Community engagement is the collaboration between organizations/institutions, often of higher education, and their larger community (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity (McCormick & Zhao, Reference McCormick and Zhao2005). Considerable momentum regarding organizations working toward community-engaged projects, partnerships, and collaborations has been gained in recent years (Holland, Reference Holland2016). The work of the Carnegie Foundation to initiate the “Community-Engagement Classification” for institutions of higher education created some of this momentum, while the overt benefits that corporations gain by working with their community has also furthered these efforts (Sandy & Holland, Reference Sandy and Holland2006). Essentially, there are members of higher education (faculty and administration) leaders in organizations at all levels and community members/leaders who are collectively reaching out to one another in an effort to mutually benefit from the exchange of knowledge and resources. For example, having students from a university volunteer to help a nonprofit to carry out events (e.g., Suzan Komen Foundation Race for the Cure) provides great relief to the nonprofit organization in terms of time and resources, as well as opportunities for students to develop a lifelong desire to give back to their community. The body of research and practice surrounding community engagement continues to grow, and yet no definitive volume exists that defines, synthesizes, and provides best practices for organizational community engagement and outreach. As such, the purpose of this book is to provide the current “state of the field” in terms of the study and practice of community engagement in its many forms (e.g., university–community partnerships, disciplinary/interdisciplinary outreach, corporate social responsibility, and so forth). This edited volume includes both science- and practice-oriented contributions so as to assist both the academic seeking to engage in science-based outreach and the practitioner seeking to initiate a more socially responsible effort in their firm.
The book is structured around different ways individuals in organizations, including faculty, administrators, and management, engage in their communities. Specifically, contributors who have expertise in community engagement address best practices for impacting communities through partnerships and collaboration. Domains of community engaged efforts include overt university–community partnerships, disciplinary/interdisciplinary outreach, and leading community-engaged efforts in both institutes for higher education and for-profit organizations. This handbook provides a definitive reference for people looking to understand, study, and practice community engagement. Scholars active in this field can use this book as an integration of the current knowledge concerning community engagement and as an inspiration for future research agendas.
Because community engagement takes many forms and is topically considered across disciplines, areas of academia, and corporate life, a wide range of scholars and practitioners may have interest in the book. For example, community engagement scholars would be interested in this book because community engagement efforts are often complex, challenging, and difficult to carry forward. The authors of the chapters in this handbook discuss success stories of community engagement efforts and outline best practices that are of value to all who engage in such efforts. Each chapter of the handbook endeavors to include sections discussing applied implications as well as best practices from the content presented, where applicable. Because community engagement is interdisciplinary, the scholars who contributed to this handbook include industrial/organizational psychologists, communication scholars, management scholars, social work scholars, public policy and public administration scholars, and higher education and leadership scholars. Because of its broad representation of perspectives and disciplines, the handbook serves as a state of the field of the work related to organizational community engagement.
Organizational Community Engagement and Outreach: An Overview of This Volume
The balance of this introduction is devoted to providing a summary and overview of the volume. We proceed by providing a note on each section, including brief summaries of each chapter, why it is included in the volume, and, in some cases, who may find the chapter of particular interest. The hope is that the following summary will aid readers in identifying the sections most applicable to their current need, as well as providing them with ideas for future efforts falling in the other sections.
Part I Introduction: Organizational Community Engagement over Time
This introduction chapter and Chapter 2 are meant to introduce the book and the topics that will be covered. In particular, this first section of the book highlights the components of community engagement and outreach and the issues that lie within both the research and practice of engagement.
Chapter 2: Sustaining Community Engagement in Times of Leadership Transition.
Olszowy Jones and Sandmann raise and explore a core issue: the sustainability of community outreach and engagement efforts over time. Specifically, they discuss the competing purposes of and philosophies that exist within the realm of higher education and the role of leaders in shaping an institution’s community-based mission. We decided to include this chapter before all other contributions in order to shed light on the core issues facing the key stakeholders in community engagement and outreach efforts.
To illustrate the vulnerability of community engagement efforts in leadership transitions, the authors describe a university case study within a theoretical framework centered on universities. They developed key insights for organizational stakeholders who wish to improve the sustainability of their partnerships and programs. Their work highlights the importance of informal and formal leaders and their ability to change systems and procedures that will help fulfill an integrated mission of community engagement.
Part II University–Community Partnerships
The chapters in this section describe ways in which universities and their students and faculty can engage with their communities in meaningful and sustainable ways. Many of the chapters in this section discuss service learning and provide case studies of successful and lasting service-learning partnerships that have transformed students, faculty, and communities. Much of the focus of this section is applied and practical in nature.
