The National Community-Based Research Networking Initiative is please to announce that it has selected eleven institutions of higher education to receive funding for innovative community-based research projects. Of nearly 100 proposals, these projects were selected for their innovation and anticipated contributions to the field of community-based research (CBR), which engages faculty, students, and community stakeholders in research projects that aim to affect social change. Each is built on the foundation of a strong existing CBR program that will provide the infrastructure necessary to involve students, faculty, and community partners in innovative research projects that will be developed, documented, and shared through grant funding.

In being awarded innovation grants, these institutions join the National CBR Networking Initiative, a larger network of community-based research practitioners funded by Learn & Serve America and spearheaded by Princeton University and the Bonner Foundation. This Initiative is coordinated by Princeton University’s Community-Based Learning Initiative and will generate a range of best-practice tools and resources, including websites, manuals, and data valuable to students, faculty, and the community. Innovation subgrantees, whose projects are described below, will make significant contributions to this network as they develop and share new models for community-based research, as well as tools and resources to support other institutions in implementing them.

• BUILDING BREADTH AND DEPTH INTO CBR

Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina

Innovation: A junior-year, multidisciplinary CBR seminar that carries out a long-term, single-partner research project and feeds into a senior CBR thesis program.

The traditional nature of the academy—both its calendar and disciplinary approach to research—present challenges for all involved in community-based research projects. Community needs can rarely be understood in the context of a single academic discipline, nor can they be identified and resolved in the course of a single semester or year. There is inadequate time for students to develop and hone their research skills, and their learning experience is not authentic, constricted by the rigid boundaries of the semester schedule and their academic disciplines.

Appalachian State University will address these issues with the launch of a multidisciplinary seminar that feeds into its established CBR senior thesis program. The course will engage college juniors from a variety of academic departments in a single CBR project with the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). Through the course of the seminar, students will work with each other, faculty, and BRP staff to identify research needs, develop and implement research procedures, analyze data, and establish resources and recommendations. As a team, they will develop the skills and multidisciplinary perspectives necessary to strengthen the independent CBR they will carry out as part of their senior theses in the year that follows. Meanwhile, the BRP will benefit from the multidisciplinary approach and a long-term institutional commitment that will allow each seminar to build upon the research of the seminar that preceded it.

With grant funds, Appalachian State will implement and institutionalize the seminar and establish a website, blog, manual, and other resources to share this innovative developmental model with other institutions.

• THE CBR FELLOWSHIP EXPERIENCE

Bates College, Lewiston, Maine

Innovation: Academic-year and summer CBR student fellowships as part of civic engagement developmental model.

Responsive to both the evolving needs of the surrounding area and the developmental needs of students, Bates College’s Harward Center for Community Partnership (HCCP) has a long history of sustained community partnerships beneficial to both campus and community. This work continues to grow with the introduction of CBR Fellowship opportunities within the context of their larger student civic-engagement fellowship program.

HCCP CBR fellows will have access to funding, faculty, and HCCP support during the summer and the academic year to develop proposals for and carry out substantive, collaborative community-based research projects. A CBR fellowship will often be the culminating project in a student’s civic engagement trajectory, making it a valuable developmental experience. These upper-level students will also have experience in research methods and community partnerships, allowing them to expand and deepen existing HCCP partnerships to strengthen campus-community connections. Finally, CBR Fellows will have an impact on other students as part of a larger cohort of HCCP participants sharing their own, and learning from others’, knowledge about the surrounding community and partner organizations through shared orientation, training, and reflection activities.

As CBR Fellows, students will benefit from and enrich a vibrant network of campus-community partnerships, experience the close mentorship of faculty, and become part of a growing cohort of students engaged in community work through HCCP. As Bates and Lewiston benefit from this innovative work, so too will the national CBR community, as Bates develops and shares training, support, and reflection materials for other institutions to support similar programs.

• ENERGY AND EMPOWERMENT IN AN APPALACHIAN COUNTY

Berea College, Berea, Kentucky

Innovation: Three-year, interdisciplinary project that connects multiple courses and multiple community partners to address the many facets of a single community issue.

