associate editors dr. silvia garcia dr. carolyn gentle genitty dr. jack turman jr. kevin hillman, student editor dr. sarah stanlick dr. javiette samuel dr. tyan parker dominguez office of community engagement professional staff editors richard bray nicole oglesby online journal development ted polley w we dedicate the second issue of engage! to indiana university’s bicentennial celebration representing community-engaged research on all campuses across the state. community-engaged research is pervasive throughout the state of indiana and is an essential vehicle to fulfill the institutional mission of engagement. together this constellation of campuses support the health, economic and social development of indiana, the nation and the world. each iu campus actively supports local communities in their efforts to address issues that impact families. through community-engaged research, the university and community work together on issues that matter to residents, including re-entry after incarceration, drug addiction, and supporting local youth through tutoring and mentoring. for decades, iu has made a commitment to supporting strong communities. in fact, the 10 principles of excellence in the university bicentennial strategic plan defines the many areas in which a great university must be excellent, including in engagement and economic development. under that principle, iu is calling upon its campuses to partner with the communities and regions of which they are part to provide the resources needed to build strong communities. iupui proudly releases this issue of engage! to describe the impact of engagement from iupui to columbus and ft. wayne, from iu northwest to iu southeast, from bloomington to iu south bend, and from iu kokomo to iu east. these campuses engage every day to inspire students, faculty, staff and partners to build strong communities, improve the quality of life and fuel the economic vitality of our state. enjoy. amy conrad warner iupui vice chancellor for community engagement vice chancellor’s letter amy conrad warner a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 6 3 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 1 , n o.1 b bienvenidos dr. khaula murtadha, editor a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s bienvenidos a la publicación inaugural de engage! la primera revista de iupui dedicada a la investigación participativa basada y comprometida con la comunidad. iupui es reconocida local, regional e internacionalmente como una universidad orientada a la investigación y ciencias de la salud que presta servicios a comunidades urbanas. esta edición está dedicada a la celebración del 50 aniversario del campus en reconocimiento a décadas en la academia pública. la investigación comprometida con la comunidad (cer, por sus siglas en inglés) se focaliza en los procesos y resultados de las relaciones orientadas por la investigación que realizan miembros de la comunidad y representantes de la universidad. los principios rectores de justicia social, mutualidad, y reciprocidad se practican a través del diálogo, el co-aprendizaje y de compromisos duraderos de participación. en los entornos urbanos, la investigación comprometida con la comunidad presta atención a la diversidad de las culturas e idiomas, a la pobreza y a la riqueza, así como al privilegio y la marginalización. las prácticas de cer están impulsadas por la equidad e intencionalmente orientadas al cambio. esto significa reconocer las relaciones de poder y la importancia crítica a la humildad cultural. los revisores externos deliberadamente evaluaron que los artículos enviados trataran estos temas. se dio una consideración favorable a manuscritos que demostraran el involucramiento de miembros de la comunidad y que promovieran los principios que subyacen a los estudios comprometidos con la comunidad. esto dio lugar a la contribución de autores para esta edición que aportaran argumentos sólidos para el fomento de la confianza entre la comunidad y la universidad y la autodeterminación de la comunidad. los artículos demuestran cómo al trabajar juntos, podemos apoyar y mejorar el bienestar de las familias, desde los más pequeños hasta los más ancianos. muchas gracias a amy warner, vicerrectora de participación comunitaria en iupui, y a simon atkinson, vicerrector de investigación, quienes dieron al equipo editorial su inquebrantable compromiso y apoyo para llevar adelante la visión de la revista. nuestro equipo editorial en iupui, los doctores: silvia garcía, carolyn gentle-genitty, jack turman y nuestro dedicado asistente doctoral kevin hillman, estudiante del doctorado en educación urbana en la escuela de educación en iupui, dedicaron innumerables horas para garantizar que esta edición promoviera la importancia de cer. el equipo editorial no solo realizó revisiones preliminares de los artículos, sino que también contactó revisores externos en todo el país y asesoró a nuestro personal profesional y estudiantes de doctorado de la oficina de participación comunitaria (oce), richard bray, myron duff y nicole oglesby. nuestros editores asociados los doctores sarah stanlick, javiette samuel y tyan parker domínguez dieron la muy necesaria orientación y apoyo editorial. la presencia en línea de engage! no podría ser posible sin la cuidadosa atención puesta en su desarrollo por ted polley, el bibliotecario en ciencias sociales y publicaciones digitales de la biblioteca universitaria de iupui, y nuestra increíble colaboradora y colega de comunicaciones de oce, annie goeller. disfrute, engage! y envíenos sus comentarios a engagejo@iupui.edu. 55 w e l t o n m a n s f i e l d | p o l i t i c a l a c t i o n vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 w e l t o n m a n s f i e l d | p o l i t i c a l a c t i o n more than just an academic exercise conjoining critical policy analysis and community engaged research as embodiment of political action anjale welton and katherine cumings mansfield abstract critical policy analysis (cpa) is a means by which to critique policy and promote agency, equity, and justice. however, most cpa scholars examine political discourse from a distance rather than actively participate in political processes. meanwhile, there is a growing interest in community-engaged research whereby academics partner with community members in their research endeavors. in this article, we consider the value of conjoining the philosophies and processes behind both cpa and community-engaged research to create more powerful and meaningful research endeavors that potentially can lead to political action and policy change. for this article, we present a subset of data from a larger study that asked education policy scholars how critical policy analysis informs their work and what they consider to be key objectives of this approach. we focus on a subsection of participants who demonstrated how and in what ways they consider community-engaged scholarship to be an essential component of cpa. participants discussed the roles of empowerment and voice, emphasized the importance of moving from theory to action in their research, and provided examples of how they embodied policy making on the ground with participants in their communities. welton, a. & mansfield, k.c. (2020). more than just an academic exercise: conjoining critical policy analysis and community-engaged research as an embodiment of political action. educational studies, 56 (6), 619-635. so what does this mean? critical policy analysis is a guiding framework and tool that education policy researchers can use to examine whether and how policies promote equity and justice in education. however, scholars who use this approach often conduct research on communities rather than collaborat-ing with communities to research educational issues that directly impact them and their communities. in this article, we argue that critical approaches to conducting education policy research can and should be-come more communityengaged because the power of collaborative research lies in its potential to create political action and policy change. to make our point, we present a subset of data from a larger study that asked education policy scholars how critical policy analysis informs their research and what they consider to be key objectives of this approach. we focus on this subsection of scholars who discuss how overtime, their policy research has become more community-engaged and how that has transformed not only the research process but the fruitfulness of their work. for example, participants discussed the roles of empowerment and voice, emphasized the importance of moving from theory to action in their research, and provided examples of how policy work can happen on the ground with participants in their communities. vol. 1, issue 1 vol. 1, issue 1 engage! 2019 vol. 1 no. 1 https://doi.org/10.18060/23221 copyright © 2019 author(s). this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. speaking up, speaking out: graduate student voices kevin hillman and joseph feldman kevin hillman and joseph feldman are students in iupui’s urban education studies doctoral program. they responded to the editors’ questions: editors: what are your understandings of community engaged scholarship? as doctoral students, our understanding is influenced and grounded by collaborative engagement research as discussed by post et al. (2016). we referenced their work throughout our response because it helped us to articulate our thoughts. much of the research literature can be “over the top” for beginning grad students. for example post et al suggest, collaborative engagement research is distinctive in its orientation for the following primary reasons: (a) the recognition that researchers are equally based in the community and in academia and that they are co-researchers who have their own knowledge and expertise base; and (b) the research process’s deliberative approach, in that it aims to be fully democratic in an effort to address real-world problems. (pp. 79-80) community-engaged scholarship can break down barriers between universities and communities, valuing the knowledge and assets of those present at the table. viewing community members as experts strengthens the relationship, dispelling the notions of the ivory tower university researcher and the “helpless” community that needs to be saved. this helps in addressing and balancing power dynamics, creating a more equitable environment where community members have a voice in every step of the process. in turn, community members will feel empowered and less coerced, transitioning from the position of test subjects to collaborators. post et al further state, where collaborative engagement teaching and learning transcend the boundaries of the classroom, collaborative engagement research transcends the boundaries of traditional academic research. it involves shared and equitable decision-making that leads to equitable ownership for the research process, which is imperative for meaningful and relevant answers to https://doi.org/10.18060/23221 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ vol. 1, issue 1 graduate student voices 48 research questions. this, in turn, can lead to social change. (pp. 79-80) addressing real-world problems through a community-engaged approach is important in combating the stratification that exists in our society. in order to be democratic in addressing these problems, the parties involved should be seen and treated as equal and valued. being intentional about their presence and role creates an atmosphere for learning and change. through the collaborative engagement research process, social and cultural change inherently take place. social change and cultural change occur as people affected by the research problem become involved in the process because they, by virtue of their lived experience, have a greater knowledge of the problem as well as the possible solutions. their involvement in the research is necessary so that they might also become part of the resulting change process. (post et al, pp. 79-80) influenced by our understanding of collaborative engagement research, we believe that communityengaged scholarship facilitates and informs partnership development and reciprocity between the university and community. these reciprocal relationships help to ensure that those involved have power over the decision making process, which facilitates an end result that is sustainable by the community. as community members move from subjects of the research to coresearchers and participate fully in the co-creation of knowledge, a resulting shift occurs in the existing hierarchal, academic-centric knowledge production system to more fully recognize the rights that co-investigators have to investigate and analyze their own lived experiences. in sum, collaborative engagement research combines community-driven priorities, shared equitable decision-making, and social and cultural change with the cocreation of knowledge into a holistic, participatory, action-oriented research process. (post et al, pp. 79-80) community-engaged scholarship, as well as community-engaged research (cer), affords the opportunity to employ theoretical concepts into practice, praxis. understanding praxis can be a challenge for graduate students, pushing our thinking beyond just “theory into practice” toward “theory into practice being transformative.” through the transformational approach of praxis graduate students can begin to analyze and think more critically as to how we can make our systems and society socially just. editors: what do you need to be prepared to conduct cer? students and faculty interested in communityengaged scholarship should approach it with a mindset that is conducive to this type of work. this is often done through intentional relationship building, which helps to engender trust between university and community. future scholars need to realize that communities can and will identify the problems that are important to them and propose solutions to these problems. therefore, scholars should not enter the research process from the stance of an expert who holds all of the knowledge and answers. instead, there should be an openness to listening and learning from the community. researchers valuing diverse perspectives and demonstrating a willingness to work alongside community members from various backgrounds will include populations whose voices have historically been silenced or excluded, such as linguistic and racially minoritized groups. in addition to the ways of thinking described above, as doctoral students, we also need an understanding gleaned from experienced vol. 1, issue 1 graduate student voices 49 community-engaged scholars. not only do we need access to literature on the topic, but we also need access to faculty that actively partake in community-engaged scholarship in order to further develop our cer abilities and provide us with opportunities to identify how communityengaged concepts can be incorporated into our own research questions. we have come to understand that mentoring relationships with these faculty members are vital to doctoral students, since they can provide us with opportunities to participate in communityengaged research while receiving invaluable guidance and feedback. this would allow us to better understand the relationship between theory, practice and our responsibilities to community. references post, m., ward, e., longo, n., saltmarsh, j., eatman, t., & levine, p. (2016). publicly engaged scholars. sterling, va: stylus publishing, llc. references 81 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 book review mitchell, c., de lange, n., & moletsane, r. (2017). participatory visual methodologies: social change, community and policy. sage. silvia garcia authors silvia garcia assistant director for research, iupui office of community engagement. mitchell, de lange and moletsane (2017) discuss the use of participatory visual research (pvr) to give voice to those involved in research and particularly to create opportunities for social change. the authors intend to shift the conversation on pvr “towards outcomes and the ever-present question ‘what difference does it make?’” (p.3). drawing on the principles of rose’s (2001) critical visual methodology that provide an analytical framework for understanding how images become meaningful to audiences, and from the sociology of literature (escarpit, 1958) –literature as a socio-cultural fact– the book presents the use of pvr to reach critical audiences and provide entry points to policy dialogues and eventually to social change. social change is characterized in different ways “new conversations and dialogues, altered perspectives of participants to take action, policy debates, and actual policy development.” (p.16). the authors bring upfront the importance of studying how audiences engage with the visual artifacts, and the importance of political listening, defined as the communicative interaction among political actors that enables democratic decisions about how to react to visual artifacts. reflexivity is an important element of the authors’ framework. reflexivity is key to ensuring participation, engaging participants, audiences and researchers in questioning the purpose, strategies, and takeaways of visual presentations. reflexivity can be used as a tool to acknowledge unbalanced power relations between researchers, audiences –policy makers– and participants and may lead to co-construction of meaning. these ideas are used in the book to “theorize the ways in which participatory visual methodologies can be key to leveraging change through community and policy change” (p.193). both the ways social change is portrayed, and the positioning that researchers, research participants, the community and policy makers take as audiences that reflect on the visual productions, are crucial to understand how pvr can stimulate social transformations. chapters 2 to 5 of the book focus on changes in the perspectives and dialogues of participants. by creating awareness among community members and policy makers about what references shaw, j. (2015). re-grounding participatory video within community emergence towards social accountability. community development journal, 50(4), 624-643. b o o k r e v i e w needs to change and how, visual methodologies are expected to increase community agency and the potential for social change. the authors sustain that to facilitate building strategies that evoke responses towards change, it is crucial to start the research process with an idea of the expected change in mind. reflexivity is central to audiences’ engagement. the authors introduce “speaking back,” a method that allows research participants to act as audiences of visual productions, reflect on them and engage in new productions that contest, contradict, or complement the content of previous visual work. the method allows for conversations and discussions among participants, new knowledge creation and participant-driven critique in the context of policy dialogue. the mechanics of exhibiting the participatory visual product is also key for engaging external audiences and research participants. first, involving participants as co-curators of the exhibition -deciding what to show, to whom, and howopens the doors for adapting exhibitions to the social context where they are displayed, providing opportunities for learning. second, this engagement provides a space where participants can interact with audiences (community and policy makers). third, research participants can actively engage in studying the reactions of the audiences and the factors that affect their response, exploring future courses of action for change based on audiences’ response to the participatory visual productions. the final three chapters (6 to 8) are dedicated to changes in the mechanics of policy making by 1) including the voices of marginalized populations in the policy dialogue, and 2) engaging policy-makers in policy conversations and reflections on what should be done to address the issues raised. chapter 7 presents participant-led tools founded in the principles of transformative pedagogy for engaging policy-makers. one of the main takeaways of this chapter is that these practices do not necessarily change the power relations that produce the negative conditions in the first place. the book ends with strategies to track change and demonstrate impact. the authors agree that studying the ‘afterlife’ of a project –after enough time has passed for policy change to happen– is relevant to understanding social change. an interesting approach is the use of reflexive revisiting. this implies returning to the place where the initial research study was conducted to understand through conversations, interviews and observations the long-term effects of the project and develop explanations of what changed –or not– and why. the main premise of the book is that “participatory visual research holds potential to bring about change” (p.20). however, the main question “what difference does it make?” remains partially unanswered when the aspiration is policy change. participatory visual research seems effective to change participants’ perspectives and dialogues within their network of personal connections. however, its success in reconstructing policy discussions to include alternative voices and discourses and especially in translating dialogues into social action seems inconsistent. questions should be raised about: can community agency for social change be effectively created through pvr alone? how can pvr be used to elicit social action after policy-makers are confronted with the visual representations? more importantly, how can pvr contribute to build the relational context for dialogue and collaboration within the community and with policy makers that is important to energize social change? in general, the book uses a research perspective that helps understand the interpretive processes, reactions, and meaningful interactions of the audiences (researchers, research participants, community and policy makers) with the visual artifacts during the production and exhibition of the visual pieces. yet, the discussion of how participatory visual productions create opportunities for interactions and mutual engagements of different groups in co-leading social change is inexistent. in this sense, the gap between research and practice that the book promises to address is still partially unsolved. possibly, a way to address this gap is as shawn (2015) has proposed to reframe the use of participatory visual research as a transformational process built not only to facilitate democratic participation, but also to grow the agency, relational capital and energy required to sustain community-driven change. g a r c i a engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 82 author kayla nunnally program manager, iu tutoring, mentoring, college and career readiness program student to student and families too beyond the campus: iu connects kayla nunnally program overview indiana university is connecting with students and families across the state to support equitable access to quality education, educational resources, and social-emotional support. in 2016, the iupui office of community engagement was awarded a grant funded by serve indiana to provide free tutoring, mentoring, and college/career readiness workshops to students in grades 6-12. services are delivered in-person, via online conferencing, and by telephone to ensure all students and their parent/caregivers have equitable access. in total, seven iu campuses (east, southeast, northwest, south bend, kokomo, bloomington and iupui) serve over 2,200 students from rural, urban and suburban communities during the school year and summer. each of the campuses provide face-to-face programming in their local community at schools, community centers, libraries or on the college campus. iupui serves as the hub for online tutoring and mentoring. collaborative leadership a collaborative leadership approach is followed, in which responsibility is shared to achieve equitable outcomes for school communities. dr. khaula murtadha, associate vice chancellor for the office of community engagement; kayla nunnally, program manager; and nicole oglesby, director of p-20 alliances, lead iupui programming. dr. silvia garcia, also from the iupui campus, leads evaluation of the program. dr. chris chalker coordinates and supervises on-campus sessions, as well as facilitates caregiver workshops at iupui. at iu east ann tobin, campus/community service-learning liaison, leads the program. dr. gloria murray, interim director of the office of n u n n a l l y | s t u d e n t t o s t u d e n t 59 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 service learning and community engagement, and emily seay, program manager, move the program forward on the iu southeast campus. ginny heidemann, director of academic centers for excellence serves as the program director for the iu south bend campus. sophie haywood, associate director of p16 research and collaboration, oversees programming at iu bloomington as does james wallace, director of the office of diversity, equity and multicultural affairs at iu northwest. the iu kokomo campus is led by makenzie damon, student outreach coordinator of kelley student center and tracy springer, director of career and accessibility center. on each campus, iu college students from various backgrounds and academic disciplines serve as tutors and mentors. they also share leadership through workshop planning and facilitating, as well as supporting program evaluation. student to student since 2016, over 200 iu students have served in the program. the program works to ensure that they are developing as civic-minded scholars, beyond their time with the program. throughout their service, they attend professional development sessions with topics such as supporting bilingual students, developing cultural competency, racism and implicit bias, as well as how adverse childhood experiences and trauma affect their work with students. tutors and mentors also are able to request professional development topics based on what they are experiencing in their dayto-day work. some of the current tutors/mentors were once enrolled in the program as high school students. as they expressed, because of their participation in the program, not only did they decide to attend iu, but they also wanted to give back to their community and serve. iu indiana kids tutors/mentors speak to the impact on their personal and professional lives. “being part of the indiana kids team has been a really rewarding opportunity. growing up, i faced many struggles academically, so i am happy to be able to support students who are indiana kids mentors work during a recent online tutoring hours session. photo credit: chris chalker, iupui p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 60 facing the same challenges i once faced,” said jose maya-rodriguez, a junior mechanical engineering major in the school of engineering and technology at iupui. he added, “this program gives me the motivation to keep learning so that i can share my knowledge with our students and to teach them that they are powerful beyond measure. creating relationships and becoming a role model for the students we work with could make a huge difference in students’ lives as we give them the tools to learn, grow and become a better version of themselves.” andrea ruvalcaba, a junior in the school of social work at iupui, attributes her desire to serve as a tutor and mentor to her experience as a first-generation scholar. “this program has allowed me to be a resource and support system for children in the indianapolis area.” a tutor/mentor from the south bend campus shared, “i most value the bonds that i was able to create with the students i helped. watching that trust they had with me allowed them to feel free to try, fail, and succeed with difficult subjects.” six through twelfth grade students in the program are able to attend as many tutoring, mentoring and college/career readiness sessions as they would like. they frequently mention that the program not only makes them feel more confident in school, but also makes learning fun. one student said, “every mentor and tutor that i have worked with has showed me i can be me, and i don’t have to get good grades on tests to prove to teachers that i work hard. i can continue to do what i do. they have helped me understand that i don’t need to be afraid.” family engagement family engagement is promoted through resource dissemination and college/career readiness workshops. workshops are tailored to be relevant and meaningful for families, addressing their expressed needs and interests. some of the most common requested workshops include college financial awareness and college/career options. in the last year, the program has offered over 50 workshops for caregivers and students. for example, the iupui campus provides college and career readiness workshops with parents/caregivers one-on-one or in small groups while their middle or high school students receive tutoring and mentoring support. the iu southeast campus focuses primarily on mentoring and workshops with schools and local nonprofits, including foster care providers and programs that support families of incarcerated individuals. parents/caregivers consistently express the positive impact of the program. one said, “the program is free. this is such a benefit and relief for parents. the workshops are an added bonus and help my child understand the importance of being college and career ready after high school.” another reported that her 10th grade student had never had an a+ on a test until being tutored through the program. a third parent/caregiver shared that her daughter is now eligible for athletic scholarships because of her grade improvement. the connection between iu, families, and students helps to bridge the gap between school and home, providing equitable opportunities to educational resources and social-emotional support as students prepare for their futures. an indiana kids mentor talks to students during a school visit. photo credit: iu southeast indiana kids n u n n a l y | s t u d e n t t o s t u d e n t 61 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 an indiana kids mentor and a student work together. photo credit: iu southeast indiana kids parents are also invited to attend indiana kids workshops. photo credit: teresa francis, iupui students meet with indiana kids mentors at an event . photo credit: iu east indiana kids p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 62 speaking up, speaking out harrison-jones | standing in the tension standing in the tension pentecost and peace winterbourne harrison-jones as both a faith leader and researcher, i stand at the intersection of the empirical and that which can oftentimes not be explained. i have thought long about how we as researchers might begin to capture the pathos of this moment in time. to say that 2020 has been a year like no other would be a gross understatement. the world in which we live is filled with pain, misery, and despair. everywhere we look, we are constantly bombarded by reminders that we do indeed live in a broken and dark world. all over the globe, people on every continent and of every walk of life are in search for a light of hope and a break from the madness of our times. the cruel realities of our fractured humanity have been made known again and again and the lament and voices of the people can be felt and heard all over the globe. the “three threats” as dr. king called them of “racism, poverty and militarism” have seemingly collided again and have awakened the moral tempest of this nation. like the tonga drums of zimbabwe, i can hear ancestral rhythms pulsating in the air. the fires of pentecost race and rage through the world – for in the words of the old negro spiritual, “god gave noah the rainbow sign. no more water, the fire next time.” pentecost is here! author winterbourne harrison-jones doctoral student in the iu school of education at iupui urban education studies program people protesting against police violence after the death of george floyd. community engaged participatory research informs me that my job as a researcher is not to dominate or dictate the way forward, but rather to come alongside the community as a partner, to illuminate and elevate the voices and the people, and to lend whatever agency i have towards their cause and truth. engage! 102 vol. 1, issue 3 speaking up, speaking out harrison-jones | standing in the tension on every continent and in every city, people of every culture and of every nationality battle with and suffer from the effects of educational disparity and racial inequality; economic insecurity and lack of political diplomacy; worldly insobriety and no regard for human dignity; ethical deformity with no reverence to cosmic divinity; the absence of morality and the prevailing-deviation from authenticity; lack of individual sanctity and the over-abundance of vulgarity; communal animosity coupled with religious bigotry – yes, it is indeed hard to sing songs of hope in a strange land. pentecost is here! i speak not merely in religious terms, but i speak with the voice of the prophets of old – moses, muhammad, isaiah, maya, joel, amos, nikki, mari, micah, nina, malcolm, james, medgar, and fannie – that foretold of the day when the winds of change would blow so ferociously throughout the earth that it would be impossible to deny that something new was coming. in this kairos moment, we must ask ourselves, how might community engaged participatory research equip us to think intentionally and prophetically about our work? in the days following the brutal lynching of george floyd – the emmett till of 2020 – the streets of this nation burst with protests and civil demonstrations calling for justice. i walked the streets of downtown indianapolis and collected many of the signs left behind by the protesters. one sign had a quote by the american author and anthropologist, zora neale hurston, which read, “if you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” as many around the nation began to ask where we go from here, i too pondered this thought, but then i realized that it is not up to me to decide. community engaged participatory research informs me that my job as a researcher is not to dominate or dictate the way forward, but rather to come alongside the community as a partner, to illuminate and elevate the voices and the people, and to lend whatever agency i have towards their cause and truth. a few days later i was invited to offer a homily in response to the social unrest throughout the country. in preparing my thoughts, inspired by the signs i collected, i shared with those gathered that there is always a haste to move too quickly towards solving the problem or enacting our savior mentality. remembering the words of hurston, i instead encouraged those in attendance to “stand in the tension” – to listen deeply and to be still – together. in respond to this, a dear friend – linda rinker – who was listening that day and who in response to the words i shared, penned this poem entitled, “stand in the tension.” the winds of change are sweeping across the world and the fresh leaves of early summer are tossed by anger and hope. look! plague and protest are moving; nothing will be the same. stand in the tension; hear the voices in the wind. wait! listen! take the anguish and the anger into your soul. embrace the tears of the world. let your heart become transparent as water, absorbing the world’s suffering. stand in that grief, that despair, until you are transformed, changed forever. let the breath of god blow through you in cleansing thunder and rain. then will come the time to act, and you will know the way. though the themes of this poem are religious in nature, they likewise speak to the foundational principles of community engaged participatory research. i would argue that this moment invites us to “stand in the tension” together – or in the words of mari evans – “to explode/in the majesty of our oneness – our comingtogether – in a comingtogetherness.” as academicians and activists alike, we must “stand in the tension” – immerse ourselves in the fabric of community differently and be prepared to be changed and challenged in the process. engage! 103 vol. 1, issue 3 speaking up, speaking out harrison-jones | standing in the tension the winds of change cannot be ignored, and as community researchers we must be open to new ways of understanding, new ways of becoming, and new was of envisioning the future. though our current state is dire, it need not stay this way. we need not journey through these days as those who are helpless and hopeless. it is not peace as a pacifier for change that we are after, but peace as a prophetic mandate, peace as spiritual practice, peace as lived experience, and peace as liberation. though we try with all our might to fight off feelings of despair and utter loss, i still believe that there is still a light that shines in the darkness, there is still truth to be found, and there still hope to be captured – but it is not given, it must be forged. we have been this way before. whether rhythmically captured through the sermons of the slave-preachers like john jasper or thunderously delivered through passionate oratory like malcolm x, fannie lou hamer and ella baker; whether put to paper by social reformists like booker t. washington, marcus garvey and w.e.b dubois or placed within a musical score by cultural icons like nina simone, billie holiday and gil scott heron; whether spoken to tens-of-thousands on the steps of the lincoln memorial like dr. martin luther king, jr. or through the dangerous snake-infested swamps of the american south like harriet tubman – the catharsis of the human spirit – like the phoenix and the sphinx– always prevails. the fire of pentecost is not meant to scare us, but to invite us all closer, to destroy the old, and ignite something new within our hearts. as academicians and activists alike, we must “stand in the tension” – immerse ourselves in the fabric of community differently and be prepared to be changed and challenged in the process. a mural painted in indianapolis to honor those killed by police violence. engage! 104 vol. 1, issue 3 authors latosha rowley urban education studies ph.d. program, cohort 5, iupui susan kigamwa urban education studies ph.d. program, cohort 8, iupui speaking up, speaking out urban doctoral students voices latosha rowley and susan kigamwa doing community engaged work as doctoral students latosha rowley: as a thirdyear doctoral student in the iupui urban education studies program, and a graduate assistant in the iupui office of community engagement (iupui oce), i engaged in an inquiry-based, collaborative relationship with a local community partner in a study designed to explore the effectiveness of their center’s programming. in addition to my research work with a local community center, i have the privilege of working with and engaging in research around a middle school mentoring program with two indianapolis public schools, girl talk, where i facilitate the mentoring connection between iupui undergraduate student mentors and middle school girl mentees. susan kigamwa: as a firstyear doctoral student in the iupui urban education studies program and a development officer in the iupui office of community engagement (iupui oce) i have the enviable role of linking innovative proposals and research opportunities to the appropriate funding resources. in my doctoral studies, i am developing an inquiry approach to examining and understanding the communities that we serve. reflection on the community-engaged scholarly values our research is led by values of democratic voice, equity through reciprocity, social justice, community self-determination, and shared space for dialogue. these five iupui office of community engagement scholarly values drive our understanding and practice of community-engaged activities. democratic voice is foundational in successfully exercising community-engaged research. we have found that recognizing every person’s ideas, perspectives and thoughts are critical to fostering better communication and deeper relationships r o w l e y a n d k i g a m w a 77 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 with the communities we serve. one of the key components of our community-engaged work is having opportunities to hear and actively listen to community voices about issues and solutions. latosha: in my recent inquiry study, iupui oce staff and a local urban community center partnered to create a road map for a study to improve the center’s services and programming. we worked together with an intentional focus on the goals and needs of improving the community center’s programming. through this collaborative partnership, the center’s leadership actively participated in creating with us the survey and interview questions to seek valuable information from community partners. we brainstormed ideas with the center board members as well as staff and were able to experience the power of democratic community voice. our joint contribution in creating this tool was essential to support the community center leaders’ needs for information. i conducted surveys with parents, caregivers, and other family members at the community center’s family unity night celebration. their responses helped us examine experiences, strengths, and the work of community-engaged research has a completely different approach that begins with understanding the people, the history of the community, their assets, and priorities. urban education studies doctoral students latosha rowley and susan kigamwa discuss their research. photo credit: annie goeller s p e a k i n g u p engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 78 challenges in the center’s programming. based on the feedback received from survey responders we improved the survey and provided opportunities for more community input and voice regarding the leaders’ information needs. equity through reciprocity is recognizing that there exists a fair exchange of information. historically, universities have been notorious for embracing a one-way, top-down approach with fixed research agendas for their community partnerships. the work of community-engaged research has a completely different approach that begins with understanding the people, the history of the community, their assets, and priorities. understanding these key factors about communities helps to identify common areas of interest, and results in a win-win relationship. susan: an example of reciprocity of equity was demonstrated in the creation of a university-based theater company. it was formed to focus on black diaspora theatre as an inspired vision of the indianapolis community. the theater is focused on increasing affordable access to performing arts for the local community; and showing productions with themes, stories and actors that reflect black experiences. this partnership with the university offers access to opportunities for arts-based student learning experiences in the community as well as evidence-based research strategies. the black theatre initiative is a direct outcome inspired from community participation in the indiana avenue cultural district’s revitalization discussions. the rich history of indianapolis’ indiana avenue with black culture is well understood and treasured, making this partnership opportunity an ideal connection. social justice guides our inquiry approach as we seek to ensure fair and just community-engaged research with a focus on the equitable distribution of wealth, opportunities, and social privileges. latosha: social justice action is evident in our research with the iupui sponsored girl talk mentoring programming in two different middle schools in the indianapolis public school district. our girl talk mentoring program serves to address social justice by supporting girls' self-efficacy and academic achievement in underserved student populations. the girls increase their knowledge and awareness of possible solutions to their school and life challenges as they successfully transition into high school, college, and careers. the focus of the community self-determination value is evident when we prioritize partnerships that focus on the well-being of communities. an example of this kind of partnership is the quality of life plans developed by neighborhoods reflecting the priorities of residents, non-profits, schools, churches and other stakeholders in a community. most quality of life plans provide a framework to address education, health, safety, workforce and economic development that aligns the university with the community’s interests. reflected in these plans are neighborhood assets, gaps, and opportunities for improvement. communities in central indiana demonstrate self-determination consistently and send the message that they do not need external entities telling them what is needed in their own neighborhoods. susan: i have participated in grant writing partnerships where a community partner positioned themselves as lead applicants to ensure their needs could be fully met in alignment with their quality of life plan. to me this is a demonstration of their own clear-sighted ability to get what they need from the partnership. a final value of community-engaged work is these values are supported by trust, a component that facilitates connecting with community partners in authentic and productive relationships. r o w l e y a n d k i g a m w a 79 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 the shared space for dialogue in a co-working relationship between the university and the community partners with a focus on diversity and building bridges for differences. latosha: community conversations accomplished ways to maintain the culture and history of the neighborhood while meeting the community’s needs. i had the opportunity to attend a community conversation event where community members and iupui staff engaged in dialogue about the social, historical, personal and organizational values of the local neighborhood. this community conversation was purposeful and allowed opportunities for all stakeholders to collaboratively rethink solutions together. being present with community members, especially during community conversations is a powerful way to build mutually beneficial relationships between the community and the university (born, 2012). these values are supported by trust, a component that facilitates connecting with community partners in authentic and productive relationships. as these trusting relationships have continued to grow, we have had the privilege of participating, as well as witnessing opportunities to challenge, disrupt, and resist economic, social and racial inequity in our local communities. reflections examining community engagement through the prism of the office of community engagement’s scholarly values has been insightful and central for our professional growth and development. reflecting on our research, we realize there will be challenges such as ambiguity and lack of structural support in the field. however, we can come alongside community to co-create rewarding and sustainable change. our experience as doctoral students in the office of community engagement has given us opportunities to engage in inquiry mentored by veteran researchers to co-learn and navigate such challenges and gain deeper understanding of urban spaces as places of opportunity and transformation (sutton and kemp, 2011). references born, p. (2012). community conversations: mobilizing the ideas, skills, and passion of community organizations, governments, businesses, and people. (2nd ed.). toronto and new york: bps books. sutton, s. e. & kemp, s. p. (eds.). (2011). the paradox of urban space: inequality and transformation in marginalized communities. