A Capacity Building Framework for Community-University Partnerships

Abstract

With a focus on organizational capacity building, community-university (CU) partnerships have the potential to yield valuable resources for community nonprofits, which increasingly have to accomplish more with fewer resources. Although a growing body of literature documents the success of such arrangements, both community agencies and universities often face challenges in managing such partnerships. With a focus on student involvement, this paper describes a framework for conceptualizing CU partnerships around capacity building, with efforts designed to address particular program needs as related to the organization's capacity goals. These needs can be viewed as involving five levels of capacity building: 1) monitoring and documenting program outcomes or processes, 2) enhancing staff skills, 3) modifying program processes, 4) supporting adaptation, and 5) developing infrastructure. Conceptualizing partnerships along these levels helps frame communication about the agency's capacity building agenda, focuses efforts on addressing organizational needs, and establishes expectations for the scope of student work. Efforts to address these levels can take the form of internal or external models of partnership, varying in their degrees of student involvement and faculty supervision, and can leverage various mechanisms to compensate students for their work. Over time, opportunities for student involvement transform as the needs, goals, and resources of the agency evolve, and the potential of the university to influence the agency grows. Simultaneously, the opportunities open to students for professional development, competency building, and career networking continue to develop as they implement higher-level capacity building within an organization.

Community Partners as Service-Learning Co-Leaders

“…With increased focus on reciprocal relationships, there has been more exploration of the various benefits and motivations for community partners. For example, partners are often motivated by capacity building opportunities for their organizations (Bell & Carlson, 2009;Hogan, Tynan, Covill, Kilmer, & Cook, 2017) that enable reallocation of limited resources to other projects (Blouin & Perry, 2009). Extending these ideas, Bell and Carlson (2009) identified four additional motivations for partners to engage in service-learning projects: to teach students about their core mission and expose them to careers in the nonprofit sector; to cultivate future employees, volunteers, and donors; to assist with projects that require unique skills and knowledge; and to strengthen relationships with colleges and universities.…”

Advocating for community-based behavioural approaches within the combination HIV prevention framework: A critical literature review

“…A valid alternative would be to establish a framework for conceptualising community-academic partnerships around capacity building (53). This advocates for community-based organisations to improve their evaluation-based capacity, fundamental in the collection, analysis and interpretation of own data in order to make sense of their actions and improve results.…”

Community Collaborative Cultural Adaptation: Creating Culturally Appropriate Behavioral Interventions through University and Community Collaborations

“…Perhaps the most obvious benefit of a community collaborative approach is that university team members along with the community members develop a more effective intervention than either would be able to create alone (Ahmed et al, 2016). In addition, as suggested by Hogan, Tynan, Covill, Kilmer, and Cook (2017), university and community partnerships benefit both groups. The community collaborators were already empowered within their community as leaders, social activists, and change agents.…”