community Engagement describes collaboration between UM and partnering communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity while fulfilling UM’s mission of scholarly learning, research, and service.

Communities consist of groups of people in the public and private sectors who are affiliated by geographic proximity, special interests, or situational similarities at the local, regional/state, national, or global levels.

Community-Engaged Learning denotes academically-based community engaged courses that may integrate a range of teaching learning strategies, including, but not limited to: service-learning, Co-op, externship, internship, practicum, clinical, capstone, research project, public service, practice-based learning, experiential education, and experiential learning. Community-engaged learning uses a defined curriculum and can be formal (credit granting) or non-formal (non-credit granting).

Community-Engaged Research refers to a research partnership between UM and communities that is mutually beneficial and includes some degree of shared decision making and leadership between communities and UM.

Community-Engaged Service defines collaboration between members of UM and a community or community-based group that results in beneficial services. Community-engaged service may, or may not, be related to an academic program and can be performed by students, faculty, and staff. Community-engaged service includes co-curricular service and civic engagement.

Scholarship of Engagement or Engaged Scholarship is scholarship resulting from the collaborative and mutually beneficial partnership between university member(s) (i.e. faculty, staff, and/or student) and external non-higher education partner(s). Engaged scholarship is typically created and communicated through any of the following activities: discovery of new knowledge, development of new knowledge, dissemination of new knowledge, change in learning, change in behavior and/or change in conditions1.

Community Partner includes any non-higher education individuals, groups, and organizations from the public and private sectors.

Partnership - an association between community partner(s) and UM to undertake a shared, mutually beneficial action or endeavor.

Outreach - activities that serve UM and the community by facilitating and providing learning experiences that engage minds, transform lives, and serve others while inspiring change and growth by building relationships and working collaboratively with University students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community partners.

Civic Engagement is a type of community-engaged service that fosters citizenship through engagement in issues of public interest and/or participation in governance activities.

Co-curricular Service is a type of community-engaged service performed by faculty, staff, and/or students that is not formally to an academic curriculum, but fosters student learning.

Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that uses reflection to link community service with academic course objectives to enrich the educational experience of students, teach civic responsibility, and meet the needs of a community.

Scholarship “is creative intellectual work that is validated by peers and communicated2” to the larger world. Scholarship but is not limited to, obtaining grants, conducting research, writing scholarly publications, delivering presentations, creating curricula, creating art, and producing artistic performances.

Mutuality refers to an interdependence or shared interest, purpose, or benefit between two or more collaborators.

Reciprocity refers to a mutually beneficial exchange between UM and its community partners.

Footnote 1

1 Franz, N. (2009). A holistic model of engaged scholarship: Telling the story across higher education’s missions. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 13(4), 31-49.

Footnote 1

2 Weiser, C. J. and Houglum, L. (1998). Scholarship unbound for the 21st Century. Journal of Extension, 36(4). Retrieved from https://www.joe.org/joe/1998august/a1.php

Appendix 3. Types of Community-Engaged Partnerships at the University of Mississippi. Appendix 3. Types of Community-Engaged Partnerships at the University of Mississippi.

Types of Community-Engaged Partnerships at the University of Mississippi

Community Investment

• Ex Training sessions, awareness campaigns, social media
• Communication: Mostly one-way
• Simple Metrics: Numbers of participants; number of publications; number of products delivered

Community Involvement

• Ex Community advisory committees, community conversations. consulting and action plans.
• Communication: Two-way
• Sample Metrics: Active participation; retention; # of activities. increased accountability for decision-makers

Community Integration

• Issue-specific workgroups, communities of practice
• Communication: Two-way and equal partnership between UM and community
• Sample Metrics: Depth of engagement. willingness of members to take action, transcending organizational interests for long-term colliective interests

People Involved

Depth of Engagement

In Franz’s Engaged Scholarship Model’, all layers of community engagement are equal in importance. The two-way collaboration between UM scholars and community partners are central in the model, emphasizing its significance as the identifying feature of engaged scholarship. The purpose of the two- way partnership is to produce a legacy that grows the discipline while benefiting communities.

Engaged scholars use some or all of the six entry points in the next layer to produce and communicate creative work that grows the discipline and benefits communities through the discovery, development, or dissemination knowledge that may change learning, behavior, and conditions within communities.

Research relates to the discovery and development of knowledge, while teaching corresponds to the dissemination of knowledge and changing learning. Outreach connects with changing behaviors and conditions.

3 Franz, N. (2009). A holistic model of engaged scholarship: Telling the story across higher education’s missions. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 13(4), 31-49.

3 Franz, N. (2009). A holistic model of engaged scholarship: Telling the story across higher education’s missions. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 13(4), 31-49.

Appendix 4. Franz Engaged Scholarship Model.

Within either the six entry points for engaged activity and the three missions of institutions, the specific type of activities inform one another in an additive manner. Therefore, taking a comprehensive approach of using teaching, research, and outreach to understand and address complex issues is a better approach than conducting engaged scholarship in only one or two mission areas.

The outer circle illustrates three types of factors that affect the success of engaged scholarship, including: i) assumptions about engaged scholarship, ii) external factors, and iii) internal factors. Assumptions about engaged scholarship include how the institution and individuals define scholarship, recognize the essential elements of scholarship, value community collaboration as a scholarly method, and reward engagement in annual review and promotion and tenure. External factors relate primarily to community partnerships and the corresponding commitment, communication, trust, conflict resolution, political environment, and community context influencing those partnerships.

Internal factors include how engaged scholarship is understood within the faculty promotion and tenure system, the departments’ and colleagues’ attitudes toward internal and external collaboration, institutional silos, institutional history, available funding, mentoring, administrative support, and institutional leadership.