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 80 s p e a k i n g u p speaking up, speaking out wallace | pursuing peace pursuing peace amidst the mass incarceration of black males a challenge for community engaged researchers james wallace there can be no peace in this nation without first addressing the crisis of mass incarceration among black males. to address this concern, it is necessary to explore the experiences of those affected through community engaged research and involve these individuals in developing solutions to address this problem. i am a graduate student in the iu school of education at iupui pursuing a doctorate in urban studies. i am studying about the impacts on communities when black boys are poorly educated in leaky k-12 pipelines and grow up to be disproportionately incarcerated. my research asks, what were the motivations, barriers and resources impacting the experiences of african american males who were incarcerated and then decide to pursue an education after they have been released into our communities. i want to know in what ways does achieving more education, getting a high school diploma or a bachelor’s degree, affect their lives and our communities? community engaged and community based participatory researchers need to ask questions about the effects of this phenomenon. the united states of america incarcerates more of its citizens than any other industrialized nation (alexander, 2010). an evaluation of data from the u.s. census and the federal bureau of prisons reveals that while african americans comprise only 13% of the population (u.s. census bureau, 2019), they represent 38% of those incarcerated in the u.s. (federal bureau of prisons, 2020). further, the u.s. justice department reports well over 40% of those who have been incarcerated in state and federal prisons lack a high school diploma or its equivalent (palmer, 2012; patrick, 2016; sakala, 2014). the absence of a quality education or ability in a skilled trade often creates a challenge for ex-felons searching for employment upon release. author james wallace doctoral student in the iu school of education at iupui urban education studies program the prison industrial complex does not exist in a vacuum. other social systems create conditions that funnel individuals into it. the seeds of the system are sown by the nation’s miseducation for black youth, which has consistently failed to adequately serve african americans in this country. engage! 105 vol. 1, issue 3 speaking up, speaking out wallace | pursuing peace the prison industrial complex does not exist in a vacuum. other social systems create conditions that funnel individuals into it. the seeds of the system are sown by the nation’s miseducation for black youth, which has consistently failed to adequately serve african americans in this country (beaudry, 2015). many schools serving blacks in urban communities are in disrepair, underfunded, or overcrowded (morgan & amerikaner, 2018). there is significant disparity in the way students are disciplined in schools (gregory, 2008; okonofua, walton & eberhardt, 2016). this last condition is particularly harmful as the excessive discipline endured by african american male students can precondition them for the correctional institutions in which they may find themselves when they join the 7% of african american males between the ages of 16 and 24 who dropped out of high school in 2017 (national center for educational statistics, 2018). while these numbers may seem a reasonable rate of attrition to some, it is important to consider the last comprehensive survey of correctional institutions by the department of justice showed 41% of the nation’s state and federal inmates and 31% of the nation’s probationers do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent (harlow, 2003; klick, 2011). moreover, african americans, who currently comprise only 13.2% of the u.s. population, make up more than 37.5% of those incarcerated creating another category in which they are over-represented, a disproportionate measure by any standard (federal bureau of prisons, 2020; sakala, 2014). for african american males involved as defendants in the criminal justice system the stakes are high. upon release, many of those unable to find work resume habits, which were the source of their initial troubles with the law. soon, they find themselves back in jail. studies have shown the recidivism rates, defined as the rate of re-arrest and conviction, has increased over the last twenty-plus years. in 1997, stevens & ward reported a recidivism rate of 43% in the u.s. across all racial categories (stevens & ward, 1997). nearly twenty years later, bureau of justice statistics data on individuals released from custody in 2005 reports 67.8% of inmates return to prison within three years of release and 76% returned within five years of release; with 56% of those being re-arrested within the first year (bureau of justice, 2018). studies also indicate inmates who participate in correctional education and vocational programs have a 43% better chance of not returning to prison (brower, 2015; chappell, 2004; irving, 2016; & halkovic, 2014). these results demonstrate the value of such programs and should drive our justice system and correctional institutions to increase educational availability because of the possible impact on recidivism and the concurrent reduction of taxpayer burden to incarcerate citizens. approaches such as these are in alignment with a rehabilitative approach to incarceration that values the humanity of ex-offenders offering them an opportunity to successfully transition back into society, to our communities. significant research exists on the variety of benefits for education both pre-and post-incarceration with former inmates (davis, bozick, steele, saunders, & miles, 2013). these benefits include: increased self-efficacy and self-esteem (rose & rose, 2014); decreased disciplinary infractions while incarcerated (karpowitz, 2017, lagemann, 2016); development of skills to improve their employability upon release (ross & richards, 2009), and reduced recidivism (lichtenberger & ogle, 2006; nally, lockwood, knutson, & ho, 2012). so, is there a way to make a difference, reduce recidivism, offer better educational opportunities, and increase self-efficacy using our research capabilities? community-engaged researchers (cenr) strive to form partnerships and involve community community engaged research has the potential to create conditions where exoffenders can legally increase their earning potential while becoming productive and contributing members of their communities. engage! 106 vol. 1, issue 3 speaking up, speaking out wallace | pursuing peace members as co-researchers in all aspects of a study, with people in the community contributing their knowledges and sharing in the decisionmaking and ownership to make a difference. the aim is to increase and deepen understandings of a given issue and to develop ways to bring about social change benefiting the community members. according to miller, 2009, cited in evans, et al., community-based research can improve the lives of individuals in the community, organization, or association, or can affect the larger social agenda for comprehensive social action bringing about social change. this is community empowerment. the benefits of a high school education have been documented for those both within and outside the criminal justice system. those who participate in correctional education and vocational programs have a 43% better chance of not returning to prison (irving, 2016). additionally, individuals with a college degree earn more over their lifetimes than those with only a high school diploma (torpey, 2018). thus, community engaged research has the potential to create conditions where ex-offenders can legally increase their earning potential while becoming productive and contributing members of their communities. the current economic crises have affected families from all backgrounds and looks to get worse the longer the covid-19 pandemic continues. when inmates are released, they have responsibilities for rent, transportation, and food just like anyone else. however, the label of being a felon made the experience of acquiring those resources more difficult for the men in this study. thus, institutions would be wise to develop clearinghouses of information for such resources for the benefit of all its students, not just exoffenders. cenr may improve outcomes by helping coordinate access to educational resources, institutions can help reduce financial anxiety allowing the students to concentrate on their academics and ultimately graduate. again, this is community empowerment. for african american males involved as defendants in the criminal justice system the stakes are high. upon release, many of those unable to find work resume habits, which were the source of their initial troubles with the law. soon, they find themselves back in jail. engage! 107 vol. 1, issue 3 speaking up, speaking out wallace | pursuing peace references alexander, m. (2010). the new jim crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. new york, ny: the new press. beaudry, a. (2015). black lives matter: the schott 50 state report on public education and black males. retrieved from schott foundation for public education website: http://schottfoundation.org/ brower, r. (2015). against all odds: from prison to graduate school. journal of african american males in education, 6(1), 1-24. bureau-of-justice-statistics. (2018). national prisoner statistics, 1978-2016. retrieved from bureau-ofjustice-statistics website: https://bjs.gov/ doi:10.3886/icpsr37003.v1 chappell, c. (2004). post-secondary correctional education and recidivism: a meta-analysis of research conducted 1990-1999. journal of correctional education, 55(2), 148-169. davis, l., bozick, r., steele, j., saunders, j., & miles, j. (2013). evaluating the effectiveness of correctional education: a meta-analysis of programs that provide education to incarcerated adults. retrieved from rand corporation website: https://www.rand.org/ federal-bureau-of-prisons. (2020). inmate race [data set]. retrieved from federal bureau of prisons website: https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp gregory, a., & weinstein, r. (2008). the discipline gap and african americans: defiance or cooperation in the high school classroom. journal of school psychology, 46, 455-475. halkovic, a. (2014). redefining possible: re-visioning the prison to college pipeline. equity & excellence in education, 47(4), 494-512. harlow, c. w. (2003). education and correctional populations. retrieved from bureau of justice statistics website: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ecp.pdf irving, d. (2016, january 3). the case for correctional education in u.s. prisons. rand review. retrieved from rand corporation website: https://www.rand.org/blog/rand-review/2016/01/coursecorrection-the-case-for-correctional-education.html karpowitz, d. (2017). college in prison: reading in an age of mass incarceration. new brunswick, nj: rutgers university press. klick, l. (2011). uncommon services: public library services to incarcerated populations. interactions: ucla journal of education & information studies, 7(1), 1-19. lagemann, e. (2016). liberating minds: the case for college in prison. new york, ny: the new press. lichtenberger, e. o., j.t. (2006). the collection of post-release outcome data for the evaluation of correctional education programs. journal of correctional education, 57(3), 230-237. miller, d. (2009). community based research. in s. evans, taylor, m., dunlap, m., & miller, d. (ed.), african americans and community engagement in higher education: community service, servicelearning, and community-based research. albany, ny: suny press. engage! 108 vol. 1, issue 3 speaking up, speaking out wallace | pursuing peace morgan, i., & amerikaner, a. (2018). funding gaps: too many students do not get their fair share of education funding. the education trust. retrieved from the education trust website: https://edtrust.org/resource/funding-gaps-2018/ nally, j., lockwood, s., knutson, k., & ho, t. (2012). an evaluation of the effect of correctional education programs on post-release recidivism and employment: an empirical study in indiana. journal of correctional education, 63(1), 69-89. national-center-for-education-statistics. (2017). status dropout rates. retrieved from u.s. department of education website: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_coj.asp national-center-for-education-statistics. (2018). percentage of high school dropouts amoung persons 16 to 24 years old, by sex and race/ethnicity: selected years 1960-2017. national center for education statistics. retrieved from national center for education statistics website: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_219.70.asp okonofua, j., walton, g., & eberhardt, j. (2016). a vicious cycle: a social–psychological account of extreme racial disparities in school discipline. perspectives on psychological science, 11(3), 381-398. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616635592 palmer, s. m. (2012). postsecondary correctional education. adult learning, 23(4), 163-169. patrick, f. (2016). building effective partnerships for high-quality postsecondary education in corrections facilities. retrieved from vera institute of justice website: http://archive.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/building-partnershipspostsecondary-education-correctional-facilities.pdf rose, k., and rose, c. (2014). enrolling in college while in prison: factors that promote male and female prisoners to participate. journal of correctional education, 65(2), 20-39. ross, j., & richards, s. (2009). beyond bars: rejoining society after prison. new york, ny: alpha books. sakala, l. (2014). breaking down mass incarceration in the 2010 census: state-by-state incarceration rates by race/ethnicity. retrieved from prison policy institute website: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/rates.html stevens, d., & ward, c. (1997). college education and recidivism: educating criminals is meritorious. journal of correctional education, 48(3), 106-111. torpey, e. (2018). measuring the value of education. u.s. bureau of labor statistics career outlook. https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2018/data-on-display/education-pays.htm engage! 109 vol. 1, issue 3 authors aimee zoeller lecturer, director of sociology program and coordinator of women, gender, & sexuality studies minor, indiana university purdue university columbus george towers head, division of liberal arts, professor of geography, indiana university purdue university columbus katherine wills program director and professor, english, indiana university purdue university columbus immigrant women in columbus, indiana, expressed anxiety and fear in the aftermath of the 2016 u.s. presidential election and 2017 travel bans. their concerns were highlighted in a national public radio (npr) segment: “the sudanese-american citizens who live in a big, airy house a short drive from the cummins plant, where husband, khalidd eleawad, is an engineer. about 1,400 of the company's 9,500 local workers, or 15 percent, were hired on h-1b visas. right now, [dalia] mohamed says her family is in limbo. they usually visit sudan in the winter, then fly their sudanese relatives to indiana in the summer — but with so much uncertainty around president donald trump's now on-hold immigration order, which targets sudan and six other countries, they don't want to risk it. mohamed is muslim and wears a hijab. she says the changes she's noticed in town since trump's inauguration are palpable. ‘i don't go out that much after jan. 20, because my friends, they have been through so many harassments, so — so that's why i just kind of stay home,’ she says” (ropiak, 2017i). the nation had turned their eye towards columbus for two primary reasons: columbus is vice president mike pence’s hometown and is the headquarters of the fortune 200 diesel engine manufacturer cummins engine. similar to affluent suburban communities, though situated in a mostly rural community, columbus is not the traditional small midwestern american town. yet, in other ways, such as its closely held governmental and business power organized by longstanding families, it is very much a small town. columbus is a microcosm of silicon valley in its per capita output, manufacturing and tech startups, as well as international workers and scholars. columbus has attracted the spouses and families of immigrants. columbus stands out in indiana for the relative size of its foreign-born population. as of 2015, the city’s 5,224 immigrants comprised 11.4% of the population. in contrast, only 6.6% of indiana residents were foreign-born in 2015. the exceptional size of our immigrant community is a new development: the number of our foreign-born neighbors grew by 54% from 2010 to 2015. indiana university purdue university columbus faculty and staff were motivated to engage in purposeful community conversations in order to support the women’s urgent need to address current rhetoric concerning immigrant work and everyday lived experiences. this work was also inspired by the digital model of humans of new york and by community literacy projects defined by the community literacy journal as the “collaboration between academexperiencing our town in the words of immigrant women aimee zoeller, george towers, and katherine wills p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 50 contributors brandi rund senior business analyst with it community partnerships, indiana university bloomington anna f. carmon associate professor and program director, communication studies, indiana university purdue university columbus matt rothrock coordinator, academic resource center, indiana university purdue university columbus douglas gardner lecturer and program coordinator, history, indiana university purdue university columbus ics and community members, organizers, activists, teachers, and artists” (community literacy journal homepage). the iupuc team secured a welcoming community arts and culture grant from the heritage fund – the community foundation of bartholomew county to form an interdisciplinary, intersectional community literacy project that focused on capturing narratives of refugee/immigrant women in their words. the team identified three key outcomes, as specified by the grant: “broader and more inclusive participation from diverse groups and individuals,” “increase[d] understanding/appreciation of cultural differences and commonalities,” and “diversity is showcased and strengthened through productions/ exhibitions.” as measured through student and public surveys, and most importantly, participant feedback, all outcomes were joyfully met. participants were recruited through community network email listservs such as the columbus area multi-ethnic organization (cameo). more than a dozen immigrant women expressed interested in the project; ten participated in two “writing in your own voice” workshops hosted by iupuc faculty and staff at the bartholomew county library. childcare was provided during both workshops. six of the women are from mexico, three from india, and one from colombia. one of the mexican women is from a family of chinese immigrants to mexico. similarly, participants range in age and residency in the us. for example, one of the women is 22 years old and has lived in columbus since she was 3. two others arrived in the us only last year. similarly, the women bring a variety of educational and professional backgrounds to our project. in addition to the narrative workshops, the participants were invited to be professionally photographed by an iupuc staff member. the intent of both creative processes – writing and photography – was to co-discover the experiences of the most marginalized population in the community. although the staff photographer was also a student, students were not heavily involved in this initial effort for logistical reasons: the grant proposal was due after students’ summer exodus and the writing workshops were conducted during the summer months. student participation could have been improved upon by linking it with an academic course in the fall or spring semester. the resulting project was numerous and striking large-size posters with women situated in recognizable columbus landmarks alongside their written narratives. in conjunction with exhibit columbus, the city’s celebration of its architectural heritage, the posters were intentionally displayed in political spaces such as city hall and community spaces such as the commons and the columbus learning center through the fall of 2017. our project website (columbusimmigrantwomen.com) was launched in late august 2017 and is linked to the iupuc website, the human rights page on the city of columbus’ website, and the columbus area multi-ethnic organization (cameo) website. in may 2019, the participants reconvened for a panel discussion as part of the columbus conversations series of public forums at the mill race center. the women discussed their journeys to and experience of living in columbus and participating in the project. the women’s voices, their poster artifacts, and the website will continue to be presented to community audiences. anna carmon, aimee zoeller, and kate wills at columbus city hall with experiencing our town: in the words of immigrant women display. photo credit: george towers references ropeik, annie. (2/16/ 2017).“immigration executive order causes anxiety in vp mike pence's hometown,” national public radio morning edition. accessed on 9/1/2019 at https://www.npr. org/2017/02/16/515454556immigration-executive-order-causes-anxiety-in-vp-mike-pences-hometown t o w e r s | c o l u m b u s 51 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 a a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s welcome dr. khaula murtadha, editor “anthropocene” is a word that in the past i would never have used, but like i said--in the past. i would not have used it in conversations with friends, colleagues or community research partners but will now challenge myself to do so. the word combines the root "anthropo", meaning "human" with the root "-cene", the standard ending for "epoch" in earthly time. the word forces me to think about and feel the pain of this period of human dominance where unchecked, world-wide money-making, money spinning, unbridled economic systems threaten humanity as it heaps upon us all and generations to come, what may become irreversible ecological harm. “we are living in a time many people refer to as the anthropocene. humans have become the single most influential species on the planet, causing significant global warming and other changes to land, environment, water, organisms and the atmosphere.” according to lutz and neis, in making and moving knowledge (2008), the principal challenge for human-kind in the 21st century “. . . will be to achieve a truly sustainable relationship with the environment while developing socio-economic and cultural systems that ensure human rights, comfort and dignity.” environmental justice, in practice, suggests an engagement with movements, expanding the conception of social justice and the reality of injustices, in neighborhoods, in the air, in one’s food, at the workplace, in schools or where we recreate (schlosberg, 2013). for this issue, the scope of contributions is broad, defining environmental justice within a number of contexts. for example, a submission described particulate matter and the effects on urban environments, another author discusses issues with water quality and the work of citizen scientists. the contributors contextualized but also personalized the notions of environmental justice. community engaged participatory policy work is explored in this issue as one approach with the potential to inspire this change. our policy segment tells how public policy that is participatory in nature can contribute to environmental justice. contributors explore how issues make it to political and policy agendas and how to influence the influencers who control these agendas. we invited policy briefs and articles reflecting analysis, formulation, implementation, and policy evaluation. concepts are clarified for us all to understand. for example, we can understand that hot air dries out soil – the soil becomes less absorbent. so when there are heavy rains more flooding occurs. witness the loss of lives during the perilous august, 2021 flooding of tennessee communities. elsewhere, united nations’ intergovernmental panel on climate change delivers gloom-filled, if unsurprising, news that in the coming decades we will expereince1.5 degrees celsius of warming. but with the right priorities, avoiding further warming remains within our reach, even as the intensity of natural disasters continues to mount. “the steps are clear: to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, fossil fuel use must be curtailed as promptly as possible, though removing carbon from the atmosphere will likely be necessary to mitigate the emissions that remain. a collective sense of urgency is key.” it is evident, we cannot wait, as members of communities, as a nation, as the human population on this planet, we can’t wait for decades before we make changes in our lives. co-authors for this special issue considered intersections of environmental justice and racism; tackling the ugly disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards on marginalized, minoritized urban and rural communities. the damage done is exponential in effect, and as a result these same communities are disproportionately hit by the covid 19 virus as engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 6 a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s well as its now more contagious variants and they, our neighbors, continue to live amidst the costs of hospital bills and overdue rent payments. these are deep, serious concerns. to call attention to and to give voice to these concerns, community engaged researchers and community catalysts (people with boots on the ground fighting for equity) are undertaking action-oriented inquiry. they are asking tough questions but we ask “who is listening?” who is engaged in critical conversations and activism out of necessity in this anthropocene era? are we as a public listening to the research, and are we willing to act? can we learn from the intersections of race, economic status and environmental injustices apparent in flint, michigan and take action when we see this happening again and again in redlined, historically segregated communities. can we carefully listen to the voices of incarcerated women and men to help us dismantle the systemic racism pervasive in the criminal justice system? can we act to lift and make resounding black, latinx and low income voices heard to expose the environmental hazards in their communities while having less access to our legal and political systems than white wealthy communities? can we act? education and action must occur on the global scale. consider the words of the youngest nobel prize laureate and activist for female education, malala yousafzai, who told the 2021 girls education day summit that improving education had to be a key part of pandemic recovery. malala spoke to the importance of investing in education, particularly for girls who had fewer opportunities just because of their gender. “the world is facing a girls' education crisis," she said, “. . .with more than 130 million out of school around the world and many millions more at risk of not returning after the pandemic. . .their futures are worth fighting for." malala and we, the editors, fear for our afghan sisters and their families. we are compelled to amp the un “sustainable development goals” (sdgs). according to the united nations agenda for sustainable development “we are determined to end poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment.” there are 17 goals: no poverty. zero hunger. good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace justice and strong institutions; and partnerships for the goals. need to know more? please check out united nations sustainable devel-opment – 17 goals to transform our world ; trans-forming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development | department of economic and social affairs (un.org) it is clear our humanity stands at a critical juncture. we have entered a new geologic era called the “anthropocene,” because we humans have caused vast ecosystem devastation disordering the planet’s climate; driving species disappearance, while generating unfathomable amounts of toxic waste and unconscionably wasting life. we have perpetuated issues of racism and injustice to people, many of whom now are refugees, fleeing from dangers of genocide. yet we say we want systems of justice. it’s been said that justice begins where inequality ends-and i would add that accountability is needed to reach that juncture. 7 v o l . 3 , i s s u e 1 " humans have become the single most influential species on the planet, causing significant global warming and other changes to land, environment, water, organisms, and the atmosphere." gaze katherine v, willis we accept you as living sentient beings only when we gaze on you- as an inhabited body: the metaphor: your branches--arms your trunk--a torso your leaves chattering susurrus susurrus your body belongs to us attiring with seasons dis-attiring you hold power over us like the weeping willow pensive, wet at the river’s edge where narcissus drowned we name your ugly cousin sycamore with her psoriatic peeling skin your seductive sister sweet maple dripping on our pancakes and female ginkgo- full of soft fleshy stinking seeds we love you the best. ebony, we won’t forget ebony ancient ebony, black root of earth ebony we know you, trees. we own you, trees. engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 2 p o e t r y occupy katherine v. willis 3 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 the logging trucks pitch and roll along the narrow rural roads to buzzing sawmills, to carolina furniture factories, to those snippety smug euro homes consuming warm red cool white oak planking under foot. you are like the lungs of the earth, you are a simile converting the sun into hope we trust you will baptize us in oxygen. k a t h e r i n e v. w i l l i s authors george towers head, division of liberal arts, professor of geography, indiana university purdue university columbus richard mccoy founding director, landmark columbus columbus, indiana is known for its modern architecture and for fostering a vibrant spirit of community. this summer, columbus conversations, a new series of local public forums, provided an opportunity for residents to help articulate the architecture of their community’s distinctive identity. columbus conversations grew out of the partnership between indiana university purdue university columbus (iupuc) and columbus’ nationally-renowned facility for older adults, the mill race center (mrc). every spring, iupuc and the mrc organize the great decisions foreign policy discussions for the columbus community and, every spring, participants ask to keep their conversations going into the summer and fall. their enthusiasm led iupuc and the mrc to envision columbus conversations. the indiana university council for regional engagement and economic development championed the idea with an innovate indiana grant. columbus conversations topics resonate with local relevance. for example, iupuc faculty have shared their community-serving scholarly work on women immigrants’ experience in columbus; the local dimensions of the opioid epidemic; and, identifying autism spectrum disorder (asd) through brain science. on behalf of the mrc, executive director dan mustard led a timely discussion on the state of senior services in indiana. the series concluded by celebrating the 25th anniversary of iupuc’s student literary magazine, talking leaves, with prose and poetry readings by current and former students. columbus conversations also hosted a dialogue with richard mccoy, the founding director of landmark columbus foundation. established in 2015 with support from the heritage fund the community foundation of bartholomew county, landmark columbus foundation is dedicated to furthering the vision george towers and richard mccoy columbus conversations and exhibition conversations t o w e r s | c o l u m b u s 47 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 of j. irwin miller, columbus’ legendary leading citizen. miller, who transformed columbus-based cummins diesel from an unprofitable business into a fortune 500 company, dedicated a portion of his philanthropy to making columbus the best community of its size in the country. he and his wife xenia understood that the settings for public interaction – schools, main streets, churches, and parks – model our expectations and aspirations for community life. therefore, they commissioned thoughtful architect, landscape architects, and artists to evoke a modern spirit of progressivism. in that tradition, landmark columbus extends architecture’s visible expression into a vision of community, preserving the vitality of the architectural masterpieces that have made columbus famous. richard shared this mission with columbus conversations through a preview of this year’s exhibit columbus, his organization’s annual exploration of architecture, art, and design. in even-numbered years, exhibit columbus is a symposium that attracts thought leaders from around the world love letter to the crump by borderless studio for exhibit columbus. photo credit: andrew towers p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 48 to reflect upon the town’s unique relationship between architecture and community. in odd-numbered years, the exhibit takes physical form. last year, teams from design studios, university architecture programs, and local high schools interwove 18 projects amongst downtown’s modernist monuments. the installations were part of the community’s fabric through december 1. for columbus conversations, richard related the installations to the theme, “good design and the community,” the title of the national building museum’s 1986 exhibition in miller’s honor. each project is a collaborative accomplishment rooted in conversation. for example, playscape, developed by associate professor sean ahlquist and his colleagues in the university of michigan’s taubman college of architecture and urban planning, is designed to engage those with asd. informed by inter-disciplinary research and the involvement of the asd community, the ahlquist’s team combined textured surfaces and lighting in a self-contained space that redirects the isolating hyper-awareness associated with asd towards collaboration. located immediately outside the entrance to the commons, an indoor public park that floods the senses with the sights and sounds of jean tinguely’s giant rube goldberg machine / sculpture chaos i and a jack-and-the-beanstalk-esque kids climber designed by spencer luckey, playscape invites playful communication between those with asd and people who are not on the autism spectrum. the designers’ commitment to reaching out to the community is reciprocated by residents sharing their ideas. a wonderful example is provided by borderless studio’s love letter to the crump, which is connected to the crump theater, an 1889 opera house that remains unrestored, unused, and endangered. a beloved local landmark, the crump’s state of disrepair is much lamented in columbus. paola aguirre serrano and her associates at borderless studio engaged the issues of remembrance and place by holding workshops to collect residents’ memories of and hopes for the crump. they then represented these community sentiments with a pattern of graphic designs that repeats to fill an enormous curtain. staged against the crump’s large exterior wall facing incoming downtown traffic, the love letter declares that through the will of the community, the curtain will be pulled back and the show will go on. there are sixteen other installations to explore in the exhibition, and two exhibition guides, one that is geared towards families, and a mobile app that will allow users to explore the theme of this year’s exhibition. the exhibition and the guides are provided free to everyone thanks to the generosity of many in columbus and beyond. columbus conversations is intended as an educational service for the community. the philosophical vision and the physical articulation of exhibit columbus remind us that conversations are also mutually instructive. as exhibit columbus is a dialogue that re-envisions and re-constructs columbus’ identity through architecture, we hope that columbus conversations can contribute to continuing the city’s commitment to civic-minded collaboration for the benefit of the community. love letter to the crump by borderless studio for exhibit columbus. photo credit: andrew towers t o w e r s | c o l u m b u s 49 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 engage! | i u p u i 5 0 t h a n n i v e r s a ry j o u r n a l 2 w a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s welcome to the inaugural publication of engage! iupui’s first journal dedicated to community-engaged and community-based participatory research. iupui is recognized locally, nationally, and internationally as an urban-serving research and health sciences university. this issue is dedicated to celebrating the campus’ 50th anniversary and recognizing its decades of public facing scholarship. community-engaged research (cer) in city settings is focused on the processes and results of inquiry-focused relationships between community partners and representatives of the university. guiding principles of social justice, mutuality, and reciprocity are practiced through dialogue, co-learning, and long-term commitments to participation. in the urban setting, community-engaged research is attentive to the rich diversity of cultures and languages as well as poverty and wealth; to privilege and marginalization. cer practices are equity-driven and intentionally change-oriented. this means acknowledging issues of power and the critical importance of cultural humility. the external peer reviewers were deliberate in their assessments of submissions that were attentive to these issues. manuscripts that demonstrated the central involvement of community partners and advanced the guiding principles of community-engaged scholarship were given favorable consideration. this resulted in the contributing authors for this issue making a strong case for community/ university trust building and community self-determination. the articles demonstrate how working together, we can better support the well-being of families, from the infant to the elder. many thanks are due to amy warner, iupui vice chancellor for community engagement, and simon atkinson, our vice chancellor for research, who gave the editorial team their unwavering commitment and support for carrying the journal’s vision forward. our iupui editorial team, drs. silvia garcia, carolyn gentle-genitty, jack turman, and our dedicated graduate assistant kevin hillman, an iupui school of education urban education studies doctoral student, dedicated countless hours to ensuring that this issue advances the importance of cer. the editorial team not only conducted preliminary reviews of journal submissions but solicited external peer reviewers from around the country and mentored our office of community engagement (oce) professional staff and phd students, richard bray, myron duff, and nicole oglesby. our national associate editors drs. sarah stanlick, javiette samuel and tyan parker dominguez gave much needed guidance and editorial support. the online presence of engage! could not be possible without the careful attention given to its development by ted polley, the iupui university library social sciences & digital publishing librarian, and our incredibly supportive oce communications colleague, annie goeller. enjoy, engage! and give us feedback at engagejo@iupui.edu. welcome dr. khaula murtadha, editor associate editors dr. silvia garcia dr. carolyn gentle genitty dr. jack turman jr. kevin hillman, student editor dr. sarah stanlick dr. javiette samuel dr. tyan parker dominguez office of community engagement professional staff editors richard bray myron duff nicole oglesby online journal development ted polley photography artful spaces/safe places photos: zack peñalva three journeys: one project photos 1, 3: virtual bethel 2016 media arts and sciences n441 3d production team photo 2: dr. andrea copeland speaking up, speaking out: annie goeller a new framework for understanding the field of artists who work in community and education settings b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k 7 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 author eric booth independent teaching artist and international arts learning consultant keywords teaching artist, activism, digital media, community engagement, arts integration, capacity building abstract this paper presents a framework for understanding the field of teaching artists (also known by other terms such as community artist, participatory artist, social practice artist, civic practice artist, artist-in-residence, and more) in the u.s. and around the world. this paper describes the current state of this disparate and disorganized field and suggests that previous ways of describing it have proved unhelpful. this pioneering framework was developed in partnership with practitioners in many communities over years and was vetted by practitioners in communities around the world to affirm its validity. this framework was introduced by the author in 2010, categorizing the field according to the purposes for which these teaching artists are hired; vetting by many practitioners affirms that this framework holds almost all employment in the u.s. and other countries. an informal report suggests that this framework has proven useful in clarifying and advancing the field in a variety of communities, for administrators, practitioners, funders, and for those discovering, entering, and advancing in the field. this paper introduces the purpose threads and describes each one, giving community-based examples of organizations that employ teaching artists to achieve their goals, and suggesting ways in which one might evaluate whether each purpose is achieved. this paper acknowledges that the seven purposes do not play out discretely in practice, but naturally overlap, and the author identifies a series of basic teaching artist tools that apply across all threads. the author also discusses teaching artists to work in digital media, a reality that has burst into prominence during the covid pandemic. the author proposes next steps for further development of this framework and invites readers to apply this material in whatever ways are useful. [note: this material was used as a foundation in the now-closed lincoln center education teaching artist development labs (2014-2019). this framework is now used in various teaching artist training programs, but it has not been published.] 