Kellogg Award
2022 W. K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Awards
Recipients of the 2022 W. K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award
and
Finalists for the 2022 C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award
University of Georgia
Archway Parthnership
* Winner of the 2022 C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award
The Archway Partnership is a public service and outreach unit of the University of Georgia (UGA) that is unique in its placement of faculty members in specific communities to help build community collaboration, address critical issues, and access the range of resources available within the University. This connection develops and manages the flow of resources and relationships between community and university, recognizing the value and significance of each partner's contributions. The Archway Partnership accesses the University's vast resources to bring technical assistance (data analytics, community engagement and facilitation), as well as subject-matter expertise to a select number of partner communities, serving eight communities in a multi-year partnership. Communities become comfortable engaging in community-based scholarship with faculty, whose interests align with their own priorities and see the University as a natural partner in taking on their most pressing issues. These prolific partnerships have led to the involvement of more than 200 faculty in Archway communities since the program began in 2005 and led to over $20M in community and research grants since 2009. The work of the Archway Partnership is shared with community practitioners through state and local organizations ensuring the scholarship does not rest with the institution but is disseminated across communities.
University of Texas - San Antonio
Westside Community Partnerships
The University of Texas – San Antonio (UTSA) Westside Community Partnership (WCP) is a hyperlocal initiative improving the lives of Westside San Antonio, Texas families by developing critical data for policy advocacy, enhancing networks and infrastructure for engaged research, and improving student success. WCP is committed to bringing transformational changes to the Westside as it has suffered from pervasive patterns of structural violence, including racial segregation, educational neglect, and political disenfranchisement. Initially, WCP leadership engaged with thirty different Westside leaders from community-based non-profits, businesses, educational institutions, and neighborhood associations by employing the plática methodology where conversations take place one-on-one and are centered in experiences, stories, and interpretations that impart knowledge connected to personal, familial, and cultural history. The WCP has collaborated with a variety of partners to co-create critical data policy advocacy in the realms of preservation of affordable housing, bridging the digital divide with small and microbusinesses, and uncovering unmet estate planning needs of residents. The WCP has built community interest in and capacity for research by connecting UTSA faculty with Westside community partners to engage jointly in research that improves the bienestar, or comfort, of WCP residents.
University of Vermont
Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative
The Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC) is a community of practice at the University of Vermont, seeking to better understand and transform current food systems to ones that are ecologically sound and socially just. The ALC has a long-standing commitment to engaged scholarship and participatory action research (PAR) in agroecology and food systems. The ALC has engaged with farmers and supporting organizations to undertake research that is relevant for everyone involved. Partners range from smallholder coffee cooperatives in Mesoamerica to the Intervale Center, a non-profit managing 360 acres of land in Burlington, Vermont. Using PAR and transdisciplinary methodologies, the ALC co-creates knowledge that advances academic understanding while directly addressing community partner priorities. The ALC focuses on processes of social transformation in pursuit of socially just food systems. This requires systems level analysis and action, both locally and globally, looking for and engaging with leverage points for change. The ALC is committed to engaging with the root causes of unsustainability and social injustice in food systems. With the Intervale Center, engaged staff reflect on how agroecology is expressed in the land and programmatically, and how to use agroecology to strengthen both ecological stewardship and social equity.
University of Wisconsin - Madison
UniverCity Year – Green County
UniverCity Year (UCY) is a four-phase, three-year partnership between Wisconsin local governments and communities and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. This program, which is housed under the broader network of UniverCity Alliance (UCA), takes community-based scholarship and teaching to the next level by responding directly to community needs and leveraging resources at the university. Communities help shape tangible deliverables that they can implement, while students gain invaluable experience by putting what they learn in the classroom into practice. After applying to UCY, communities identify projects that would benefit from UW - Madison expertise in phase one, and university staff help shape research-to-practice questions that can be tackled by faculty and students. UCY staff then outreach to faculty, staff, and students across the University and find opportunities to incorporate projects into courses, independent studies, research projects, internships, or field placements. Staff provide administrative support to ensure successful collaboration and clarity on the deliverables, data sharing, and communications expectations and protocols. Projects span a diverse array of topics, including transportation, housing, health, agriculture, childcare, economic development, and the arts. The final phase of the project is dedicated to UCY supporting additional implementation. All projects are published on UCY's website, which serve as a repository of resources.
