The purpose of this study was to describe community partners' (CPs) perceptions of an out-of-school swimming program (OSSP) for under­served children and youth. Participants were four CPs associated with the OSSP during three consecutive summers and parents of the children and youth who participated in the program. We employed a theoretical…

Achieving equity in education--that is, ensuring every student has the resources and tools they need to succeed--has become a key issue for the nation's schools. Equity does not apply just to classroom learning, however; it matters in afterschool, summer, and other out-of-school-time (OST) programs, too. Yet while research on equity in the OST…

Higher education-community projects to support food security and food justice can improve health outcomes and increase community cohesion, but university funding may lead to power inequities that perpetuate marginalizing narratives. For this project, a regional state university, a local high school, and a nonprofit focused on building school…

Basic needs insecurity -- including housing and food insecurity, as well as lack of access to healthcare, childcare, transportation, and other basic needs -- is a critical barrier that can undermine persistence and completion rates for postsecondary students. The gaps in covering critical costs such as housing and food are pervasive among students…

This 3-year ethnography explored the culture of the Academy of Music and Arts for Special Education (AMASE), a university undergraduate volunteer organization offering music instruction for individuals with disabilities. We examined the organization and its impact on students, parents, and volunteers through the lens of the social relational model…

Nursing faculty with expertise in community health are well poised to introduce nursing students to the rewarding experience of caring for vulnerable populations. Multiple partnerships have been established over the years within the central Connecticut region that have benefited both the university's nursing students and the affiliated agency, as…

Most people meet insects with fear and disgust, even though few insects pose health risks; in fact, many are beneficial and their absence would adversely affect human life. Such misunderstandings lead to insect conservation being important but unpopular. We addressed these concerns as part of a broader effort to establish an ongoing outreach…

This study examined six diverse school districts in Maine that have successfully formed partnerships between their districts and community or regional organizations to expand supports to students and their families that go beyond academic support to include health, mental health, social services and other supports.

Little research exists on the specific ways that Indigenous Knowledge is integrated into institutions of higher education across the U.S.-affiliated islands of Micronesia. This research study highlights the existence of Palauan Knowledge within Palau Community College. An Indigenous paradigm (Wilson, 2003) is utilized to align with Palauan values…

Whilst university-community engagement has become an important aspect of modern universities, it often tends to re/produce inequalities and power imbalances, reinforcing stereotypes and negative identities. Much attention on these inequalities has focussed on the experiences of community members. Students' identities and challenges in these…

As community-based global learning (CBGL) programs become more common on college/university campuses and utilize the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to guide programmatic outcomes, open-access evaluation instruments that both benchmark and effectively measure programmatic enhancements over time are needed. The 147-item Community Engagement and…

The YuePu project was a community-based shared book-reading philanthropic project implemented in rural China. This literacy project utilized spaces in the rural community and invited parents and teachers to participate in free-of-charge shared book-reading activities with their children on the weekend. The reading activities and instructions were…

Action learning within community-based research is a powerful capacitator of social action. Here, we consider three aspects of action learning that are vital to enable this: (i) developing self-directed and lifelong action learning; (ii) generating local and theoretical knowledge through action research and reflection on learning; and (iii)…

Author Jennifer Bergmark describes an art project with the purpose of providing a collaborative creative experience to break down school-community barriers and provide a space for conversation and community building. A goal for the school where this project took place, Stratton Academy of the Arts, located in Champaign, Illinois, is to create a…

The purpose of this study was to examine the intergenerational interactions between preservice music teachers and senior adult musicians engaged in music teaching and learning in a New Horizons ensemble within one university's music teacher preparation program. This intrinsic qualitative case study included written reflections and observational…