8 b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k engage! | c r e at i v e a rts let’s start with a few agreements: 1. let’s recognize that all people have an innate capacity for artistry. many of those who develop their innate capacities in a particular discipline aspire to become artists of that discipline. some of those artists wish to expand the range of their artistry; they aspire to open their artmaking to reach beyond the studio and performance/ exhibition halls into participatory engagement with many different people, in many settings, for many purposes. these artists seek to activate the artistry of others. this community of artists—sometimes called teaching artists, community artists, social practice artists, participatory artists, and other titles too—comprise a workforce in the u.s. and many other countries—crucial to the future of the arts and the achievement of many social, cultural and political goals. these artists know that once the universal, birthright, skillset of artistry is active in anyone, it can be guided to accomplish many things. 2. let’s recognize that this practitioner field of artists with the skills and passion to activate the artistry of others is disorganized, lacks a public voice, identity, and clear pathways for entry and advancement. (see footnote 1 below, which suggests the handful of organizations, all modest in size, that are dedicated to networking and advancing the field of teaching artistry.) this is true at the local, national, and global levels. even so, this workforce is deeply embedded in institutions and communities, and many individuals work on their own without intermediary institutions. the work of these many thousands of artists is relied upon in many sectors; it leads most pioneering efforts to expand and diversify arts audiences, and yet is far less visible than its current contribution warrants, and that its potential impact requires. mainstream funders have rarely attended to cultivating and developing this vital workforce, even though the programs they fund completely rely on these skilled workers. 3. let’s also acknowledge that like some amoeboid masses, the field of artists who choose to expand their art-making to include participatory involvement and service is hard to define. it includes various job titles, each with its own history and tradition and uncertain relationship with being part of a larger whole. some networks manage to connect parts of this field, but the infrastructure to support a larger field is absent. organizations are arising to address this need, at all levels, but they are still adolescent. to help define this larger field, let me offer a working definition—not perfect, not catchy, not even very specific, but not rejected by any sector either (an accomplishment!); so let’s accept this as a working definition as most of the field has come embrace it. i will use the term "teaching artist" to signify the larger field, both because it is the primary tool i have used throughout my career and because it is the most widely used term within the larger field. teaching artists (tas) who work in communities and schools are practicing artists who develop the skills, curiosities, and habits of mind of an educator needed to achieve a wide variety of social and learning goals in, through, and about the arts, with a wide variety of participants. notice the key points about teaching artistry that are suggested by this definition: • they are active artists; 1 examples of such organizations include the teaching artist guild (national in the u.s.), the new york city arts in education roundtable, teaching artists of the mid-atlantic, the tat lab (regional in the u.s.), and the largest of all, the international teaching artist collaborative (global). vo l . 4 , i s s u e 19 • their work is more than a kitbag of educational activities; it is a broad suite of internalized approaches and understandings, developed by working closely with specific community audiences; • their expertise can be deployed to achieve many kinds of goals, from enhanced quality of life to increased engagement in schools to reduced prison recidivism and prescription drug intake for seniors, etc.; • they can work with the widest array of audiences, basically anyone, including, for example, artsdisinterested people, young children, people with special needs or psychological disorders, and those with dementia—note that this ability to engage so broadly, so far beyond already-arts-interested audiences, is rare and valuable in the field; • and they often achieve “instrumental” outcomes that institutions and communities want (such goals are frequently the rationale for a project and are sometimes disdained by arts purists), but they recognize that the only way to achieve those outcomes is by activating the universal “intrinsic artistry” in participants. reframing the field traditionally, the national field of these artists (including practitioners and those who train and employ them) is described by the type of employer, location of work, or type of project. for over a decade, i have proposed a different framework for understanding this as one field rather than a collection of similar subgroups that do not affiliate with one another. this recategorization has proven to be both helpful and also true to the way the field actually functions; i organize this field around the different purposes for which these artists are employed. the key question behind this framework is: what is the primary purpose of the project? analyzing this field’s range of employment, i find the breadth of work can be distilled to seven main purposes, plus one additional one that is a little different but helpful to name. this categorization scheme has been presented to colleagues in over 20 countries to determine if it satisfactorily contains the employment for participatory artists in their country, and their agreement leads me to assert that this organizational scheme works to include almost all professional practice. my methodology in developing and testing this framework has been with and for practitioners and program administrators, with an eye out for funders. my freelance practitioner and consulting careers have brought me into direct experience of all these employment threads. as an advocate and active organizer, i have long been frustrated that few inside or outside the field seem to grasp its scope or the ways the wider field has a coherent core and different channels of employment. iterations of this framework evolved through conversation, opportunities with funders and supporters, and many challenges to introduce the field to a variety of stakeholders. this current framework has settled over years, giving me enough confidence in its accuracy to share it widely. it will and should continue to evolve, and i invite others to contribute to that evolution. b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k this current framework has settled over years, giving me enough confidence in its accuracy to share it widely. it will and should continue to evolve, and i invite others to contribute to that evolution. such employment purposes are never entirely singular nor conveniently discrete in practice, of course; they naturally overlap. in prioritizing one purpose, we know that others will be incidentally (and valuably) accomplished—for example, in engaging people to enrich an aspect of their community life, any artist working in that setting is likely to create artworks that enhance the appreciation of artworks made by other artists. the value of focusing on purpose threads is that they prompt the questions: “what is the most important goal or outcome for me to aim for in this work?” and “of the many kinds of impact this work is likely to have, which are most important to assess?” after introducing the purpose threads below, i will mention some teaching artist tools that apply across all of them. using these purpose threads has proven useful to many, as a way to: enrich and refine teaching artist training, sharpen the effectiveness of practice (clarifying goals), help artists understand and advance their careers, help with the assessment of impact, illuminate inchoate partnerships that have never been fully tapped, and clarify for those outside this field how widespread, effective, and relied upon these artists are. this purpose thread framework that i introduced was used to structure the national/international teaching artist development labs at lincoln center education, active from 2014 to 2019. the seven (plus one) purpose threads of artists who work in schools and communities before a brief discussion of each thread, which includes examples of programs that use teaching artists to achieve each purpose, here is a reminder of some basic teaching artist practices that apply across all-purpose threads. the first four derive from the “four core concepts” that was used in the lincoln center education teaching artist lesson design. 10 b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k engage! | c r e at i v e a rts name of thread work of art community art skills development arts integration activism social/personal development partnering for non-art goals + digital primary purpose of the work to enhance the encounter with art works. to enhance the life of communities. to deepen the development of art-making skills. to catalyze the learning of non-arts content. to impact a political or social movement. to develop personal or social capacities. to achieve goals important to other institutions. to activate personal artistry in digital media. table 1. the seven (plus one) purpose threads of artists who work in schools and communities vo l . 4 , i s s u e 111 art-making: in every thread, teaching artists guide participants to make things they care about, balancing their attention toward creative process and product (rather than the predominant priority of product-mindedness). creating conditions and invitations for people to make things of personal meaning in artistic media is an effective way to awaken personal artistry and activate its power. intrinsically-engaged participants seek ever-higher quality and artistic satisfaction in the self-assessed quality of their final result, as professional artists do, regardless of whether those products achieve high quality by the traditional standards of the arts discipline or not. the multiple dimensions of excellence identified in the report aesthetic perspectives [http://www.animatingdemocracy. org/aesthetic-perspectives] have been useful in expanding traditional judgments of quality in community and youth artmaking. inquiring: questioning is used throughout all teaching artist practice, for many specific purposes. indeed, teaching artistry is an inquiry process that uses production as one of its tools; this is, of course, inherently true of artist practice. leading group reflection requires the teaching artist’s skills of facilitation, offering and discovering great questions and guiding participants’ answering processes. consistent and curious questioning establishes the teaching artist environment and builds habits of mind for participants to develop and to pursue their own inquiries. reflecting: john dewey wrote extensively on reflection and learning. the essence of his thinking comes down to this: if we do not reflect on our experiences, we do not learn from them. i maintain that reflection is the most stinted component of arts learning. teaching artists regularly guide participants to “bend back” (the etymological meaning of “reflect”) their experiences toward themselves in order to grab essential elements that give them ownership and advance the particular purpose of the work. contextualizing: artistic experiences do not live in a vacuum; they must connect to lived life to gain relevance and power. the teaching artist finds organic ways to stimulate those connections and share relevant information at teachable moments. the contextual information that is shared situates the artistic experiences within the particular purpose thread. other basic tools of teaching artistry appear in all the purpose threads too; explication of these practices live in other writing—for example: engagement before information, entry points, high priority on personal relevance, observation before interpretation, warm-ups, culminating events, scaffolding, use of fun, enabling constraints, focus on choice making, tapping competence, pre and post-self-assessment, and many more. the purpose threads the work of art thread— the purpose of this thread is to enhance the audience member’s encounter with art works. this is the goal of "outreach" in many arts organizations: to introduce, excite, and interest people in their art offerings. teaching artists accomplish this goal in many ways, in many settings. it was the central work of “aesthetic education” at lincoln center education (where the term “teaching artist” was born in the early 1970s, and where i worked for 41 years), and it has been the mainstay of young audiences, the largest and oldest network using teaching artists in the u.s. it was the instinct of leonard bernstein in his young people’s concerts, and is the goal of learner-centered, inquiry-based teaching that is widely adopted in the museum world. teaching artists often guide participants to create works of art as a tool in this process, and to b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k 12 b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k engage! | c r e at i v e a rts carefully study works of art made by others, often masterworks. what unifies all the practices of this thread is that they seek to deepen personally relevant connections with works of art. if you were to assess the teaching artist’s work in this thread, you would seek to assess the quality of engagement with the artworks and the impact of such encounters on the viewer. the community thread— the purpose of this thread is to activate and empower the artistic assets within a community in order to enrich its quality of life. this has been the domain of “community artists” and “civic artistic practice”; it has deep and proud traditions around the world. in this thread, the artist serves the community’s aspirations and needs, often helping to surface, identify, and build consensus around those hopes and needs. from community choruses, public dance classes, and participatory mural projects in major cities around the world to creative placemaking projects in the u.s., a broad definition of art is used to engage a broad inclusion of participants. there are programs with especially deep traditions in the u.s., like appalshop and the philadelphia mural project. if you were to assess the teaching artist’s work in this thread, you would seek to assess the change in community members’ attitudes and how the functioning of the community has changed. the skills development thread—the purpose of this thread is to deepen the development of artmaking skills. along with the essential technical, mechanical, and imitative learning of artist training, working within arts-training programs, teaching artistry aspires to produce artistically alive people. this is a “new kid on the teaching artist block,” and the kid is still a little controversial in the professional arts pipeline. there is no clear line separating an arts teacher from a teaching artist; let's not argue whether the ballet mistress who focuses exclusively on technique should be considered a teaching artist or not. let's accept some gray areas to acknowledge that many experienced arts teachers are teaching artists, and teaching artists do teach the skills of their discipline, but they add something more than the tools of the art form—they teach the artistry in the art form that carries beyond it. we are only now embracing the fact that teaching artistry has something powerful to bring to the development of artists. teaching artists at say sí in san antonio develop young artists in many disciplines, but those young artists are not just professional-track actors and filmmakers. they are community-minded contributors through their art. the tas at marwen, in chicago, nurture professional-level accomplishment in their young visual artists, in such a way that dramatic life change is a consistent side-effect of the art learning. i led the teaching artist program at juilliard for more than a decade, and students consistently reported to me, and to their studio faculty, that learning teaching artist skills enhanced their musical skills. many school-of-the-arts/ university/conservatory teachers should be considered teaching artists when they prioritize opening wide the artistic lives of their students and not merely teaching for skill mastery and career advancement. if you were to assess the ta's work in this thread, you would seek to assess the intrinsic motivation of the learner, the student's ownership of arts skills (an understanding of how we are only now embracing the fact that teaching artistry has something powerful to bring to the development of artists. vo l . 4 , i s s u e 113 it may be used for one's own expressive purposes and the ability to apply it in varying contexts), the development of individual voice, and the strength of connections the learner makes inside and outside of the discipline, as well as the ways the ta goes about nurturing those four goals. the arts integration thread—the purpose of this thread is to catalyze the learning of non-arts content. this is a large experiment happening in u.s. arts education, and it is spreading to other countries. finland has the largest commitment to this in their national schooling, and is, probably not incidentally, always rated among the top few academically-achieving nations in the world. the gamble of arts integration is that by bringing arts learning together with learning other subject matter both will advance further and deeper than they would on their own. this can be a tricky balancing act in partnership so that the arts component does not become a handmaiden to the more institutionally-urgent and formally-tested material of the other subject (the arts used to pep up a boring curriculum); conversely, so that the subject matter is not a legitimizing excuse to do a cool art project. usually the ta leads in this partnership and must show discipline to ensure the balance, in a school setting that usually prioritizes academics over the arts. there are hundreds of programs across the u.s., and they go by many names including arts project-based learning, artsrich, and arts-infused curriculum and schools. national programs include steam, leonard bernstein center’s artful learning schools, symphony space education, ford’s theatre civics education, as well as programs offered through young audiences and the kennedy center. if you were to assess the ta’s work in this thread, you would seek to assess the learning in both the art and the other subject area. for example, in a theater and history project, you might assess what students have learned about writing strong scenes, as well as their grasp of the historical material they were dramatizing. the activism thread—the purpose of this thread is to impact a political or social movement. this thread is connected to the community life thread and has a long public history, sometimes including artworks labeled “propaganda,” and often intends to be controversial or provocative. this thread includes street theater, group singing (including “complaint choirs”), political artworks, graffiti, and public artworks with the purpose to change minds, challenge ideas, and build solidarity. specific examples include theater for social development, cornerstone theater company, the actions of the u.s. department of arts and culture, and the work of graffiti artists such as banksy. the international teaching artist collaborative has a climate initiative in which teaching artists around the world lead projects that seek to change local understandings, actions, and policies regarding climate issues. many artists naturally apply their artistic skills to causes they care about by making artworks that carry their messages, and some develop additional activist skills that intensify their impact in community and political organizing. whole genres of art have been born out of an activist movement, such as the nigerian rock music movement of the 1960s, and "krumping" (a dance form born in los angeles) in the 1990s. if you were to assess the artist-activist's work in this thread, you would try to determine the impact and the lingering effect on people's hearts and minds. certainly, imitation is a measure of impact, as shepard fairey’s “hope” image for barack obama has shown. the social/personal development thread—the purpose of this thread is to develop personal or social capacities through the arts. this is the fastest-growing thread. teaching artists, or “social practice artists” work with social service or other b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k organization partners to achieve social goals. this is the thread of el sistema and music for social change programs around the world, which seek to redirect the lives of young people in poverty and other stressful conditions like migration through intensive, long-term youth orchestra engagement. this thread contains the work of creative aging, the fastest-growing employment sector of the teaching artist field in the u.s., and many prison and juvenile detention arts programs. it includes the lullaby project (carnegie hall, launched in 2011) that strengthens bonds and health outcomes of young mothers and their babies, in ways that careful research confirms. if you were to assess the teaching artist’s work in this thread, you would seek to assess the development of the desired social outcomes, from reduced medications, improved morale, and health outcomes in senior centers, to reduced recidivism rates, to reduced gang and crime involvement, and high school graduation for music for social change programs (including venezuela’s 46-year-old el sistema and over 200 similar programs around the world). the partnering for non-art goals thread— the purpose of this thread is to achieve nonarts outcomes that are important to partner institutions. this is a dull title for a thread, but the range of experimentation is broad, vibrant, and entrepreneurial. in this thread, artists work with businesses to boost innovative capacity (for example, the second city corporate division), build teamwork, boost creativity, and develop leadership. they work with doctors in training to sharpen diagnostic acuity and build patient empathy. they work with planning commissions to bring creative vitality to urban planning. they work with environmentalists to change local regulations. this thread is growing unpredictably, as organizations discover ways that creative engagement can help them achieve their objectives. the teaching artist field has not investigated this thread much yet, and because the employment opportunities are so scattered, it does not communicate well about the promising practices or the learning. if you were to assess the artist’s work in this thread, you would focus on the goals of the project and find out if they are being attained. + digital—here we seek to activate personal artistry in digital media. this isn't a thread; it is a domain, and it uses various media, but its importance for the profession of teaching artistry, an importance which was amplified during the covid pandemic, demands that it be considered in relation to the other threads. after decades of disinterest in virtual engagement, the field of teaching artistry was blasted into digital engagement in 2020 by the covid-19 pandemic. even with all the activity in the electronic/digital realm in the lives of young people, the distinctive quality of engagement tas can bring to internet connections had been largely absent prior to the pandemic. artists who work in communities and schools had used digital media in some ways—in electronic portfolios, in searches and communications, in workshops—but the teaching artists’ distinctive power to activate artistry had not yet found its footing through the internet. the sudden start in delivering their work online had teaching artists scrambling at first just to complete contracts, to keep online participants engaged and interested. i must say the early experimentation was disorganized and more earnest than effective. after the first flurry of several months, the field began to recognize the insufficiency of the initial ideas and settled into experimentation and deeper kinds of engagement. as the field has come to recognize that there would be no full return to “the way it was before the pandemic,” programs and practitioners began exploring deeper work to master hybrid programs—taking advantage of the benefits of what can be effectively accomplished online to set up more potent investment in 14engage! | c r e at i v e a rts b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 the precious opportunity of in-person creative engagement. there is the new framework—seven threads plus one. i invite you to use the framework in whatever way makes sense for you. in practice it has been applied to various purposes. it has enabled previously disconnected organizations to have conversations as colleagues. for example, carnegie hall is committed to the power of music in people’s lives, jacobi medical center has a clinic committed to helping young mothers living in stressful circumstances bond well with their babies; in the shared purpose of the social/ personal development thread, the lullaby project was born and has spread around the world. the recognition of shared purpose has enabled school arts specialists and teaching artists to set aside the historic uncertainty of their relationship to accomplish their goals in better coordination. working within this framework obviates old separations when “teaching artists” and “community artists” work together on a project—“we share the same goal, that’s what matters.” focus on purpose has prompted fresh interest in teaching artist accountability, focusing on the degrees to which an intended purpose is accomplished—impact assessment has become a common practice in teaching artist programs. i can imagine the next steps in developing the utility of this framework. it would be valuable to introduce the purpose threads to those beginning teaching artist training so that it could inform their choices in building careers—individuals inclined toward some purposes more than others, and to know the range of possibilities early could empower new field entrants with more agency. in the lincoln center teaching artist development labs (before they were discontinued during the covid pandemic), we were planning special training tracks in different purpose threads; the developmental sequence of four lab stages focused on the common core set of skills, and we aspired to add specializing threads that emphasized the skill sets that were distinctive to these purposes. the purpose threads framework makes clearer to those outside the arts what artists who work in participatory settings can accomplish. it helps artists to clarify career choices and to become more intentional in having their intended impact on the world. it makes clear to teaching artists themselves that they are part of a big field, with many kinds of expertise, and that any particular area of expertise is just one among many. and perhaps, it can finally help funders envision ways to build infrastructure to grow this field—a painful blind spot in the funding field that has limited the benefits teaching artists are ready to deliver. the flexible, adaptable, muscular skills of teaching artistry are ready to accomplish the many important results they are distinctively capable of bringing into the world. 15 b o o t h | f r a m e w o r k authors michael valliant service-learning program director, indiana university bloomington megan betz instructional consultant/ community engagement coordinator, indiana university bloomington community voice has persistently, and to degrees, been present in pockets of curricular and co-curricular community engagement at indiana university – bloomington (iub). the bloomington volunteer network (bvn), a program of the city of bloomington, was instrumental in creating service-learning infrastructure on campus over 20 years ago and continues participation in regular meetings of campus-community stakeholders. centering community voice in campus activities requires deliberate action by campus to create space to hear from community stakeholders. this is particularly true on a large, decentralized campus. bloomington is described as a college town and houses the main campus of the indiana university system. iub hosts 43,503 students,1 who are included in the estimated bloomington population of 84,067.2 the listening to communities (ltc) structure supported by indiana campus compact (icc) are formal methods employed by the service-learning program (slp), housed in the center for innovative teaching and learning (citl), to engage a broad range of community agencies in conversation about our ongoing partnerships and engagement. since 2013, slp has hosted four ltc conversations evolving from setting priorities for the program to expanding on community-identified themes around engagement. the most recent was a two-part event using the ltc structure to solicit community partners’ concerns, questions, and interest in campus-community partnerships. lucy schaich, bvn coordinator, and efrat feferman, united way of monroe county executive director, co-facilitated the events to ensure conversation centered on community. through our partnership with bvn, we secured a room in city hall and offered free parking for both michael valliant and megan betz learning from “listening to communities” 1 u.s. news & world report. (2019). overview of indiana university—bloomington. retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/indiana-university-bloomington-18092 2 city of bloomington office of the mayor. (2019). bloomington census data. retrieved from https:// bloomington.in.gov/about/censusdata v a l l i a n t | l e a r n i n g 55 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 representatives from area nonprofits and public entities work together on an affinity mapping exercise to determine their top priorities and questions they would like to resolve over the course of the day. photo credit: michael valliant conversations. our winter ltc, hosted december 13, brought together 42 attendees from 32 community organizations and three iub programs. the spring event, hosted april 18, had 16 attendees from 11 community organizations.3 attendees represented nonprofits working in monroe county, predominantly serving bloomington; due to this geographic focus and a similar restriction for most service-learning, conversation centered on bloomington. across both events, 39 unique community organizations attended with strong representation from youth-serving organizations and human services. our goals were to develop a community-guided understanding of opportunities for campus community collaboration and offer better support of the community. the fall event included several conversations. first, we asked the community to set topics of conversation; these centered on barriers to creating needed partnerships. we then completed swot analyses and mapping activities to explore how spatial, structural, and skill barriers create gaps in iub students’ service to the community. the best outcome of these events was creating often requested space for networking and resource-sharing. in spring, we invited representatives from three agencies4 to present on their experience with service-learners. following the presentations and time for discussion, rather than 3 to minimize the dominant power of an institution the size of iub, we limited representation in the room. neither students nor faculty were invited to the event. in our experience, community partners are more candid and disclose a fuller picture of their experience working with students when neither population is present. 4 immense thanks to liz grenat, executive director of community justice and mediation center; scott evans, community in schools site coordinator at templeton elementary; and choonhyun jeon of the monroe county community school corporation’s cultural competency and diversity coordinator for sharing their experience creating a range of service learning and community engagement opportunities for iub students. p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 56 moving into the planned sessions, we adapted to interest in continuing the morning’s conversations. moving chairs into a circle, we shared what makes a successful partnership and what support and resources could facilitate better partnerships. partners shared how the structure of academia impacts their work. decentralization and shifts in instructor assignment and course offerings complicates partnership management. further, while we frame service-learning as responsive to community need, partners argue they are still responding to campus-identified needs. agencies want to be accommodating in support of student learning; many take on partnerships resulting in outputs duplicating past student efforts or requiring additional work to improve quality and utility. moving forward, following lucy’s advice reflecting on the events, we will seek input from community partners as we set goals for the day, inviting them to take ownership of sessions. we will also continue conversation by hosting more networking events. following efrat’s advice, we will further research what work has already addressed similar questions to those on our agenda and increase time preparing facilitators, ensuring they understand objectives and are prepared to support conversation. lucy also highlighted the importance of reporting results in an accessible format to support the investment made by partners in the conversation. following the fall ltc, we prepared a report that was distributed to attendees for additional input, then to the community broadly through bvn’s newsletter. a similar report is in preparation for the spring conversation, which will ask how the community would like to continue conversations about shared work. to share results with campus community-engaged professionals, we shared results at our in-house spring conference, on the citl blog5, and at the 2019 icc service engagement summit. 5 see the blog post here: https://blogs.iu.edu/citl/2019/06/12/listening-to-communities/#.xyebydnkgwo attendees gathered to learn more about community-engaged learning opportunities. here, jessica adams, ace program coordinator, explains how our student employees (advocates for community engagement) support agencies throughout bloomington. photo credit: michael valliant v a l l i a n t | l e a r n i n g 57 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 attendees gather to look at and discuss concept maps they created to visualize their understanding of how community engaged learning and campus-community partnerships support the bloomington community. photo credit: michael valliant two representatives from area nonprofits discuss a concept map attendees created, sharing the barriers they believe prevent more widespread community engagement. photo credit: michael valliant p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 58 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination hair discrimination is racist why black communities advocate for hair peace jantina anderson summary black girls are at greater risk than other girls for receiving citations due to dress code violations and talking back to teachers, as well as for much less severe behaviors, such as gum chewing, defiance, and failure to comply with prior discipline. further, these disciplinary measures have a greater likelihood of excluding black girls from the classroom and schools. when taking a closer look at a recent trend around the dress code policy infractions, it is clear that some policies are discriminatory, if not racist. black girls are being excluded from the opportunity to learn due to wearing natural hairstyles, which are common in the black community; afros, braids, twists, and locs. as such, this brief presents recent dress code policy cases which resulted in disparaging labels and exclusionary discipline due to black girls’ natural hairstyles. it also addresses the implications black girls are subjected to due to the implementation, interpretation, and enforcement of said racist dress code policies. finally, opportunities for schools to promote awareness of different cultures which foster environments of inclusivity, growth, development, and success for all students are proposed. author jantina anderson doctoral student in the iu school of education at iupui urban education studies program these disciplinary measures have a greater likelihood of excluding black girls from the classroom and schools. when taking a closer look at a recent trend around the dress code policy infractions, it is clear that some policies are discriminatory, if not racist. engage! 42 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination prescribing hairstyles is a political act when examining school dress code policies, it is apparent they have become increasingly prescriptive. this is largely due to the early 1990s movement to address gang violence on school grounds via implementing dress code and uniform policies intended to prevent students from wearing gang attire (dacosta, 2006; gilbert, 1999; mitchell-wilson, 1998). the catalyst of this movement was a challenge made by former president bill clinton during his re-election campaign (dussel, 2005). due to the former president’s encouragement and the published success of a dress code and uniform policies launched by the long beach, ca school district, school administrators, with the support of the national government, began implementing dress code and uniform policies across the nation (dacosta, 2006; gilbert, 1999; mitchell-wilson, 1998). with reflections of each schools’ understanding and beliefs of appropriate attire and aesthetics, dress code policy language began to include guidance around clothing colors and styles, accessories, hair colors and styles, and make-up. consequently, some students and community members voiced, and continue to voice, their concerns around the loss of students’ opportunity for personal and cultural expression, and the perception of racist intent when the policies are inconsistently enforced and disparately impact students of color and more specifically, black girls (kim, 2014; klein, 2013; metler, 2017). as noted in a report, unlocking opportunity for african american girls: a call to action for educational equity, by the naacp legal defense and educational fund, inc. (naacpldf), national women’s law center (nwlc) (2014), black girls are at greater risk than other girls for receiving citations due to dress code violations and talking back to teachers, as well as for much less severe behaviors such as gum chewing, defiance, and failure to comply with prior discipline. further, a 2018 report published by the nwlc, stated school dress codes in the district of columbia (dc) promote race and gender discrimination, and create unnecessary and sometimes illegal hardship and burdens for black girls in their school districts. as stated by a participant in the naacpldf and nwlcs 2014 report, “they have different rules for us [african american girls] than they do for white and asian girls. white girls and asian girls can wear anything and get away with it, but they will send us to the dean for wearing the same thing.” schools’ dress code and grooming policies are negatively impacting black girls’ opportunity to learn in the classroom, socialization with their peers in academic and extracurricular settings, and outlook on their natural appearance and culturally aligned aesthetic. despite the narratives of safety and quality used by schools who utilize more prescriptive dress code policies (dacosta, 2006), little research has been conducted to examine the implications of the policies for distinct student populations. consequently, this policy brief discusses recent dress code policy cases which resulted in black girls’ hair being labelled as a distraction to school spaces and noncompliant with said policies. this brief also addresses the implications black girls are subjected to due to the implementation, interpretation, and enforcement of the dress code policies. further, efforts communities and organizations have taken to disrupt the current practices, which infringe on the boundaries of race neutral and unintentionally disparate impact, will be discussed. finally, opportunities for schools to promote awareness of different cultures which foster environments of inclusivity, growth, schools’ dress code and grooming policies are negatively impacting black girls’ opportunity to learn in the classroom, socialization with their peers in academic and extracurricular settings, and outlook on their natural appearance and culturally aligned aesthetic. engage! 