Exemplary Projects
(Project ACT) Advocacy and Other Community Tactics to Challenge Barriers to HIV Care for Gay and Bisexual Men and Transgender Women
Michigan State University
In 2016, MPact Global Action for Gay Men's Health and Rights (MPact), a transnational civil-society organization (CSO) based in California, joined in partnership with Michigan State University to dismantle structural barriers to HIV care for gay and bisexual men and transgender women. Their signature project is Project ACT. For Project ACT, the partnership also included LGBT-led CSOs in Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe. The partnership developed and implemented country-specific intervention strategies to address structural barriers to accessing HIV care. Project ACT supported assessment of community-led systems for monitoring stigma and discrimination in the provision of HIV healthcare, routine healthcare worker sensitization efforts, and healthcare-community partnerships to improve access to HIV services in a first-of-its-kind demonstration project. Ongoing empirical inquiry rooted in the transformative paradigm guided the partnership in documenting the challenges and successes of eliminating barriers to care driven by stigma and discrimination. Signature achievements included Jamaica's first ever submission on the state of transgender access to healthcare to the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review, the establishment of national sensitivity training in the Dominican Republic, and expanded access to affirming HIV care in Ghana, Cameroon, and Zimbabwe.
Literacy Champions: An Engaged Partnership to Improve Writing Achievement
Texas Tech University
Writing skills determine many facets of a high school student's future opportunity and success in post-secondary settings. This is particularly true for underrepresented populations of learners who often receive less-than-adequate instruction in schools struggling with limited resources and high teacher turnover rates. In 2014, the Lubbock Independent School District (LISD) identified academic writing development of students as a critical need and asked Texas Tech's College of Education for help. Situated in a diverse and historically "underperforming" high school, the partnership entails a unique approach to school reform through professional development occurring throughout the school year and summer that is driven by engaged scholarship. The purpose has been to cultivate a writing program for 9th and 10th grade students that is sustainable, grounded in evidence-based pedagogy, and sensitive to the realities of meeting state achievement measures. Each year faculty, instructional coaches, and teachers co-create a research design, gather, and analyze data, and use findings to shape instruction. Now in its 5th year, the team has gained significant insights about meaningful professional development and instructional methods that close performance gaps for underserved student populations. The partnership has led to sustained growth in student writing and is serving as a model for closing the gaps in adolescents' writing.
Kentucky Racing Health Services Center and the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville (UL) Kentucky Racing Health Services Center (KRHSC) is a nurse practitioner (NP) managed faculty primary care (PC) practice. It provides healthcare services in PC, women's health, and mental health to uninsured backside workers in the thoroughbred racing industry most of which are from Churchill Downs (the home of the Kentucky Derby). This is a migrant, at-risk population of patients who are non-English speaking Latinx immigrants of low socioeconomic status with low health literacy rates. KRHSC collaborates with the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund, Inc. where KRHWF conducts the administrative tasks of the practice while the KRHSC provides the medical care. The KRHSC/KRHWF team leads outreach initiatives to backside workers such as health fairs and community events. In addition, KRHWF and KRHSC NPs take students on guided tours of Churchill Downs' stable area. This provides a deeper understanding of the working and living conditions that contribute to the backside workers' physical and mental health.
This unique community/university partnership allows for collaboration with UL academic units and gives students the opportunity to participate in experiential learning via course internships and practicums for undergraduate and doctoral nursing students and dentistry residents. The partnership has been highly recognized with 10 practice awards including Oprah Winfrey's "O Magazine" recognition as Healthcare Heroes.
Education for All
West Virginia University
The relationship between West Virginia University (WVU) and the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) recreates a new space for learning and scholarship within the prison system. The voice of both students in prison and those enrolled at WVU have led the way for movements forward in education for all. APBP’s work emanates from two interconnected premises: education is a basic human right and engaging the community is essential to sustainable restorative justice practices. Higher education programs in prison significantly reduce recidivism and increase the likelihood of post-release employment. Ensuring people in prison have access to education, APBP has developed partnerships and mobilized stakeholders across sectors. APBP has evolved into a dynamic site for community engagement, service-learning, publicly engaged research, and educational justice. The team approach to engagement led to credit-bearing courses, a degree pathway for people in prison, and scholarly articles, book chapters, social media campaigns, podcasts, over twenty national and international conferences, the Educational Justice and Appalachian Prisons Symposium, and multiple collaborations. This relationship is experience-based and builds learning communities that include incarcerated people, prison officials, faculty, community members, and student peers. Connecting to WVU provides a foundation for engaged learning that demonstrates thoughtful effort to unite people.