CommunityBased Learning and Research: Principles for Partnerships

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Community-Based Learning and ResearchPrinciples
for Partnerships

• Lynchburg College
• Center for Community Development and Social
  Justice (CCDSJ)
• Lisa Whitaker, Associate Director, CCDSJ
• Director, Bonner Leaders Program
• June 2005
• Bonner Foundation 15 Year Celebration and SLI

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Introduction

• Hello! Welcome!

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Todays Presentation

• Briefly describe LC the CCDSJ
• Briefly define EL, S-L, and CBR and put them in
  the context of a continuum
• Describe 2 complementary models for community
  engagement Assets-Based Community Development
  (ABCD) Community-Based Research (CBR)
• Outline the principles benefits of CBR and why
  these are critical to effective campus-community
  partnerships
• Describe specific CBR projects brokered by the
  CCDSJ
• Share processes for implementing CBR initiatives
  

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Lynchburg College

• Private, coeducational, liberal arts college in
  Lynchburg, Virginia founded in 1903
• 1934 undergraduate students and 314 graduate
  students 133 FT faculty members
• Historical commitment to service in the community
• LC recently selected for The Princeton Review
  College Guide The Best 361 Colleges 2006
  Edition

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Center for Community Development and Social
Justice (CCDSJ)

• Founded in 1998 by Dr. Tom Seaman, Sociology
  professor, a beloved applied researcher
• Became a Community Outreach Partnership Center
  (COPC) in 1999 (via grant funding from the Jesse
  Ball duPont Fund and HUDs Office of University
  Partnerships)
• Additional grant funding for CCDSJ initiatives
  provided by the Kauffman Foundation, the Bonner
  Foundation, the Dolan fund, Genworth
• Endowment from private family
• Institutionalized in 2004

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Areas of Work - COPC
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ABCD Asset-Based Community Development

• Form community advisory board
• Primarily neighborhood residents
• Also city government, non-profit, and college
  representation
• All partners agreed to learn work from the
  philosophy of ABCD
• Agreed that all projects must be community-led

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A change of role for the college!

• Under the principles of ABCD, the colleges role
  takes a back seat --- this can be difficult ?

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Guiding principles for community engagement ABCD

• The Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)
  Model (Kretzmann McKnight, 1993)
• The principles of the ABCD model require a clear
  commitment to discovering a communitys
  capacities assets rather than focusing on a
  communitys needs, deficiencies problems.

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Working from an ABCD orientation

• Principle Utilize an asset orientation instead
  of a deficiency orientation (utilizes asset
  mapping, including individuals, associations, and
  institutions then connecting them)
• Principle Projects are community-driven, not
  determined externally
• Principle Residents are empowered to make
  decisions for their community they must be
  involved at project inception and throughout

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The CCDSJ What Were Working On

• Building the capacity of nonprofits, neighborhood
  organizations, and people by linking the
  resources of the college to the community
• Youth Development initiatives
• (Young Champions, Key Communicators, Success By
  6, Lead Remediation)
• Bonner Leaders Program
• Community-Based Research
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Collaborating on campus (SERVE, EL Task Force,
  Institutional Effectiveness, others, to
  facilitate SL courses, specific S-L projects,
  development of a Civic Engagement minor)

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LCs Commitment to Experiential and
Community-Based Learning

• Strategic Plan Goal I-2 One hundred percent of
  graduating seniors will have participated in an
  experiential learning program during their tenure
  at LC by 2008. (Current rate is 65.)
• Experiential Learning task force defining EL, SL,
  criteria approval for SL course designation
• Bonner Leaders Program in its 2nd year (college
  federal work-study funds, Americorps Awards,
  operating budget, BF grant)
• CCDSJ, SERVE (Students Engaged in Responsible
  Volunteer Experiences) offices working together
  to facilitate service-learning projects on campus
• VP of Institutional Effectiveness working to
  assess impact of EL initiatives on students and
  community

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Experiential Learning

• Experiential learning is a philosophy and
  methodology in which educators purposely engage
  with learners in direct experience and focused
  reflection in order to increase knowledge,
  develop skills and clarify values.
• (http//www.aee.org/faq/nfaq.htmee, Sept. 15,
  2004)

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Experiential Learning at LC Includes

• Service-learning courses
• Social entrepreneurship internships
• Bonner Leaders Program
• Study Abroad (inc. the model UN and model EU
  simulations)
• Academic internships