43 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination development, and success for all students are proposed. hairstyle segregation while diversity, equity, and inclusion are three words that are repeatedly touted as values and a priority, schools continue to grapple with the reality of their existence within staff representation, policy language, and cultural norms. as a result, students and their communities have withstood experiences which have felt racist and exclusionary. at the center of these particular experiences were dress code policies and disciplinary practices, which excluded or reduced the opportunity to learn for young black girls during the past seven years. consequently, students, parents/guardians, and school communities have called out the racism and demanded space and consciousness around definitions of safety and inclusion shared by them. students’, parents’/guardians’, and community members’ ideals of inclusion expand the notion of safety and quality to address and incorporate individual and cultural expressions which support the success of the student beyond academic scores (fox, 2017; lazar, 2017). parents/guardians, students, and community members advocate for the mental, physical, and emotional well-being and success of the child, along with their academic scores. this broader and distinct definition of safety and quality creates the opportunity for the students to receive care and support for their whole being/self. while the concept of caring and supporting the whole child is embraced by the community, it seems to be less of a priority for the school. as a result, the dissonance between schools’ definitions and enactment of and students’, parents’/guardians’, and communities’ ideals of inclusion ebbs and flows. this conflict and tension sustain exclusionary trends around black girls’ opportunity to learn and negates space for their healthy development. currently, black girls are being pushed out of schools and classrooms due to their hair texture and aesthetic expressions. natural black hair textures which are known to have a tighter curl pattern and more coarse texture are healthiest when worn in styles which do not require daily manipulation or harsh chemicals. as such, black girls are embracing their personal agency to wear their hair in braids, twists, afros, locs, and wraps. while most girls are able to fully embrace this process of maturation, the freedom to choose their hair aesthetic, black girls are met with two barriers, society’s natural hair biases, and schools’ adaptation and enforcement of society’s hair preferences. in 2017, perception institute published a hair bias study which underscored what black women have known since arriving on the shores of north america; there is an unequivocal disdain for the hair that grows naturally from their scalp. as shown in table 1, the “good hair” study: explicit and implicit attitudes toward black women’s hair found that, “on average, white women show explicit bias toward black women’s textured hair” (mcgill-johnson et al., 2017, p. 6). note: reprinted from "the good hair study: explicit and implicit attitudes toward black women’s hair," by mcgill-johnson, a., godsil, r., macfarlane, j., tropp, l., & goff, p., 2017, perception institute. p.7 https://perception.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/01/thegood hairstudyfindingsreport.pdf engage! 44 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination further the study reported a social stigma related to afro hair, “white women perceive the united states to rate the afro significantly more negatively on beauty and sexy/attractiveness than black women (p<.001)”. however, as shown in figure 3, women, regardless of race, perceive the united states to view afro hair negatively as it relates to professionalism. “black women perceive a level of social stigma against textured hair, and this perception is substantiated by white women’s devaluation of natural hairstyles” (mcgilljohnson et al., 2017, p. 6). black girls have experienced these perceptions firsthand in their classrooms and schools, a space where protecting, nurturing, and developing the whole child should be priorities. this is exemplified in the conformance demands embedded in dress and grooming norms/policies which diminishes black girls’ space for selfexpression and healthy racial socialization identity development. during the past seven years, incidents involving black female students in k-12 spaces, and scrutiny around their hairstyles has increased. black girls, ranging in age between 7 and 15, have been subjected to school leaders’ and teachers’ unfavorable perceptions and labeling of their hair. terms and phrases such as distractions, materialistic, unsuitable, and a fad have been used to describe hairstyles commonly worn in black communities (e.g. braided extensions, cornrows, afros, locs, and twist) (fox, 2017; golgowski, 2013; jacobo, 2018; kim, 2014; klein, 2013; lazar, 2017; l’heureux, 2016; mettler, 2017; rosenblatt, 2018; ross, 2016). further, black girls have also been burdened with exclusionary practices enacted by those in positions of power who are ideally there to protect them and ensure their academic growth and development. conversely, as a result of their hair aesthetic choices, black girls and their guardians have faced similar notions and actions of school segregation which existed prior to brown v. board of education. black students were forcibly excluded as a result of their race. black girls are excluded today, because of their hair texture and/or choice in presenting it, which some say is unique to their race (crown act, n.d.). for example, tiana parker, a 7-year-old, straight a student, was told she could not attend school due to her hairstyle, dreadlocks. deborah brown community school in tulsa, ok told tiana her hair was not “presentable” and may “distract from the respectful and serious atmosphere it strives for,” (klein, 2013). her parents made the decision to enroll her in a new school (golgowski, 2013). after being harassed by students because of her natural afro, 12-year-old, vanessa vandyke, and her mother requested the school’s assistance with addressing the peer harassment/bullying. in return, faith christian academy, located in orlando, fl, told vanessa, her hair was a distraction and incompliant with their dress code note: reprinted from "the good hair study: explicit and implicit attitudes toward black women’s hair," by mcgill-johnson, a., godsil, r., macfarlane, j., tropp, l., & goff, p., 2017, perception institute. p.7 https://perception.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/thegood hairstudyfindingsreport.pdf engage! 45 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination policy. as a result, she received an ultimatum; one week to cut or change her hair to comply with the policy or unenroll from the academy (huffpost weird news, 2013). vanessa and her mother resisted the demand to change vanessa’s hairstyle. with an overwhelming amount of national support, and publicity, in favor of vanessa’s choice, the academy allowed vanessa to remain enrolled and wear her hair in an afro. fifteen-year-old twin sisters, maya and deanna cook, faced in-school suspension and were excluded from the prom, track team, school bus, and faced multi-days of in-school suspension as a result of wearing long braided hair extensions, a hairstyle that is common within black culture. after parents, community members in support of the sisters, and national media outlets reported the case, the school remained firm in their stance (williams, 2017). however, once the attorney general’s office ordered mystic valley region charter school, of malden, ma, to stop the enforcement of their dress code policy language, the school complied. prior to the start of the kentucky 2016 school year, state legislature, attica scott, brought national awareness via a social media platform, twitter, to louisville, kentucky’s butler traditional high school’s new dress code policy. she perceived the policy to be institutionally racist because it targeted and banned many hairstyles primarily worn by black students; braids, cornrows, dreadlocks, or jewelry adorned hairstyles. with the support of local and national communities, and the kentucky american civil liberties union (aclu), the policy was suspended prior to the start of the school year (l'heureux, 2016; ross, 2016). in 2018, at a roman catholic private louisiana school, an 11-year-old, black girl, faith fennidy, was not allowed to attend classes until she removed her braided hair extensions (rosenblatt, 2018). christ the king elementary school added a prohibition in their policy over the summer which banned “extensions, clip-ins or weaves” to promote natural hair. faith’s parents withdrew her from the private school (jacobo, 2018). lastly, in 2019, marian scott, an 8-year-old, michigan elementary student, was not allowed to take a school picture. paragon charter academy excluded marian from taking pictures due to the red hair braided into her bun. as reported by wilx a cnn affiliate, “the jackson, michigan, school's handbook says students' hair color must be "of natural tones" to get their picture taken” (buchmann, 2019, para. 2). an email sent to families, the night before picture day, outlined acceptable and prohibited picture day aesthetics and attire. marian scott remained enrolled in the school but stated the incident made her feel “singled out” (sorto, 2019). institutional inclusion, let them learn let us learn! let them learn! these two phrases where chanted during the school board meeting in malden, ma as community members, parents/guardians, and students gathered in support of maya and deanna cook. the crowd shouted the phrase as a means to advocate for the students’ rights to focus on their education versus the negative implications of violating culturally insensitive dress code policies. because black girls continue to face a greater potential of school discipline and exclusion, despite the offense, a variety of organizations have led studies, commissions, and campaigns to pass policies around the disciplinary disparities and outcomes experienced by black girls. these efforts are inclusive of but not limited congresswoman ayanna presley’s bill, monique morris’ “pushout” scholarship and advocacy efforts, and the crown campaign created by dove and the crown coalition. h.r. 5325 – ending pushout act of 2019, proposed by congresswoman ayanna pressley, was heard by the house and referred to the house until those in positions of power are able to recognize the unnecessary burden placed on black girls to conform to eurocentric ideals of appropriate appearance and beauty, black girls and women will continue to carry the associated pain and stigma of their natural hair in spaces where their appearance should be the least of their concern. engage! 46 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination committee on education and labor on december 5, 2019 (pressley, 2019). pressley’s legislation, co-sponsored by rep. ilhan omar (d-minn.), would establish $2.5 billion in new grants for states and schools to provide educators with implicit bias training, invest in counselors and social workers, and adjust school discipline policies ― notably around “appearance” and “grooming” for students ― with input from families and community members (ruiz-grossman, 2019, para. 5). further, the bill will create accountability for the education department to routinely collect additional “pushout” or exclusionary (suspensions/expulsions) discipline data and establish a task force responsible for investigating the impact of school disciplinary actions for black and brown girls. as proposed, schools will gain eligibility for the funds created by this bill, if they ban exclusionary discipline for tardiness and absenteeism and for infractions such as dress code or grooming violations. additionally, schools would have to eliminate corporal punishment, isolation, and restraining students (ruizgrossman, 2019). dr. morris has spent the last three decades researching, writing, lecturing, and advocating on social justice issues, policies, and practices focused on improving juvenile justice, educational, and socioeconomic conditions for black girls, women, and their families (dr. monique w. morris, n.d.). in 2016, dr. morris’ published a book titled, pushout: the criminalization of black girls in schools, which centered the experiences that lead to the exclusion and sometimes criminalization of black girls in school spaces (love our girls, n.d.). following the release of her book, she took bringing awareness to this phenomenon one step further by releasing a documentary with the same title in 2019 (pushout, n.d.). further, she has partnered with congresswoman presley to advocate for federal legislation and programs to support the success and well-being of black girls in school. finally, the national black women’s justice institute (nbwji), an organization that works to address the challenges black girls and women face as it relates to the school to prison pipeline, employment opportunities after incarceration, and the reduction of sexual and domestic violence in black communities was founded and is led by dr. morris. nbwji publish policy recommendations, in 2019, for federal, state, and local policy makers to consider in support of addressing the alarming statistics related to black girls’ suspension, restraint, corporal punishment, law enforcement referral and arrest rates in high schools (national black women’s justice institute, 2019). to end, as it relates to the discriminatory practices of excluding and/or punishing individuals because of their hair texture, a campaign called the crown act was created in 2019. the crown (creating a respectful and open world for natural hair) campaign was created “to ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locs, twists, and knots in the workplace and public schools,” (crown act about, n.d.). to date, seven out of fifty states have passed this bill, creating race-based protection in state employment, housing, education codes for hair texture and protective styles (crown act about, n.d.). creating spaces that acknowledge and embrace differences will serve as a model behavior and value for the students within these spaces. ideally, the environment will translate as the norm for engaging and respecting differences beyond the classroom, and throughout each student’s matriculation and maturation journeys. engage! 47 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination challenges to cultural inclusion the efforts to understand this type of specific racism are rare. racism is usually based on the color of one’s skin which might suggest the individual’s ethnic/racial heritage. many of the current efforts that center the disproportionate rate at which some black girls are disciplined, excluded from school spaces, and face criminal consequences do not tease apart and address the motivations for the treatment beyond students’ race and gender. the issue of black girls wearing their natural, afro, hair is related to the disciplinary disparities but it is a much more nuanced concern. before we can effectively discuss the policy language and efforts to enforce such dress code policies, we must first understand the reason policy makers and leaders via afro hair with such disdain and its connections to race. the crown act comes the closest to exploring such nuances as it speaks more to the reasons why the definition of race should expand to include one’s hair texture and styles. in order for additional states, policy makers, and leaders to buy into this connection and idea, further discussions and education around the historical, political, and social ways that hair texture and styles have been used as mediums of power most frequently used to disparage black citizens is necessary to improve the impact of current and future proposals. at this time, those in positions of power likely have little knowledge beyond their own experiences and understandings therefore, when students, communities, guardians advocate for inclusion they see the demand as unnecessary and their policies as neutral. they have no idea or choose to ignore the power afro hair and protective styles poses within the black community and for those who wear them. black girls are able to rid themselves of harmful chemicals which produce long-term health disadvantages. black girls are also able to engage in physical sports and activities without concern around the state of their hair. finally, black girls are able to realize the beauty of their cultural and heritage and develop a healthy racial identity by embracing their natural texture and protective styles. despite the current arguments around the neutrality of the current policies and their policy maker’s intentions, until those in positions of power are able to recognize the unnecessary burden placed on black girls to conform to eurocentric ideals of appropriate appearance and beauty, black girls and women will continue to carry the associated pain and stigma of their natural hair in spaces where their appearance should be the least of their concern. they should have the equal opportunity to focus on learning and performing to the best of the ability without being distracted by the need to comply with a racist policy or standard. in order to reach this status, communities, parents, guardians, academics, and advocates must continue to raise this issue as a concern with the support of data and narratives to educate while advocating, and demand change. prioritize cultural understanding due to the growing racial, ethnic, religious and non-binary diversity of student bodies across the nation, consideration and familiarity of noneurocentric, non-christian, and non-binary cultural values and norms is necessary to construct spaces where students feel comfortable existing wholly. this comfort will provide a level of freedom to focus on learning versus being distracted by unnecessarily prescriptive, greatly oppressive, and inherently racist policies which have the propensity to traumatize those most impacted by the language and enforcement of said policies. further, creating spaces that acknowledge and embrace differences will serve as a model behavior and value for the students within these spaces. ideally, the environment will translate as the norm for engaging and respecting engage! 48 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination differences beyond the classroom, and throughout each student’s matriculation and maturation journeys. in order to achieve such spaces, policymakers and local leaders must begin building relationships with the families of the students, and become intimately familiar with the communities of the schools and student support systems. it is no longer enough for teachers and administrations to expatriate from their utopian suburbs or lifestyles each day to perform their daily role. they must become engaged school citizens who are open to, invested in, and value the culture of the students they influence and teach each day. leaders and policy makers can achieve this by; learning the history and current landscape of the surrounding neighborhoods, meeting with nearby community organizations and organizers, conversing with school employees who live in the area, and hosting discussions with students and their families. further, it is also important for policy makers and local leaders to facilitate discussions with students, guardians, and parents around policies and procedures, which impact their livelihoods, prior to finalizing such rules. this may occur in the form of phone or text surveys, parent or student councils, monthly community meetings held at multiple times with virtual attendance available. efforts of this nature will serve as a means to prioritize the understanding of cultural norms and values of their students. additionally, these actions will serve to better inform the decision-making process of school policies. implications of said policies will be realized prior to the expensive lesson of a student’s experienced trauma. while relationships and conversations seem to oversimplify a potential solution to this particular challenge, they are far from easy, if done with the proper intent. the potential of positive revolution which benefits all students is couched in seeking to understand and acting to include by making time, providing attention, being open to and learning differences/unique narratives/others’ values, and investing in collaborative outcomes. engage! 49 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination references buchmann, n. (2019, october 7). eight-year-old girl denied school picture because of her hair. wilx. https://www.wilx.com/content/news/eight-year-old-girl-denied-school-picture-because-of-herhair-562449021.html dacosta, k. (2006). dress code blues: an exploration of urban students’ reactions to a public high school uniform policy. the journal of negro education, 75(1), 49-59. dr. monique w. morris. (n.d.) bio. https://www.moniquewmorris.me/ dussel, i. (2005). when appearances are not deceptive: a comparative history of school uniform in argentina and the united states (nineteenth-twentieth centuries). paedagogica historica, 41(1&2), 179-195. doi:10.1080/0030923042000335538 fox, g. (2017, may 21). after backlash, malden school suspends controversial hair policy. the boston globe. https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/21/trustees-malden-school-meet-overhair-policy/p0ga6z5wat65hq84dbagmo/story.html?arc404=true gilbert, c. (1999). we are what we wear: revisiting student dress codes. brigham young university education and law journal, summer (1), 3-18. golgowski, n. (2013, september 11). oklahoma school changes dress code after 'no dreadlocks' policy sent girl home in tears. new york daily news. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oklaschool-dress-code-no-dreadlocks-policy-article-1.1452030 huffpost weird news. (2013, november 26). vanessa vandyke could be expelled after having her hair mocked. huffpost weird news. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vanessa-vandykeexpelled_n_4345326 jacobo, j. (2018, august 21). 6th grader asked to leave private school over rule banning hair extensions, family says. abc news. https://abcnews.go.com/us/6th-grader-asked-leave-private-school-rulebanning/story?id=57311484 kim, c. (2014, november 27). florida school threatens to expel student over ‘natural hair’. msnbc: the last word with lawrence o’donnell. http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word-94 . klein, r. (2013, september 5). tiana parker, 7, switches schools after being forbidden from wearing dreads. huffpost black voices. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tiana-parkerdreads_n_3873868?guccounter=1 lazar, k. (2017). black malden charter students punished for braided hair extensions. the boston globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/11/black-students-malden-school-who-wearbraids-face-punishment-parents-say/stwdlbscjhw1zocuwr1qmp/story.html l’heureux, c. (2016, august 4). kentucky high school to change racist hair policy. the cut. https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/kentucky-butler-traditional-high-school-dress-code-suspendsracist-hair-policy.html love our girls. (n.d.). meet dr. monique morris. https://logpledge.org/meet-dr-monique-morris/ engage! 50 vol. 1, issue 3 policy brief anderson | hair discrimination mcgill-johnson, a., godsil, r., macfarlane, j., tropp, l., & goff, p. (2017). the good hair study: explicit and implicit attitudes toward black women’s hair. perception institute. https://perception.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/thegood-hairstudyfindingsreport.pdf mettler, k. (2017, may, 15). mass. school punishes twin girls for hair braid extensions. their parents say it’s racial discrimination. the washington post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/15/mass-school-punishestwins-for-hair-braid-extensions-their-parents-say-its-racialdiscrimination/?utm_term=.aac1cab1b66b mitchell-wilson, a. (1998). public school dress codes: the constitutional debate. brigham young university education and law journal, spring (1), 147-171. naacp legal defense & educational fund, inc. & national women’s law center (2014). unlocking opportunity for african american girls, a call to action for education equity, ldf communications department. https://tminstituteldf.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/08/unlocking-opportunity-for-african-american-girls_0.pdf national black women’s justice institute. (2019). end school pushout for black girls and other girls of color. https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/0c71ee_7d6b6469aa144b0397a4d7cd5d0f8051.pdf pressley, a. (2019, december 5). all info h.r.5325 116th congress (2019-2020): ending pushout act of 2019. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5325/all-info pushout film. (n.d.) about. about | pushout (pushoutfilm.com) rosenblatt, k. (2018, august 22). louisiana girl sent home from school over braided hair extensions. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/louisiana-girl-sent-home-school-over-braidedhair-extensions-n902811 ross, a. (2016, july 28). attica scott: hair policy 'stinks of racism'. courier journal. https://www.courierjournal.com/story/news/education/2016/07/28/attica-scott-hair-policy-institutionalracism/87656240/ ruiz-grossman, s. (2019, december 5). ayanna pressley wants to stop the school-to-prison pipeline. huffpost politics. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ayanna-pressley-racist-schooldiscipline_n_5de8484fe4b0d50f32ae0518 sorto, g. (2019, october 9). an 8-year-old girl wasn't allowed to take her school picture because of her red hair extensions. cnn. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/us/girl-denied-school-picture-hairtrnd/index.html the crown act. (n.d.). about. about — the official campaign of the crown act williams, j. (2017, may 12). war on black hair: wearing braids gets black girls banned from prom at malden charter school in massachusetts. newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/wearing-braidssends-black-girls-detention-malden-charter-school-608303 engage! 51 vol. 1, issue 3 engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 vol. 1, issue 1 engage! 2019 vol. 1 no. 1 https://doi.org/10.18060/22727 copyright © 2019 author(s). this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. grassroots maternal child health leadership curriculum lindsey skinner, deborah stiffler, nancy swigonski, kara casavan, ashley irby, larona dixon, and jack turman jr. abstract in the united states, indiana ranks 43rd for its infant mortality rate. twenty-nine of the 988 indiana zip codes account for 27% of infant deaths. there is a need to train and mentor community members in these high risk zip codes to lead local maternal and child health (mch) efforts that address the priorities of community members related to poor birth outcomes. a comprehensive grassroots mch leadership curriculum is needed for this training process. we developed a curriculum designed to train community members in indiana’s high-risk zip codes to be grassroots maternal child health leaders (gmchl). a team of public health faculty, clinicians, social service practitioners and community leaders developed the initial curriculum. community feedback sessions that included grassroots community members, local clinicians and social service providers and non-profit leaders were conducted to get feedback on curriculum content. this feedback was incorporated to create the resulting grassroots mch leadership training program. this curriculum provides a framework that can be used and adjusted to meet the needs of diverse communities across our nation to train residents to emerge as local mch leaders that advocate for healthy pregnancies for all. keywords: social determinants of health, infant mortality, community development, policy advocacy, women’s empowerment introduction the measurement of infant mortality (im) (death before an infant’s first birthday) is used throughout the world as a key indicator of a nation’s health and well-being (cdc, 2018). among the united states, indiana ranks 43rd for its infant mortality rate (cdc, 2018). twenty-nine of the 988 indiana zip codes account for over one quarter (27%) of infant deaths (indiana state department of health [isdh], 2017). current approaches to address this problem include home visiting services, healthcare policy changes, increasing awareness among healthcare providers and interventions targeting individual health behaviors. community-based grassroots efforts to raise the awareness and action of citizenry to address this vital public health problem and advocate with a community-centered voice is lacking. we are addressing this need by developing a curriculum, grounded in the social ecological model (sem) of health promotion (bronfenbrenner, 1994), to train grassroots maternal and child health leaders (gmchl) to lead community-based efforts to reduce infant mortality. https://doi.org/10.18060/22727 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 72 addressing societal factors by equipping gmchl to be health and social change agents is crucial to creating and sustaining a culture that promotes neighborhood health. previous studies demonstrate that fostering community leaders for community-based health promotion efforts resulted in program sustainability, incorporation of health promotion elements into non-health sector community institutions and mediated the creation of multisector teams in the community to address health problems (goodman & steckler, 1987/88; orlandi, 1986; shediac-rizkallah & bone, 1998. our approach builds on the previous work of others by incorporating the lifecourse theory (lu & halfton, 2003), a placeand community-based approach (gabbe et al., 2017; pies, barr, strouse, & kotelchuck,, 2016) and bringing the community in as its own specific discipline (reynolds et al., 2015; smith, tiwari, & lommerse, 2014). this manuscript presents the process of developing and testing this curriculum for training gmchl. a detailed mch leadership training curriculum for grassroots community leaders is missing from the literature. the curriculum we developed can be applied to community development activities in a diverse range of neighborhoods that are struggling with persistent adverse birth outcomes. materials and methods curriculum overview our curriculum is grounded in transformative andragogy (knowles, 1973), which is one of the foundations of modern adult learning theory (merriam, 2001). transformative andragogy proposes that adults learn differently than children based on four assumptions: changes in self-concept; the role of experience; readiness to learn; and orientation to learning. we incorporated the distinguishing characteristics of adult learning (goad, 1982; hanson, 1981) into each module. as the curriculum builds through each module, it promotes a learning process where each participant is actively involved and responsible for his/her learning. time and activities are given during each session for the gmchl to reflect on their previous experiences and relate to what they are learning. the curriculum uses images and quotes to evoke emotional responses from the gmchl and data to appeal to their intellectual learning. the goal is to combine the knowledge and expertise of the facilitator with that of the gmchl, thus creating new knowledge for optimal community development work (smith, tiwari & lommerse, 2014). learning objectives were created using bloom, engelhart, furst, hill, and krathwohl (1956) taxonomy. learning objectives were designed to correlate with the mch leadership competencies developed by the mch leadership training conference (2009). every attempt is made to present the information at a level that is easily understandable as 14.7% of adults lack basic literacy skills and 13.6% lack below basic literacy skills (national center for education statistics, 2003). for gmchl to be empowered as agents of change to improve mch health outcomes, they need to be equipped with terminologies used at the public health, medical, and policy making levels. to this end, we define and use terminology that is used in the aforementioned sectors. as words or terms are identified that are unknown or confusing during the curriculum, we engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 73 create a vocabulary list for the gmchl and work with them during mentoring sessions on the correct use of these terms. in addition, we will ask the gmchl to provide lists of terms/phrases that are used to describe mch conditions experienced in their community. together we will develop health communication strategies to optimize the dissemination of mch information in the community. the original draft of the curriculum was developed by a team consisting of: public health faculty, practicing nurses, physicians, social service providers, government public health workers, and local mch non-profit leaders. the curriculum is divided into four sequential modules. all training and mentoring occurs in community sites that are easily accessible for participants. the knowledge content of the curriculum is centered around the following themes: leadership development and community health promotion, understanding adverse birth outcomes, health equity, and community and policy development. the initial training focused on these themes lasts four months. the curriculum allows for flexibility in scheduling and the gmchl determine how and when they complete the sessions. during the initial four months, the gmchl will also be trained in the following skills to help them build their leadership capacity. photovoice. the photovoice method is a cbpr method used for the development and implementation of community health assessments and program planning. photovoice was successfully used to educate community leaders and policy makers about mch issues in their neighborhoods (wang & burris, 1997). each gmchl will be trained in the photovoice method and provided a digital camera to document strengths and concerns of their community. trained program staff will facilitate discussion of the photos utilizing the following questions: what do you see here, what is happening here, how does this relate to your life and the lives in the neighborhood, why does this situation, concern, or strength exist, and what can we do about this? storytelling. gmchl will complete multiple storytelling workshops led by collaborators from the department of anthropology. this process helps the gmchl develop skills in telling their personal story and the story of their neighborhood. the training sessions will cover the fundamentals of good stories, interview tips, writing exercises, and an opportunity for the gmchl to draft their own story. policy advocacy. our partner, the indiana institute for working families provided curriculum to teach the gmchl skills in policy development and advocacy. following training, they will help gmchl form partnerships with their local representatives to begin policy advocacy for mch promotion. evalulead. the evalulead model will be used to guide and evaluate community priorities. this evaluation tool was developed by a partnership of the public health institute, the w.k. kellogg foundation and the us agency for international development (grove et al., 2005). the tool utilizes an open-systems approach for guiding and evaluating community leadership development based on values, norms and performance factors, and results in leadership goals at community, organizational and individual levels. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 74 the goal is that after the four months, the gmchl will have the foundation to begin their work while being continuously mentored. soliciting curriculum feedback to ensure that our curriculum is comprehensive, we solicited input from 26 community members that represent a wide range of age, race/ethnicity, work expertise (grassroots citizens passionate about mch, local health and social service providers, local government public health workers, non-profit leaders) and cultural backgrounds. in these sessions, we presented a summary of our initiative, themes from the four curricular modules, and key objectives and highlights from each module. a questionnaire was used for evaluation that included the following: name three things you learned from the information presented, what should we do better with this curriculum, how can grassroots leadership development impact the health of your neighborhood, what part of the curriculum did you find to be the most helpful, what part of the curriculum did you find to be the least helpful, how did the information presented change you, and has the information presented changed how you view the relationship between the characteristics of your community and the health of women, children, and families living in your community? following the discussion of the questionnaire, an open discussion was held to solicit feedback driven by the participants. in addition to these community sessions, we received extensive feedback on the entire curriculum from: a child psychiatrist with a specialization in maternal and infant attachment, the lead case manager of healthy start for marion county, and staff from the indiana institute for working families, the urban league of indianapolis and the indiana rural health association. a thematic analysis (braun & clark, 2006) was performed to synthesize the feedback from all of the community members. changes were integrated into the curriculum. results our results are organized by the four curricular modules, inclusive of feedback regarding each module, a detailed presentation of the learning objectives, correlation to mch competencies (mch leadership competencies workgroup, 2009), knowledge and skill building activities and associated learning activities for each curriculum session. module 1: leadership in a maternal child health context many reviewers expressed the importance of recruiting community members to be the main facilitators of building the capacity of the neighborhood to support healthy birth outcomes. other feedback included the need to conduct a strengths asset analysis of gmchl to help them understand their personal strengths from which to build their leadership. the overwhelming majority of reviewers expressed the great need for this mch training approach that emphasizes skill building and action to complement the current work in indiana. using this feedback and the work of our team resulted in the curriculum details of module 1 (table 1). module 2: adverse birth outcomes engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 75 most reviewers expressed their great surprise at the persistent im problem in communities across indiana, especially those reviewers who resided or worked in several of the high-risk zip codes. in module two, the context of pregnancy is introduced to describe how the health of a woman before she becomes pregnant can determine how healthy her pregnancy will be. some reviewers expressed the need to include information on interconception, family planning, depression [specifically the differences between depression, postpartum depression, and baby blues] and domestic violence. other reviewers discussed the importance of teaching the gmchl health communication strategies to disseminate the information they will learn to members of the community. some reviewers expressed concern that the gmchl would lack the ability to understand statistics such as im, preterm birth, and low-birth-rate calculations. using this feedback and the work of our team resulted in the curriculum details of module 2 (table 2). module 3: equity for all babies feedback for module three included the significance of sharing data on birth disparities and inequities in communities, defining disparity, equality, and equity, and sharing disparities in birth outcomes for people in indiana based on race and geographic location. two curriculum reviewers did not agree with sharing a table that showed similarities in birth outcomes in three high-risk indiana zip codes with iraq, syria, and libya as they were concerned the data were not accurate since it came from other countries. the same reviewers also did not agree with sharing statistics that showed african-american infants are two to three times more likely to die than their white peers. their concern was that this did not properly highlight the work being done currently to reduce this disparity. however, the majority of reviewers discussed how important it is to share data with the gmchl regarding all forms of birth disparities. the majority of reviewers also found it to be powerful to show that some of the high-risk zip codes in indiana have similar or worse im compared to our war-torn or politically unstable countries. reviewers found it very helpful to discuss the impact of chronic stress on biological systems associated with pregnancy. they believed that this would be very helpful in validating the beliefs about stress observed throughout local communities. using this feedback and the work of our team resulted in the curriculum details of module 3 (table 3). module 4: power of community engagement the multi-sector reviewers found the use of storytelling and photovoice to be powerful tools to capture the voice and story of the community. there was great consensus that the community realities surrounding im are not prioritized in our state and that there is a paucity of community action approaches to complement health care approaches. feedback was given concerning the type of questions the gmchl would answer during photovoice, the amount of time they would have to take the photos, and the photovoice training process. during this session the gmchl also get introduced to using the evalulead tool to make their community leadership plan. using this feedback and the work of our team resulted in the curriculum details of module 4 (table 4). engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 76 discussion while developing this curriculum we received a wide range of feedback to ensure the curricular content is inclusive of all necessary topics. it was evident in receiving feedback from our multi-sector partners, that developing mch community leaders is needed to build the capacity of the community to support positive mch outcomes. it was widely acknowledged that building their skills (i.e. photovoice, storytelling, policy development, evalulead) will equip them from just having knowledge to being able to act on the knowledge. likewise, it was pointed out that gmchl would foster new knowledge of healthcare providers and policy makers, thus helping them better perform their duties. it was widely acknowledged that community members are not usually incorporated into decision making discussions that impact mch practices and policies for their community. leaders who are from and/or based in their community better understand the challenges and strengths of their community. this allows for a better community needs assessment, priority setting, and identification of necessary solutions that ultimately leads to community development that better supports community members and their birth outcomes (harper-hannigan et al., 2017). one challenge we faced in developing this curriculum and its review process was accessing grassroots community members who could help in its development and review process. we often were presented with community organization leaders to provide feedback, but not grassroots community members who have direct or indirect experience with adverse birth outcomes. to overcome this, we worked in partnership with the indianapolis urban league to connect with community members who are participating in some of their programs. our urban league partner greatly supported this effort. she emphasized the lack of knowledge among citizens regarding infant mortality and the persistent disparities associated with this problem. she and the individuals she connected us with were vital in providing feedback regarding the use of data in the curriculum and the need for community leaders training. the main objective of the training curriculum is to provide gmchl with the foundation necessary to begin their community efforts. these gmchl will represent community as an equally important discipline in indiana im reduction strategies (smith et al., 2014), filling the gap of grassroots community participation in decision making that influences local mch outcomes. our leadership development model is linked to the smith, tiwari & lommerse (2014) community development framework, which posits that decision-making, empowerment, and participation are all necessary and continuous processes for community development and that “…community-based capacity building is both a prerequisite and an outcome of community development.” through this framework, the social capital of the gmchl will be further developed, thereby increasing their civic engagement, trust and reciprocity of fundamental information exchange between community members (bourdieu, 1986). building community capacity in neighborhoods at risk for poor outcomes will result in an improvement to community members' abilities to cope with adversity and limitations, foster a sense of place (mcmurray & clendon, 2011) and help lead the engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 77 physical, social, economic or environmental transformation (smith et al., 2014) of their neighborhood to support improved birth outcomes. it is widely recognized that access to data and its collective analysis by community members, researchers and clinicians is vital to the success of a community-based effort at improving health or social outcomes (israel, shulz, parker, & becker, 1998). often community members do not have access to data that pertain to their communities, thus further isolating them from making informed decisions about their community needs. throughout feedback sessions we learned that community members as well as health and social service professionals were not aware of the im issues facing indiana communities. our training program will provide gmchl with data that promote their basic understanding of indiana’s adverse birth outcomes, their risk factors, and birth disparities impacting u.s., indiana and local communities. with this foundational understanding, gmchl will emerge as community experts who are skilled participants and decision makers in multi-sectorial mch discussions. clinical interventions alone cannot reduce infant mortality because birth outcomes, like overall health, are the product of one’s environment, opportunities and experiences (collins, wambach, david, & rankin, 2009). building a community’s health promotion capacity is essential to any coordinated effort aimed at improving and sustaining health outcomes (labonte, woodard, chad, & laverack, 2002). as evidenced by the gap in the literature, and feedback received from a wide array of individuals passionate about improving birth outcomes across indiana, our priority to develop and mentor zip-code based gmchl is not only unique but needed. we implemented a process to develop a curriculum that is adaptable to any community and addresses the many factors needed to be a successful gmchl. as we begin to implement this by training community members, we will continuously seek their feedback on curriculum content and delivery to make sure we are optimizing their learning experience and future participant’s learning experiences. acknowledgments we thank our partners: the harrison center, indiana institute of working families, indiana state department of health, indianapolis urban league, marion county public health department, riley children’s foundation, indiana rural health association and everyone who took the time to review the curriculum and provide feedback. declaration of interest statement the authors do not have any conflicts of interest. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 78 table 1: module 1 components learning objectives: where applicable can accommodate mch learning competencies (2009) knowledge (k), skills (s), and activity (a) components 1. describe the role that community leaders play in maternal and child health development. individuals must be considered within their social environment (k). 2. define community capacity building and the importance in improving local maternal and child health issues. characteristics of community-based health promotion programs (k). importance of community leaders (k). need healthy neighborhoods for healthy pregnancies, infants, and families (k) 3. define leadership development in the context of community capacity building (mch competency 2). define leadership (k). command and control, servant, and transformational leadership styles (k). 4. demonstrate ability to identify personal leadership skills (mch competency 2). self-reflection’s importance in leadership (k). recognize inherent leadership qualities as well as those that need to be cultivated (s). leadership style activity (a). 5. complete and analyze a personal strengths inventory to gain insight into innate personal leadership qualities (mch competency 2). formulate self-reflection leadership skills (s). strengths inventory of leadership skills (a). 6. recognize optimal health promotion programming requires action at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy levels. neighborhood is the agent for change (k). sem of health promotion (bronfenbrenner, 1994) (k). 7. differentiate policy issues for women at various points in the lifespan. women’s health across the lifespan (k). policy concerns during child, teen, adult, and older adult years (k) 8. provide examples of the relationship between healthy communities and healthy pregnancies. gmchl provide examples from personal experience or learning that demonstrate the connection between healthy neighborhoods and pregnancies (a). 9. discuss intergenerational differences in life experiences and how this can shape different perspectives and conversations with community members. traditionalist, baby boomer, generation xer, and millennial generations (k). highlight historical events that happened during different generations (k). introduce common values held by each generation (k). introduce the idea that our life experiences shape who we are, how we view the world, and communicate (k). engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 79 table 2: module 2 components learning objectives: where applicable can accommodate mch learning competencies (2009) knowledge (k), skills (s), and activity (a) components 1. define infant mortality, preterm birth and low birth weight (mch competency 4). learn current cdc definitions of im, preterm birth, and low-birth-weight (k). 2. discuss risk factors for adverse birth outcomes. premature rupture of membranes, intrauterine infections, genetic abnormalities, multiple pregnancies/fertility treatments, birth spacing, maternal age, history of preterm birth, chronic stress, drugs of abuse, and domestic violence (k). 3. compare/contrast the context of pregnancy for women in the usa and indiana. learn current march of dimes and nimh data given on national and in rates of obesity, depression, late or no prenatal care, smoking and binge alcohol use for women ages 18-44. (k). discuss similarities/differences in data (a). 4. differentiate depression, postpartum depression and baby blues. learn current nimh and cdc definitions of depression, postpartum depression and baby blues (k). discuss similarities/differences (a). 5. state what to do if someone is severely depressed or suicidal. share national suicide prevention lifeline and treatment options (k). discuss what to do in crisis (a). 6. describe difficulties preterm infants can have later in life if they survive infancy. cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss, and learning, breathing, or feeding problems (k). differences in infant brain at 31 and 40 weeks (k). 7. explain the importance of maternal-infant attachment and why communities should support this bond. foundational for physical, cognitive, and emotional development and provides benefits for mothers, infants, children, families, and communities (k). poor attachment can cause behavioral disturbances, poor peer relationship, feeding difficulties, and emotional regulation problems (k). communities must support healthy maternal-infant attachment (k). 8. contrast unsafe infant sleeping with safe infant sleeping. 1/16 infant deaths in indiana are due to unsafe infant sleeping that are 100% preventable (suids not sids) (k). aap’s (2016) abcde’s of safe sleep (k). discuss safe and unsafe infant sleep images (a). 9. identify infant sleeping myths. four myths: they will choke lying on their back, they will catch a chill, i bond best sleeping with my baby, and it looks like a prison (k)). discuss other myths they have heard and how they might refute them (a). 10. distinguish differences in how infant mortality, preterm birth, and low-birth weight rates are calculated. teach current cdc calculations of im, preterm birth, low-birth-weight (k). 11. compare/contrast differences in infant mortality, preterm birth, and low-birth weight rates at the national, state, county, and local levels. learn current march of dimes infant mortality, preterm birth, and lowbirth-weight data for u.s., indiana, the county of the gmchl and the zip code of the gmchl (k). 12. identify indiana priorities for reducing infant mortality. unsafe infant sleeping and premature birth (k). 13. identify indiana priorities in accessing services. prenatal care, wic, mental health care, transportation, physical activity, and smoking reduction (k). discuss where people in their community go for these services (a). 14. rehearse a sample presentation wherein you have to teach the local community members about infant mortality, preterm birth, low birth weight, and their associated causes and consequences. (mch competency 4). principles of health communication (k). develop skills in presenting data and information to lay audiences (s). develop skills in public speaking (s). present to the facilitator and other gmchl (a). engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 80 table 3: module 3 components learning objectives: where applicable can accommodate mch learning competencies (2009) knowledge (k), skills (s), and activity (a) components 1. discuss the range of disparities in health outcomes and discuss how health equity is applied to address this. (mch competency 2). use whitehead (1991) definition of disparity, equality, and equity (k). 2. contrast race and ethnicity. learn definitions of race and ethnicity (k). discuss their thoughts on race and/or ethnicity (a). 3. differentiate birth outcomes in the usa, indiana, and globally within the context of disparities. comparative analysis of birth outcomes across race/ethnicity, immigrants, global community (k). 4. discuss the different types of birth disparities in their community. highlight zip-code specific birth disparities for their community (k). 5. contrast differences between acute and chronic stress. compare/contrast acute, chronic, minor, and major types of stress (k). show the effects of chronic minor and major and acute major stress on the body’s hormonal, cardiovascular, and immunological systems (k). provide examples of chronic minor and major and acute major stress’s effect on pregnancy and birth outcomes (k). 6. complete a personal adverse childhood experiences (aces) survey to increase awareness of the range of life experiences that contribute to chronic stress. recognize how incidents that happen to us as children shape our lives later on (k). continuation of the self-reflection process. looking internally to see how their experiences have shaped their lives (s). aces activity (a) 7. explain how chronic stress is related to birth disparities and differences in maternal and child health outcomes for different communities and groups of people. discuss how chronic stress reduces an individual’s ability to make healthy choices especially regarding smoking, diet, exercise, alcohol, or illicit drug use (k). changes in the neuroendocrine, vascular, and immune-inflammatory pathways can impact a mother’s pregnancy leading to adverse birth outcomes (k). 8. state ways to reduce chronic stress. identify stress reduction techniques (k). discuss advice they would give others to reduce stress (a). 9. develop a list of community resources that can be used to promote equitable birth outcomes (mch competency 3). create a list of community resources and assets that can address barriers to mch promotion (a). engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 skinner/grassroots maternal 81 table 4: module 4 components learning objectives: where applicable can accommodate mch learning competencies (2009) knowledge (k), skills (s), and activity (a) components 1. outline one's role as a grassroots maternal and child health leader to build the capacity of their community to improve birth outcomes and maternal and child health. define aim as building community capacity to support healthy women, infants, and families (k). community members must identify the problems, solutions, and action plans (k). this empowers the community and improves the individuals’ health status, behaviors, and coping (k). share community-based model (k). 2. apply knowledge of the social ecological model in suggesting ways to improve maternal and child health in their community. re-introduce sem model (k). develop skills in identifying mch in the different levels of the sem (s). have gmchl identify ways to improve mch health in each level of the sem (a). 3. develop appreciation of being a mindful leader. discuss importance of being mindful as a leader (k). 4. practice mindfulness exercise and describe how to incorporate this into daily activities. mindfulness exercise (k). develop skills in being a mindful leader (s). mindfulness activity (a). 5. summarize importance of storytelling as it pertains to maternal and child health. storytelling can be used to make a point or convey a message and to facilitate discussions (k). being a good leader means listening to others’ stories (k). 6. develop, in an impromptu session, a personal story that highlights the need for taking actions to improve birth outcomes (mch competency 5). developing storytelling skills (s). present a story (a). 7. describe goals and basic practice of photovoice. describe process of photovoice (k). 8. discuss the use of photovoice to improve birth outcomes in your community. discuss 4 guiding questions of photovoice: who makes up families in your neighborhood, document “mom’s story” with 3 pregnant women and 3 mothers, what are sleeping environments of babies in your neighborhood, and what is your role as a change agent in the community (k, a). 9. describe basic process of policy development (mch competency 12). the following information is provided by indiana institute for working families: the composition of the indiana house of representatives and the senate, registering to vote, identifying in lawmakers, how a bill becomes a law in indiana, and how to approach their lawmaker (k, s, a). 10. differentiate policy issues for women at various points in the lifespan. childhood: preschool, brain development, immunizations, and family support (k). teen years: prevention of std’s, pregnancy, and smoking, drugs of abuse, and alcohol use (k). adulthood: interconception, preventative health services, child raising, quality childcare, and parental support (k). old adulthood: raising grandchildren and managing chronic diseases (k). discuss different policy issues for women across the lifespan that are not included (a). 11. identify a policy to improve women's health and a personal strategy to advance this policy (mch competency 12). help them develop skills in making a policy action plan (s). identify a policy that they would like to advance to promote mch (a). engage! 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(1991). the concepts and principles of equity and health. health promotion international, 6(3), 217–228. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/6.3.217 abstract introduction materials and methods results discussion acknowledgments declaration of interest statement references w w e l c o m e alain barker, guest editor, faculty indiana university jacobs school of music welcome to this edition of engage! in which we explore the power of the arts in our communities through an inspiring and diverse set of articles written by practitioners, administrators, researchers, and teachers from different parts of the world. the arts play a significant role in reconnecting us to each other, building empathy, and restoring balance and justice. they have a unique way of navigating communal and cultural spaces. the arts open paths that help us find common ground, expand understanding, enhance diplomacy, and encourage shared knowledge. at its core, art enables us to slow down, opening opportunities to consider new perspectives. we invite you to stay with these articles for a while, to take them in at a pace that helps you to switch modes and savor their implications. included in this issue is eric booth’s a new framework for understanding the field of artists who work in community and education settings, an excellent proposal by one of the country’s leaders in community arts engagement. booth recognizes the impact of the large workforce of teaching artists in the u.s. and around the world. through his seven (plus one) purpose threads, he focuses on key elements that serve to empower artists who have a passion and commitment to their communities. included are community-based examples of organizations that employ teaching artists to achieve their goals, and suggestions on how to evaluate each purpose. booth was named in the “top 50 most powerful and influential leaders in the nonprofit arts (usa) for 2015” by the western states arts federation (westaf). for his new framework, he draws from his experiences at the juilliard school, stanford university, nyu, tanglewood, twenty years of leadership at the kennedy center and, most recently, the lincoln center education teaching artist development labs. learning informally: a case for arts in vocational education and training in uganda, maxwell openjuru ladaah, george ladaah openjuru, kathy sanford, bruno de oliveira jayme, and david monk, introduce a case for holistic learning by harnessing the potential of the informal creative arts sector. as a way of bypassing entrenched biases that still exist in formal neoliberal education practices, the research reveals enormous potential in youth-led community arts vocational training. the paper argues that “including arts in education is integral to the transformed approach to learning and livelihoods needed for dynamic communities capable of adapting and flourishing.” this is especially important to consider as the government of uganda embarks on its vision 2040, designed to address challenges in the education system. the location of this research is gulu, a vibrant ugandan city going through a period of transition and transformation following thirty years of civil war. serving those who have served: creative arts for veterans describes the healing power of the arts through a partnership that was developed by lauren daugherty, arts-based wellness experiences manager and art therapist at the sidney and lois eskenazi museum of art at indiana university, and todd burkhardt, director of campus partnerships at the iu center for rural engagement. the project had particular significance for burkhardt who recently transitioned from almost 30 years of active duty in the us military and was struggling with a sense of alienation in his civilian life. by participating in an arts-based wellness experience at the eskenazi museum, burkhardt realized how immensely valuable such a program would be for other veterans who were struggling in similar ways. the initiative developed collaboratively with daugherty offers therapeutically informed arts-based activity to veterans and their families across the state of indiana, promoting engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 4 w e l c o m e general health and wellbeing. it’s an important outlet for veterans to “learn coping skills when dealing with trauma from the past alongside current stressors in their life.” why cultural diplomacy is more relevant – and more challenging – than ever is an illuminating piece by william harvey and fernanda villalvazo, two respected violinists who are founders of cultural diplomacy organizations. harvey is concertmaster of mexico’s orquesta sinfónica nacional. his career includes four years of teaching and performance at afghanistan national institute of music. as founder of the international not-for-profit, cultures in harmony, he has extensive experience in cultural development and diplomacy through the creative arts. villalvazo’s career follows a similar path with training at some of the finest conservatories in the world and an awakening to the power of music as a vehicle for cultural connection. her organization, péepem art association, promotes intercultural exchange through music and art. together, the work of these two visionaries connects musicians from north america, europe, africa, and asia. their explorations take them to remote locations, including the sierra tarahumara mountains of northern mexico. responding to the multiple challenges we’re currently faced with, they suggest that “no single discipline can claim to solve these problems, but cultural diplomacy does attempt to alleviate them by affirming the connections that reminds us all of our membership in one human family.” measuring impact: a collaborative community project to measure peace building, written by johnna belkiewitz, jessica flores, jocelyne hernandez, alex prentice, rachel smith, dountonia batts, and victoria g. wilburn, focuses on one geographic location, indianapolis; one not-for-profit, the peace learning center; and a uniquely collaborative partnership with indiana university occupational therapy doctoral students. the center works to promote peace through educational and advocacy programs, including equity learning, restorative practices, social emotional learning, and family learning. the semester-long project, involving a group of five researchers from iu, established implementable tools that measure the impact of the center’s efforts in the indianapolis community. as a result, the center was provided both “qualitative and quantitative data about perceived safety, violence, and peace from youth and parents in the communities that the organization serves.” in using art to undermine epistemic injustice in dbt research, collaborative artmaking is used as a strategy to disrupt the power relationship between researchers and research participants. elizabeth bailey, describes the distortions of perception within shared literature about dialectical behavior therapy (dbt). her study approaches the problem through arts-based research (abr), a process in which knowledge is “created and physicalized through the collaborative construction of work and the roles that participants embody.” the view assembled by researchers is consequently reframed by insights gained through collaborative, participatory artmaking. as many communities gentrify, they are often stripped of their cultural and social history. storytelling to preserve a community’s history, by desmond l. kemp, latosha rowley, and stacia murphy, describes a program led by five graduate students at iupui (indiana university purdue university – indianapolis) who were invited to help mitigate this problem through a collaborative, community-based participatory research project with the harrison center for the arts near indianapolis’ martindale brightwood neighborhood. mentored by crisp, the center for research on inclusion and social policy at iupui, the group set about engaging with community members to capture stories, memories, and reflections about the area’s history, helping create “a new reality for future generations.” central to the research was cbpr: community-based participatory research, a method that involves the community as research study partners rather than just subjects. this approach enabled the researchers to foreground the community’s culture, revealing multiple ways to appreciate ‘histories’ of place and identity. one significant takeaway from the experience was a suggestion by the researchers that cbpr could be used 5 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 more widely in research, given that it is both impactful and beneficial while maintaining a community’s culture. with the rapid expansion of online conversations during the pandemic, the final article in this issue of engage! moves away from the arts and tracks how regular zoom sessions can bring people together in surprisingly meaningful ways. testimonios of (in)justice and communal spaces: four latinas in their first year of teaching, written by iupui associate professor teresa sosa, follows the lives of four latinas as they begin their first year of teaching in elementary schools. central to the weekly gatherings on zoom is a commitment to communal mentoring and a recognition of latina womanist epistemology. the study ultimately becomes a call to expand collective mentoring and support, “making a case for how these types of communal spaces are necessary across various institutions and spaces for latinas." at a time when russia’s war on ukraine has displaced millions, when the pandemic has shown how vulnerable and tenuous our lives are, and with a growing alarm about a sustainable planet, this month’s issue of engage! reminds me of the centrality of our shared humanity. within our lives, artmaking is a powerful agent of meaningful exchange and can provide the catalyst needed to solve major challenges. it can illuminate diversity in ways that are empathetic and transformational. as mentioned in the harvey-villalvazo article on cultural diplomacy, one can only hope that art will continue to play a vital role in inspiring “all eight billion residents of this planet to see themselves in the other.” designer nick asbell iupui office of community engagement staff liz m. terry iupui a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s 6 online journal development ted polley iupui associate editors william b. crow lehigh university carolyn gentle-genitty indiana university jim grim iupui rita hodges university of pennsylvania natasha howard morehouse college terri jett butler university brendan maxcy iupui carol mullen virginia tech mary price forum on education abroad carol rogers iupui javiette vashan samuel univeristy of tennessee, knoxville sarah stanlick worcester polytechnic institute ellen szarleta iu, northwest laura weaver community-engaged alliance editors khaula murtada iupui andrea copeland iupui community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope using circles to cope with the eruption of volcán de fuego in guatemala miguel tello, flor garcía abstract on june 3, 2018, the volcán de fuego (fire volcano) in guatemala erupted, killing 300 people and leaving close to 2,000 homeless and relocated to temporary shelters. lava flows buried the towns of alotenango and san miguel los lotes; el rodeo was also highly impacted. the government, nongovernmental organizations (ngos) and international response was focused on relocating villagers to safe locations and providing health care, medicines and food, as well as initiating a formal plan to move entire communities that would not be able to live in those high-risk areas again. however, the emergency response made no effort to listen to the people affected by the eruption or to provide them with a space where they could find emotional support and release some of the emotions around the trauma they suffered. asociación para el liderazgo en guatemala (alg), a local ngo that trains other ngo leaders in the country, offered an intervention that provided a space for both people displaced by the eruption and emergency response teams to find support in the use of restorative circles. this article will examine alg´s intervention and offer some lessons learned about providing circles to people affected by natural disaster, and how they can be helpful in coping with the aftermath of such a traumatic event. authors miguel tello the strachan foundation executive director international institute for restorative practices adjunct professor flor garcía asociación de liderazgo en guatemala executive director international institute for restorative practices board member volcán de fuego eruption (2017) engage! 7 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope resumen el 3 de junio del 2018 el volcán de fuego en guatemala hizo erupción matando a 300 personas y dejando a cerca de 2,000 personas sin casa y ubicados en refugios temporales. el flujo de lava soterró a las comunidades de alotenango y san miguel los lotes. el rodeo también fue impactado. el gobierno, las ongs y la respuesta internacional se enfocó en reubicar a los miembros de las comunidades a localidades seguras y proveerles atención médica, medicinas y comida. también se enfocaron en crear un plan para reubicar a las comunidades que no podrían continuar viviendo en áreas de alto riesgo. sin embargo, la respuesta de emergencia no hizo ningún esfuerzo por escuchar a las personas afectadas por la erupción ni proveerles un espacio donde pudieran encontrar apoyo emocional y expresar las emociones en torno al trauma que habían sufrido. asociación para el liderazgo en guatemala (alg) una ong local que capacita a líderes de ong en el país, ofreció una intervención que ofreció un espacio tanto para personas desplazadas como para los equipos de respuesta de emergencia para que recibieran apoyo a través de círculos de diálogo. este artículo examinará la intervención de alg y ofrecerá algunas lecciones aprendidas acerca de ofrecer círculos para personas afectadas por un desastre natural y como esto puede ayudar a enfrentar las secuelas de un evento tan traumático. keywords: circles, restorative practices, trauma, natural disasters, community empowerment eruption of the volcán de fuego on the morning of sunday, june 3, 2018, the volcán de fuego (fire volcano) in guatemala began its second eruptive phase of the year. a cloud came out of the crater and soon covered the sky with ash and volcanic material five centimeters in diameter that impacted hard as it fell. noon turned dark as night, and rumbling could be heard miles away. the destructive pyroclastic flow of lava, hot ash and sand rapidly reached several communities, burning and burying everything in its path. entire families were trapped, unable to get out; others cried and fled in desperation, running for help. the eruption killed 300 people and left about 2,000 homeless and relocated to temporary shelters. lava flows buried the towns of alotenango and san miguel los lotes; el rodeo was also highly impacted. guatemala is a small country located in central america, bordering mexico and belize to the north and honduras and el salvador to the south. it has three major regions: the highlands, where two mountain chains cross guatemala from west to east, the pacific coast south of the mountains, and the petén region north of the mountains. the country has 37 volcanos, four of which are active: volcán de fuego, santiaguito, tacaná and pacaya. emergency response the government was highly disorganized and unprepared to respond to the crisis. when the wholeness does not mean perfection; it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. —parker j. palmer, a hidden wholeness engage! 8 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope administration of president jimmy morales took over the emergency response office in 2016, they removed the incumbent national emergency response coordinator and his technical team and appointed a new team. when the eruption occurred, the newly-appointed team did not have the capacity to develop a coherent plan. one concrete action that the government did take was to enable many temporary shelters in schools and churches in towns that were close by, but safe. non-governmental organizations (ngos) and civil society concentrated their efforts on providing food and clothing and offering entertainment for children. however, since there were no protocols, the number of people who came to help and brought sweets, piñatas, etc., was overwhelming. some ngos established teams to monitor and guarantee people's safety. international solidarity was manifested with funds, donations of supplies and medicines, and with specialized groups that came from mexico and the united states to continue the search and rescue of survivors and recovery of bodies at the scene of the tragedy. the pan american health organization guided the government with protocols and personalized advice for local officials. guatemala is a high-risk country for all kinds of natural disasters. multiple studies have warned about the vulnerability of the country and yet the state has taken few steps to mitigate the inherent risk. experts of the instituto de investigación y proyección sobre ambiente natural y sociedad at the rafael landivar university (institute for the research and projection of the natural environment and society) mention that every time there is a catastrophe the “lack of commitment and political will of the government” are evidenced (garcía & mejía, 2018). brannum and watts (2020) describe how the emergency response of the volcan de fuego eruption was carried out mostly by a group of volunteer firemen who receive little funding from the federal government although they are closely connected to the local government. the authors also mention a deep-seated distrust of government mentioning that people who collected goods for distribution for the affected families would bring the goods to non-state actors because they believed the donations would actually get to the people in need. asociación de liderazgo guatemala (alg) alg is a non-profit organization that offers transformational processes to increase the positive impact of leaders in central america. circle centerpiece during circle for people displaced by the volcán de fuego eruption (2018). engage! 9 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope they provide leadership training that includes management tools and experiences grounded in a deep review of personal purpose and emphasizes the importance of collaboration between leaders and organizations. alg practices what it preaches: everything they do, whether it is a training, a more formal course, or a staff meeting always starts with a circle of trust, a methodology created by parker palmer that has been a common thread in alg´s work since its founding in 2012. later, when learning about the restorative practices movement and the international institute for restorative practices [iirp], it seemed to alg like a natural fit to integrate other ways of implementing circles. iirp provided alg with a theoretical and methodological framework to emphasize restorative practices as an effective means for community building and conflict resolution for leaders. now the staff is certified to offer iirp basic trainings. the effect is expansive, as leaders soon begin to use the circles in their organizations and communities and in general gain a clearer understanding of what it means to act and lead from a restorative point of view. in addition to using restorative practices, alg uses a series of social technologies that leverage smalland large-group dialogue and learning through facilitating exercises such as world café and open space1. although these methodologies are different, they also are built on the “fundamental unifying hypothesis of restorative practices,” as articulated by wachtel (2016), that “human beings are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in authority 1 in a world café exercise, a small group of participants initially sit at various tables with a facilitator at each table. the people gathered at the table are invited to contribute their thoughts to a particular topic or questions. after ten minutes, participants are asked to move to the next table, where they will receive a summary of the previous group and add their own comments to the conversation. at the end of the exercise the facilitators summarize the findings do things with them, rather than to them or for them.” alg and the authors of this article believe in empowering local leaders and communities to respond to their context. we are conscious of the high level of inequality and discrimination that exists in guatemalan society and are committed to building the capacity of leaders to be a voice for their own communities. circles the use of circles for managing conflict within groups is an ancient tradition of many indigenous communities around the world. since the advent of the restorative justice movement in the 1970s, circles have become part of the means of addressing harm and strengthening community in non-indigenous western society as well. according to pranis, “circles have been used by small groups of non-indigenous people for over 30 years.” (pranis, 2014, p. 7) in her words: a peacemaking circle is a way of bringing people together in which: everyone is respected, everyone gets a chance to talk without interruption, participants explain themselves by telling their stories, everyone is equal – no person is more important than anyone else, spiritual and emotional aspects of individual experience are welcomed. (pranis, 2014, p. 7) there are a wide variety of circles and applications. some of the most common types are listening circles, talking circles, support circles, and celebration circles. the type of circle that alg used to address the concerns of community at each table. in an open space exercise, participants are asked to choose several topics to be discussed and choose a leader for the topic. they are then asked to move to the topic they wish to address. they may stay with a single topic or move to several topics. at the end of the discussion, leaders share the findings with the whole group. engage! 10 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope members and emergency response staff members is called a responsive circle. in a circle, the participants are seated in a round formation so that everyone can see and hear each other clearly. the facilitator uses a talking piece that is passed to each person sequentially to indicate whose turn it is to speak; only the person holding the talking piece may speak, while everyone else listens. the facilitator´s roles are (a) to offer questions for the group to respond to, and (b) to maintain a safe and respectful environment for all participants. circles give voice to the community pranis, et al. (2003) describe the holistic nature of circles, in which they “…include all interests in order to find, workable, healing solutions,” (p. 63) and how they “…take a holistic approach by drawing on our whole being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual” (p. 63). this approach is indispensable for interventions that offer support to communities affected by a natural disaster. an academic approach to a natural disaster or other community harm can have a blind spot: it considers that it has the correct and best answer to whatever the situation is at hand. this usually does not fit with the lived experience of community members. it also compartmentalizes responses to a physical or mental approach, leaving out the emotional and spiritual aspects of human beings. circles are powerful because they employ the holistic approach described by pranis et al. (2003). in their work training leaders in central america, alg identifies and leverages the wisdom that is already present in communities. alg employs circles as a way for this wisdom, and the diverse voices of a variety of community members, to emerge. this is especially important in 2 the emerging social science of restorative practices is the larger discipline under which these practices are guatemala, where the voices of women are often silent. why alg chose to use responsive circles alg quickly realized that the people that had lost their homes and loved ones during the eruption of the volcán de fuego had a variety of emotional needs and concerns. alg staff members chose to use responsive circles, where participants are asked to respond to questions brought by the facilitator. these questions help the participants to reflect on what their experience has been and how it has affected them. it also helps circle participants to look for ways in which they can offer support to one another, or to find the support they need from others. restorative practices and trauma there are many sources of trauma in people’s lives; it can be triggered by physical or psychological harm. for many years, restorative justice has been implemented successfully to deal with situations where someone harms another person. circles and restorative conferences are two of the main ways in which harm is addressed in restorative justice and restorative practices2. however, whereas in restorative justice settings, circles would be used to address harm, responsive circles such as the ones used by alg seek to leverage dialogue and learning. trauma plays an important role in the reactions of people who have been affected by a natural disaster. there is a substantial body of literature applied in many fields. a subset of restorative practices in criminal justice is restorative justice. an academic approach to a natural disaster or other community harm can have a blind spot: it considers that it has the correct and best answer to whatever the situation is at hand. this usually does not fit with the lived experience of community members. engage! 11 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope on the neuroscience of trauma and its long-term effects on people. levine (2015) and siegel (2013) are among the authors who have written about the way in which the fight-or-flight response is activated in a traumatic event, and how the hippocampus and amygdala in the brain respond. rundell et al. (2018) also make a connection between trauma and restorative practices in a study of trauma and refugees; they write: the authors suggest the use of restorative approaches as a way to address the trauma and harm experienced by refugees to release their traumatic memories and allow the joy of living. restorative approaches have the and others in a relationship. (rundell et al., 2018, p. 20, 21) rundell et al. (2018) also cite weingarten (2003) and her work around witnessing, a process that involves the person who has suffered trauma being able to articulate their experience and then receiving feedback from observers who are tasked with listening attentively and expressing how they empathize with that person. the facilitator of a witnessing process then asks the person who has suffered trauma to respond to what the listeners have said. the witnessing process is very helpful in being able to change the narrative that the person suffering from trauma has embodied. weingarten (2003) posits four witnessing windows on a graph of levels of awareness/unawareness and levels of empowerment/disempowerment as shown in figure 1. rundell et al. (2018) explain how the ideal is to be in window 1, where participants witness in a restorative way where they are both aware and empowered. in window 2, where witnesses are empowered but unaware, leads to “malpractice, abuse and/or bullying” (2018). window 3 is labeled neglectful-dismissive, where witnesses are disempowered and unaware “leads to helplessness,” a state often experienced by figure 1 weingarten’s witness positions reprinted from "managing trauma: a restorative process" by rundell, f. c., sheety, a., & negrea, v., 2018, in e. sengupta & p. blessinger (eds.), refugee education: integration and acceptance of refugees in mainstream society (pp. 17-31). emerald publishing. doi: 10.1108/s2055-364120180000011004 engage! 