The challenge: Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) incorporate legal services into healthcare settings to address the intertwined legal, social, and health challenges faced by patients. Research has shown that MLPs effectively address unmet legal needs and reduce health disparities (Klein et al., 2013). This study evaluated a Medical-Legal…

Inequities continue to weaken Michigan's capacity to respond quickly and effectively to crises, both natural and human-made. Minority and low-income populations, already disadvantaged, suffer the burden of the inequitable social, environmental, and economic injustices that have culminated in previously unacknowledged levels. Since 2011, the…

Mentoring is a critical component in facilitating learning across disciplines and supporting students' professional development as they transition into the workforce. Traditionally, mentorship occurs between individuals within the same field, aligned by shared professional standards and learning objectives. This study explored an innovative…

University student support services are broad and varied. These services are generally located centrally on campus rather than in a specific academic area. Offering a decentralized, college-specific student support and retention model that partners with academic and student affairs allows for a more holistic, integrated approach to student support…

Urban and metropolitan colleges and universities can play an important role in innovative, equitable community revitalization. This is especially true for universities that also function as anchor institutions; there is both a challenge and an opportunity for such urban anchors to conduct their work in a manner that engages the community proximate…

The Challenge: Rising mental health challenges are placing increasing strain on higher education systems. At this Hispanic- and minority-serving institution, many students are first-generation college students from neighborhoods characterized by some of Texas's highest incarceration rates and among the top ten ZIP codes for behavioral…

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis' (IUPUI's) Center for Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) and IUPUI University Library (Library) developed a partnership to enhance community access to faculty scholarship resulting from translational research. Library staff archives the scholarship of faculty affiliated with TRIP in IUPUI…

Community-Based Research (CBR) presents a wide range of benefits in higher education to students, community partners, and universities. Yet on our campus (and many others), CBR remains less common than other high-impact practices (HIPs) such as service learning and undergraduate research due to lack of effective institutionalization. Moreover,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many physical, mental, and economic challenges and has provided an opportunity for academia to participate in community engagement to help support public health. Through a partnership between a university and a local health district, a contact tracing training program was developed and implemented in the late…

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an effective approach for addressing health disparities by integrating diverse knowledge and expertise from both academic and community partners throughout the research process. However, universities and funding agencies have not done enough to invest in the foundational infrastructure and resources…

Places of worship play important roles as anchor institutions that promote community engagement and motivate political activity. Universities, particularly in urban settings, can also serve as anchor institutions that connect communities. Yet, there is often a gulf between the two, to the detriment of the broader community. In this article, we…

Research on community impacts from service-learning has been scarce, yet this area is worth exploring in order to understand how and why service-learning can make a difference. The current research sought to validate a conceptual framework (Lau & Snell, 2020), which categorizes the impacts of service-learning on community partner organizations…

This study explores how higher education professionals develop and demonstrate cultural competence in their professional roles. Through a mixed methods case-study approach, the study investigates how perceived levels of cultural competence in higher education professionals are shaped by participation in an extended diversity training program.…

Immigration is one of the most contentious topics in contemporary American politics. This study presents the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a program of faith community dialogues on immigration developed in partnership between a public university, a faith-based group of volunteers, and Catholic congregations. Based on data from…

African Americans are disproportionately burdened by mental health issues (e.g., stress, chronic depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder). Upon review of mental health local/state/national data, a highly-engaged faith-based Community Action Board (CAB) raised concerns about the mental health needs of African Americans and addressed mental…