COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 101 Evren Uzer Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Urban Practice
*a research project and curriculum by Evren Uzer (PI), Michele Kahane, and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo contact: evren@newschool.edu | www.communityengagement.info
Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo Professor of Integrated Design
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Agenda + Purpose
Provide overview of Community Engagement 101 research initiative and Foundations course for faculty and Teaching Fellows.
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Overview
Started as a curriculum research project in 2019, with Innovations in Education Fund (IEF) funding from the Provost Office (PO) and building up from earlier work at TNS particularly the Collaboratory. How can we establish non-extractive, mutually beneficial modes of engagement with the communities we are collaborating with in the curricular context? 2019-2022: research on earlier work, interviews with faculty, external partners, students and alumni, workshops and peer exchange sessions 2022 and ongoing: Training module and online course development. 2025 Spring is the launch of the curriculum
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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PRIOR CONTEXT
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Earlier projects at The New School
Radical Pedagogy Project (TNS 2013) Working with People (TNS 2009 - 2013) TNS Human Participants Working Group’s collection of resources on research ethics Screenshot, https://working-with-people.org/, Shana Agid & Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
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The New School Collaboratory From 2015 - 2019, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, The New School Collaboratory organized action-research project with a community of practice of faculty and community partners to explore the challenges and promising practices in Community Engagement.
Collaboratory’s Community of Practice convening
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The New School Collaboratory Two-Year Action Research Process Report 7
The New School Collaboratory - Online Knowledge Hub
Beyond Community Towards Social Justice Community Engagement Engagement: 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Case Study: Sound the Mound
Faculty: John Roach and Andrew Shea, Parsons SDS; Caroline Dionne, Parsons ADHT Partners: ● ● ●
Freshkills Park, Staten Island Arable Labs Gaynor McCown Expeditionary High School
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Case Study: Transnational Border Lab: Theory, Practice, and Scholar-Activism
Faculty: Alexandra Délano Alonso, Global Studies, SPE/LANG; Jill Anderson, ODA, Otros Dreams en Acción; and Anne McNevin, Politics Dept, NSSR Partner: ●
Otros Dreams en Acción
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RESEARCH
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Literature and earlier initiatives
Key takeaways
Importance of process-oriented syllabi and curricula
Need for institutional support and oversight
Critical reflection on community engagement practices.
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Interviews & Peer Exchange sessions (2019 - 2020)
Best practices: How do community partnerships come into being, and what frameworks, skills, and resources need to be developed and established by faculty, students, and institutions in order to work towards equitable collaboration?
Centering the discussion and reflection over power, privilege and positionality Slow down, practice and reflect Leverage university resources
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Interviews & Peer Exchange sessions (2019 - 2020)
Challenges: How do community partnerships come into being, and what frameworks, skills, and resources need to be developed and established by faculty, students, and institutions in order to work towards equitable collaboration?
Overwhelming external partners with deluge of requests Equitable interpreted differently Problem of “helping” as a mindset Lack of oversight Inaccessibility of institutional resources
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Ethos
Community ≠ Other
Mutual benefit begins with self-reflection and critique on identity, positionality, and privilege.
Expertise exists in everyone, and does not necessarily correlate with formal credentials.
Impact is more important than intention.
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Ethos
All communities deserve to be meaningfully involved and not just as a destination.
Create time and space to reflect, process, and engage in deep inquiry, with the partner organization and among the team.
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WORKSHOPS
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POSITIONALITY FOR TEAMS
WORKING WITH PARTNERS: MUTUAL BENEFIT AND EQUITABLE COLLABORATION
LEVERAGING UNIVERSITY RESOURCES
MAGIC STATEMENT MAD LIBS
MY COMMUNITIES: TO WHICH COMMUNITIES DO I BELONG? 18
miro Board for Online Workshops Durations: 45 min. - 1.5 hours Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
Sample Handouts for In-person Workshops 20
Online workshop for Design for America studio leads across the U.S.
Tested workshops with 3 sections of “Integrated Design Studio 3” at Parsons
Testing our workshops at TNS and beyond
Led 2-hour workshop with 20+ attendees at the a2ru research partnership annual conference at Penn State
Tested online workshop with attendees at the Design Forge conference at Elon University
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ONLINE COURSE
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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COURSE MODULES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Meta Module Guiding Principles & Practices in Community Engagement Mutually Beneficial Partnerships Classroom Skills and Pedagogies Leveraging Institutional Resources
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. 2. 3.
Understand how to approach community engagement in a socially just manner. Understand how to approach collaboration from the perspective of positionality, power, and privilege Engage with methods and processes that can support mutually beneficial partnerships
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LEARNING OUTCOMES (cont.) 4.
5.
6.
Revise your teaching materials (syllabus, external partnership MoUs, assignments), based on the values of socially just community engagement Learn a set of practices to incorporate into future teaching and assessment related to community engagement teaching and practice. Identify how university resources can be leveraged for community benefit.
Community Engagement 101 | Evren Uzer and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo
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Screenshot, Canvas Course Shell Homepage
Sample Video Resources Across Modules
Sample Resources Across Modules
Sample Miro Templates Available
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IN PROGRESS
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Impact Assessment Module How to facilitate impact assessments in community-engaged courses
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THANK YOU! QUESTIONS?
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