12 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope refugees. the fourth window of disempowerment and awareness takes place when “refugees arriving in a new country often become aware of the privileges around them, yet identify restrictions within themselves, as a result of language, cultural, discrepancies, or skill deficiencies” (weingarten, 2003, as cited in rundell et al., 2018). as we will demonstrate, the work of alg focused on offering survivors of the volcanic eruption a restorative witnessing that would empower the community and help them to be aware of the internal resources they have to address the traumas they experienced after the disaster. alg interventions facilitating a circle at a temporary shelter when alg heard the news about the eruption, they decided they had to do something to offer support to the people that had been displaced by the volcán de fuego eruption. what better than to offer circles where the participants could express how they had been affected and how they could offer support to one another? flor garcía, executive director of alg, describes her experience facilitating the first circle: in a forgotten street of escuintla, behind the bus terminal, a dirty and improvised market emerges full of people and dogs in the midst of a suffocating heat. there we found the entrance to a school that had been converted into a temporary shelter. it had been a week since the eruption, and we had made a first and frustrating visit to another shelter some days ago. this time it would be different, we were told, because the shelter coordinator would be there waiting for us, she will have prepared a space, and people would have been invited to participate. when we got there, we heard that the coordinator was not there, and that no one was in charge. dozens of people were milling in the patio, some sat lethargically inside the small classrooms full of mattresses with mountains of clothes and dirty dishes. some parents were leaving hastily to take their children to a school still functioning nearby. (f. garcía, personal communication, april 2020) after identifying some of the community leaders at the shelter, garcía and her colleague, yaneth garces, were able to convene a circle with about 15 people. after explaining the use of the talking piece and how the circle would function, the facilitators asked the participants to say their name and one thing they were grateful for. garcía describes what happened next: the powerful effect of seeing and listening to one another was immediate. in the midst of the noise of the impoverished shelter, a space of silence was created. we saw people lean in, eyes slightly closed to hear better. we heard men and women speak about their gratitude for life, for food, the solidarity of a neighbor, for the priest who came to offer mass, because although they lost their homes, they still had hope. circle with community leaders (2018). engage! 13 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope after that came the stories. “did you ever experience a very difficult situation where it was hard to think that things could get better, but they finally did?” they spoke and listened, assenting with their heads, with tears in their eyes, speaking of other places, other times, acknowledging their own resilience and being nourished by others. towards the end of the circle, participants expressed how they could offer support to one another and what they could do to make this time more agreeable. (f. garcía, personal communication, april 2020) when the facilitators returned to the shelter later on, all the people had been relocated to other shelters. listening to emergency response workers sara hurtarte and anigail quic, directors of seres, an ngo working directly with the communities affected by the eruption, knew that their team was experiencing burnout after two weeks of non-stop intervention. they contacted alg to request support for their team. lucy estacuy, an alg staff member, along with the executive director, facilitated a circle for the team using iirp’s restorative question wallet cards. alg staff describe their experience with the circle: we realized that what was most difficult for them was not the horrors of the zone where they were working each day, nor the stories from families dealing with grief. it was their own needs, missing their families, and the weight of the protective mask they had to put on day after day in order to continue helping. the circle was a space for the emergency workers to be heard without judgment, a space where their voice could be expressed. (f. garcía, personal communication, april 2020) alg next met with various organizations, government agencies and representatives of the world health organization. a question alg kept raising was “where is the voice of those displaced by the eruption?” no one seemed to have an answer. alg became part of a committee to create a response plan that would focus on socialemotional well-being. the experience was very frustrating for alg, since the lengthy meetings resulted in an official document, but yielded no other tangible results. after eight months of attempting to bring restorative practices and circles to the people affected by the eruption through official channels, alg decided to do what it does best: work directly with the community. alg contacted seres, partnered with them, and together started offering restorative practices training to community leaders. the training took place under a tree in front of the shelters. according to garcía, lucy estacuy, bekah giacomantonio and i always started with a circle and the agreements for how we would share this time together, and then we would spend time sharing key ideas of restorative practices using elements of popular education. the participants often seemed absent; their facial expressions not easily interpreted, nor did they speak very much. sometimes we went back home frustrated, wondering whether we had reached them. but, the following week, they would tell us how they had started to use affective statements to communicate with their families and neighbors, and then we would reaffirm that we always need to trust in the process. i was reminded of one of parker palmer’s quotes: “know that it’s possible to leave the circle without responses are needed that empower and give voice to those who have been directly affected. this is where circles can be so powerful, as shown by the experience of alg. people need to be able to tell their stories in a safe environment, connect with one another, and offer one another support. engage! 14 vol. 1, issue 3 https://store.iirp.edu/restorative-questions-cards-pack-of-100-english-or-spanish/ community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope whatever it was that you needed when you arrived, and that the seeds planted here can keep growing in the days ahead.” (f. garcía, personal communication, april 2020) for four weeks, alg worked with the community leaders and trained them to facilitate circles. they all thirsted for restoration, and alg provided the basic elements for the community members to start listening to one another and to start healing from the terrible tragedy they had lived through. alg staff interviewed several community leaders from los lotes, one of the most affected communities by the eruption, to listen to their experience of restorative practices after families had been settled in simple government housing. ana maría mentioned that “new interest in leadership emerged, greater courage, and thought the experience and learning (restorative practices) we had was very beneficial” (l. estacuy, personal communication, november 23, 2020). steven mijongos, a youth leader, mentioned that “working with youth has been easier than working with adults, with youth dialogue tends to be more focused on inquiry, they repress some emotion, but in general they speak from the self and express feelings allowing me to connect with them” (l. estacuy, personal communication, november 23, 2020). ana maría also describes how circles have helped their community to deal with situations. she mentions that they were able to use circles to address a situation in las palmas where people were dumping garbage in a small river. ana maría mentions: “we had a dialogue and i feel that it worked because the problem was addressed” (l. estacuy, personal communication, november 23, 2020). lessons learned listening to the emotional needs of people affected by tragedy in emergency responses such as the one offered to the people displaced by the eruption of the volcán de fuego, addressing the immediate physical needs of those affected is paramount. however, once these immediate needs are met, it is equally important to address their emotional needs as well. although the local universities and the guatemalan guild of psychologists sought to address these needs by offering psychological counseling, this was not effective because sessions were offered on a single time basis with no follow up. similar patterns have been repeated in previous natural disasters. an example of this is the mudslide that took place in el cambray in the municipality of santa catarina pinula on october 1, 2015. the mudslide buried more than two hundred houses and killed 280 people. la prensa libre newspaper reported how volunteers tried to help children deal with trauma by bringing candy and piñatas. the newspaper reported that the park of santa catarina pinula became “a fleeting center of happiness” (rojas & gramajo, 2015). responses are needed that empower and give voice to those who have been directly affected. this is where circles can be so powerful, as shown by the experience of alg. people need to be able to tell their stories in a safe environment, connect with one another, and offer one another support. the power of involving local community leaders communities have strengths of their own, and these can be accessed through their leaders. one of the things that alg learned was the importance of working with local leaders in order to reach the community. this has the effect of having a more direct contact with the community, rather than waiting for external actors to come in. as wachtel (2016) writes, “doing things with people, instead of for them or to them” is crucial to their empowerment. it is also the most sustainable approach to change and healing. “fixing” or “helping” can impede community empowerment and healing in her article, “helping, fixing or serving?” rachel naomi bremen (2017) writes: engage! 15 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope fixing and helping create a distance between people, but we cannot serve at a distance. we can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected. helping, fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. when you help, you see life as weak. when you fix, you see life as broken. when you serve, you see life as a whole. fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul. (bremen, 2017, para. 1) the government agencies, universities and many ngos sought to “help” or “fix” the people displaced by the volcán de fuego. they acted from a perspective of pity. alg sought to serve the community of people displaced by the eruption. they realized that a humble stance is required for this approach, and that the community has its own internal resources that can be tapped when a facilitator is available to provide a safe space and help the community to articulate its own voice. natural disasters have always been, and will continue to be, a part of human existence. before we became highly specialized and professionalized, when a community suffered a natural disaster, people would come together and find ways to address the situation. this is not to say that addressing the physical needs of a community in the aftermath of a natural disaster is not important; however, it is equally essential to help a community find its voice and use the internal resources it has at its disposal. circles can provide that space. trusting in the circle process one of the things alg found in working with the communities affected by the eruption of the volcán de fuego is that trauma could prevent them from expressing their feelings openly. however, trusting the circle process has been key. as previously described, alg staff members had to let go of any expectations they had for the circle process. to their surprise, even though it sometimes felt like the participants were not fully engaged, they later demonstrated that the circle had influenced the way they related to one another. this was especially visible by the way the community members continued to use circles on their own. conclusions “helping” or “fixing” approaches as responses to natural disasters are limiting. they do not empower communities or attend to emotional and spiritual needs. circles, on the other hand, place the wisdom of the community front and center. this requires facilitators to adopt a humble stance, one where they are accompanying the process rather than being protagonists. this stance contributes to the empowerment and healing of communities affected by natural disaster. “helping” or “fixing” approaches as responses to natural disasters are limiting. they do not empower communities or attend to emotional and spiritual needs. engage! 16 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice tello | using circles to cope references brannum, k. & watts, m. (2020, march 9). emergency response in developing countries: the case of guatemala. public safety. https://inpublicsafety.com/2020/03/emergency-response-indeveloping-countries-the-case-of-guatemala/ garcía, a. & mejía, d. (2018, june 28). guatemala está expuesta a toda clase de desastres, excepto a tormentas de nieve (por el momento). plaza pública. https://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/guatemala-esta-expuesta-toda-clase-de-desastresexcepto-tormentas-de-nieve-por-el-momento international institute for restorative practices. (n.d.). restorative questions cards. https://store.iirp.edu/restorative-questions-cards-pack-of-100-english-or-spanish/ levine, p. a. (2015). trauma and memory: brain and body in a search for the living past. north atlantic books. palmer, p. j. (2004). a hidden wholeness: the journey toward an undivided life. jossey-bass. pranis, k. (2014). the little book of circle processes: a new/old approach to peacemaking. good books. pranis, k., stuart, b. & wedge, m. (2003). peacemaking circles: from crime to community. living justice press. remen, r. n. (2017, august 6). helping, fixing or serving? lion´s roar. https://www.lionsroar.com/helping-fixing-or-serving/ rojas, a. & gramajo, j. (2015, october 17). niños de el cambray 2 intentan superar la tragedia. prensa libre. https://www.prensalibre.com rundell, f. c., sheety, a., & negrea, v. (2018). managing trauma: a restorative process. in e. sengupta & p. blessinger (eds.), refugee education: integration and acceptance of refugees in mainstream society (pp. 17-31). emerald publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/s2055364120180000011004 siegel, d. j. (2013). brainstorm: the power and purpose of the teenage brain. tarcher/penguin group. wachtel, t. (2016). defining restorative. https://www.iirp.edu/images/pdf/definingrestorative_nov-2016.pdf weingarten, k. (2003). common shock: witnessing violence every day: how we are harmed, how we can heal. dutton/penguin books. engage! 17 vol. 1, issue 3 authors lauren a. wendling doctoral candidate, higher education, indiana university bloomington katie brooks professor of education, butler university belle* community member/ scholar aladdin* community member/ scholar jerry* community member/ scholar sunshine* community member/ scholar joseph* community member/ scholar robert* community member/ scholar angelina* community member/ scholar mara*j community member/ scholar anne* community member/ scholar * the names of the co-researchers throughout both the main text and authors document are all pseudonyms in order to protect the identities of the co-researchers, per their request. lauren a. wendling, katie brooks and scholars exploring the lives, communities, and social circles of individuals with intellectual/ developmental disabilities through photovoice abstract historically, research on vulnerable or marginalized groups, such as persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities (idd), has focused on studying such populations rather than meaningfully engaging them in the research process. this indianapolis-based photovoice study gives voice to individuals with idd by involving them in community-engaged research and shining a light on the issues that they identified as needing attention in their communities. nine individuals with idd volunteered to serve as co-researchers, exploring their lives and communities through photography. over a period of six weeks, the nine co-researchers took photos of their communities and participated in group discussions to identify common issues. discussions about the co-researchers’ photographs uncovered important themes regarding social relationships, community participation, and independence that led to action in the form of a letter writing campaign to local and national policymakers and a public art show to display and discuss their photography. keywords: intellectual and developmental disabilities (idd), photovoice, community-engaged research w e n d l i n g | p h o t o v o i c e 35 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 study background within the realm of community health and civic engagement, there is increased recognition that the concepts that inform society’s philosophical and theoretical approaches to community engagement and social inclusion have been based on inadequately developed ideas and research (bachrach & abeles, 2004). scholars note that it is important for research to be inclusive of vulnerable populations whose issues are not traditionally addressed within the arena of community involvement (jurkowski & paul-ward, 2007). not only should research strive to include such vulnerable populations as research subjects, but rather as equal partners in the research process. historically, vulnerable populations, specifically individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (idd), have had their voices and personal experiences represented through research that does not engage them as co-creators of knowledge, but rather as passive subjects upon which research is completed. unfortunately, it is still somewhat rare for studies to engage individuals with idd in research that informs and benefits their own local communities. while there is much research that focuses on the type of community interactions and social relationships of individuals with idd (amado, stancliffe, mccarron, & mccallion, 2013; hill & dunbar, 2003; mccarron et al., 2011; taylor, 2000; verdonschot, dewitte, reichraft, buntinx, & curfs, 2009), there is a need for research that meaningfully engages community members with idd as co-researchers and active participants in the process. further, there is a need for research involving individuals with idd who themselves advocate for and take steps to bring about change in their local communities. this study employed the photovoice methodology to do just that. after taking a deep look into their communities through guided photography and discussion, nine individuals with idd actively engaged in a letter writing campaign and art show to start a conversation about self-identified issues in their communities and bring about change. methodology photovoice photovoice is a research methodology developed by caroline wang and mary ann burris that is grounded in the fundamental principles of social justice, respect for personal autonomy, promotion of societal good, and the avoidance of harm (wang, 2006; wang & burris, 1997). as described by wang and burris (1997), photovoice is: a process by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique … photovoice has three main goals: (1) to enable people to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns, (2) to promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important issues through large and small group discussion of photographs, and (3) to reach policymakers. (p. 369) by encouraging co-researchers to capture and discuss photos they have taken in their own environments, photovoice enables individuals to act as catalysts for change within their own communities. this stands in stark contrast to having research participants answer formulated questions that have been developed by outside researchers. photovoice encourages co-researchers to express their real-life experiences through photography and empowers them to express their needs and become actively involved in decisions affecting their lives (wang, 2006). photovoice, and this study, are fundamentally grounded in the belief that successful and effective community-engaged research is done with community members rather than on community members. co-researchers to ensure the goals of this study were aligned with the needs and desires of the disability community, nine individuals with idd were identified to serve as co-researchers and guide the study from beginning to end. each of the nine co-researchers live c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 36 with an idd and were between the ages of 18 and 40 during the time of the study. six of the co-researchers identified as female, three identified as male. eight identified as caucasian and one as african american. the co-researchers’ names in this writing are all pseudonyms in order to protect their identities. the co-researchers in this study were identified via snowball sampling with the assistance of two initial co-researchers who worked in conjunction with the primary researcher to identify seven additional co-researchers. the primary researcher had been involved with a local non-profit organization serving individuals with idd in a volunteer capacity for over three years and had formed friendships with many individuals within the organization. prior to the study, the primary researcher engaged in many conversations with the two initial co-researchers who voiced frustrations about issues in their own communities (public transportation, job opportunities, etc.). after many similar, frustrated conversations, the primary researcher proposed to the two initial co-researchers the idea of using photovoice to show others what it is like living with idd in indianapolis. the two co-researchers liked the idea, especially the ability to share their work with others, and agreed to participate. to identify additional co-researchers, the two initial co-researchers and the primary researcher employed a snowball sampling technique. the two co-researchers identified other friends of theirs with idd who they thought would like to participate. prior to the study, the primary researcher knew six of the nine co-researchers through her involvement in the non-profit organization. the study was intentionally capped at ten total researchers, in an effort to more easily facilitate a balanced group discussion (wang, 2006). upon agreeing to participate, each co-researcher and their legal guardian (if required) were provided detailed information about the study and the voluntary nature of participation. co-researchers provided their consent to participate. all were given the ability to remove themselves from the study at any time. use of the term “co-researcher” is intentional to highlight the depth of involvement of all nine individuals with idd in research. as co-researchers, all nine individuals assisted and/or led the following aspects of the study: • participant recruitment • identification of study’s primary questions to be explored through photovoice • data collection • data/theme validation • presentation of findings via letter writing campaign and public art show • guiding questions most research that employs the photovoice methodology uses a similar process for data collection and analysis (wang, 2006). after identifying and obtaining consent from all nine co-researchers, the primary researcher gathered the research team for their first of six face-to-face meetings. during the first meeting the primary researcher led a collaborative discussion where the team identified three primary questions around which to center the study. acknowledging shared frustrations about various aspects of their communities, the co-researchers, in conjunction with the primary researcher constructed the following questions to guide the study and the co-researchers’ photography: the co-researchers saw themselves not only as advocates for individuals with disabilities, but as advocates for their communities as a whole. w e n d l i n g | p h o t o v o i c e 37 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 1. what do you like about where you live? 2. what do you dislike about where you live? 3. what would you like to change about your community? after identifying the guiding questions, the primary researcher led a discussion on cameras, power, and photography ethics, explaining the ethical requirements all co-researchers had to meet in order to take part in the research (obtaining permission when taking someone’s photo, not sharing their photos on social media, etc.). once all researchers were clear on the study’s guiding questions and timeline, they returned to their communities to take photos. photo sharing and group discussions throughout a period of six weeks, the research team met three additional times, each time following a week of taking pictures in community. in total, the co-researchers took almost 300 photographs over the six weeks. although photography was used as the primary method by which the co-researchers identified community issues, the photos themselves are not the primary source of data within a photovoice project. the group discussions that arise out of the sharing of photos are of principal importance and serve as the study’s primary data (wang, 2006; wang & burris, 1997). thus, the three in-person group discussions held after a week of community-engaged photography by the co-researchers held significant value. the co-researchers brought to each in-person group discussion their digital photographs, sharing them on the projector for all to see. each in-person discussion followed the same general outline: 1) co-researchers shared three to five photos with the group that they wanted to discuss, 2) each co-researcher provided context for each photo and explained its significance to the group, and 3) discussion ensued based on the selected photos shared (wang, 2006). each of the three group discussions lasted roughly two hours. the three group discussions were loosely structured and were guided primarily by the co-researchers’ interests, questions, and concerns. rather than the primary researcher asking each co-researcher to respond to preconceived questions, all were encouraged to talk with one another, ask and answer each other’s questions, and exchange ideas and anecdotes, acknowledging others’ points of view. the primary researcher’s role within each discussion was to encourage dialogue built upon the study’s guiding questions and what the co-researchers would like to see in terms of social change. to allow for the most natural setting, the discussions were not recorded and were held over snacks and non-alcoholic drinks. the primary researcher took extensive notes during each group discussion which became the study’s primary data. following three rounds of photography and discussions, the research team met an additional time to debrief the prior meetings and generate plans for social action. identifying themes across the data the primary data collected and analyzed in this study is the extensive notes taken during the research team’s three group discussions. analysis of the group discussions is outlined below in detail. however, as the co-researchers’ photography is what initiated all discussions, a summary of the co-researchers’ photos is described in appendix a. while all co-researchers actively participated in formulating the study’s guiding questions, photography, and group discussion, the primary researcher led the analysis of the data, identifying themes across the group discussions and presenting them to the research team for feedback, corrections, and ultimately validation. the primary researcher’s analysis of the data occurred in these steps: 1) data exploration, review, and memoing; 2) open coding; 3) axial coding; and 4) selective coding, data reduction, and development of overall themes. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 38 the data exploration, review, and memoing phase included a review of all notes from a holistic perspective with the goal of understanding the breadth and scope of the data. this general, more explorative review helped to identify patterns within the data (glaser & strauss, 1967; schatzman & strauss, 1973). open coding, or the development of initial themes occurred after the data exploration and memoing phase (creswell, 2007; strauss & corbin, 1990). in this phase, emerging themes and patterns were identified, illustrating the major categories of the data. after initial codes were identified through open coding, axial coding was employed to build out and clarify original ideas and categories. focused axial coding involved the creation of additional codes and sub-codes focused around specific ideas and concepts, allowing for more in-depth understanding (strauss & corbin, 1990). selective coding followed the processes of open and axial coding with the goal of reducing superfluous data and clarifying themes from the connected categories of codes (stake, 2010; strauss & corbin, 1990). co-researchers were involved in the validation of themes throughout the process of analysis. following the primary researcher’s initial analysis of the data, the research team convened and the primary researcher shared the emerging themes identified. the co-researchers provided feedback, suggesting edits and additions to the initially identified themes. within a two-hour work session, the research team finalized the analysis, agreeing to the themes detailed in the next section. emerging themes of focus group discussions during the group discussions the co-researchers enjoyed sharing their photos and stories about when they felt empowered. the co-researchers found it important to discuss issues facing their communities that they believed needed to be addressed to improve the lives of all indianapolis residents, not just those with disabilities. while many discussions centered on the fact that life is oftentimes more difficult for those with idd, the co-researchers saw themselves not only as advocates for individuals with disabilities, but as advocates for their communities as a whole. findings are divided into four distinct themes that were most discussed during the group meetings: 1) social circles and friendship, 2) integrated and meaningful environments, 3) social identity, and 4) community change. discussion of these topics arose from the photography shared by the co-researchers in response to the three aforementioned questions constructed to guide the study and the co-researchers’ photography. social circles and friendship “dsi conference is national down syndrome congress and you meet a lot of people with down syndrome, they have talent show. i have hundreds of friends there.” – belle the issues of friendship, social circles, and community were all discussed in great detail among the co-researchers. three major factors contributing to the size of one’s social circle were identified: having the time to spend with friends, having access to quality transportation, and the ability to live independently. conversely, the increasingly busy lives of friends, not being able to use public transportation, and/or living at home with one’s parents limited the social interactions of the co-researchers, which they saw as problematic. the co-researchers’ social circles were primarily comprised of family members, staff, friends (with and without idd) and co-workers. the majority of the co-researchers did not have a preference when it came to being friends with people with or without idd. however, one third of the co-researchers preferred to have friends with idd. aladdin explained, “i have more fun with [people with disabilities]. they understand,” (focus group, june 30, 2015). though most of the co-researchers did not distinguish friends as having or w e n d l i n g | p h o t o v o i c e 39 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 not having a disability, most of their social circles were comprised of other friends with disabilities, begging the question of choice or necessity. in a 2011 study, mccarron et al. found that 67 percent of individuals with idd did not believe it was difficult to make friends with new people. the co-researchers’ sentiments echoed mccarron et al.’s findings, noting that most did not believe making friends is particularly difficult. joseph, discussing a holiday party his apartment complex recently held, explained that he was able to invite guests, but, “we couldn’t invite many people because they were too busy. so, it was just us [residents with idd]”. (focus group, july 7, 2015). aladdin added, “[my friend] she just have baby and her too busy to hang out. i don’t see her no more,” (focus group, june 23, 2015). as the lives of their adult friends without idd progress with marriage and children, those with idd are often relegated to the back burner of friendship and are awarded social time when it is convenient for others. in addition to the busy lives and schedules of friends without idd, the lack of sufficient or reliable public transportation compounded the issue of not being able to freely spend time with others. the co-researchers found the lack of accessible, public transportation within indianapolis very disappointing. as not all of the co-researchers had driver’s licenses, the need for reliable public transportation was of utmost importance. without the ability to effectively move about the city, they had to rely on others to get them to and from work, social activities, and errands. robert stated, “tuesdays are the only days i have staff, so that’s the only days i have rides. i have to ask family and friends or try to use the [local public transportation system],” (focus group, june 16, 2015). joseph agreed with robert’s frustrations and added, “the [public transportation system] equipment is sometimes faulty and doesn’t allow people with wheelchairs to get on it,” (focus group, june 16, 2015). the inability to utilize public transportation put a great strain on their independence and negatively affected how they are able to navigate their communities. integrated and meaningful environments “when i’m working i feel included. i feel included because i’ve been there two years and they know me and they know i work hard and i do a good job.” – sunshine the co-researchers discussed their community and inclusive environments – places where they feel safe, valued, and empowered – at great length. the co-researchers’ noted that many of the environments where they felt the safest were those where social inclusion and the integration of individuals with idd was an explicit goal. aladdin spoke at length about his love of special olympics and how he is so proud to be an athlete, “i go to indiana special olympics state games. i want people to know i go there and i an athlete. i have fun there.” (focus group, june 16, 2015). robert, a long-time participant in best buddies has been paired in many friendships with individuals without idd and recently attended a friend’s fourth of july party, exclaiming, “it was really nice of [my friend] to invite me to her fourth of july party this year,” (focus group, july 7, 2015). in addition to environments where the social integration of individuals with idd is a priority, many co-researchers noted they felt most valued at work, interacting with co-workers or customers. many of the employed co-researchers enjoyed not only feeling valued at work, but included and integrated into a professional community. jerry explained, “i feel great when i go to work because people know me by name. when i see newcomers, i welcome them. i feel valued and plus i get paid there every two weeks. i help with the household expenses,” (focus group, june 16, 2015). in a similar vein, the ability to volunteer and utilize their talents to give back to others increased their sense of self-worth. angelina, who volunteered with the national down syndrome society, recently won an award for her many contributions to the organization. she proudly stated, “i’m so happy i got this award. i was the first top volunteer at the national down syndrome society. i am proud!” (angelina, focus group, june c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 40 23, 2015). being seen beyond their disability, as productive members of society who contribute to the greater good, provided the co-researchers with the tools to live productive, happy, meaningful lives. in addition to environments where they felt valued, the ability to make their own choices was an issue the co-researchers believed impacted how secure and integrated they felt in the community. being able to make choices for one’s self provided them not only with a sense of independence, but also self-worth. they noted that for many with disabilities, choice is often limited by someone else – a parent, staff, etc. for the co-researchers, the concept of personal choice was most associated with one’s living situation. those who lived independently felt they had the most freedom to make choices for themselves – how they spend their free time, who they associate with, etc. angelina said: i like to live at my apartment. they have a lot of community events like a cookout, bible study every sunday, especially the garden i like to do. especially i like be independent and be on my own and with my boyfriend and my friends. if you want to be in a group to watch movies or play pool and some card games, you can (focus group, june 16, 2015). adding to angelina’s sentiments, sunshine agreed: my apartment is my own place. there is no noise, i can watch whatever i want to watch [on the tv]. my brother doesn’t come in and change the station. i grew up in a loud house and i like the quiet (focus group, june 16, 2015). social identity “i don’t like to fight. i like to talk things through. i’m a lover, not a fighter. i like sports, cars, and motorcycles. i like attractive women. i don’t like drama.” – joseph in a 2011 study analyzing the social identities of individuals with idd, cameron found that the socially-generated identities of individuals are primarily dependent upon one’s social organizations, the people who surround them, and the language used to define their social groups. the co-researchers echoed cameron’s sentiments and noted their disability is not generally how they define themselves, but rather what they like to do, with whom they associate, and the groups to which they belong. the majority of the co-researchers were actively involved in various community programs and supports specifically designed for individuals with idd. however, when asked, none of the co-researchers identified first as an individual with a disability. having a disability is but one characteristic that comes secondary to other personal traits such as a love of animals, a profession, or a family role. when asked to describe themselves, the co-researchers gave a plethora of answers. sunshine noted, “i love horses and i’m a hard worker,” (focus group, june 16, 2015). robert explained that she identifies as a hard worker, strong volunteer, and a student who went to college for two years at a local university (focus group, june 16, 2015). all of the co-researchers understand that they have a disability, but it is not what ultimately defines them. rather, it is other members of society that identify them first and foremost as someone with idd. through their discussions regarding disability and social identity, the co-researchers discussed their belief that a physical or mental impairment is not automatically internalized as a negative trait by those who have idd. rather, various societal structures and barriers that restrict the individual choice, independence, and adulthood of individuals with idd appear to be the largest factors contributing to the this is particularly important for individuals with idd, as they have traditionally been left out of such decisions and treated as subjects rather than co-investigators, partners, and collaborators in research. w e n d l i n g | p h o t o v o i c e 41 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 negative social identities of individuals with idd. disability identity, in social terms, is then defined as a socially constructed phenomenon by individuals without disabilities which is then imposed onto individuals with idd. as such, individuals with idd are disabled by the physical and attitudinal barriers society constructs for them. the societal barriers most frequently discussed among the co-researchers were childlike language and lack of adequate transportation, resulting in them being seen not as adults, but rather as dependent childlike individuals. community change: an agenda for action when the co-researchers discussed what they saw as the most pressing issues in their communities they identified the following two issues as most needing attention: public safety. collectively, the co-researchers identified public safety as one of the primary issues needing to be addressed in their communities to improve life for not only themselves, but for other citizens with and without idd. this included issues such as homelessness, gun violence, and accessible streets and sidewalks. the fact that a great deal of the group’s conversations centered on how to improve the safety and inclusivity of their communities for all citizens illustrated their collective sense of pride, empowerment, and self-worth. when given the opportunity to voice their concerns and improve their communities, the co-researchers acted with a sense of agency which is unfortunately not always attributed to people with idd. empowerment and autonomy for individuals with idd. in addition to identifying areas of improvement in regard to public safety, the co-researchers recognized two issues which could be improved to increase the freedom and autonomy specifically for individuals with idd: more opportunities for employment and additional facilities to assist with independent living. they noted that positive changes in these areas would improve the lives of individuals with disabilities by increasing their autonomy, empower them to be more independent, and in turn, increase their happiness and self-worth. one of the most discussed issues was the need they saw for meaningful and integrated employment opportunities for individuals with idd. employment, they agreed, is one of the most significant factors aiding the construction of one’s positive social identity. the majority of the co-researchers wanted to be given the opportunity to receive a pay check and contribute to society. the ability to purchase things for themselves and pay rent were deeply satisfying for those who held jobs. angelina proudly stated, “i like my job. i make people happy by cleaning locker rooms … i have my own name badge and business cards,” (focus group, july 7, 2015). unfortunately, not all of the co-researchers were employed. maraj was desperately seeking work: “it’s difficult to find a job. i have ten years’ experience at mcdonalds, but no job. we need more jobs for people to make money!” (focus group, june 16, 2015). just as having gainful employment helps create a positive social identity, so too does the ability to live life on one’s own terms. for many of the co-researchers that meant being able to live independently, without the constant supervision or interaction with one’s parents. joseph proudly exclaimed, “i’ve lived alone since i was eighteen and i love it. my parents don’t tell me anything!” (focus group, june 16, 2015). sunshine, who also lives independently, highlighted the importance of being able to do things for yourself, “it’s important to have a clean house. it means you take care of your things and can do it by yourself,” (focus group, june 16, 2015). being able to support yourself and live independently, they believed, should be an option for all adults, with or without a disability. taking social action arguably, the most important component to any photovoice study is taking action on the issues brought to light during the research team’s discussions as explored through their photography. after c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 42 completing the three rounds of photography and group discussions, the research team convened to plan actionable steps toward making their voice heard to various community members and policymakers. with any photovoice study, the outlets and methods of sharing identified themes and photography vary depending on the team, the local context, and the ultimate goals of the project (farley, brooks, k., & pope, 2017). in this study, after much discussion, the research team identified two ways to showcase their work and make their voices heard: a letter writing campaign targeted to individual stakeholders at the local, state, and national levels; and hosting a public art show featuring their photographs to ignite community conversations. the research team believed mailing letters to community organizations, policymakers, and stakeholders on the local, state, and national levels coupled with a public display of their photography would initiate discussion about the topics and issues they found most pressing in their communities. to most effectively share their sentiments within the letter, the co-researchers agreed to highlight specific topics of interest which fell under the larger umbrellas of public safety and empowerment and autonomy specifically for individuals with idd. the letter, which was drafted and signed by the entire research team and sent to various stakeholders, is shared in full in appendix b. in addition to the letter, the research team wanted to share their photography with the local indianapolis community in hopes of initiating conversations similar to those they had within the group discussions. to do so, the primary researcher secured an exhibit space in the downtown area of indianapolis to display a selection of the co-researchers’ photographs. the exhibit space was provided for free, as the co-researchers’ display was held in conjunction with a fundraiser for a local nonprofit organization that provides services for individuals with idd. the exhibit was held during “first friday,” a designated monthly event where local artists and musicians publicly share their work. each co-researcher identified three or four photos to display and discuss with attendees. during the photo exhibit and within the letter to local and national policy makers, the research team discussed the need for safer communities where all citizens can feel comfortable, secure, and empowered. limitations qualitative research, specifically that which embraces participation from a small percentage of the population being studied, lends itself to various issues limiting the scope and generalizability of such research. in this study the research team was small, including only nine co-researchers. while this small group included individuals of different genders, races, ages, socio-economic status, and disabilities, it is not an all-encompassing account of what it means to live with a disability in indianapolis. although discussions were often driven by what life is like living with idd, the type or severity of one’s disability was not the focal point. disabilities vary in terms of the severity, causes, and levels of support needed, and the input of the co-researchers was unique to their individual lives, disabilities, and social supports. implications for research and practice although this study among indianapolis community members with idd is limited in its generalizability, it suggests that photovoice can be successfully utilized to actively involve individuals with idd to shape the decisions that influence their lives and communities. furthermore, this study exemplifies the need for including individuals with idd in social programming, planning, and research. this is particularly important for individuals with idd, as they have traditionally been left out of such decisions and treated as subjects rather than co-investigators, partners, and collaborators in research. this study had two distinct purposes: to involve individuals with idd in community-engaged research and to shine a spotlight on the issues facing indianapolis, specifically issues of concern within the disability community. photographs taken by w e n d l i n g | p h o t o v o i c e 43 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 the co-researchers, in combination with the discussions that stemmed from said photographs, illustrated what issues were of most importance to them: the need for more integrated and meaningful employment for individuals with idd, additional opportunities for individuals with disabilities to live independently, the necessity of a reliable and functional public transportation system, etc. photographs and discussions also showed how the co-researchers are involved in their communities, the extensiveness of their social circles, or lack thereof, and how they are physically and socially integrated into larger society. future research should continue to include the perspectives of individuals with idd to ensure the authentic representation of the disability community within research. many of the themes which emerged from the co-researchers’ photographs, or lack of photographs, are worth exploring in further detail to better understand the connections contributing to the various issues the co-researchers saw as most prominent in their lives. this study inviting the perspectives of individuals with idd in research suggests that photovoice is not only an effective participatory research tool to aid in the advancement of disability rights, but one that is much needed. the use of photography and the primacy of the visual image coupled with the opportunity for individuals to express their real-life experiences through group discussion provides individuals who are often not asked to share their opinions a platform to be heard. community members also are able to collect data through photographs in places where other, outside researchers might not have access. this study demonstrated that photovoice can foster the active participation of individuals with idd in research while giving value and weight to their contributions as co-researchers, not research subjects. appendix a summary of the co-researchers’ photographs the significance of place. 