PEW Report Offers Insight into Building University and Community Partnerships

A new report from the Pew Partnership for Civic Change offers recommendations for building more effective partnerships between universities and communities.

Posted In Southern Compass

The report is based on two years of research and a roundtable discussion convened by the Pew Partnership in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Among the key findings are that:

1) college and university faculty members reap multiple and unexpected benefits from engaging in community-based research;

2) faculty engagement leads to greater university-community collaboration at the institutional level;

3) increasing the accessibility of colleges and universities to community practitioners is an essential factor in building successful partnerships;

4) there is a demonstrated need for new networks to connect people working in the field of university-community research;

5) building research relationships with faculty members yields multiple benefits for nonprofits and governments; and

6) supporting collaborative research relationships between community agencies and university faculty has clear benefits for funders.

The Pew Partnership outlines three steps for encouraging effective university-community partnerships:

1) promoting connections between faculty and community practitioners;

2) providing incentives or rewards for collaboration; and

3) spotlighting successful partnerships.

View the report at http://www.pew-partnership.org/pdf/UCRP_report.pdf

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Southern Compass is compiled from reports from the Southern Technology Council, the Southern Global Strategies Council, the Council on the Southern Economy, the Council on a New Economy Workforce, the Council on the Southern Community and Southern Growth staff.

SOUTHERN GROWTH POLICIES BOARD is a non-partisan public policy think tank based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Formed by the region’s governors in 1971, Southern Growth Policies Board develops and advances visionary economic development policies by providing a forum for collaboration among a diverse cross-section of the region’s governors, legislators, business and academic leaders and the economic- and community-development sectors. Supported by the governments of 13 Southern states and Puerto Rico, Southern Growth provides its members, and the region, with authoritative research, discussion forums and pilot projects in the areas of technology and innovation, globalization, workforce development, community development, civic engagement and leadership. To learn more about Southern Growth Policies Board, visit http://www.southern.org.