Resize Text: 
Universities across the nation are expected to contribute to their neighboring communities. Responses to this charge come in many forms: college students volunteering in neighborhood schools, faculty conducting research activities to support local evaluation efforts, and university centers and civic leaders launching major community-development initiatives. In many cases, these initiatives result in powerful new knowledge for the academic field and transformative experiences for community members. Yet other partnerships fail to produce such meaningful results because they do not develop truly collaborative relationships that are of equal benefit to both partners.
In fall 2000, the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University initiated partnerships with two San Francisco Bay-area communities aimed at improving the lives of youths. The center worked with young people and other residents in each community to create and implement model programs that would both serve the community and develop new knowledge and resources for research and practice.
But before it could do that, the center first needed to change the communities' negative perceptions of the university. Residents in Oakland and Redwood City said that in the past universities that claimed to be partners had:
• Spent insufficient time learning from residents and about community strengths. Researchers had theories about how to “fix” neighborhoods, and they focused on the community’s obvious deficits and problems without exploring its strengths and assets. They did not sufficiently consider the experiences and ideas of residents before determining the partnership’s course.
• Given research objectives priority over community needs. Researchers did not translate the data they collected from community-based research projects into information or practical tools that community members could use to solve local problems. Instead, they used what they had learned to address an academic audience, with few direct benefits to the targets of their research.
• Not committed to long-term goals or strategies.
Faculty members and students initiated projects that were connected to short-term grants or service-learning courses. Once the funding cycle or semester ended, so did the partnership.
Mistrust was particularly strong in low-income communities of color that researchers had historically exploited. The differences that exist between academic institutions and under-resourced communities in terms of privilege, power, and philosophy reinforced that mistrust.
How the center overcame that distrust, generated commitment to common goals, and laid the foundations for broad-ranging work may prove instructive.
Yolanda Anyon is pursuing a doctorate in social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she was program manager and community-partnership liaison for the John W. Gardner Center in West Oakland. María A. Fernández is the policy and program senior manager at the Gardner Center and has more than 10 years of experience working with youth and community-based organizations and in supporting community- university partnerships.
Become a Subscriber