94 of all the photographs (32%) highlighted safe places the co-researchers identified as important to their lives. the most prominent locations included their homes, serene spots within nature, religious places of worship, or unique locations they visited when travelling. the primacy of friends, with and without idd. 59 photos (20%) featured individuals who the co-researchers identified as friends. the majority of co-researchers who took pictures of friends were those who either lived independently or were involved in various community organizations that provide opportunities for people with idd (special olympics, best buddies, etc.) the importance of social activities and community participation. 53 photographs (18%) were taken when co-researchers were active in their communities. photos ranged from enjoyable social activities such as attending professional sporting events, conferences, and summer camps, or while they were at their place of employment or volunteering in their community. pride in the ability to live independently. 44 of all photographs (15%) highlighted many of the co-researchers’ apartments where they live independently without parents or siblings. all of the co-researchers who lived independently expressed great pride in having the ability to do so. the co-researchers who lived with parents and/or siblings articulated their desire to live more independently and move out of their childhood homes. the low profile of staff and family members. less than 1% of all photographs taken were of the co-researchers’ family members or siblings. staff and relatives, particularly parents, are typically known to provide great assistance to individuals with idd throughout life. however, very few of the co-researchers included photographs of these supports. the absence of romantic partners. less than .5% of all photographs included romantic partners. only two of the co-researchers took pictures of individuals to whom they were romantically attracted. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 44 appendix b letter written by research team to various local, state, and national stakeholders dear _________________, we are residents of indianapolis and we are trying to make the world a better place for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (idd). we are a group of adults with disabilities who for the past six weeks have been meeting as a group to talk about how to make indianapolis better. we have some things we want to discuss with you. we have identified the following issues within indianapolis that we want to bring to your attention: crime: we have noticed a lot of violent crimes in indianapolis recently. this is scary. we think policemen should be more available to help with these crimes. using a crime-stopper number is helpful and should made more well-known to residents of indianapolis. homelessness: we have seen an increase of people on the streets asking for money. we think homeless shelters should be more available to these people to help them get back on their feet and get a job. they need to know how to find homeless shelters. guns: we think there is too much gun violence in the city. this is scary when people get shot in the stores and in their homes. we would like to increase safety laws when people want to buy guns. only police should be able to have guns. please try to keep guns away from kids. employment: we have talked a lot about how employment is the way to best support yourself and make money. having a job makes us feel respected, like good members of society. we want more employers to hire people with disabilities in indianapolis. living independently: most of us live independently and we love it. it makes us responsible for our actions and we don’t have to depend on our parents as much. it makes us feel good about ourselves. we think there should be more places for people with disabilities to live independently in indianapolis. indy go: it would be really nice to have a more structured schedule with the indy go open door bus system. sometimes when we call the dispatch, they hang up on us and it is rude. it sometimes makes us late to our jobs. sometimes the bus doesn’t show up at all and we miss work. these are the biggest concerns we think our city faces. we would like to make sure indianapolis is as safe and inclusive of all people, as possible. we would appreciate your support with these issues. sincerely, (names of co-researchers omitted) w e n d l i n g | p h o t o v o i c e 45 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 references amado, a., stancliffe, r., mccarron, m., & mccallion, p. (2013). social inclusion and community participation of individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities. intellectual and developmental disabilities, 51(5), 360-375. bachrach, c.a., & abeles, r.p. (2004). social science and health research: growth at the national institutes of health. american journal of public health, 94, 22-28. creswell, j. w. (2007). qualitative inquiry & research design: choosing among five approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. farley, l., brooks, k., & pope, k. (2017). engaging students in praxis using photovoice research. multicultural education, 24(2), 49-55. glaser, b. g. & strauss, a. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago, il: aldine. hill, r. a., & dunbar, r. i. m. (2003). social network size in humans. human nature, 14(1), 53-72. jurkowski, j. & paul-ward, a. (2007). photovoice with vulnerable populations: addressing disparities in health promotion among people with intellectual disabilities. health promotion practice. 8(4), 358-365. mccarron, m., swinburne, j., burke, e., mcglinchey, e., mulryan, m., andrews, v., foran, s., & mccallion, p. (2011). growing older with an intellectual disability in ireland 2011: first results from the intellectual disability supplement of the irish longitudinal study on ageing. dublin: school of nursing & midwifery, trinity college dublin. schatzman, l. & strauss, a. (1973). field research: strategies for a natural sociology. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. stake, r. e. (2010). qualitative research: studying how things work. new york, ny: guilford press. strauss, a. l. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research. newbury park, ca: sage. taylor, s. j. (2000). “you’re not a retard, you’re just wise”: disability, social identity, and family networks. journal of contemporary ethnography, 29(1), 58-92. verdonschot, m. m. l., dewitte, l. p., reichraft, e., buntinx, w. h. e., & curfs, l. m. g. (2009). community participation of people with an intellectual disability: a review of empirical findings. journal of intellectual disability research, 53, 303-318. wang, c. (2006). youth participation in photovoice as a strategy for community change. journal of community practice, 14(1), 147-161. wang, c. & burris, m. (1997). photovoice: concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. health education & behavior, 24(3), 369-387. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 46 author elizabeth grennan browning iu environmental resilience institute iu bloomington department of history research fellow at the iu environmental resilience institute adjunct assistant professor in the iu bloomington department of history city care historical and contemporary lessons from environmental justice coalition-building elizabeth grennan browning abstract this article examines the historical roots of the challenges facing contemporary climate justice advocacy campaigns, and draws lessons from this history regarding how to more comprehensively address racial equity in resilience planning and environmentalist advocacy. as the modern us environmental movement gained momentum in the 1970s, fault lines developed between environmentalists and civil rights advocates. a key source of tension was debates over whether urban environments were deserving of the same kinds of environmental protections as more traditional and pristine forms of “nature.” african americans’ prioritization of economic equity alongside legal equality also led to a critical dialogue about economic growth and the economic externalities of regulating industry and safeguarding the environment. this article draws on environmental justice and environmental history scholarship as integrated lenses for analyzing racialized debates during the early years of the modern american environmental movement. i trace how public deliberations played out regarding the first earth day in 1970, and the city care conference of 1979—the first national conference that brought together major environmental groups such as the sierra club and civil rights organizations such as the national urban league to deliberate the linkages between racial equity and environmentalism. finally, i connect these historical analyses to recent data from the indiana university environmental resilience institute’s hoosier life survey in order to better understand contemporary racialized disparities of climate change vulnerability, and relatedly, of climate change opinion. key words • environmental justice • environmental racism • civil rights • us environmental movement • coalition-building • vulnerability • climate change opinion 48 engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s b r o w n i n g | c i t y c a r e over the course of the past year, black and brown communities have experienced disproportionate burdens from the health and economic effects of the global coronavirus pandemic, and the national pandemic of police brutality. now perhaps more than ever in our lifetimes, we have seen the contours of structural racism rise violently to the surface. these intertwined crises have led to a moment of racial reckoning, of accounting for the long-standing effects of racial inequality in our communities, and how we discuss these issues in our public forums and teach about them in our schools. by structural racism, i mean to recognize how both white privilege and racial oppression against bipoc communities manifest not just in individuals’ behaviors, but in our public policies and our public infrastructure, broadly defined— from access to quality education, clean water, uncontaminated environments, and safe housing that protects families from the hazards born of anthropogenic climate change, including extreme heat and flooding. environmental justice scholarship offers a comprehensive, holistic view of the many layers of racialized injustices that plague communities of color. (sze 2020). these environmental and public health problems did not emerge in situ, but rather bear the mark of historical legacies of public policies and practices that facilitated unequal treatment, including jim crow segregation laws, restrictive covenants, racial zoning, redlining, and the use of eminent domain in urban renewal measures (pulido 2017). climate justice advocates must examine the history of coalitionbuilding between civil rights and environmental organizations to better understand our current challenges and devise more effective agendas and strategies for creating just and resilient communities. in this article, i analyze coalition-building between civil rights activists and environmentalists during the 1970s, as the modern environmental movement gained momentum in the united states. the 1979 “city care” national conference is an especially important benchmark to measure both the progress and continuing challenges of environmental justice movements in the united states. i then draw on data from the recent indiana university hoosier life survey (conducted by a team of social scientists in 2019 to better understand hoosiers’ opinions about climate change, mitigation, and adaptation) in order to underscore the importance of approaching climate change resilience practices from a lens of racial equity. city care, 1979: coalitionbuilding among civil rights and environmental advocates the origins of the modern environmental movement are clear from examining the roots of the first earth day on april 22, 1970. senator gaylord nelson of wisconsin was the main force in bringing the national teach-in together, but his success was only made possible from the broader national cultural and political context at the time. rachel carson’s publication of silent spring in 1962 had stirred a widespread sense of concern about the post-world war ii chemical regime and its effects on wildlife and habitats. an acute precursor to earth day’s activism was a set of environmental disasters in 1969: first, a major oil spill off the coast of santa barbara in january, and second, the polluted cuyahoga river in cleveland catching fire in june. growing concern about pollution and biodiversity loss led to a bipartisan commitment to environmental protection, with republican president richard nixon signing major pieces of environmental legislation in the early 1970s, including the national environmental 49 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 policy act, and the creation of the environmental protection agency (rome 2013). however, as the environmental movement got under way, fault lines quickly formed around issues of race, class, and the dilemma of determining which environments were deserving of protections. whitney m. young, jr., executive director of the national urban league (a civil rights and urban advocacy organization founded in new york city in 1910), pointed to these fissures in his syndicated newspaper column several days after the first earth day celebration. young explained that the recent wave of environmentalism cohered around americans’ concerns about their “quality of life.” he was concerned that white people who had suddenly discovered the problem of pollution were mostly focused on improving the plight of the middle class. noting that people living in the lilywhite refuges of white flight—america’s suburbs— sought to preserve their clean air and water, young flipped the definition of pollution to emphasize blacks’ unique concerns which often went unremarked by white liberal environmentalists: “if their town is segregated, if it bars blacks from buying homes, or has zoning laws that keep lowincome people out, it is polluted in a far graver sense.” young expressed hope that the environmental campaign would succeed in cleaning up the nation’s air and water, but worried that this would all just become another fad, and an additional distraction from the most important issues that american society needed to confront: racial injustice. he pointed to how the civil rights movement’s white allies had become distracted by the anti-vietnam war movement, and the campaign for campus democracy led by the students for a democratic society (sds). environmental activists, young argued, needed to consider the social ecology of america: “if the relationship between men and fishes has come to be such an important topic, then surely the relationship between blacks and whites is even more pressing.” he went on to explain, “we must be concerned about air pollution from auto exhausts and from factory smokestacks. but we must also be concerned with the far more insidious pollution of poverty that poisons the lives of 30 million americans. we should be concerned about chemical deposits in the food we eat, but also about the millions of americans who go hungry; whose diets are perched on the thin line of malnutrition” (young 1970). several years after the first earth day, in september 1973, evidence of the racialized schism in the environmental movement was again brought to the public’s attention by vernon e. jordan, who succeeded young as the national urban league’s executive director. jordan reflected on the tenyear anniversary of what was a watershed moment for the civil rights movement—the march on washington for jobs and freedom, organized by a. philip randolph. on august 28, 1963, the march convened a quarter of a million people at the lincoln memorial in washington, dc, in a profound demonstration for equal rights. it was the highwater mark of civil rights advocacy, and helped lead to the passage of the landmark civil rights act of 1964. but, as jordan warned, the great progress that advocates had made to secure african americans’ legal rights was only a precarious 50engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e we must be concerned about air pollution from auto exhausts and from factory smokestacks. but we must also be concerned with the far more insidious pollution of poverty that poisons the lives of 30 million americans. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s victory because blacks still did not have economic freedom, among many other persisting racial inequalities. echoing young’s concerns from several years before, jordan called out “the fair-weather friends who have moved on to other causes— pollution, ecology” and various other short-lived trends. jordan implored these former allies to return to the cause of racial equality. as blacks’ civil rights continued to suffer, those who were most closely devoted to the cause of racial equality sometimes saw the environmental movement as a zero-sum game, with urban communities of color losing out. (jordan 1973). this persisting divide between civil rights and environmental advocates was the focus of a groundbreaking coalition-building national conference held in april 1979 titled “city care,” which brought together representatives from the national urban league, the sierra club, the urban environment conference and foundation, and several federal agencies to discuss environmental health hazards facing communities of color, as well as environmentalists’ expanding definition of the “environment” to account for urban spaces (epa 1979). in describing the goals of the conference, vernon e. jordan, jr. emphasized that “groups working for constructive change…in creative coalition efforts” needed to approach their collaboration from a space of mutual understanding, and that allies needed to acknowledge and respect their partners’ distinctive priorities. the priorities articulated by jordan and other civil rights advocates for the city care conference remain relevant for today’s conversations about climate justice and resilience. • prioritizing economic equality through job creation. jordan critiqued slowand no-growth economic theories, arguing that perhaps blacks’ only chance to gain economic parity was “through expanding the national economy and getting a bigger slice of that growth.” he offered solar energy as an example of a successful story of uniting environmentally sustainability with economic opportunity and job creation for the urban poor. • ensuring racial equity in environmental regulations. jordan criticized political demands to curtail federal oversight of environmental regulations, reminding his audience that black neighborhoods were “most affected by pollution,” and black workers were “of-ten locked into the most hazardous jobs that are most liable to result in health and safety risks.” the notion of “environment” needed to expand, jordan argued, to account for “all external factors affecting people—economic and social, as well as physical.” creating a more sustainable environment needed to include finding solutions for poverty, unemployment, and unsanitary housing conditions in american cities. • cleaning up environmental toxins and contaminants in minority neighborhoods. jordan identified children’s lead contamination from polluted air and auto exhaust as a uniquely urgent concern for low-income neighborhoods. as the city care conference was under way in detroit, the three mile island nuclear accident occurred near har-risburg, pennsylvania, spurring skepticism about nuclear energy among environmentalists gathered at the conference. jordan suggest-ed that nuclear energy was not the best path forward because of the potential disproportionate health impacts that it presented for poor communities. • fighting for energy justice. jordan underscored the inequities of the nation’s energy consumption patterns: “poor people use less energy but spend more of their incomes for it.” 51 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 b r o w n i n g | c i t y c a r e the spiraling cost of utilities exacerbated the economic vulnerability of low-income minorities, and degraded their quality of life as well as their physical safety. jordan identified energy justice as “an issue this emerging coalition can run with,” and a “key test of whether the concerned groups can move beyond rhetoric to effective advocacy for the urban poor.” jordan’s key takeaways from the city care conference remain front and center in today’s climate justice activism. in fact, they map directly onto the naacp’s contemporary environment & climate justice program’s main objectives: reducing harmful emissions, advancing energy efficiency and clean energy, and strengthening community resistance and livability (naacp 2021). as we’ve seen over the past few years, the environmental movement has increasingly reckoned with its history of racism, including mainstream organizations’ neglect of environmental justice issues and exclusion of marginalized minorities. (finney 2014, taylor 2016). we have begun to witness some small degrees of change. for example, the sierra club elected the first african american president of the organization—aaron mair in 2015—and in 2020, the first latinx president, ramon cruz. however, there is clearly still much work to be done to ensure that voices from low-income communities of color are represented in environmental organizations’ and government agencies’ leadership ranks. nonwhite researchers, naturalists, and outdoor enthusiasts have been critical to disrupting stereotypes within environmental research and activism and to ensuring that bipoc researchers lend their expertise to public policy (thompson 2020). new appointees in the biden administration, including shalanda baker as director of the office of minority economic impact in the department of energy, recognize that the energy system operates with racial disparities across the board, from the economic impact of utilities pricing to pollution from energy production and waste. (baker 2021). we must approach resilience planning in all its facets with a critical reflexivity that keeps us attuned to the question of “resilience for whom?”—which will remind us to prioritize fairness, environmental justice, and equitable access to resources. (cutter 2016). former sierra club president aaron mair pointed to wendell berry’s 1989 book the hidden wound as a valuable resource for reflecting upon how america’s democratic institutions and social organization have resulted in the unintended degradation of both the environment and humanity, and the importance of focusing on the intersection of race and environmentalism. when berry started writing this book in 1968 during the civil rights movement, he said he was trying to understand his own identity with respect to the “crisis of racial awareness.” berry’s book attempted to allow him to reckon with his ancestors’ history as slaveholders, with berry’s own personal history growing up on a farm in the segregated south, where he developed a commitment to environmentalism. in doing so, he links racism and environmental degradation: “the psychic wound of racism has resulted inevitably in wounds in the land, the country itself.” (berry 1970). hoosier life survey findings: climate justice in indiana for over a century, the midwest—and indiana in particular—has been mythologized in the popular imagination in the united states and beyond as the “heartland” of the country, a quintessentially american place, where rural and small-town values have long abided, and the nation’s so-called core identity appears intact and pristine. if we look closer, however, we see that this idea of a pristine, isolated, heartland is a myth. (hoganson 2019). 52engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s even with the understanding that this cultural construct of the midwest has never been true— and that the midwest has always been deeply interconnected with a global network of places—it is important to recognize that this mythology is still very important, because it affects how people think about this region, and how residents understand their communities and their own identities. the longstanding heartland imagery is especially poignant when it comes to understanding midwesterners’ climate change beliefs. while many onlookers, and even midwesterners themselves, invoke the idea of a flyover country with an inordinate amount of skepticism about the scientific consensus surrounding anthropogenic climate change, social science research has helped upend this narrative, and reveal that midwesterners are a much more diverse lot than we generally assume. in late 2019, indiana university’s environmental resilience institute conducted the hoosier life survey to help indiana’s policymakers and citizens better understand how hoosiers think and learn about climate issues, what steps they are taking to mitigate climate change risk, and what tools they would like to better adapt to the effects of climate change in the future. the survey had nearly 3,000 responses (a response rate of 29.4%), and represented a cross-section of the state, with responses from 90 of indiana’s 92 counties. (houser and sandweiss, et al. 2020). the survey design deliberately oversampled for members of racial minority groups to ensure that their viewpoints were represented in the data. lower-income households and communities of color face higher environmental risks from pollution and toxins, and these disproportionate burdens are also felt when it comes to climate change impacts, including extreme weather events such as heat waves and flooding because these populations do not have the resources to adapt their lifestyles or homes to mitigate these risks. and these factors then snowball into other adverse health effects—including covid-19’s disproportionate rates of infection and death among people of color. the hoosier life survey has provided important insights into how the social variables of race and economic status (among others) affect hoosiers’ personal experiences of climate change impacts, and their perceptions of climate risks. a majority of hoosiers think climate change is harming people in the us right now, and 69% believe climate change will hurt people in indiana. however, respondents of color were twice as likely as white respondents to agree that climate change will harm them a great deal and 25 percent more likely to agree that climate change is harming people in the us right now. respondents from lower-income hoosier households were also more likely to report that they believe climate change will harm them personally a “great deal,” compared to higher-income households. these signs of higher concern about climate change also extended to questions about whether climate change is happening. seventy-six percent of black hoosiers and 86 percent of non-black people of color agree that climate change is happening compared to 72 percent of white hoosiers. furthermore, responses about policies to mitigate climate change impacts revealed similar patterns. african americans are more likely to 53 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 the environmental movement has increasingly reckoned with its history of racism, including mainstream organizations’ neglect of environmental justice issues and exclusion of marginalized minorities. b r o w n i n g | c i t y c a r e live in urban heat islands, and thus have a more difficult time escaping extreme heat. in the survey, black respondents were about twice as likely as white respondents to support measures that would reduce heat-wave risks, including public funding for air conditioning, health services, and text-based early warning systems during heat events. bipoc communities’ disproportionate experiences of vulnerability to the effects of climate change have in part led to both their higher rates of belief in anthropogenic climate change, and support for mitigation and adaptation policies.. conclusion the monumental challenge that lays before our collective society is coming to terms with the difficult but unavoidable reality that responding to climate change requires major societal changes— and these changes must address the historical legacies of racial inequality. it is not sufficient to say that engineering technological fixes will save us. even more important is the need to address our social perspective, and how we interact together as a human society and with the nonhuman world. in order to build our society’s resilience to climate change, we must reconsider our social values and norms that support over-consumption and perpetuate inequalities in access to environmental goods and environmental decision-making. the fragile and yet integral coalition-building between environmentalists and civil rights activists in the 1970s reminds us that our current battles for climate justice must establish room for understanding the unequal burdens that climate change inflicts on bipoc communities. protecting those most vulnerable to our climate crisis requires that we first understand how we came to where we are as a nation today, and take accountability for a past that has long hindered moving forward toward a resilient future. engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e references baker, s.h. (2021). revolutionary power: an activist’s guide to the energy transition. island press. berry, w. (1970). the hidden wound. houghton mifflin. cutter, s.l. (2016, june). resilience to what? resilience for whom? the geographical journal 182(2): 110-13. https://doi. org/10.1111/geoj.12174. united states environmental protection agency. (1979, april). city care. epa journal. us government printing office. finney, c. (2014). black faces, white spaces: reimaginging the relationship of african americans to the great outdoors. university of north carolina press. hoganson, k. l. (2019). the heartland: an american history. penguin books. houser, m., sandweiss, e., et al. (2020). the hoosier life survey: assessing hoosier preparedness for environmental change, extreme weather, and other risks. indiana university environmental resilience institute. https://eri. iu.edu/tools-and-resources/ hoosier-life-survey/hls-summary-report.pdf jordan, v. e. (september 1, 1973). to be equal: ten years since the march. the indianapolis recorder. lynd, h., and lynd, r. (1929) middletown: a study in contemporary american culture. harcourt, brace & company. the national association for the advancement of colored people. (2021). environmental & climate justice. https://naacp.org/ know-issues/environmental-climate-justice. pulido, l. (2017). rethinking environmental racism: white privilege and urban development in southern california. annals of the association of american geographers 90(1), 379–407. https://doi.org/10.1111/00045608.00182. rome, a. (2013). the genius of earth day: how a 1970 teach-in unexpectedly made the first green generation. hill and wang. sze, j. (2020). environmental justice in a moment of danger. university of california press. taylor, d.e. (2016). the rise of the american conservation movement: power, privilege, and environmental protection. duke university press. thompson, a. (june 5, 2020). black birders call out racism, say nature should be for everyone. scientific american. https://www.scientificamerican. com/article/black-birders-callout-racism-say-nature-shouldbe-for-everyone/. young, w. (april 25, 1970). to be equal: slum and pollution. the indianapolis recorder. 54 c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s authors gabriel filippelli department of earth sciences iupui center for urban health, iupui environmental resilience institute, indiana university rev. ivan hicks first baptist church north indianapolis greg druschel iupui department of earth sciences jason m. kelly iupui arts and humanities institute and department of history john shukle iupui department of earth sciences spencer strout iupui department of earth sciences natalie nichols iupui department of earth sciences dawson stroud iupui department of earth sciences megan ottenweller iupui department of earth sciences marisa longbrake iupui department of earth sciences leah wood iupui department of earth sciences benjamin clark iupui arts and humanities institute and american studies program kevin fryling office of the vice president for communications and marketing, indiana university addressing risks of lead in water and soil using citizen science and a unique partnership with faith organizations abstract one of the most widespread environmental health hazards in the united states remains exposure to the harmful neurotoxin lead. so much lead remains in the urban environment that it is not unusual to find neighborhoods where more than 10% of children exhibit harmful levels of lead, compared to the national average of about 1%. to overcome this challenge, a partnership between iupui researchers and faith organizations in indianapolis takes aim at the risk of household lead contamination by providing residents the tools they need to protect against it. the communitydriven science aspect of this project is intentional—not only will the individuals who participate benefit directly, but the resulting data will also play a role in keeping communities safer more broadly. one of the most widespread environmental health hazards in the united states remains exposure to the harmful neurotoxin lead. although the u.s. decades ago outlawed the production of materials that contained lead, such as gasoline, paint, and solder, its dangerous legacy lingers in older cities and neighborhoods. the lead remains on old structures painted with leadbased paints, and in the water pipes that comprise our aging drinking water infrastructure. but what many are not aware of is that a major repository of lead is soils and the dust generated from them. why soils? it is because they captured a century of lead deposited from burning leaded gasoline, industrial sources, and degrading lead-based paint, and concentrated it in the upper few inches of soils where children play and vegetables grow. it is this lead16 c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e f i l i p p e l l i | r i s k s o f l e a d vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 infused soil that generates dust on dry summer days. so much lead remains in the urban environment that it is not unusual to find neighborhoods where more than 10% of children exhibit harmful levels of lead, compared to the national average of about 1%. if lead is present in a young child’s blood while their brain systems are forming, it permanently distorts the critical neurons that do all of the signaling and communications work in the brain. the result of this exposure is the stuff of a behavioral psychologist’s nightmares— permanently lowered iq, increased attention deficit disorders, poor short-term memory, and decreased risk-aversion. incarceration rates for individuals exposed to lead in their youth are higher than individuals without high levels of lead in their bodies, a statistical correlation that is tied to the negative neurocognitive impacts of lead poisoning. legacies of racism and segregation mean that lead exposure rates are significantly higher for lower income communities of color, creating economic and educational challenges for these communities that can last for generations. to overcome this challenge, a partnership between iupui researchers and faith organizations in indianapolis is taking aim at the risk of household lead contamination by providing residents the tools they need to protect against it. as a part of the center for urban health at iupui's long-term effort to map lead levels across the city—and in collaboration with the iupui arts & humanities institute’s research on the anthropocene—are working with the indianapolis ministerium's faith lead initiative to distribute lead test kits to residents on the near northwest side. with funding provided by the indiana university environmental resilience institute through the prepared for environmental change grand challenge program, the kits provide participants with free, reliable lab results on potential lead exposure in their homes—information that is often out of reach due to barriers such as cost and lack of education on the risks of lead. the tests' results will also contribute to anonymous public data on household lead levels across indianapolis through the center's map my environment website. this is the first time the website will contain data on lead levels in water, along with the soil and dust being collected as part of this effort. there are regulations about the allowable amount of lead in water, but the truth is there's no safe level of lead. the concerns on this front are real, as evidenced in a 2020 report on childhood lead poisoning from the indiana advisory committee to the u.s. commission on civil rights. the project's focus on tap water is significant since lead contamination is most common in homes with aging infrastructure, such as lead pipes, which can lose the protective mineral layer that prevents heavy metals from leeching into drinking water. the challenge is we're not talking about a large amount of lead; it's relatively low concentrations. but once you get any lead in your body, the acids in your stomach dissolve it, and it gets in your bloodstream. and once it's in your blood, it's very hard to get out because it's stored in your bones. it's relatively low concentrations. but once you get any lead in your body, the acids in your stomach dissolve it, and it gets in your bloodstream. and once it's in your blood, it's very hard to get out because it's stored in your bones. 