Chapter 3: Volunteer Program Assessment: A University–Community Partnership.
Trent, Prange, and Allen describe a university-based outreach program that provides free assessment services to volunteer programs. The contributors describe how the chapter at the University of Nebraska at Omaha serves its clients in a reciprocal manner, sustains itself over time, and maintains a high-quality relationship with university stakeholders. Readers of this chapter will find a discussion of the following: (a) place-based institutions; (b) a review of current issues in volunteerism and volunteer management in the United States; (c) a full description of the Volunteer Program Assessment and its services; and (d) a list of best practices for those who wish to improve or develop a new university partnership. Anyone interested in program evaluation, student programs, volunteers, or anchor-based institutions should read this chapter. The contributors also include many figures and replicable suggestions in order to appeal to a practical audience.
Chapter 4: Introducing Engaged Civic Learning: An Emerging Approach to University–Community Partnerships.
Weaver’s chapter is the first academic work that describes the pedagogical technique of engaged civic learning. She introduces the concept both theoretically and practically by exploring a case study in which two interdisciplinary university classes and a nonprofit organization collaborated to provoke policy change in a community. Readers of this chapter will find a review of the history and core concepts of experiential learning, a full description of the case and its benefits to all participants, as well as research and the practical implications of the case study’s outcomes. The author calls for rigorous research methods for empirical study of the construct and provides valuable “lessons learned” from her own experience. Appealing to a broad audience, university educators and administrators, students, nonprofit members, and government workers all would benefit from reading this chapter.
Chapter 5: Service-Learning Partnerships in Secondary Education.
Arens, a high school science educator, describes multiple service-learning courses in which she partnered with college classes from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. By participating in multiple science-based service-learning programs, she helped to transform her department and developed an outdoor classroom curriculum. The contributor’s practical perspective will give readers key takeaways for developing their own service-learning curricula, networking with community organizations, and evaluating their service-learning efforts. Practitioners and faculty interested in helping students develop skills for twenty-first-century applications and applied knowledge should read this chapter.
Chapter 6: Integrating Foreigners into Local Communities for Mutual Benefit: Chances, Challenges, and Best Practice.
Klauke, Meinecke, Müller-Frommeyer, and Kauffeld are German authors who wrote a chapter about the importance of helping international and refugee students develop a sense of community by involving them in service learning. In their chapter, they describe the research-based structure of the two programs they use as case studies, the students, organizations, and communities impacted by the programs, and the ways that all actors benefit from the programs. Readers should expect to learn about migration and its impact on learning institutions, a detailed description of the programs at Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany, a list of best practices that helped successfully integrate foreign students into the community, as well as some challenges that the authors experienced. This chapter in particular addresses how globalization impacts universities and communities.
Chapter 7: A Case Study on Community and Identity in a Study Abroad Program.
Whereas many service learning courses and programs serve the community in which their school resides, Slattery Walker and Fitzgerald describe the implementation of a study abroad service-learning course in which they take students from North Carolina to the United Kingdom. The program has been operational for nine years, and the authors describe the motivations behind the creative program and how community organizations are chosen at the international site. A convenient list of best practices will be useful for any faculty looking to implement or develop a similar program.
Part III Disciplinary Outreach
The chapters in this section describe various community engagement and outreach strategies used to accomplish goals within a single academic discipline or content area. Results of case studies are used to illuminate the challenges of this kind of work, yet many of the recommendations that contributors offer are transferrable to any content area.
Chapter 8: Faculty and Students Consulting in the Community: The Center for Applied Psychological Services.
Mroz, Yoerger, Allen, and Reiter-Palmon describe a campus organization for graduate students seeking applied experience within their field of study – industrial/organizational psychology. The faculty-managed consulting group serves many organizations in need of affordable organizational development and human resources services. A few of the group’s projects are described, illustrating the wide range of skills that students can hone as members of the group. The authors posit that these types of campus organizations could be replicated across departments in any institution to the mutual benefit of students, the university, and the community. This chapter contains detailed information about outreach efforts and consulting strategies that may be of interest to faculty, administrators, and practitioners.
Chapter 9: Discipline-Specific Outreach: Client Projects through Graduate Classes and University-Based Consulting Centers.
