Historical models where universities come in as experts and problem solve for communities are fading. Such approaches do not acknowledge the expertise and knowledge that reside outside of the academy, nor do they adequately engage communities as partners committed to the success of the university created approaches. Instead, they reinforce ideas of university experts as outsiders who come and solve problems as intellectual exercises, writing up their experiences for their colleagues. The First in the World project challenges these traditional approaches to community outreach and recasts community-university partnerships in a way that is more with missions of universities to address societal challenges and problems in more collaborative, meaningful, and sustainable ways. The prevalence of this more collaborative, mutually beneficial approach to community-campus partnerships is increasing as universities find their places in societies of an information and urban age. In part, the role of universities has been defined externally, as critics of universities raise questions about whether or not the research produced by universities, and particularly public universities, is worth the public investment. The response we provide to those who raise such issues is that universities have always created knowledge that enhances the public good. But now, our approach is to incorporate more fully the participation of community partners in developing, implementing, and assessing university’s partnerships with communities.

‘Mainstreaming’ community engagement

The First in the World Project seeks to move university community partnerships from the margins to the mainstream of the academy’s work.  Historically seen to fulfill universities’ outreach and public service missions, our project focuses on mainstreaming community engagement by integrating it more fully into universities’ research and teaching missions.  In particular, our project focuses on increasing ties between universities and communities through the engagement of our students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, in community-based educational experiences designed to enhance their educational success while addressing society’s most intractable, grand challenges.

Different approaches for different institutional contexts

As the literature on community engagement work suggests, context matters. We have seen this in our work to date across the six universities that are part of our project. There are qualitative differences in how each institution engages its students with communities. Much of the approach depends on whether or not the universities are located in the communities in which their students live or if students move to a different community to attend their universities. The latter types of institutions lessen their involvement in their local communities and are challenged with linking students to new communities—like the ones they have at home—  within existing community-university partnerships. In contrast, for the former case, community engagement of students is relatively high, and thus we seek to explore ways in which engagement can help identify ways that help local communities develop a stronger sense of partnership and trust with their local institutions.