1. Student and Community Participatory Research in Southwest Baltimore
Making Connections
Student and Community Participatory Research in Southwest Baltimore
Principal Investigator
Amy Cohen Callow, PhD
Co-Investigators: Community Action Network
Polly Reinicker, LGSW; Elizabeth Weber, MSW; Megan Thomas, LGSW
Community Partners: Southwest Partnership
Jane Buccheri, Scott Kashnow, Bifford Browning, Elizabeth Weber
Elizabeth

2. Why this project and why now?
Community Action Network
University of Maryland, Baltimore
School of Social Work Student Group
Need: For effective, sustainable collaboration between student groups and the Southwest Baltimore Community
Elizabeth
Introduce CAN and what we have done in the past– and then briefly state what we saw the need was and how we then came up with the idea for the project
Then briefly mention our connection with SWP and just show the 7 neighborhoods

3. Methods & Results THEMES Interest Who to contact Sustainability
Surveys: 120 in 7 SWB neighborhoods
Focus Groups: 3 groups with 19 community stakeholders
University Meetings: student and faculty representatives from 7 UMB schools
THEMES
Interest
Who to contact
Expectations and Roles
Sustainability
Whose Agenda?
Megan
Both community members and student groups are interested in working together in mutually beneficial projects
Knowing who to contact was a significant barrier for both community members and university representatives (AND WAS FOR US TOO!)
Important to clearly state expectations and identify roles in creating and maintaining relationships (how long will they be involved- ar ethey doing this for a class, what is needed in terms of overisght from the community?)
Sustainability is difficult and important, and should not be the responsibility of students- rather community members OR university personnel-- students come and go so it is better to have a stable contact person who can manage the relationship- could be the faculty who is the contact person for the student group, or could be the students communicating with the community member who the next leader of teh group is so that commmunity memebr can then follow up
Vital to understand needs and resources- DO NOT come in with own agenda (consider response to recent events in Baltimore) -- this has a lot to do with disparity-- the focus groups especially said that they see the university as doing things in the community but only to serve their image or their purpose- it is important again to see what the community wants rather than coming in and saying “we are going to do this for you” relating this back to recent events in West Baltimore- a lot of clean ups were organized, and some of the nieghborhood residents expressed that they didnt want outsiders coming in to just “save them” and clean up their neighborhood- they wanted to have ownership- it was their neighborhood- so the approach you use in helping is very important

4. Student Led Community Based Projects
CHALLENGES
1.Accessing Money- who is in charge?
2.Process of getting money to researchers
3.Understanding structure of UMB
4.Contacting the RIGHT people
5.Number of hired researchers
6.Planning the allocation of money
SUGGESTIONS
●Learning approach
●Existing resources or relationships
●Who should we be talking to?
●Transparency
●Training students in management skills
●Monthly meetings to promote continuous engagement
●Keep research team as small as possible
Polly---
Accessing the money- who is in charge of it? -- we had a lot of trouble as students understanding who to contact to physically have the money-- we had assumed that we would be able to simply pay the researchers and that the hiring complex would not be so complex- we found that even our PI and staff in UMB did not really know who was supposed to manage/ be i charge of the money either
process of getting money to researchers (esp. community) -- very complicated and complex, and something to consider in terms of hiring researchers-- start the process early-- this is because state funds have rules, however, it would be ideal to simplify the process if possible
Understanding structure of UMB (took us a long time- not suprising that it confuses community members) -- even we had trouble knowing who to contact-- especially within our university system-- that is a challenge for everyone, not just students-- but not having the authority that maybe a faculty or staff member has made it difficult to get meetings scheduled
contacting the RIGHT people- in both community and university- similar theme to what our results found that it was difficult to know who to contact – if we could go back and do it again would have started out with contacting different people
large research team- challenges and benefits--- while it was nice to have people to complete the surveys-- managing the reserachers we hired took up a lot of time and energy--
allocation of money-- understanding up front to where you shouldput money-- can translate to other community projects-- its hard to have all of the skills to do a good budget-- understanding as students what things will cost and who should get money (power-- we didnt pay ourselves becuase we didnt event think about that-- so think of power dynamics even between us and faculty)
●Learning approach versus expert/ advice giver approach
●What existing resources or relationships does the community already have?
●Ask: Who should we be talking to in the community?
●Be transparent with goals, expectations, process
●Effectively train students in management skills to manage project
●Plan monthly meetings for person at highest management level to be continuously engaged in project
●Set up in-person meeting EARLY in process to plan and discuss money distribution process
Keep research team as small as possible and screen students for availability, interest, and commitment

5. Conclusion MOVING FORWARD ENGAGEMENT NEVER ENDS!
Student and community collaboration has the potential to be mutually beneficial
Important to take a look at what is already being done within school and community
Focus on sustainability and understanding of current and previous power dynamics is vital
Meet community where they are
Build relationships and simplify communication methods
Actions speak louder than words
MOVING FORWARD
Office of Community Engagement
Community Action Network
Southwest Partnership
Website Communication
Community Engagement Center
ENGAGEMENT
NEVER
ENDS!
Moving Forward--- Elizabeth
Megan--- first 3 of conclusion
Polly--- last three of conclusion
mutually beneficial-- could help student learn, could help the community-- but has to be managed
“reinvent the wheel” -- it is hard to know of everything that is already being done, but you don’t want to re question people if they have already asked that question-- there are a lot of resources but it is improtant to be able to use them before you go doing your own project
power dynamics-- as we mentioned-- even talking to neighborhood association representatives there are power dynamics within those associations-- the people who have the most power may not be an accurate depiction of the community
communication methods-- how do they want to communicate? It is easier if there are thigns in one place-- face to face interactions are VITAL- go to the community to build relationships.
meet the community where they are-- LITERALLY-- put your money where your mouth is-- if you say you are about community engagement, then hold all of your events at the univeristy--that is not representative of what you are saying is important
actions speak louder than works-- even if you have a mission of community engagement how to you exemplify it?
Image Source: SouthwestBaltimorePartnership.org