• Student teaching
• Nursing clinical placements
• Undergraduate research
• Creative contributions, such as to the Student
  Art Show the Agora
• Community-Based Research with a non-profit agency

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Service Learning

• Field-based experiences facilitate many forms of
  learning and development service adds the
  dimension of giving back to the community -- of
  making giving a part of how students define
  themselves. Service-learning is a form of
  field-based experiential learning with the added
  dimension of social contribution.
• Eyler Giles, 1999

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Service Learning

• Additionally, service learning
• combines service objectives
• with the intent that the activity
• change both the recipient and the provider of the
  service.
• This is accomplished by combining service tasks
• with structured opportunities that link the task
• to self-reflection, self-discovery,
• and the acquisition and comprehension of values,
  
• skills and knowledge content.
• - National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
  website www.servicelearning.org/article/view/10/1
  /35/

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EL and SL Differentiated

• Therefore, not all experiential learning is
  service-learning, but
• all service-learning is experiential learning.

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As the continuum progresses, there is
increasing

• Academic intensity
• Integration of knowledge skills across
  disciplines
• Development of personal and interpersonal
  awareness skills
• Understanding of social justice issues and
  movement along a continuum toward embracing
  diversity (beyond developing tolerance)
• Relationships with community partners intensify
  (strengthen)
• Development of professional skills (project
  management, research, leadership, working in
  teams, public speaking other forms of
  professional communication, meeting facilitation,
  coalition building, and so on)
• Specification of individual values
• Feelings of self-efficacy in many areas in
  particular, with regard to ones ability to
  effect change/development of a practical
  idealism

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An embassy for the community

• Appropriately, nearly all offices on most
  campuses can be described as being primarily
  student-centered, so there is a need not only for
  a broker, but for an advocate, on campus for
  community interests
• Community, in this case, can be defined as the
  people living in the area surrounding the college
  community, and the organizations that serve those
  peoples needs in an effort to improve quality of
  life
• This does not conflict, but serves to enhance,
  institutional goals for students development and
  learning

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An embassy for the community (contd.)

• All service-learning initiatives require some
  level of partnership with members of the
  community
• Developing and maintaining effective
  university-community partnerships is critical for
  community-based learning and research projects
  healthy partnerships lead to
• the most significant positive effects for all
  partners (students, community members, faculty,
  and the institution)
• These partnerships require specific knowledge and
  skills
• There is a growing need, as these initiatives
  increase, to evaluate the impact they have on the
  community, as well as the impact on student
  learning and development

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Relationships

• Like most human endeavors, success in
  community-university partnerships
  (community-based learning and research projects)
  is directly related to the quality of
  relationships
• The embassy for the community on campus serves
  to
• Create protect partnerships so students
  faculty continue to have access to various
  options in the community to work with nonprofits
  and neighborhood residents
• Prevent the development of negative public
  relations about the college in the community (and
  oftentimes, create much goodwill and positive
  PR) avoid the elephant memories
• Not all projects will be wildly successful, but
  long-term partnerships continue to learn and
  evolve each partner appreciates learns about and
  appreciates the others limitations
• Help create a campus culture that reflects a
  widely-held awareness of and respect for
  university-campus partnerships

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• So how do we enter these relationships?
• Two complementary models provide us with some
  very useful principles
• Assets-Based Community Development (Kretzmann
  McKnight, 1993)
• Community-Based Research Model (as outlined by
  Strand, Marullo, Cutforth, Stoecker, Donohue,
  2003), a process informed supported by Bobby
  Hackett at the Boner Foundation)

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CBR Briefly Defined

• Community-based research is
• collaborative,
• change-oriented
• research that engages
• faculty members, students, and community members
  in projects that address a
• community-identified need.

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The Ultimate Knowledge

• Its not Its not Its
  Fishin
• Rocket Science! Brain
  Surgery! For Understanding!

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The Ecstatic Researcher!Researchers all over the
country respond with glee
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CBR Model (Strand, Marullo, Cutforth, Stoecker,
Donohue, 2003)

• CBR is different from traditional academic
  research and different from charity-oriented
  service learning
• CBRs three central features
• It is a collaborative enterprise
• It seeks to democratize knowledge
• Ideally, CBRs goal is social action

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1. It is a collaborative enterprise

• The partnership is key
• Both work, both learn
• Establishing trust and respect is primary
• Shared power and shared responsibility
  (death of the theres-only-one-expert-here
  syndrome and the ivory tower)
• Communicating well, listening well
• Empathizing with each others plight (e.g., the
  problems/limitations each encounters in their
  organization)

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Collaboration (contd.)

