University and Community Agency Research Partnerships: Implications for Teaching, Scholarship, and Service

ABSTRACT

Community-partnered research presents unique opportunities for personal and professional development among social work practitioners, researchers, and students. It is a vehicle for promoting social work values, generating and sharing knowledge, and connecting research to practice. Findings from these types of partnerships can be instructive for those interested in pursuing community-partnered research to improve practice. In this article, we describe lessons learned from a Boston-based university and community agency research partnership. We include implications for partnership development, teaching, scholarship, and service to provide guidance for those interested in community-partnered research efforts. Although time intensive, community-partnered research exemplifies essential social work values and has the potential to benefit university and community partners.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Boston College Office of the Provost.

Notes on contributors

Samantha Teixeira

Samantha Teixeira, MSW, PhD, is an assistant professor at Boston College.

Margaret Lombe

Margaret Lombe, MSW, PhD, is an associate professor and assistant dean of the doctoral program at Boston College.

Victor Figuereo

Victor Figuereo, MSW, MA, is a doctoral candidate at the Boston College.

Yoosun Chu

Yoosun Chu, PhD, is an associate research fellow at Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, South Korea.

Kaipeng Wang

Kaipeng Wang, PhD, is an assistant professor at Texas State University.

Melissa W. Bartholomew

Melissa W. Bartholomew, JD, MDiv, MSW, is a PhD candidate at Boston College.

Robert Rosales

Robert Rosales, PhD, LCSW, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Brown University School of Public Health's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies.

Jaime Perez-Aponte

Jaime Perez-Aponte is a doctoral student at Boston College.

Ruth McRoy

Ruth McRoy, PhD, is professor emeritus at Boston College.

Deborah Kincade Rambo

Deborah Kincade Rambo, MSW, is the retired president of Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston, and adjunct faculty at the Boston College.

Larry Mayes

Larry Mayes, MPP, is vice president for programs at Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston, Boston, MA.