Reaching Out and Reaching In:

Impacts of a University-Community

Outreach and Engagement Program

Community Development Society

Renaissance—From Vision to Action

Dubuque, IA July 20-23, 2014

Susan Erickson, ASLA

PLACE Program • Partnering Learning and

Community Engagement

– College of Design, 7 academic departments

– Pairs community development needs with student academic projects and faculty research projects

I wonder if some of the students at the University

could help us?

Let’s look a little closer

And closer

And soon we’ll be making lemonade.

Program overview

• Begun in 2000

• 134 projects of record

• Involving 1615 students

• 115 different communities

Eventually we asked…

So what? Let’s investigate PLACE program

impacts.

Vocabulary anarchy!

• Outreach

• Engagement

• Service learning (without the hyphen)

• Service-learning (with the hyphen)

• Participatory Action Research

• Community-based Design/Research

• Experiential Learning

• Participatory Planning and Design

Benefit to four primary

audiences

how much do we know about service-

learning?

Students Faculty

Educational institutions

Communities

(Howard, 2003)

And the literature says…..

Very little!

•It’s difficult to study

– Community is complex, many variables

– Much attribution and contribution,

– Causation???

Literature review

– Do with and not for the community partner Ward & Wolf-Wendell

– Build bridges, don’t burn them Stoecker & Tryon

• What would we hear if we listened to community partners about their experiences in partnering with academic institutions?

–Sandy and Holland, 2006

So we asked…and listened

• Qualitative research

– Interviews with community stakeholders

– Randomly selected from projects

Findings: raw data

Findings: Four data themes Process Community-

University Relationship

Outcomes Holistic themes

•Program Structure

•Community-Student Interaction

•Community Contributions

•University Contributions

•Final Report/ Presentation

•Final Document

•Learning Experience for students

•Community-Professor Interaction

•Setting Expectations

•Relationship

•Expanded community capacity

•Use of Final Report

•Enhanced project legitimacy

•External variables

•Value to community

•Leadership changes

•Benefit to other entities

Theme One: Process

• Program Structure

• Community-Student Interaction

• Community Contributions

• University Contributions

• Final Presentation

• Final Document

Process, summary

• Community members were enthusiastic about impacts of the PLaCE program

• High value on interaction with students, their enthusiasm, and fresh perspective.

• New ideas/creative designs

• Final presentations are valued

Theme Two:

Community-University

Partnership

• A mutually beneficial relationship:

– Learning Experience for Students

– Community Development Assistance for Community

Community-University

Partnership, summary

• Relationship with University is valued

• Communities are willing to work with the academic calendar.

• Interaction with professors can be a highlight

• Communication is important

• Relationship is strong and worth maintaining

Theme Three: Outcomes

• Expanded Community Capacity

• Use of Project Report

• Enhanced Legitimacy

Outcomes, summary

• Expanded community capacity

• Physical improvements occurred

• Plans were used

• Increased legitimacy internally AND externally

• 4/17 projects engaged with private design professionals

Holistic themes • Moving Forward

– Economy is a factor

– Need a strong advocate

• Value to Community

– Balance on benefits

spectrum

– Changes of Leadership

– Report can be helpful

• Benefit to other entities

To summarize….

• Direct impacts – Parks

– Plans

– Signage

– Branding

• Indirect impacts – Expanded community

capacity

– Enhanced legitimacy • Internally

• externally

• It’s not easy to find

the impacts, a lot of

inquiry is necessary.

• And sometimes you

have no control over

the impacts….

Most important lessons:

• Importance of a

structured program

– Dedicated staff

– Set clear expectations

• Look for a wide range

and diversity of

impacts, direct &

indirect

• Choose partners

carefully

• Reality of external

influences

• Assessment is

important

Recommendations

no matter how much information is collected, it is useless if it is not sent back out. This is perhaps the most neglected part of assessment (Young, 1998)

A challenge to you!

Susan Erickson, ASLA

PLACE Program Coordinator

515.294.1790

susaneri@iastate.edu

Questions?