Schools of Social Work Contribution to Community Partnerships: The Renewal of the Social Compact in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

Embracing the concept that the social compact between university and community can provide a cornerstone for true social change. This article details how partnering with outside organizations in collaborative relationships can help fulfill higher education's obligation to educate for the good of a democratic and learned populace. Often the social conscience of a university, schools of social work can serve as leaders in the development or facilitation of university and community partnerships to address or intervene in areas of social need. One research institution of higher education provides successful examples.

KEYWORDS:

• University
• community partnerships
• social impact
• higher education

Notes

Research interests include the tasks and functions of social workers employed in educational settings; psychopathology in children, adolescents, and families; adolescent sexuality; premature parenthood; and various aspects of social work practice. She is the principal investigator of the School's Global Program on Youth, an initiative supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the primary investigator on a Skillman Foundation grant.

This paper is a result of two presentations on the topic of university-community partnerships and collaborations:

Allen-Meares, P. (2004, April). University and Community Partnerships: Community-Based Research. Presented at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) Third Annual Social Work Alumni Day, NY; and

Hudgins, C., & Allen-Meares, P. Nurturing University-Community Partnerships: Findings From a Qualitative Study of Collaboratory Partners. Presented in 2005, January, at the Society for Social Work and Research Conference, Miami, Florida.

1. Collaboratory research models initially emerged from the life science and physical science realm. Collaboratories have been described as “center[s] without walls, in which the nation's researchers perform their research without regard to geographical location—interacting with colleagues, accessing instrumentation, sharing data, and accessing information in digital libraries” (Kouzes, Myers, & Wulf, 1996, p. 40). GPY utilizes a collaboratory model that employs information technology to communicate with multiple disciplines and partners and “builds on the strengths of translational, participatory, and IT-supported collaboratory research approaches” (Allen-Meares, Hudgins, Engberg, & Lessnau, 2005, pp. 29–30).