Virginia Commonwealth University College of Humanities and Sciences

Faculty resources

If you want to develop relationships between your students and community organizations, such as service-learning courses, begin by reviewing local community needs assessments and contacting organizations involved in these assessments. If you need help getting started, contact Kevin Allison, associate dean for community activities, at kallison@vcu.edu.

Funding sources

Once you’ve developed a project or initiated a relationship with a local agency, you may want to look into funding sources for your community research. In addition to your unit’s development director, the following resources can help you locate funding sources for specific areas of interest.

• VCU Division of Community Engagement grants
• Institute for Women’s Health
• Campus Compact grants and fellowships
• National Institutes of Health
  • Community Participation in Research (R01)
  • Community Participation Research Targeting the Medically Underserved (R01)
  • Community Participation Research Targeting the Medically Underserved (R21)

Community research resources

• The Institute for Women’s Health’s Community-Based Participatory Research encourages health and environmental research that benefits both the researchers and the communities being studied through the use of shared knowledge and valuable experiences.
• The Community-Based Participatory Research Scientific Interest Group works to strengthen communication between federal agencies with an interest in community-based research in biomedicine, education, health care delivery and policy.
• VCU’s Center for Clinical and Translational Research is building on the university’s research infrastructure and promoting collaboration between disciplines and community practitioners and patients to expand clinical research and deliver improved medical care to the region.
• The Office of Research’s Institutional Review Board houses the university’s policies and procedures for conducting research, including community-based research.
• Community-Campus Partnerships for Health assures that human-subject research is ethical and appropriate — at both individual and community levels. The series provides a comprehensive understanding of the options and tools necessary for communities to determine the approach that is best for them.
• The Ethics and Research in the Community Web site is a resource for faculty members conducting research in communities, including ethical standards, best practices and understanding your impact on the community.
• The Office of Education and Compliance Oversight’s presentation — Planning to Conduct Research in the Schools: Working with the Schools and the VCU IRB — outlines policies and guidelines for conducting research in local schools.
• The Community Service Associates Program provides opportunities for faculty to assist with projects of neighborhood groups, civic associations, governmental and professional organizations and nonprofit agencies.
• The Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium partners VCU and Richmond-area public schools to provide systematic research in public education that improves school programs and professional practice.

Teaching and the community

By incorporating service-learning into your courses, you’ll connect your learning objectives to service opportunities in the community, leading to experiences that promote civic responsibility and leadership, as well as increase awareness of current issues and community needs in students’ areas of interest.

If you need help creating and facilitating service-learning courses, the Service-Learning Associates Program provides training, assistance with locating community service opportunities that match course objectives and funding sources for development.

Project incubation and pilots

In our efforts to strengthen and support the collaborative work of our faculty and staff with the local community, the College provided support for five pilot projects during the summer of 2006. These efforts included the following:

• Rosalie Corona, Department of Psychology, expanded work on understanding needs among teenagers in our growing Latino community.
• Jill Rowe, Department of African American Studies, conducted research examining connections between obesity and chronic disease among African American women and potential barriers to effective intervention.
• Ann Creighton-Zollar built on work with the Virginia Department of Social Services to expand training in the Effective Black Parenting Program for local human service providers.

The College continues to work with faculty and departments to incubate and develop community engagement projects and activities.

Promotion and tenure

Currently the university has charged a task force to examine the ways in which scholarship involving community engagement is reflected in VCU’s promotion and tenure documents and procedures. To learn more, contact Cathy Howard, vice provost for community engagement, at choward@vcu.edu.

The Community-Engaged Scholarship Review, Promotion and Tenure Package also provides guidelines and resources for community-engaged scholars and review, promotion and tenure committees.