Members of the University of Iowa Obermann Working Group, an interdisciplinary group of faculty/staff, are engaged in working with community partners in research/grant settings focused on immigrant families and health related issues. Our own experiences have led us to more seriously consider how community partners' roles and contributions are often overlooked in publicly engaged work related to education and research. In this pre-conference workshop, we will share results of a focus group study with our community partners. We will share strategies for more effectively communicating with community partners, building productive relationships, and actively involving community members in the collaborative process. We intend to speak to those individuals new to community engagement who seek to partner with individuals and communities.
The pre-conference workshop will be very interactive. Workshop leaders will begin with a fishbowl activity to engage attendees in the issues surrounding community partners in publicly engaged research. We share the results of our research with our own community partners and then move to small group discussion where members will discuss cases that both complicate and extend effective partnerships with community members. We close the session with strategies for effective communication, relationship building, and the ethics of campus-community collaborations.