• The best practice model were relying on notes
  that it is absolutely critical to include the
  community in at least two research stages
• - Identifying the research question
• - Making decisions about how the results will
  be used

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Roles Responsibilities of Partners Engaged in
CBR

• Please see handout

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2. CBR Seeks to Democratize Knowledge

• CBR challenges the basic assumptions about
  knowledge itself
• What constitutes valid knowledge
• How it is produced, and by whom
• And who controls it

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2. CBR Seeks to Democratize Knowledge (contd.)

• In CBR, researchers are challenged to
• Demystify the research language and make it
  user-friendly
• Consider a variety and multiplicity of data
  collection methods, including developing
  unconventional ones
• Consider creative and unconventional ways to
  share study results

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3. Ideally, CBRs Goal is Social Action

• CBR is committed to social justice
• Empowerment of disadvantaged (stigmatized,
  marginalized) groups is an overarching goal
  (i.e., transfer knowledge and skills to the
  community partner so that the organization or
  group may become self-sufficient and
  research-capable)
• Social change is a primary goal
• CBR often challenges the structures of privilege
  and hierarchy

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3. Ideally, CBRs Goal Is Social Action
(Contd.)CBR Projects Work Toward Social Change
and Social Justice and the Research Results Are
Applied Toward These Ends.

• CBR is community-centered
• The community is not a dead frog
• The communitys goals objectives
• are viewed as primary
• Byproducts of a community-driven process benefit
  faculty and/or students

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This community-centeredness does several
things

• 1. Reduces community mistrust
• 2. Acknowledges the importance of the issue
• Without taking away from student learning or
  faculty development
• it simply acknowledges that homelessness, youth
  gangs, mental illness, early education, living
  with disabilities, difficulties when aging, etc.
  require that the college partners primary
  commitment be to the community (above publishing,
  for example), and
• 3. Offers respect and compassion from the start
• For both the victims and/or those working in the
  trenches.

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Comparing Traditional Academic Research
Community-Based ResearchPlease see handouts
titledExhibit 1.1. A Comparison of Traditional
Academic Research and Community-Based Research-
and - Figure 8.3. Traditional University and
Community Influences on CBR
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CBR projects

• See list on file

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Reasons for Doing Community-Based Research

• Dr. Robert Weisbuch, President of the Woodrow
  Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and a
  wonderful advocate for all things humanities,
  asks
• Do we reliably thrill our charges with the
  plenitude?
• Are we diving into the wonderworld ?
• Have we departed from rote learning and relic
  knowledge?
• Please share some examples of what comes to your
  mind
• when you hear these phrases
• (at your own institution and elsewhere).

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• Weisbuch also articulated that the goal,
  especially of small, liberal arts colleges which
  began as church-related schools, should be to
• use learning to make the world better enacting
  knowledge
• And that what were after is scholarly
  citizenship and the capacity for thinking beyond
  the self.

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• Education is much more than a matter of
  imparting the knowledge and skills by which
  narrow goals are achieved. It is also about
  opening the childs students eyes to the needs
  and rights of others.
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama

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CBR is enacting knowledge

• We should judge faculty members not by how many
  committees theyre on, but by their capacity to
  enact knowledge, to engage the world beyond the
  college.
• Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
• If you agree, what are you willing to implement
  to mitigate the barriers to implementing CBR
  projects? What kinds of barriers exist on your
  campus?

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Barriers (group list)
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Action Planning

• Steps to take

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Thank you!

• For copies of the presentation, related
  information, or just to chat share ideas
• Lisa Whitaker
• Center for Community Development Social
  Justice
• Lynchburg College
• 1501 Lakeside Drive
• Lynchburg, VA 24501
• Phone [phone]
• Email whitaker_at_lynchburg.edu

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Why Do CBR? (From the college partners
perspective)

• 1. Some say its better research
• Lack of relationships produced lack of trust and
  poor results
• Participatory validity checking often shows us
  how much we would have missed
• We get to test our research in action, find out
  if it was helpful, useful

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Why Do CBR? (Contd.)(From the college partners
perspective)

• 2. Its Better for Students
• Book learning is incomplete
• CBR surpasses service learning
• More later on students making a contribution of
  substance and skills they gain
• 3. It Helps the Community
• Relevant work, sharing our knowledge and skills
• Doesnt exploit the community to serve students
  and enhance the colleges reputation

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Why Do CBR? (Contd.)(From the college partners
perspective)

• 4. It feels good
• Being truly useful, part of social change
• Can reinvigorate career, relationships with
  students
• Building new relationships
• And yes, some financial incentive
• The Continuum of Motivations
• Putting community before the institution, before
  the students, before our career motivations?