In Chapter 9, Hein and Moffett compare two ways in which faculty and graduate students could implement disciplinary outreach and engagement efforts with community organizations: service-learning courses or a campus-based consulting group, as discussed in Chapter 8. The contributors offer detailed best practices for each method, specifically regarding how to initiate and build relationships with community organizations. Points of tension when conducting the projects are also discussed. Readers wishing to know the benefits and intricacies of university-based disciplinary programs would benefit from reading this chapter.
Chapter 10: Driving Workforce Readiness: The Case for Community-Based HR Initiatives.
Jones, Johnson-Murray, Streets, Alonso, and Waters address the social issue of workplace preparedness in their discussion about how human resources professionals and businesses can instigate change in their communities that is beneficial for both the labor force and organizations alike. Community-based human resources can be conducted by current or past human resources professionals, as well as one or more organizations through corporate social responsibility programs or professional organizations like the Society of Human Resource Management. Business practitioners and students in the human resources and related fields would be most interested in this chapter.
Chapter 11: University Educators and Disciplinary Specialists Working Together to Enhance Community Outreach and Deepen K–12 Teacher Content Knowledge.
The last chapter in the section on disciplinary outreach was written by faculty from three separate universities. Together, Hodge, York, and Rech recommend best practices to increase communication across department silos in university settings. The case study in this chapter illustrates a program that promoted regular meetings among education subject matter experts, content specialists, and K–12 educators. The chapter reports the results of the program’s evaluation. The success of the program is attributed to strong interorganizational partnerships, strong planning of events, and feedback from participants. The authors provide useful information for anyone who may be interested in encouraging more frequent communication between community members around a single content area.
Part IV Interdisciplinary Outreach
Whereas Part III contained chapters that offered guidance on community engagement and outreach within a single content area, the chapters in Part IV describe best practices and challenges in work that crosses multiple content areas.
Chapter 12: The Organizational Science Summer Institute: Community Outreach to Diversify the Graduate Education Pipeline.
Speights, Stewart, Ruggs, Rogelberg, Reynolds, and Long describe key success factors for their interdisciplinary program, called the Organizational Science Summer Institute. The Institute is designed to help racial minority students gain access to graduate school programs. Based on their experience, they emphasize the importance of aligning the values of multiple organizations when creating a new partnership. They also offer a step-by-step guide to building such a program on any college campus. This chapter would be particularly useful for readers interested in diversity, education inequity, and university programs.
Chapter 13: Periclean Scholars: An Interdisciplinary Model of Civic Engagement on College Campuses.
In Chapter 13, Dunn, Arcaro, and Post shed light on a three-year program that leverages interdisciplinary work, service learning, and community service to get students involved in their communities and enhance their education. A primary component of the Periclean Scholars program is to help students become leaders who are prepared to take action in their communities. The contributors provide an in-depth review of service learning, a description of the program and its outcomes, and a reader-friendly process to help people wanting to implement similar programs at their institutions. The authors hope that their writing will inspire readers to conduct more service-learning courses for the benefit of the community, as well as faculty and students.
Chapter 14: University, School District, and Service-Learning Community Partnerships That Work.
Dierberger, Everett, Kehrberg, and Greene collaborated to illustrate the multidimensionality of P–16 service-learning projects, which are service-learning courses with at least three partners: (a) a P–12 class; (b) a college-level class; and (c) a community organization. Because of the complexity of such projects, the authors identified that successful partnerships rely on mutually beneficial goals and goal progress, systematic communication, and trusting interpersonal relationships. The chapter contains a formal study that answers the following research question: What are the key ingredients to a successful P–16 service-learning partnership? To learn about P–16 service learning, interorganizational theory, and boundary-spanning partnerships, take a look at this chapter.
Part V Leading Community Engagement Efforts
The chapters in this section of the handbook explore how and why community, organizational, and leadership factors play a part in the community outreach and engagement efforts of institutions. According to the authors in this section, leadership is both an antecedent to successful partnerships and an outcome of such partnerships.
Chapter 15: Leading Social Innovation and Community Engagement: Strategies for Picking the Right Actions.
To kick off the topic of leadership, a group of leadership researchers, Mumford, Martin, Elliott, and Todd, argue that social innovation is essential for successful community engagement efforts. In addition, they claim that leaders play an essential role in setting the stage for sustained community engagement practices. To find out what seven leadership skills are essential for successful community engagement in an organization and how leadership can change the course of community engagement efforts, flip the page to Chapter 15 for a theoretical review of leadership concepts in relation to organizational community engagement.
Chapter 16: Community-Based Partnerships for Capacity Building: Stakeholder Engagement through Governance and Leadership.
