Advancing Local Priorities with Community-University Partnerships

by Gabe Samuels

A publication of the Local Data for Equitable Communities Resource Hub

Because of their researchers, students, and data infrastructure, universities have the potential to advance equity in their communities through research and community partnerships. Yet institutionally driven research can overlook community needs and miss opportunities to build the long-term data capacity that is needed to sustain community-led research efforts. This can reinforce the pitfalls of the “ivory tower,” in which academic institutions may unintentionally harm the surrounding community by constructing barriers.

Universities can create strong community relationships by partnering with community organizations that engage residents. Over the past year, grantees of the Local Data to Address Structural Racism grant program have demonstrated that universities and community organizations can develop mutually beneficial research partnerships. Each example that we present is a unique partnership that nonprofits and universities can learn from as they seek to collaborate with communities on research projects.

Together for Kids Coalition Partnered with Clark University

The Together for Kids Coalition is a coalition of nonprofits in Worcester, Massachusetts, working to develop a collaborative system that ensures a healthy start for every child in the city. Edward Street, a coalition member, was the lead organization for this grant. Clark University, also a coalition member and longtime collaborator, was the research partner through a subcontract with Edward Street. Together, they sought to understand the barriers to critical early education and care in three Worcester neighborhoods and the experiences of parents attempting to access child care resources.

Clark University embedded the project in a graduate-level course. Graduate students worked on assembling existing quantitative data, including local resource data, for the project’s focus neighborhoods and for Worcester as a whole. Students also led interviews with ten families who indicated that they were having challenges navigating child care resources. The students shared the results of the combined analysis through data walks with families and child care providers, and then refined the results to create a set of final posters. Clark University also supported the research by reviewing the community partnership plan through their institutional review board, which helped to streamline a process that is traditionally challenging for organizations engaging in community-based participatory research.

Community partners appreciated the opportunity to work with graduate students, citing their thoughtful effort and commitment. The graduate students gained valuable experience as partners in community-engaged research, and were able to apply and practice research techniques outside of the classroom.

WEACT for Environmental Justice Partnered with Barnard, Columbia, and the New School

WEACT for Environmental Justice (WEACT) is a Harlem–based community-based organization that works to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and low-income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of environmental health and protection policies. WEACT examined the correlation between power outages and extreme heat in communities of color and low-income communities in New York City and worked with a few academic partners to support their research.

WEACT did not have university partnerships established for studying power outages prior to this project. Instead of seeking one partner for every aspect of their project, they leveraged the university-rich landscape of New York City by partnering with three private colleges and universities. Early in the process, WEACT worked with students participating in Barnard College’s Sustainable Development workshop, who helped conduct lengthy data collection and organize preliminary research around relationships between extreme heat, environmental justice, and power in New York City. WEACT then coordinated with a PhD student at the New School’s Urban Systems Lab, who expanded the students’ findings into a more formal spatial analysis.

Finally, WEACT partnered with Dr. Diana Hernandez, an associate professor in Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, who has significant research experience in energy insecurity and environmental justice. WEACT envisions this engagement as a long-term partnership. They expect their findings will contribute to Dr. Hernandez’s research, which in turn can further inform action and advocacy toward environmental justice in their shared community.

By prompting varying degrees of engagement from academic partners, WEACT led the research and ensured that the work focused on the community’s needs. The university partnerships allowed opportunities for students and faculty to advance internal research and to support the self-determined needs of New York’s environmental justice communities.

Higher Expectations for Racine County, Circulate San Diego, and Groundwork Bridgeport Partnered with University of Chicago Open Spatial Labs

Community organizations can also build data capacity by partnering with national initiatives led by academic institutions. The University of Chicago Open Spatial Lab (OSL), which is based at the University of Chicago Data Science Institute, supported data capacity building with Higher Expectations for Racine County, Circulate San Diego, and Groundwork Bridgeport.

OSL addresses gaps in organizational capacity to own and manage data by cobuilding accessible tools that make spatial data science more accessible and affordable. They emphasize community ownership of tools and infrastructure so that organizations can effectively maintain these tools after the initial development phase. Starting in January 2023, they engaged 18 nonprofit and community-based organizations on this work, administering a data maturity assessment to participants, discussing the results with participants, and preparing a customized report for each organization with specialized recommendations on next steps to reach their data goals.

Following this evaluation process, a subset of the 18 organizations participated in the OSL Data Collaboratory, a six-month program in which organizations worked with OSL to “cobuild” a custom data tool. Three organizations that are grantees of the Using Local Data to Address Structural Racism grant program participated in the collaboratory:

• Circulate San Diego, a nonprofit working to expand mobility choices and create vibrant, healthy neighborhoods in San Diego. They worked with OSL to develop an interactive map and data platform integrating multiple data sources to be used for sidewalk audits, community meetings, and advocacy efforts. They aim to use this tool to facilitate public engagement and identify infrastructure issues that have persisted over time to inform their advocacy work.
• Groundwork Bridgeport, an organization in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that promotes the sustained regeneration, improvement, and management of Bridgeport’s physical environment. They joined the collaboratory to codevelop an interactive data explorer for Groundwork’s tree-planting activities. Groundwork has integrated the tool into their tree database to track and visualize environmental and social impact trends over temporal and spatial aggregations.
• Higher Expectations for Racine County, a nonprofit promoting excellence and equity in education and employment outcomes in Racine County, Wisconsin. They collaborated with OSL and Milwaukee Succeeds to develop an automated data pipeline and data explorer tool that consolidates state-wide early childhood education data into accessible, interactive dashboards and reports.

All of the organizations spoke highly of their participation, and took away valuable lessons from the engagement. Circulate San Diego, for example, noted that the experience influenced them to prioritize practices that build their internal data capacities as well as to utilize technical assistance and other resources when necessary. The opportunity also allowed OSL to strengthen their national network while putting data tools into practice.

Local Partnerships Benefit Community Organizations and Universities Alike

By collaborating with established institutional partners, local nonprofits can improve their data capacity and expand their local networks. Universities should also be interested in these partnerships as they can build sustainable community engagement while providing students and faculty the opportunity to engage in meaningful, impactful research.

Community organizations and universities can generate more meaningful partnership opportunities by initiating and maintaining relationships regardless of immediate research needs, so that they are prepared to partner when research opportunities surface. There are a number of approaches that universities and community organizations can consider to establish these partnerships, such as incorporating projects into academic courses, working with professors with significant subject matter expertise, or working with multiple universities for different needs. This can help to ensure that residents, not institutions, are driving the direction of research.