Addressing Socioeconomic Gaps through University-Community Engagement: One University’s Experience

Overview: Drawing on examples from the social work profession’s historic successes in leading social and economic justice efforts, this presenter will engage participants in a conversation about the value of university-community engagement and the role that schools of social work can play in leading that engagement.Proposal text: Available estimates indicate that the number of university students worldwide will be 200 million by 2030 (Watson, Hollister, Stroud & Babcock, 2011 ). Yet, while universities grow in power, influence and numbers, the communities that host them often struggle with the same social problems affecting the broader society. Poverty, substance use, street and domestic violence, racial injustice, economic deprivation, gentrification and environmental oppression are just some of the social problems that several university towns across the United States contend with. This suggests that we should begin to engage in serious conversations about the responsibilities that universities have to the communities in which they are located, which are also sometimes the communities that most of their students come from and return to upon graduation.
University engagement in communities around the world have already recorded significant benefits to the universities and the communities, ranging from mobilizing and engaging human and intellectual resources in tackling community problems, combating poverty, improving public health, boosting development of local economies, supporting and restoring environmental quality, mobilizing and combining university expertise and the experiences of community stakeholders to address social disadvantage and exclusion.
One campus of a school of social work in New York State sought to bridge the micro-macro divide by conceptualizing, developing and implementing an innovative university-community partnership-based pilot program with four graduate student interns placed in human service agencies in two different counties. The goals of this pilot were to offer students fully micro-macro learning opportunities that would also support the local community agencies in maximizing delivery of service, identify gaps in direct services, fill the micro/mezzo gaps in services by establishing appropriate connections between people and programs, and where needed, enhancing and developing programs and policies. Other goals included providing faculty and students with opportunities to extend teaching and learning beyond the classroom space, to engage in the practical exercise of translating theory to practice and to provide opportunities to the university and the community to benefit from the potential advantages of a university-community partnership. Among the advantages that were envisioned was that this work would provide research opportunities for faculty and students. We also envisioned that, through this effort, we would be able to help local communities identify existing service gaps and build appropriate programs to fill those gaps.
This effort led to the identification of multiple social problems, including gaps in youth social engagement, substance abuse, domestic violence, poverty and overall lack of services and programming.
Drawing on examples from the social work profession’s historic successes in leading social and economic justice efforts, this presenter will engage participants in a conversation about the value of university-community engagement and the role that schools of social work can play in leading that engagement. The results of the study produced by this effort will be discussed and participants will engage in exploring the contributions that universities can attain for themselves and the communities where they are engaged. The presenter will offer strategies that schools of social work can apply in building their community engagement.