Planning Meeting for HBCUs and Faculty Civic Engagement

Posted by on September 22, 2006

The HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Faculty Development Network and the Center for Civic Engagement & Social Responsibility at Tougaloo College are sponsoring a Summer Institute on Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), June 26-29, 2007 in Jackson, MS. Please see below for more information, including a planning meeting taking place on October 19 in Houston, TX.

Institute cosponsors include Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, Florida Campus Compact, the Mississippi Higher Education Consortium, the Michigan State University Building Campus to Campus Partnerships Program and the USDA Agricultural Research Service Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative.

As a component of a multi-year collaborative initiative, the summer institute will involve a curriculum designed to promote the development of CBPR where the community and academic institutions would become partners in defining issues for research, strategies for carrying out CBPR, and methods of assessments. The institute will be designed for team-based learning, with teams ideally being comprised of at least four people interested in enhancing the skills needed to facilitate CBPR projects – including faculty, staff and community partners. Teams should come to the summer institute with specific projects in mind and be prepared to work with institute coordinators in developing research strategies and methods of assessment and evaluation. Interaction among diverse teams will provide an avenue for peer evaluation of best practices, from both academic and community perspectives.

A registration fee will be charged participants to cover food and materials. The conference room rate at the Hilton Hotel Jackson for this event is $109.

A working supper will take place on Thursday evening, October 19, 2006 during the 13th National HBCU Faculty Development Symposium (http://www.hbcufdn.org), in Houston, Texas, October 19-21, 2006. The meeting will provide an opportunity to develop a working strategy for strengthening the ties between academic institutions and surrounding communities through CBPR. Ideas from the meeting will help to further shape the summer institute agenda. If you are able to attend this working supper, please RVSP to Stephen L. Rozman, Director, Center for Civic Engagement & Social Responsibility and Co-Director, HBCU Faculty Development Network, Tougaloo College, Jackson, MS, srozman@aol.com or 601-977-4460.

If you have questions or need more information on any aspect of this announcement, please contact Stephen Rozman (contact info above). Learn more about the HBCU Faculty Development Network at http://www.hbcufdn.org.