A community’s energy needs are complicated, as they are affected by and have an impact on the local economy, environment, policies, and citizenry. Consequently, their study is rich in research opportunities, but also presents complex challenges for faculty and students who aim to collaborate with the community to translate research into action. Such “spiderweb” issues, in which multiple issues are intricately interconnected, cannot be neatly divided by academic year or discipline, and parts of the research process might often be replicated because of lack of awareness of existing community efforts or lack of communication between partners sharing common interests. Connecting community stakeholders and research in various disciplines becomes key to developing a comprehensive and efficient issue assessment and strategic plan for the future.

Berea College is making these connections though its three-year CBR project in Madison County, KY, where state per capita use of electricity is about 40 percent higher than the national average and where the use of electricity has a disproportionate impact on the environment, since 97 percent of the electricity used is generated from coal-fired power plants. Their Energy and Empowerment CBR plan connects multiple community partners with each other to identify and respond to shared research needs through a needs assessment in year one, an energy alternatives assessment in year two, and analysis and dissemination of information and recommendations in year three. Berea faculty from multiple disciplines develop five to eight courses a year in collaboration with these partners to teach courses that yield CBR projects in response to these needs and have a cumulative, significant impact.

Innovation grant funds will support these courses, a project coordinator, and an annual gathering of all stakeholders to share research results, as well as the development of trainings, workshops, and communications templates for other institutions seeking to comprehensively address the “spiderweb” issues in their communities.

• APPLIED POLICY-ORIENTED CBR

Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts

Innovation: Community-based research courses where students combine ground-level data collection with public policy analysis to highlight systemic causes of and remedies for community problems.

While they are sometimes byproducts of a larger research process, policy reform and structural change are rarely the focus of traditional CBR projects, which often address the immediate needs of local community organizations through needs assessments, program evaluations, and local infrastructure reviews. However, at Northeastern University, community-based research courses combine ground-level data collection with policy analysis to highlight the systemic causes of (and potential remedies for) community problems—and share information about those relationships with the larger community.

Northeastern’s Community-Based Research Initiative features courses that combine graduate and undergraduate students in collaboration with community partners to address significant policy issues of local relevance. Students take a broad approach to the research process, examining policy while also collecting numerical data and interviewing all key stakeholders to provide a spectrum of viewpoints on policy change. From beginning to end, the focus of the research project is the generation of reports for public education purposes, and student research is gathered into reports that present thorough historical backgrounds, issue analyses, descriptions of existing policy, literature reviews, and comparisons of alternative proposals. These reports are shared with community collaborators as well as lawmakers, journalists, advocacy groups, and the media through mail and the web to ensure that the project’s reach is as thorough as the research.

With grant funds, Northeastern will develop new projects; institutionalize this public policy-oriented approach to CBR by engaging senior faculty; and export its research, instruction, and dissemination models through a website, faculty training workshops, and other resources so other institutions can approach CBR at organizational, community, and policy levels.

• BRINGING THE HOMELESS INTO THE CIRCLE OF CARE: A COMMUNITY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP IN SAN ANTONIO, TX

Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas

Innovation: A two-year model of three concurrent research methods courses in different disciplines addressing a single issue from multiple perspectives, in which the year one cohort’s research findings are integrated into the second year’s research design.

Concurrent research methods courses in sociology, anthropology, and urban studies will address a single issue of local significance from multiple perspectives, employing a diverse range of methodological approaches that includes point-in-time surveys, oral histories, observations, interviews, and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. Together, students in these courses will present their data to local organizations to provide a comprehensive picture of the issue, and faculty, students, and community organizations will use this data to design further research during a second year of concurrent coursework. This two-year model deepens and broadens the research provided to community partners while also helping students appreciate the complexity of social issues and understand the value of a multidisciplinary approach to addressing them.

Trinity University piloted the program during the Spring 2007 semester, working with the San Antonio Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH), a coalition of municipal, county, and non-governmental agencies pooling their efforts and resources to identify the characteristics of the homeless and better coordinate services for them. This spring, students in the anthropology seminar will carry out focus groups with members of the SAMMinistries Homeless Families Transitional Housing Program, the qualitative results of which will inform the design of a survey students in the sociology seminar will carry out in the spring 2008. In the process, the two-year research model will be refined and a manual established so that it can be replicated as a research project in collaboration with the University’s Upward Bound program—and by other universities seeking to build long-term, interdisciplinary CBR projects.

• COMMUNITY HEALTH THEORY AND PRACTICE: A STUDY ON HEALTH AND IMMIGRANT PRACTICES IN SOMERVILLE

Tufts University, Somerville, Massachusetts

Innovation: Year-long course for undergraduate students and community stakeholders to facilitate the well-being of the surrounding immigrant community through service and needs assessment.

