Achieving the Promise of Authentic Community-Higher Education Partnerships: Community Partners Speak Out!

Twenty-three experienced community partners from across the country convened for the Community Partner Summit held April 24-26, 2006 at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, WI. The Summit was sponsored by Community- Campus Partnerships for Health, funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation, the Johnson Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies, and supported by the Community- Based Public Health Caucus of the American Public Health Association, the National Community-Based Organization Network and the National Community Committee of the CDC Prevention Research Centers Program.

The overall purpose of the Summit was to advance authentic community-higher education partnerships by mobilizing a network of experienced community partners. The intended outcomes of the Summit were to:

• Develop and gain clarity on the current state of community-higher education partnerships
• Uncover community perspectives on the key insights and ingredients of effective, authentic community-higher education partnerships
• Build the case for the importance of community-higher education partnerships
• Develop a set of actionable recommendations for maximizing the potential of community-higher education partnerships
• Develop ongoing mechanisms for increasing the number and effectiveness of community-higher education partnerships and ensuring that communities are involved in dialogues and decisions about these partnerships

This report summarizes the dialogue that occurred at the Summit and is written in the first person collective to convey the perspectives of Summit participants.

See also Achieving the Promise of Authentic Community-Higher Education Partnerships: A Community Partner Summit - Executive Summary
and Achieving the Promise of Authentic Community-Higher Education Partnerships: Community Case Stories