Willness provides an overview of an undergraduate experiential learning program at the University of Saskatchewan within a framework of stakeholder engagement and organizational governance. The author claims that such strategies can and should be used to achieve reciprocity, trust, and voice among organizational partners. A business professor, Willness applies management principles in order to appeal to a broad audience. A description of the Governance and Leadership Development Practicum, lessons learned, and best practices can be found in this chapter, and it will be of particular interest to administrators, curriculum specialists, and faculty.
Chapter 17: “Make the World a Better Place”: Local Leadership as a Vehicle for Personal and Community Development.
Chapter 17 takes a different perspective on leadership from the other chapters in this section. Rather than writing about organizational leadership as a factor in community engagement success, van Huijstee and Ronay discuss how community engagement and outreach (e.g., experiential learning) improves leadership skills in the individuals who participate in such initiatives. To illustrate, the authors describe a number of projects that they have implemented within a master’s-level graduate class to achieve improved leadership ability and personal growth. The contributors hope to challenge faculty to be creative and thoughtful in their curriculum development to ensure they are meeting the needs of students and community partners.
Part VI Putting It All Together
The chapters in this section of the handbook address discrepancies in the field and offer directions for future research and practice of community engagement and outreach. Topics such as assessment, culture, institution-wide strategy, anchor institutions, and the state of research will be addressed.
Chapter 18: Assessing and Classifying the Institutionalization of Community Engagement.
Johnson and Saltmarsh describe two instruments to assess community engagement as an institutionalized practice for campuses in the United States. Specifically, the National Assessment of Service and Community Engagement and the Carnegie Foundation Elective Community Engagement Classification are discussed. The chapter provides background information on the development and evolution of each of the measures and how they have been used. Both measures are designed to create accountability and for quality improvement and support organizational innovation and change. In addition, the authors suggest that using these measures can provide an alternative to traditional rankings by providing information that is typically not considered in those rankings.
Chapter 19: Fostering an Integrated Culture of Community Engagement.
In this chapter, Dodge, Starke, Smith-Howell, and Woods discuss how universities can create a culture that values community engagement. They suggest that creating and sustaining such a culture requires cultural change for most universities. As such, they start their chapter with a discussion of the complexities and difficulties associated with implementing change. The authors then provide ten strategies that encourage cultural change and the institutionalization of community engagement in higher education. They conclude the chapter by providing a case study of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and show how these ten strategies have been used together to strengthen each other, resulting in a cultural shift toward inclusion of community engagement in the institutional culture.
Chapter 20: After Institutionalization: Enacting University–Community Engagement as a Process of Change.
Romero, Epperson, Gilbert, and Marston focus on an illustrative case study of how the landscape of community engagement evolved and changed on their campus. Specifically, they discuss the institutionalization of community and civic engagement and how the earning of the Carnegie Engaged Campus classification assisted with defining the institution and its many collaborations as truly community engaged. The chapter provides a unique perspective that could be emulated by others as desired. For other institutions seeking to grow into the community engagement domain, this chapter provides a blueprint for success, or at least some best practices to enact and pitfalls to avoid.
Chapter 21: Building a University Climate to Support Community-Engaged Research.
In this chapter, Holton, Early, Gough, and Gendron discuss the compelling need for institutions of higher education to lay the groundwork for community-engaged research. Their goal is to provide a comprehensive approach to changing the organizational culture/climate associated with community-engaged research, thereby launching the organization into the future that demands collaboration with community. They elaborate on the structures, competence, incentives, and barriers to community-engaged research, while emphasizing a need to also measure and evaluate the effectiveness of such efforts. Those seeking a framework from which to launch their own community-engaged research platform at their institution or organization may find this chapter particularly useful and compelling.
Chapter 22: Putting It All Together: An Interview with Barbara Holland and Final Thoughts.
The final chapter in this handbook is uniquely structured because it contains an in-person interview with Barbara Holland, an internationally renowned community engagement expert. She offers her perspective on the state of the field and how organizations can achieve their goals regarding community engagement and outreach. The editors offer concluding thoughts that reflect on Holland’s interview.
Closing Remarks
The chapters in this volume capture research, practice, and cases of great success in the area of organizational community engagement and outreach. Further, the section on leadership in community engagement efforts provides a unique set of readings that may help individuals preparing to lead on such projects. We conclude the volume by interviewing a known luminary in the field of community engagement, Dr. Barbara Holland, who provides insights into where community engagement has been and where it is going. Hopefully, those who find and read this volume will be well informed and prepared for that future, which holds such promise for organizational community engagement and outreach.