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Research Characteristics

• Conventional
• The researcher is an outside expert
• Relationship with the community is limited and
  task-oriented
• Objectivity (distance) is paramount

• CBR
• Everyone is a teacher, learner, and contributor
• Multifaceted, informal, sometimes long-term
  relationship
• Objectivity does not equal accuracy

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While were talking about the research process

• 1. Identifying the problem (community)
• 2. Construction of the research question
  (partnership)
• 3. Developing research instruments (college
  partners with a step for community approval, or
  partnership)
• 4. Collecting and analyzing data (partnership)
• 5. Interpreting results (partnership)
• 6. Producing the final report (college partner
  with community approval, or partnership)
• 7. Identifying action plans or next steps
  (partnership)
• 8. Implementing initiatives (community or
  partnership, especially if intern/social
  entrepreneur is on-site)

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Characteristics of CBR

• Questions raised in CBR
• transcend disciplines.
• It favors flexibility and creativity.
• It is user-friendly research,
• not shelf research
• the use of creative media
• (video, art, community theatre, or song
• to present results is encouraged)

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Characteristics of CBR (contd.)

• The research is not only useful, but a plan for
  how it will be used is integrated early in the
  process.
• An inter- and multi-disciplinary approach is
  characteristic. Its normal in CBR to be
• out of your element or comfort zone.
• Its not just about knowing,
• its about knowing how
• How to facilitate a discussion, do
• conflict resolution, support participation,
• build knowledge from peoples experiences, etc.

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Student Involvement in CBR

• Not required
• Certainly encouraged
• May involve one student or an entire class
• May slow the research process down
• May be helpful in unanticipated ways (i.e.,
  students are non-threatening beginners
  questions are often enlightening)
• Enormous potential for students professional and
  personal development

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Community-Based Learning Experiences for Students

• The best ones allow students to
• Do meaningful work
• Exercise initiative
• Have important responsibilities
• Engage in varied tasks
• Work directly with practitioners or other
  community members
• Connect their experience to course content

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CBR Benefits to Students

• Provides field work study made real
• Applied learning and citizenship building
• Is sometimes especially beneficial for C
  students (action-oriented, take it seriously)
• Builds self-efficacy
• Making a real, tangible contribution
• Service to community
• Imparts Civic Education
• Awareness of the non-profit option for career
  development
• Developing concern, compassion for social welfare
  and local constituents
• Positive impact on retention

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CBR Student Skill Enhancement

• The capacity to think critically about social
  policies and conditions
• The ability to access and evaluate information
• The skill to work with others on projects that
  recognize and require multiple contributions
• Build a sense of political efficacy that
  encourages taking on the challenge of active
  citizenship in a participatory democracy
• Researcher competencies

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College Perspective Whos Involved

• Faculty only (1 or more faculty from one or more
  institutions CORAL Network as multi-institutional
  model)
• Faculty 1 student with faculty as primary
  investigator and student as research assistant or
  co-investigator
• Student as primary investigator with faculty as
  engaged supervisor
• CBR as class project
• Entire class
• Student team

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Examples of Information CBR Might Produce

• Your Project Compass How the studys results
  will be used
• Possible Uses of the Information
• To fine-tune a program model
• To provide information to prospective funders
• To improve direct services to better meet
  constituents needs
• Collect data to describe the existence of a
  social condition (and its qualities --- i.e., we
  know stigma and poverty exist but what do they
  really look like?)

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Current Projects

• 1) A study of the effectiveness of an
  experiential, adventure-based education program
  that the CCDSJ is sponsoring for 8th graders in a
  local alternative school
• 2) A partnership with the Mental Health
  Association to survey and analyze the public's
  attitudes (in two cities and four counties) about
  mental illnesses to determine the prevalence and
  types of existing stigma, and then to design an
  action plan to reduce it
• 3) An inner city neighborhood study of attitudes
  about youth gangs and an assessment of the assets
  the community has to deal with them, the results
  of which will be reported to the Lynchburg Safe
  Neighborhoods Steering Committee which has begun
  implementing a federal (OJJDP) comprehensive
  youth gang model.

