A Community-Campus Partnership for Health: The Seat Pleasant-University of Maryland Health Partnership

Abstract

A partnership formed between the University of Maryland and the city of Seat Pleasant, Maryland, designed to enhance the health of the city's residents and the education of the university's students--graduate and undergraduate--in the Department of Public and Community Health is described. The health partnership is based on service-learning theory, and a presentation of research findings related to service learning is offered. The history of the health partnership, its developmental stages, its operational procedures, and its evaluation are discussed. In addition, projects resulting from health partnership activities and projects and goals projected for the future are presented. Throughout the article, lessons learned are discussed, and the discussion and conclusions detail the benefits to inform other programs interested in forming a community-campus partnership for health.

'About time!' Insights from Research with Pride: a community-student collaboration

“…There is a substantial and growing body of literature addressing community -academic partnerships in the context of health (Bracht and Tsouros, 1990;Dewar and Isaac, 1998;Greenberg et al, 2000;Wolff and Maurana, 2001;Desmond, 2003;Thompson et al, 2003;Seifer and Vaughn, 2004). This literature speaks to the transformative power of academic -community partnerships in the pursuit of addressing a diverse range of social issues, including the promotion of health and wellness in communities and populations.…”

“…On a more practical level, community -student partnerships are a valuable and enriching learning opportunity for all team members (Greenberg et al, 2003;Seifer and Vaughn, 2004;Suarez-Balcazer et al, 2005). RwP committee members had the opportunity to develop skills in group facilitation, fundraising, community needs assessments, events logistics and problem solving/conflict management.…”

An Interactive and Contextual Model of Community-University Collaborations for Research and Action

“…Current research has documented the benefits of scholarship of engagement with communities (see Jackson & Reddick, 1999;Sanstad, Stall, Goldstein, Everett, & Brousseau, 1999;Weiss et al, 2002) and the benefits of service learning for students in applied fields (Anderson, 2003;Greenberg et al, 2003;Stadtlander, 2002).…”

Engaging communities: The Campus Compact model

“…The University of Maryland and the city of Seat Pleasant, Maryland, designed a partnership to enhance the health of the city's residents using service-learning approaches with undergraduate and graduate students in health-related fields. 16 Kenneth M. Reardon has written about partnership between local communities and the University of Illinois. 17 As a faculty member in city planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Reardon worked in East St. Louis, one of the country's most challenged cities.…”