Tufts University’s unique course, “Community Health: Theory and Practice,” erases the line between community and classroom by welcoming community members into an undergraduate research seminar as they work together with students and faculty in assessing the needs of and services for the local immigrant community. Members of the Immigrant Service Providers Group (ISPG), a coalition of organizations providing services to Somerville immigrants, will collaborate with Tufts faculty to design and implement a year-long study that will enhance their work, determining to what extent immigrants are aware of opportunities available to them and what barriers and opportunities (including immigration status) affects utilization.

Stipends, a convenient schedule, and a certificate of completion ensure that the collaboration won’t end with course design, but continue through the semester, as these incentives have been established in response to the needs expressed by community partners. During the course, both students, community partners, and faculty will be trained—and train each other—in local community issues, participatory research methods, study design, and research ethics to ensure a fully collaborative project that addresses the needs of the community and offers all participants a view of immigration issues at both the local and national levels and from a variety of perspectives offered by each member of the coalition.

The course will become a model for other institutions wishing to engage community members in classroom learning opportunities while also developing tools for recruitment, instruction, and evaluation resources and tools for community needs and resource assessments to support similar projects.

• CAL CORPS PUBLIC SERVICE CENTER

University of California, Berkeley, California

Innovation: Student-facilitated and graduate student-guided seminars that support undergraduate non-profit and public sector interns in developing local and national policy briefs relevant to their work.

The University of California at Berkeley’s Cal Corps Public Service Center sustains a culture of service on campus through a variety of programs, including the Cal in Berkeley Internship (CIB). CIB is a student-led internship program that connects UC Berkeley students with internships in the City of Berkeley government, Berkeley Unified School District, and East Bay nonprofit organizations. While interning 10 hours per week, students also attend a weekly seminar facilitated by two student leaders (who also recruit community partners and student applicants). With its innovation grant, CIB will incorporate community-based research into the seminar, allowing students to work in teams to develop policy briefs related to their internships and with feedback from community partners. Grant funds will ensure quality issue briefs and extend CBR’s reach to the graduate level by funding 10-12 public policy master’s students to serve as readers for the briefs, offering written critical comments and guidance to the undergraduate students.

Through the course of the grant, this prototype will be evaluated, refined, and applied to another Cal Corps program, Cal in the Capital (CITC), which supports students in Washington, D.C.-based internships. Using this student-led model, students in the CITC program will also work in teams to develop policy briefs with a national scope, while CBR practitioners nationwide can use the tools and resources generated to develop their own student-facilitated seminars and graduate mentorship programs in supporting policy-oriented CBR.

• BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS THROUGH COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY MODEL

University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

Innovation: A two-semester interdisciplinary graduate seminar co-instructed by three faculty members.

CBR’s reach will extend to the graduate level with the University of Vermont’s community-based research initiative, a year-long seminar co-facilitated by faculty from Nursing and Health Sciences, Community Development and Applied Economics, and Natural Resources. An interdisciplinary method will provide three community partners with comprehensive research and students with an understanding of the range of skills and knowledge needed to solve multidimensional problems, and a two-semester approach ensures sufficient time to identify and clarify research needs and carry out projects in line with community needs and student learning objectives. The first semester will be devoted to development and planning, as interdisciplinary groups team with community partners to develop a CBR proposal; during the second semester, the project will be carried out and evaluated and the research disseminated.

Three community partners will collaborate with faculty in the development of the course: Burlington Community and Economic Development Office (a municipal department committed to fostering economic vitality and preserving and enhancing neighborhoods, quality of life, and the environment), People in Partnerships (a collaborative group of community organizations developing and implementing local strategies to achieve well-being outcomes), and the New England Grassroots Environment Fund (a Montpelier-based organization that supports long-term civic engagement in initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe, and environmentally sustainable communities). Resources for course development in collaboration with community partners will grow out of this process, as well as graduate-level CBR curriculum development tools and planning and project management guidelines to support other institutions in adopting a two-semester, interdisciplinary approach to CBR.

• CREATING AN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE SHOP FOR GREATER MADISON

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Innovation: A science shop model that utilizes information technology courses and work-study positions to assess the information needs of local organization, prescribe solutions, provide a network of solutions, and evaluate the success of those solutions.