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A Sampling of Current CBR Project Opportunities
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More Current CBR Project Opportunities
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Project Steps

• 1. Express Interest (general or specific, no
  matter) call Lisa at x8156 or email
  whitaker_l_at_lynchburg.edu
• 2. Meet with Community Partner and CCDSJ Discuss
  research ideas possible methods any past,
  similar research done
• partner and CCDSJ roles
• determine if partnership will work
• identify research question(s)
• set next meeting.

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Project Steps (contd.)

• 3. Partnership Research Design Process
• Determine needs of community partner
• Determine how previous research will influence
  project (if at all)
• Determine how the studys results will be used
  --- this is your PROJECT COMPASS
• Determine the project start date and goal date
  for completion

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Project Steps (contd.)

• 3. Partnership Research Design Process (contd.)
• Determine the research methods to be used,
  materials needed, other resources needed (student
  involvement?)
• Complete form for CCDSJ use Funding Guidelines
• Determine if IRB needs to approve the study
  (exempt, expedited, or full review)

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Project Steps (contd.)

• 4. Work with Partner to Gather Data, Observations
• 5. Write Study Results
• Include recommendations for how the results can
  be used by the community most effectively
• Include an Abstract or Executive Summary
• Present a draft to the community partner for
  editing and final input (if not composing
  together)
• 6. Present the Study Results

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Links related to CBR

• Articles at www.bonner.org
• http//www.umich.edu/mserve/ucomm/brochures.html
• http//comm-org.utoledo.edu/research.htm
• Recommended Books
• Community-Based Research and Higher Education by
  Strand, Marullo, Cutforth, Stoecker, Donohue
  (2003, John Wiley Sons)
• Wheres the Learning in Service Learning? by
  Eyler Giles (1999, Jossey-Bass, Inc.)

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• External Funding
• Civic Engagement minor (FIPSE/Bonner grant of
  7500)
• Jesse Ball duPont Fund
• New Directions grant included funding for
  start-up of the CBR initiative 118,000
• EL grant project (faculty/course development)
  89,000
• Bonner Foundation grant for BLP 5,000

• Another Area, literally(!),
• of LC commitment
• Moving CCDSJ, Bonner Leaders, SERVE, Study
  Abroad, Career Development, Social
  Entrepreneurship, Academic Advising, and Westover
  Honors Program into one area (one-stop shopping
  for EL)

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• Public Uses for the Humanities
• Riches for the Poor Bard College program that
  offers people living in the cycle of poverty
  access to the humanities (a moral alternative to
  the streets) --- works somehow.
• Journal of Common Knowledge Project Peace of
  Mind to foster cross-cultural understanding
  after Sept. 11.
• Humanities at Work program _at_ WWFoundation
  created 40 positions in corporations around the
  nation for Humanities PhD.s See more at
  www.woodrow.org
• Analyzing social phenomena (e.g., Harry Potter)
• - Bring Arts and Sciences together as a pair of
  shoes (hard and soft disciplines tempered by one
  another)
• - The best form of character education is by
  example.

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CBR Its Origins

• Are reflected in the terms used to describe it
  Action research, participatory research, popular
  education, participatory action research, and
  others
• Popular Education (PE) Model Paolo Freire
  (1970) Education as a political tool to effect
  social change (learning raises social
  consciousness)
• The work of the Highlander Folk School (now the
  Highlander Research and Education Center) founded
  by Myles Horton in TN in 1933.
• Participatory Research (PR) Model, which mainly
  grew out of liberation struggles in the Third
  World over the past few decades and adapted to
  research with traditionally disadvantaged persons
  in North America

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CBR Its Origins (contd.)

• PR and PAR (Participatory Action Research)
  approaches are rooted in a critique of
  traditional Western social science research,
  whose rigidity, presumed objectivity, and
  authority of researchers and research expertise
  undermine community development efforts (Hall,
  1992 Park, 1992).
• Translation Bad feelings/poor relationships
  often developed
• Action Research approach (Kurt Lewin, 1948) had
  some influence as well