OFFICE OF COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023
ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023
We recognize that the most successful UW Tacoma community partnerships are transformative and result in each partner achieving more together than they can accomplish alone. Within our strategic plan, we acknowledge that partnerships flourish when they are supported with infrastructure including organizational processes, communication channels, staffing, and funding. We are committed to improving support in the following areas:
• Promote Community-Engaged Partnerships
• Build Strategic Partnerships
• Collect & Assess Engagement Data
• Provide Data Analytics
UW
The UW Tacoma strategic plan affirms the mission, vision and values of UW Tacoma for which the Office of Community Partnerships is positioned to support and further implement and operationalize community engagement priorities.
• Strengthen collaborative community partnerships with an emphasis on diverse communities.
• Enhance, incentivize and recognize collaborative community engagement.
• Create and strengthen entry points for the community to partner with UW Tacoma.
UW TRI-CAMPUS STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS TO BUILD FOUNDATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
• Develop community engagement best principles and blueprints in alignment with diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Support or incorporate community engagement in campus-scale strategies and planning.
• Improve data collection (tracking, mapping, documentation) and analysis (assessment, evaluation) of community engagement.
• Support faculty and staff community engagement by developing and expanding resources for professional development, promotion and tenure, and other supports.
• Grow student community engagement training and professional development opportunities.
Since 2020, OCP has been working alongside other community engagement offices at institutions of higher education around the country to continuously improve assessment methodology for community engagement data. By assessing the campus’ community engagement data OCP can better understand common themes among ‘strong’ partnerships so we can encourage and promote those components in new and emerging partnerships. The goal is to create a larger network of deep relationships with our community partners as UW Tacoma continues to embed itself in the South Sound community.
In the following pages, we have developed a series of charts to visualize reported community engaged partnerships and initiatives. These visualizations begin to describe and help us understand the type and levels of community engagement at UW Tacoma. As we continue our work to support and sustain community engagement, we will see how co-creation and reciprocal partnerships positively impact our community.
Click here to learn more about Collaboratory.
These images show counts by community engagement category. Some activities fall into multiple categories. Data is voluntarily submitted by UW Tacoma faculty and staff members who lead the community engagement activity. This does not represent all community engagement activities.
Since receiving the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement in January of 2020, UW Tacoma faculty, staff, and students remain focused on making community engagement a deeper, more pervasive, better integrated, and sustained campus effort.
In the next academic year, UW Tacoma will begin the re-application process for the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification designation (due in Spring of 2025).
“Community engagement describes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.
The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.”
The University of Washington Tacoma recognizes and celebrates community engagement through a variety of awards and observances. Many faculty, staff, and students on this campus are engaged in exciting community partnership activities, and recognizing their work is a priority.
Given annually, the award recognizes the important and innovative community-engaged and community-based work by faculty at the University of Washington Tacoma. Such work is based on an ethic of mutual benefit in which both the community partner and/or public and the university, its faculty, and/or its students benefit in ways not possible without the partnership.
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
The Faculty Fellows in Community Engagement Program is designed to support, strengthen, and formalize community engagement for faculty collaborator groups (at least 2 faculty) who develop and integrate publicly-engaged activities with teaching and scholarship for the public good. Funding is intended to support proposals that collectively address a community identified need and actively include community partners in the ongoing co-learning and co-production processes.
Rachel Hershberg
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Stephen Ross
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Community Partner
Restore Assemble Produce (RAP)
Mathematics Via Mathematics Festivals
Duong (Rita) Than School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Jennifer Quinn
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Community Partners
Pacific Lutheran University, Graduate Tacoma
Project UNIFY: Understanding Needs in Families and Youth
Kathleen Beaudoin
School of Education
Laura Feuerborn
School of Education
Community Partner
Tacoma Public Schools
As a Washington Coalition for the Public Good member institution, UW Tacoma annually recognizes and awards two of our student civic leaders who are addressing critical issues on their campuses and in their communities through civic engagement and social entrepreneurship.
This award honors a graduating senior who exemplifies UW Tacoma’s ideal of service combined with learning.
Business Administration, Marketing (Summer 2023)
The Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) is a non-profit educational organization, composed of higher education member institutions, a mix of state-public and private institutions. ESC’s goal is to work collaboratively to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship and designed to help build community capacity.
UW Tacoma is a member institution. As a member benefit, ESC promotes opportunities for faculty from Member Institutions to collaborate on opportunities for research and external funding. Member Institutions identify ways that their faculty, staff, students, and community partners can connect with and collaborate on community engagement efforts.
The Office of Community Partnerships serves as a coordination point for faculty and staff who attend and present at the annual ESC conference. Additionally, OCP financially supports the conference attendance as a supplement for professional development funds provided by the faculty or staff member’s home unit.
In May 2023, Dr. Kelley was selected to receive this award to recognize his contributions to scholarship and the practice of engaged scholarship. He created the Action Mapping Project (AMP), which is a youth-oriented and community-based project in Tacoma, Washington that fosters neighborhood change through data production, education, and direct action.
Matt Kelley School of Urban StudiesThis national award will be presented during ESC’s 2023 Annual Conference at Michigan State University in October of 2023.