Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

University Archives & Community Organizations: Ensuring Access Through Collaboration, Jessica R. Holden, Andrew Elder, Joanne Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

In 2011, to further our community-engaged mission, UASC began to focus on working with, promoting, and assisting community archives in the greater Boston area through facilitating cross-organization collaboration and access to informational, educational, and practical resources relevant to archival procedures and best practices.

The guiding tenets behind this continuing commitment emerged, in part, from UASC’s multifaceted collaboration with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA), a local nonprofit organization established to develop and promote the growth, study, and exchange of ideas among people and organizations interested in Irish genealogical and historical research and education. Our collaboration with TIARA formally began in …

University Archives And Community Organizations: Ensuring Access Through Collaboration, Jessica R. Holden, Andrew Elder, Joanne Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

How can a university archives establish a successful ongoing relationship with a community organization? What are the benefits and challenges of such a collaboration? University of Massachusetts Boston’s Archives and Special Collections (UASC) explored these questions while working with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) to preserve and provide access to 79,000 mortuary records from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. Elements of the collaboration included shifting stewardship of the records from the Foresters to TIARA to UMass Boston, integrating TIARA’s efforts in processing and indexing the records into the Archives’ workflow, providing in-person and electronic access to the records, …

Lessons From Lived Experience: From Fresh Insights To Effective Action, Lisa Deangelis, Maureen A. Scully, Andrea Wight

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The 34 fellows in the 2014 Emerging Leaders Program worked with community partners to generate the theme, “Learning from Lived Experience: From fresh insights to effective action." Each year, the projects draw upon a theme or lesson from the prior year. Last year and this year, fellows saw how the lived experiences of both their stakeholders and themselves generated nuanced and appropriate approaches to problem-solving. The fellows worked with six community partners, giving their time and professional skills to understand how to frame complex social challenges, engage new partners and resources, and sharpen strategic plans. They conducted surveys, interviews, open …

Interdisciplinarity And Actionable Science: Exploring The Generative Potential In Difference, Bridie Mcgreavy, Linda Silka, Laura Lindenfeld

Publications

Community practice and actionable science share a commitment to solving complex problems to promote sustainability. Collective abilities to address these types of problems rely on interdisciplinary collaborations that also offer unique challenges. In this case study of a statewide interdisciplinary setting, we focus on key methodological differences related to problem identification, stakeholder involvement, competing research paradigms, and orientations towards communication. We argue the generative potential in interdisciplinarity is enhanced through sustained effort and attention to difference; acceptance of the ethical responsibility to reflect critically on power in shared decision making spaces; and strategic interventions to continually promote and improve learning.

Transnational Brazilian Project, C. Eduardo Siqueira

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Since 2012, the Transnational Brazilian Project has been successful in organizing a transnational network of faculty, students, and community leaders to promote collaborative research and service. UMass Boston students and faculty have conducted research in Brazil, volunteered at the Brazilian Immigrant Center (BIC), and several Brazilian students gained research experience at the Mauricio Gastón Institute. In addition, a number of public health faculty from Brazil have visited UMass Boston to discuss future research projects and collaborations.

The Collaboration Of Faith And Social Work In Creating A Gateway Of Helping, Breanne M. Bambrick

Honors Program Projects

When tragedy occurs, trauma follows. In crises, emergency response professionals are called upon in order to aid survivors. While the majority of professionals involved have received formal education on crisis management or disaster relief, the faith community is often called upon to assist without such prior knowledge. However, based on their mutual commitment to serve those in need, the social work profession and faith community represents a natural partnership in preparing for the disaster management process. Therefore, social workers can assist faith leadership in order to empower the faith community to be involved in crisis response. Specifically, this research addresses …

A Reflective Conversation: Community And Hei Perspectives On Community-Based Research., Niamh O'Reilly, Catherine Bates

Staff Articles and Research Papers

This paper is a reflective correspondence between a community partner and a community-based research coordinator in a higher education institute (HEI). We asked each other questions about our experience of collaborating on two community-based research (CBR) projects, in order to share our learning from our collaboration, and to relate this to the wider context in order to develop recommendations for others – community partners and HEI staff – who would like to initiate CBR projects in the future.