The collection, management, and analysis of information can have a profound impact on an organization’s operations: with sound data, agencies can adjust and develop programs, solicit funding, and influence policy change. However, amid more immediate community demands, thoughtful and thorough data collection often falls to the wayside. While the non-profit organization DANEnet serves provides non-profit organizations in Madison, Wisconsin, with technical support, training, and consulting, it doesn’t have the capacity to meet the overwhelming information needs of the surrounding non-profit community.

Students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin will collaborate with DANEnet to build upon these services through a developmental “science shop” model that results in a sustainable pool of students to diagnose and address information needs. In the first year, a student seminar will document the available technology resources in Madison; this information, in combination with training and support from DANEnet, will allow work-study students to conduct diagnostic and prescriptive research assessments with local organizations in the following year. By the third year, this cohort of students will provide training and support to a new cohort, building a sustainable program—and a model for other schools seeking to combine CBR with information technology, including an interview tool for use with organizational staff, course syllabi, and instructional and training resources.

• CANTON REVITALIZATION PROJECT: THE AFTERMATH OF A DISASTER

Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina

Innovation: Two entrepreneurship courses collaborating with local government, non-profit organizations, and businesses to create, establish, and evaluate a post-disaster community revitalization plan over three years.

In the wake of a natural disaster, nothing is certain—including the roles that key community stakeholders can play in the revitalization efforts. However, Western Carolina University’s community-based research revitalization project will create a model that other colleges and universities can use in addressing the needs of their communities following significant disasters. With grant funding, Western Carolina faculty and students will work together with nearby Canton to develop and implement a revitalization plan. The small North Carolina town was ravaged by Hurricanes Frances and Ivan in 2004, and the impact has been long-lasting, as is the case in many communities that experience disaster—unemployment rises, property values decrease, and teachers, business-owners, and citizens leave at an alarming rate.

Teams of students in two entrepreneurship courses, Entrepreneurship Consulting and New Venture Creation, will work on various projects to provide the town with comprehensive revitalization support. In the first year, teams will collect information and best practices on community revitalization; in the second, teams will use this information to create a downtown revitalization plan. Meanwhile, other teams in these courses will provide consulting services to individual businesses and work with Haywood Community College students to develop a plan for a Museum of the Art and Science of Papermaking, a tourist attraction to draw visitors to downtown. In the final year of the grant, students will evaluate the program, using qualitative data to determine how the plans have impacted the social, economic, and educational infrastructure of Canton.

Canton will benefit tremendously from this long-term investment, as will the students who come to understand the impact of natural disaster and the complexity of community revitalization. In the process, tools and resources will be developed to support other CBR courses and programs in natural disaster recovery and community revitalization.

• THE STATE OF THE STATE FOR WASHINGTON LATINOS

Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington

Innovation: Research seminar assessing needs of and policies relevant to underrepresented minorities, with focus on effective public communication.

Although Latinos are the fastest growing minority group in Washington State, their levels of political representation are extremely low. Consequently, opportunities to apply the resources of public policy to address their distinctive social problems are not as actively pursued as they otherwise might be. With the research and communications support of a research seminar at Whitman College, a coalition of organizations that serves Latinos is addressing this deficit. Throughout the 400-level course, students work with the organizations that comprise the Walla Walla Latino-American Forum to identify their needs, answer key analytical questions that have a direct bearing on organizational and public policies, and synthesize their findings into common resources and a widely inclusive account of social and political conditions for Latinos in Washington State, called The State of the State for Washington Latinos.

The course places significant emphasis not only on research, but on the effective communication of that research. Students communicate with their partners throughout the semester, but then hold a final group meeting with all students and partners to discuss and address the challenges of communicating findings to all Washington residents. The discussion leads to a press conference, an informational session with state government officials, and a public meeting for Latino organizations, the media, local community leaders, and the entire Whitman campus.

With grant funding, Whitman College’s research seminar will continue to address and communicate the policies affecting and needs of Latinos, but will also expand into new issue areas, develop benchmark indicators, extend its network of partners, and cultivate ties with other campuses interested in community-based research projects. It will strengthen and build its communications program, carrying out additional public meetings, exploring web-based meeting technologies, and develop print and web-based resources in Spanish. Additionally, it will develop an online handbook and toolkit to allow other CBR practitioners to communicate research findings effectively—and support partners in doing so as well.