17 fig. 1. community members assemble the water lead test kits at first baptist church north indianapolis. photo credit: liz kaye, indiana university indiana does not provide free home lead analysis until children test positive twice for elevated blood lead levels. furthermore, the state's threshold for elevated blood lead levels—10 micrograms per deciliter—is twice the amount regarded as elevated under national guidelines provided by the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention. but, the truth remains there's no safe level of lead— especially for infants and toddlers. research has consistently shown that lead testing rates are significantly lower in communities of color, even as the poisoning rates are significantly higher. in response to these inequities, the center's testing efforts focus on homes in downtown indianapolis between kessler boulevard and meridian street, from 16th to 38th streets. a second, larger phase of the project—open to residents across the state—is planned for later summer, 2021. this effort is supported by the environmental resilience institute at indiana university. in spring 2021, volunteers at first baptist church north indianapolis assembled the first 200 lead test kits (fig. 1) for distribution in cooperation with local organizations such as groundwork indy, the kheprw institute, the flanner house and partner churches of the indianapolis ministerium. another 200 kits will be distributed in muncie, indiana, in cooperation with ball state university. the kits include bottles for sampling water and bags for sampling soil and dust, along with educational materials on lead protection (fig. 2). 18 c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e f i l i p p e l l i | r i s k s o f l e a d vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 the lead testing project spoke to church leaders' desire to provide leadership and programming to improve their members' health. the fact that participants could learn about their home's lead levels while keeping the home's location anonymous was also significant, as some members were hesitant to pursue professional lead testing due to concerns about government repercussions. the collection effort builds upon previous work from the center for urban health, which has offered free soil analysis since 2012 and free dust analysis since 2018. over 2,500 soil and 600 dust samples have been analyzed since the start of these programs, with results returned to participants. the center had not been able offer free water testing until now because water collection requires special equipment compared to plastic baggies for dirt and soil. each kit includes five plastic water vials, a large bag to collect household dust, three small bags to collect soil samples, and informational material on lead in the home. these kits are returned to the laboratory at iupui where they undergo an array of analyses to determine the content of lead in water, soil, and dust (figs. 3, 4). a numbered sticker is used to protect the anonymity of participants, and the results are returned to the participants themselves, with recommendations on how to mitigate any hazards that are detected. in the case of lead, mitigation is pretty straightforward, so long at the source of the exposure (soil, dust, water) is identified. the community-driven science aspect of this project is intentional—not only will the individuals who participate benefit directly, but the resulting data will also play a role in keeping communities safer more broadly. this type of partnership is designed to provide true agency to the participants—these communities have passion and commitment, and only lack science to take action to protect their children’s health, and indeed, the well-being of the community moving forward. additionally, the results are valuable research tools themselves, having contributed to over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles in scientific journals. of course, most normal human beings who aren’t in the academic world don’t read scientific journals. that’s why our program is steadfastly committed to producing parallel informational products that are designed with and for the general public, and we recommend that other community-driven science programs do the same. such reciprocity is vital for truly meaningful community partnerships. 19 fig. 2. the collection kits include bottles for samples and informational material on the risks of lead in homes. photo credit: liz kaye, indiana university this type of partnership is designed to provide true agency to the participants—these communities have passion and commitment, and only lack science to take action to protect their children’s health, and indeed, the well-being of the community moving forward. 20 fig. 3. an iupui researcher tests a water sample for lead content in a lab on the iupui campus. photo credit: liz kaye, indiana university fig. 4. laboratory instruments are used by scientists to quantify the amount of lead in the water samples from households photo credit: liz kaye, indiana university c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e community-engaged research (cer) as the avenue to promoting well-being and recovery in drug court authors john r. gallagher associate professor, indiana university school of social work anne nordberg associate professor, university of texas at arlington school of social work raychel minasian addictions therapist, oaklawn psychiatric center sydney szymanowski graduate research assistant (gra), indiana university school of social work jesse carlton chief probation officer, st. joseph county, in probation kristin fee drug court coordinator, st. joseph county, in drug court jane woodward miller drug court judge, st. joseph county, in drug court john horsley vice president of adult services, oaklawn psychiatric center tara paiano drug court coordinator, elkhart county, in drug court john r. gallagher, anne nordberg, raychel minasian, sydney szymanowski, jesse carlton, kristin fee, jane woodward miller, john horsley and tara paiano abstract drug courts are an alternative to incarceration for individuals who have substance use disorders and have been arrested for drug-related crimes (e.g. possession of a controlled substance). the first drug court began in 1989 in florida and it is estimated that there are over 3,000 drug courts now operating throughout the united states. this community-engaged research (cer) evaluated the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court by identifying who was most likely to graduate, who was most likely to recidivate, and whether drug court or probation was more effective at reducing criminal recidivism. furthermore, although drug courts are found in many communities, research rarely describes the process used to develop and implement cer. therefore, this article also highlights the collaborative process used in this drug court evaluation. the findings from this study suggest that the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court is an effective program at reducing criminal recidivism and a valuable resource for individuals who have substance use disorders, the community, and other stakeholders. drug court participants were less likely to recidivate than probationers, and a lower recidivism rate clearly equates to many benefits to the community. the article concludes with community-based implicac o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 24 the authors dedicate this article to jim matio. every community jim lived in benefited from his humor, compassion, and love for others. g a l l a g h e r | d r u g c o u r t tions, such as starting recovery support groups that are welcoming to individuals who receive medication-assisted treatment (mat), marketing drug court to racial and ethnic minorities to increase their representation in the program, and disseminating research findings throughout the community via local news stories, podcasts, and public lectures. keywords: community-engaged research (cer), criminal justice, drug court, recidivism, social work, substance use disorder introduction in the late 1980s, criminal justice stakeholders in miami, florida decided to address an ongoing problem within the justice system. they had noticed that people charged and convicted of minor drug offenses, such as possession, often reappeared before the courts with the same charges (wexler & winick, 1996). this so-called revolving door was backlogging the courts and punishment seemed ineffective to deter future criminal justice involvement. it cost all involved and the community time, effort, and money with no positive outcomes. these stakeholders operationalized therapeutic jurisprudence or the idea that criminal courts could be part of therapeutic solutions, particularly for men and women who had substance use disorders (schneider, bloom, & hereema, 2007). for people caught in the dragnet of the war on drugs, treatment for substance use disorders may be a more effective option than incarceration. as a result, they implemented the first drug court in 1989 (nolan, 2001) by diverting people away from the traditional, punitive approach to justice into this first drug court that placed the court, the judge, and criminal justice professionals amidst a drug rehabilitation program (schneider et al., 2007; slinger & roesch, 2010; wexler & winick, 1996). the court differed dramatically in several ways. for instance, the adversarial nature of the traditional criminal justice process was suspended with prosecutors and defense attorneys collaborating for the best interests of participants and criminal justice workers, especially the judge, became part of the therapeutic paradigm. drug court was a choice for participants and in accepting the diversion, they agreed to plead guilty, remain drug free, which was measured through self-report and random and frequent drug tests, follow treatment recommendations, and report to drug court for supervision (wexler & winick, 1996). goldkamp (1994) conducted an evaluation of this first drug court and found promising outcomes. specifically, recidivism rates among drug court graduates was assessed at 32% compared to 48 to 55% among comparison groups. since then, many other studies have confirmed goldkamp’s positive findings, such as a large-scale governmental study (u.s. government accountability office, 2005) and meta-analyses and systematic reviews (aos, miller, & drake, 2006; lowenkamp, holsinger, & latessa, 2005; mitchell, wilson, eggers, & mackenzie, 2012; wilson, mitchell, & mackenzie, 2006). notwithstanding the contradictory results of a few studies (brown, 2010; miethe, lu, & reese, 2000), the drug court model was deemed so successful that it has been adapted for other populations, such as people with mental illnesses (schneider et al., 2007) additionally, drug courts and other treatment courts (e.g. mental health courts, veterans courts, family treatment courts) have been replicated over 3,000 times and are found in all 50 states, as well as other countries, such as canada, ireland, united kingdom, and australia, to name a few (national association of drug court professionals, 2019). community-engaged research (cer) drug court stakeholders collaborated with the researchers on all aspects of this study. the drug court judge, chief probation officer, and drug court note: this research was funded by a grant from the indiana university school of social work, center for social health and well-being. 25 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 coordinator were the main stakeholders involved in the process, but feedback and insight was welcomed from the entire drug court team. treatment providers and prosecuting and defense attorneys, for example, also helped with the research design. drug court is a criminal justice, community-based program; therefore, it was important that the research design and the findings be understandable to lay persons, those without academic or statistical backgrounds. with that in mind, the drug court and research teams identified the best methodology to reach laypersons. for instance, it was decided to use statistics that produce percentages, which are easily understandable to laypersons. that is just one example of the in-depth collaboration between the drug court and research teams. the collaboration also included developing the research questions for this study, interpreting the findings and exploring the implications of the findings, disseminating the knowledge gained from this study to drug court participants, the community, and others, and working on manuscripts, such as this one, to reach international, multidisciplinary audiences. the purpose of this cer was to answer the following three research questions. first, which drug court participants are most likely to graduate? second, which drug court participants are most likely to recidivate? third, is drug court or probation more effective at reducing criminal recidivism? methodology the data collection for this study did not involve human subjects; therefore, this research was not subject to institutional review board (irb) regulations. a graduate research assistant (gra) collaborated with the chief of probation and drug court coordinator to collect the necessary data from participant’s electronic charts. graduation to determine which drug court participants were most likely to graduate, data were collected on all participants (n = 178) who either graduated or were terminated from drug court from 2015 to 2018. the outcome variable was graduation. there were eight predictor variables. 1 the predictor variables were gender, ethnicity, education at time of admission into drug court, employment or student at time of admission into drug court, drug of choice, violation within first 30 days of drug court, mental health, and time between arrest and admission. criminal recidivism to determine which drug court participants were most likely to recidivate, data were collected on all participants (n = 178) who either graduated or were terminated from drug court from 2015 to 2018. there were nine predictor variables and one outcome variable. 2 the outcome variable was re1 a predictor variable explains changes in the outcome variable. the outcome variable was graduation (0 = terminated, 1 = graduated). the predictor variables were as follows: gender (0 =female, 1 = male), ethnicity (0 = non-white, 1 = white), education (0 = did not have a high school diploma or equivalent at time of admission into drug court, 1 = had a high school diploma or equivalent at time of admission into drug court), employment or student (0 = not employed or a student at time of admission into drug court, 1 = employed or a student at time of admission into drug court), drug of choice (0 = heroin and other opioids, 1 = non-opioids), first 30 days (0 = had a violation within the first 30 days of drug court, 1 = did not have a violation within the first 30 days of drug court), mental health (0 = depressive disorder, 1 = no depressive disorder), and time between arrest and admission (0 = was admitted/plead into drug court 91 days or more following arrest, 1 = was admitted/plead into drug court 90 days or less following arrest). 2 the outcome variable was (0 = did not recidivate, 1 = recidivated). the predictor variables were as follows: gender (0 = female, 1 = male), ethnicity (0 = non-white, 1 = white), education (0 = did not have a high school diploma or equivalent at time of admission into drug court, 1 = had a high school diploma or equivalent at time of admission into drug court), employment or student (0 = not employed or a student at time of admission into drug court, 1 = employed or a student at time of admission into drug court), drug of choice (0 = heroin and other opioids, 1 = non-opioids), first 30 days (0 = had a violation within the first 30 days of drug court, 1 = did not have a violation within the first 30 days of drug court), mental health (0 = depressive disorder, 1 = no depressive disorder), time between arrest and admission (0 = was admitted/plead into drug court 91 days or more following arrest, 1 = was admitted/plead into drug court 90 days or less following arrest), and outcome (0 = terminated, 1 = graduated). c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 26 cidivism. the predictor variables were as follows: gender, ethnicity, education at time of admission into drug court, employment or student at time of admission into drug court, drug of choice, violation within first 30 days of drug court, mental health, time between arrest and admission, and graduation. additionally, to compare the recidivism rates between drug court participants and probationers, data were collected on probationers (n = 186) who had an outcome revoked or completed from 2015 to 2018. probationers were matched to the drug court sample by arrest/offense type, meaning they had an arrest/offense that was eligible for drug court but they did probation instead. probationers and drug court participants were also matched by their indiana risk assessment system (iras) scores; both groups had a start score of 21. the iras score indicates an individual’s risk of recidivating. the score also assists criminal justice professionals in developing individualized treatment plans and interventions to increase individuals’ protective factors (e.g. gaining and sustaining employment, abstaining from illicit drug use, having stable housing). recidivism data were collected through odyssey, an electronic system for filing criminal cases in st. joseph county (indiana). recidivism was defined as any new local (st. joseph county, indiana) arrest for a felony or misdemeanor offense that resulted in charges being filed during drug court/probation and up to 36 months post drug court/probation discharge. the definition of recidivism was provided by the drug court and approved by the indiana office of court services, problem-solving courts committee, a division of the state government that certifies indiana problem-solving courts. the recidivism data were collected in 2019. findings the findings are presented in reference to the three research questions. starting in 2013, the drug court for this study completed a program evaluation once every three years; therefore, the current findings are compared and contrasted with the 2013 and 2016 program evaluations (gallagher, 2013; gallagher, ivory, carlton, & woodward miller, 2014; gallagher, wahler, & lefebvre, 2016; gallagher et al., 2018). which drug court participants are most likely to graduate? statistics were used to determine if significant differences existed in graduation outcomes. the analyses revealed that four predictor variables were significantly associated with graduating drug court. first, participants who had a high school diploma or equivalent at the time they were admitted to drug court were more likely to graduate (60%) than participants who did not have a high school diploma or equivalent at admission (42%)3. second, participants who did not have a violation within the first 30 days of drug court were more likely to graduate (73%) than participants who had a violation during this timeframe (22%)4. the violations included in the analysis were dilute drug screens, positive drug screens indicating new drug use, missed treatment or court appointments, and new arrest. third, non-white participants were more likely to graduate (62%) than white participants (47%)5. fourth, participants who were admitted/plead to drug court 91 days or more following their arrest were more likely to graduate (61%) than participants who were admitted/plead to drug court 90 days or less following their arrest (46%)6. 3 (x² = 5.12, p < 0.05) 4 (x² = 46.09, p < 0.01) 5 (x² = 2.76 p < 0.10) 6 (x² = 2.93, p < 0.10) g a l l a g h e r | d r u g c o u r t 27 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 other notable findings were that women and men graduated drug court at relatively equal rates and there was a 10% difference in graduation rates between participants who identified heroin or other opioids as their drug of choice versus those who identified non-opioids as their drug of choice. specifically, 55% of the women and 47% of the men graduated drug court7. in regard to drug of choice, 45% of the participants who identified heroin or other opioids as their drug of choice graduated, compared to a 55% graduation rate for participants who identified nonopioids as their drug of choice8. as noted in figure 1, in the 2016 program evaluation, only 30% of participants who identified heroin or other opioids as their drug of choice graduated drug court; therefore, the current graduation rate of 45% for this population is a promising finding. also, 91 drug court participants (51%) identified heroin or other opioid as their drug of choice and 87 participants (49%) identified non-opioids as their drug of choice. for participants who identified heroin or other opioids as their drug of choice (n = 91), about 50% (n = 45) received a medication-assisted treatment (mat) while in drug court. of those who received a mat, 38 were prescribed naltrexone (e.g. vivitrol) and seven were prescribed buprenorphine (e.g. suboxone). when comparing those who received a mat (n = 45) versus those who did not (n = 46), the graduation rates were relatively the same. specifically, 46% of those who did not receive a mat graduated drug court, compared to a 44% graduation rate for those who received a mat9. next, figure 2 compares drug court graduation rates from the 2013 and 2016 program evaluations to this 2019 study. as noted in the figure, from 2013 to 2016, the graduation rate increased by eight percent. however, from 2016 to 2019, there was a 13% decrease in graduation rate. the decrease in graduation rate does not require figure 1 graduation rates based on drug of choice comparing the 2016 and 2019 program evaluations opioids 2016 graduated terminated opioids 2019 nonopioids 2016 80% 60% 40% 20% 30% 30% 45% 45% 55% 55% 70% 70% 0% nonopioids 2019 figure 2 drug court graduation rates comparing the 2013, 2016, and 2019 program evaluations graduation rate 2013 graduation rate 2016 graduation rate 2019 graduated terminated 70% 50% 60% 40% 30% 20% 10% 55% 63% 50% 50% 45% 37% 0% 7 (x² = 0.88, p = 0.35) 8 (x² = 1.82, p = 0.18) 9 (x² = 0.01, p = 0.91) c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 28 urgent attention, but the rate should be monitored on a yearly basis to assess the trend over time. nationally, the majority of drug courts have a graduation rate between 50% and 75%, so the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court is in that range (marlowe, hardin, & fox, 2016). also, it is important to note that a lower graduation rate does not mean a particular drug court is less effective. some drug courts, for instance, with lower graduation rates may accept participants with high criminogenic risk factors (e.g. criminal histories, severe substance use disorders, unemployment, etc.) and it is expected that these programs will have a lower graduation rate than drug courts that only accept low risk participants. furthermore, the opioid epidemic has had devastating consequences on individuals, families, and communities and social service and healthcare systems have often responded to the epidemic retroactively, at no fault to them, the systems simply could not predict the magnitude of the problem. presumably, drug courts may have also shown a similar pattern where many programs were unprepared for the opioid epidemic and logically this would have a negative impact on graduate rates. which drug court participants are most likely to recidivate? statistics were used to determine if significant differences existed in recidivism outcomes. the analyses revealed that two variables were significantly associated with recidivism. first, and not surprisingly, participants who were terminated from drug court were more likely to recidivate (52%) than graduates (21%)10. second, non-white participants were more likely to recidivate (49%) than white participants (33%)11. this finding is surprising, considering non-white participants were more likely to graduate than white participants (62% and 47%, respectively) and graduating drug court seems to decrease the risk of recidivism. perhaps non-white participants experience more post-drug court risk factors (e.g. peers who use drugs, limited recovery support system, poverty, etc.) than white participants that negatively impact their ability to sustain their recovery, but only future research will help determine whether this is true or not. in the 2016 program evaluation, 53% of non-white participants recidivated; therefore, there has been a four percent decrease in the recidivism rate for this population. other notable findings were that women and men recidivated at similar rates and the recidivism rate among the drug of choice variable was relatively equal. specifically, 31% of the women and 40% of the men recidivated12. in regard to drug of choice, 34% of the participants who identified heroin or other opioids as their drug of choice recidivated, compared to a 39% recidivism rate for participants who identified non-opioids as their drug of choice13. as mentioned previously, for the participants who identified heroin or other opioid as their drug of choice (n = 91), about 50% (n = 45) received a medication-assisted treatment (mat) while in drug court. when comparing those who received a mat (n = 45) versus those who did not (n = 46), the recidivism rates were relatively the same. specifically, 33% of those who did not receive a mat recidivated, compared to a 36% recidivism rate for those who received a mat 14. additionally, for the entire drug court sample, their indiana risk assessment system (iras) scores decreased from 21 at the start of the program to 17 by the end of the program. 10 (x² = 17.67, p < 0.01) 11 (x² = 2.97, p < 0.10) 12 (x² = 1.20, p = 0.27) 13 (x² = 0.48, p = 0.49) 14 (x² = 0.09, p = 0.77) g a l l a g h e r | d r u g c o u r t 29 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 is drug court or probation more effective at reducing criminal recidivism? the recidivism rate of drug court participants was compared to that of probationers. as noted in figure 3, drug court participants were less likely to recidivate than probationers (36% and 44%, respectively). this eight percent difference in recidivism rates highlights the effectiveness of the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court. participants of drug court recidivate less than probationers, and this equates to many benefits to the county, such as cost savings by having to prosecute less criminal cases, presumably less drug use and drug-related crime in the county, and the many benefits that come from recovery (e.g. improved quality of life, higher employment rates, healthier lifestyles, to name a few). it is also important to highlight that, although the graduation rate for the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court decreased from 2016 to 2019 (please see figure 1), the recidivism rates from 2016 to 2019 stayed relatively the same (34% and 36%, respectively), suggesting that even those who were terminated from drug court benefited from the program, in regard to reducing the risk of recidivating. additionally, when comparing the 2013 findings for drug court to the current findings, there has been an 11% decrease in recidivism in the past six years. specifically, in 2013, the recidivism rate was 47% and in 2019, the recidivism rate is 36%. discussion findings from this cer suggest that the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court is an effective program at reducing criminal recidivism and a valuable resource for individuals who have substance use disorders, the community, and other stakeholders. drug court participants were less likely to recidivate than probationers, and this finding is consistent with meta-analytic reviews of drug courts' impact on recidivism (mitchell et al., 2012; shaffer, 2011) and results from evaluations of single drug courts (brown, 2011). in this study specifically, only 36% of drug court participants recidivated, whereas the recidivism rate for probationers was 44%. this eight percent difference in recidivism rates highlights the effectiveness of the drug court, and a lower recidivism rate equates to many benefits to st. figure 3 drug court and probation recidivism rates comparing the 2013, 2016, and 2019 program evaluations drug court 2013 drug court 2016 drug court 2019 did not recidivate recidivated probation 2013 probation 2016 probation 2019 80% 60% 40% 20% 53% 69% 66% 64% 56% 44% 34% 36% 44% 56% 47% 31% 0% c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 30 joseph county (indiana), such as cost savings by having to prosecute less criminal cases, presumably less drug use and drug-related crime in the county, and the many benefits that come from recovery (e.g. improved quality of life, higher employment rates, healthier lifestyles, to name a few). recovery coaches, future cer, and the first 30 days in drug court participants who have a violation within the first 30 days of drug court are consistently less likely to graduate than their counterparts who do not have a violation during this timeframe. this finding is true for the 2013 and 2016 program evaluations (gallagher, 2013, gallagher et al., 2016) and for this 2019 study, suggesting that the first month of the program is a critical time in determining whether a participant will complete the program or not. the drug court currently has recovery coaches, an intervention they did not have during the 2013 and 2016 program evaluations. as a result, it is recommended that high-risk participants (based on iras scores and other assessment tools) be provided with a recovery coach immediately upon admission to the program. recovery coaches can connect high-risk participants to the community by assisting them in accessing recovery support groups, providing transportation to and from treatment, helping them apply for, gain, and sustain employment, and encourage other protective factors that may decrease the risk of having a violation within the first 30 days of the program. additionally, future research is needed in this area to assess the specific challenges that some participants face in the first month of the program. it is recommended that for the 2022 program evaluation, qualitative research methods be used, such as focus groups or individual interviews, to learn participants’ thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to the first month of drug court. drug court participants are key stakeholders in cer and they may provide a behind-the-scenes perspective on the program that cannot be captured quantitatively. mat and community-based recovery support groups in light of a national opioid epidemic, it is promising that 45% of the participants who identified heroin or other opioids as their drug of choice graduated. in comparison, in the 2016 program evaluation, only 30% of participants who identified heroin or other opioids as their drug of choice graduated (gallagher et al., 2018). furthermore, of the drug court participants who identified heroin or other opioid as their drug of choice, about half received a mat while in the program, most commonly naltrexone (e.g. vivitrol) followed by buprenorphine (e.g. suboxone). despite evidence that mat is an effective approach in treating opioid use disorders (national institute on drug abuse, 2016), research has suggested that some drug courts may underutilize or not allow participants to take mat, sometimes because stakeholders had negative views toward mat and did not consider mat to be consistent with their abstinence-based philosophy of treatment (friedmann et al., 2012; matusow et al., 2013). the findings from this study, however, highlight that the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court is prepared to best treat opioid use disorders, and one of the strategies they have used is collaborating with community partners. for instance, the drug court team received training on mat in order to accurately and effectively incorporate the intervention into their programming, they invited an addictionologist and medical social worker who specializes in mat to join the drug court team, they had researchers facilitate focus groups with participants who have opioid use disorders to learn their experiences in the program (gallagher, marlowe, & minasian, 2019a), and they referred participants to treatment providers who have expertise in treating heroin and other opioids. it is common for drug courts to encourage, or require, their participants to attend community-based recovery support groups, such as alcoholg a l l a g h e r | d r u g c o u r t 31 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 ics anonymous (aa) and narcotics anonymous (na). this community support can be helpful to some, but recent qualitative research has suggested that some na meetings may not be welcoming to individuals who receive mat, and even worse, some participants reported being stigmatized and judged for using mat (gallagher et al., 2019a). actually, a recent report from narcotics anonymous world services, inc. (2016) acknowledged that some na meetings may be less welcoming to individuals receiving mat and individuals receiving mat may not be allowed to fully engage in the na process. therefore, drug courts must be selective in deciding which community-based recovery support groups they refer their participants to. if groups that are welcoming of mat are not available in the local community, then drug courts should collaborate with community partners to develop their own recovery support groups to create a non-judgmental, compassionate, and stigma-free environment that promotes well-being and recovery. increasing the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in drug court since 2013, the drug court has experienced a significant decrease of racial and ethnic minority (non-white) participants in the program. based on the demographics of st. joseph county (indiana), the primary populations that seem to not be equally represented in the drug court are african americans, followed by hispanics. in 2013, 49% of the participants were non-white. however, this number decreased to 35% in the 2016 program evaluation and 21% in this 2019 study. it is recommended that the drug court increase the number of non-white participants in the program. doing so may improve outcomes for african americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. for instance, in 2013, when nearly half of the drug court was non-white participants, there were no racial disparities in outcomes, meaning white and non-white participants had similar graduation and recidivism rates. however, in 2016 and in this study, non-white participants did not seem to be equally represented in drug court and they were more likely to recidivate than white participants. it is important to note that understanding why racial disparities exist in some drug courts is a complex phenomenon that requires a comprehensive solution. at this point, the recommendation is to increase the number of non-white participants in drug court. to do that, there are two suggestions. first, drug court stakeholders should market the program to defense attorneys, particularly the attorneys who commonly represent non-white participants. this marketing may increase the number of referrals the drug court receives from non-white participants. second, the drug court should review their eligibility criteria to determine whether any criterion may inadvertently exclude non-white participants. according to gallagher (2019b), criteria that seem to commonly exclude some non-white participants are having prior felony convictions, suspected gang involvement, ability to pay program fees (e.g. treatment, drug tests), perceived level of motivation for change, or perhaps denying someone drug court because they had previously participated in the program. disseminating drug court knowledge to the community an essential component of cer is to disseminate the knowledge gained from studies to the community. from an academic standpoint, the norm in disseminating research findings is to publish articles in peer-reviewed journals and do presentations at national conference. these methods, however, are not practical in educating communities. the knowledge gained from the cer of the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court was successfully shared with the community in three ways. first, the researcher for the drug court facilitated multiple professional trainings and free public presentations to educate a range of people the role of drug court in their community. additionally, a local c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 32 university organized a community forum on the opioid epidemic and four drug court stakeholders were invited to be part of the panel presentation, including the drug court judge, researcher, social worker, and prosecutor. this was an opportunity to highlight how drug courts can be an effective approach in addressing the opioid epidemic. second, graduate students who were specializing in addiction and mental health treatment completed internships at drug court to assist with the cer and to provide them with an opportunity to observe drug court programming. also, some undergraduate and graduate social work students completed service-learning projects in drug court, such as having students observe a traditional court hearing and drug court session and compare and contrast the experiences (gallagher, 2015). these types of education (e.g. internships, service-learning) are important because students will graduate and practice in our communities, and they will now be able to share their knowledge on drug courts with others. third, the local news has supported drug court. abc 57 news in south bend, in aired a story on how st. joseph county (indiana) has been a model in addressing the opioid epidemic, and one intervention discussed in the story was how the drug court was successfully using mat to help those who have opioid use disorders (abc 57 news, 2019). additionally, wsbt news in mishawka, in aired a similar story where the drug court judge and researcher discussed how the drug court used science and evidence-based interventions, such as mat, to support participants in their process of healing and recovery (wsbt news, 2019). recently, the researcher for the drug court was interviewed by the insocialwork podcast series where he completed a two-part podcast. in the first podcast, he discussed key components of the drug court model and highlighted research demonstrating their effectiveness (gallagher, 2019c). in the second podcast, he shared his research findings related to the factors that may contribute to racial disparities in drug court graduation rates and articulated best practices in working with african american drug court participants (gallagher, 2020). local news stories and podcasts are, perhaps, the most efficient and effective method in disseminating knowledge to comminuties in an easily accessible and clear manner, without professional jargon. plus, the information can be accessed on television, websites, and social media, which surely increases the number of community members who are learning about drug court. limitations and suggestions for future research this cer has several limitations, and it is recommended that future research address these limitations to continue adding to the knowledge base on the role of drug courts in communities. in this study, recidivism was only measured in st. joseph county (indiana). therefore, if an individual recidivated in another county or state, that information was not captured. when available, recidivism data should be tracked statewide or even nationally, if possible. next, the probation group was matched to the drug court group by two criteria, arrest/offense type and iras score. probationers had an arrest/offense that was eligible for drug court but they did probation instead and both groups had a starting iras score of 21. these two criteria are important in matching the two groups, especially iras scores because criminogenic risk factors are consistently predictors of criminal justice outcomes (e.g. recidivism). future research should enhance the matching process by also matching key demographics, such as gender, ethnicity, age, and criminal history (brown, 2011). last, to further promote community engagement, future research should use qualitative methods to explore community members’ thoughts and opinions on the role of drug court in their community. focus groups, for example, would be an effective method to assess community perception and understanding of drug court, and those findings could be compared and contrasted with drug court participants’ experiences in the program and stakeholders’ views on drug courts impact on the community. g a l l a g h e r | d r u g c o u r t 33 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 references abc 57 news. (2019, february). new article outlines st. joseph county as model for fighting opioid epidemic [news broadcast]. in local news. south bend, in: abc 57 news. available to view at:https://abc57.com/ news/new-article-outlines-st-joseph-county-as-model-for-fighting-opioid-epidemic aos, s., miller, m., & drake, e. (2006). evidence-based public policy options to reduce future prison construction, criminal justice costs, and crime rates. federal sentencing reporter, 19, 275-290. brown, r. t. (2010). systematic review of the impact of adult drug-treatment courts. translational research, 155, 263–274. brown, r. (2011). drug court effectiveness: a matched cohort study in the dane county drug treatment court. journal of offender rehabilitation, 50, 191-201. friedmann, p. d., hoskinson, r., jr., gordon, m., schwartz, r., kinlock, t., knight, k., . . . frisman, l. k. (2012). medication-assisted treatment in criminal justice agencies affiliated with the criminal justice-drug abuse treatment studies (cj-dats): availability, barriers, and intentions. substance abuse, 33, 9–18. gallagher, j. r. (2013). program evaluation of the st. joseph county (south bend), indiana drug court. south bend, in: indiana university south bend, school of social work. gallagher, j. r., ivory, e., carlton, j., & woodward miller, j. (2014). the impact of an indiana (united states) drug court on criminal recidivism. advances in social work, 15, 507-521. gallagher, j. r. (2015). promoting drug court education in schools of social work: ideas in action. social work education: the international journal, 34, 428-436. gallagher, j. r., wahler, e. a., & lefebvre, e. r. (2016). program evaluation of the st. joseph county (indiana) drug court. south bend, in: indiana university south bend, school of social work. gallagher, j. r., wahler, e. a., lefebvre, e., paiano, t., carlton, j., & woodward miller, j. (2018). improving graduation rates in drug court through employment and schooling opportunities and medication-assisted treatment (mat). journal of social service research, 44, 343-349. gallagher, j. r., marlowe, d. b., & minasian, r. m. (2019a). participant perspectives on medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders in drug court. journal for advancing justice, 2, 39-54. gallagher, j. r. (2019b). issue brief: racial and ethnic disparities (red) in treatment courts. washington, dc: american university, justice programs office, school of public affairs. gallagher, j. r. (2019c, december). episode 276 – dr. john gallagher: it’s all about relationships: drug courts – what are they and how do they work? (part 1 of 2) [audio podcast]. in insocialwork podcast series. buffalo, ny: university at buffalo school of social work. available to view at: https:// www.insocialwork.org/episode. asp?ep=276 gallagher, j. r. (2020, january). episode 278 – dr. john gallagher: it’s all about relationships: drug courts – what are they and how do they work? (part 2 of 2) [audio podcast]. in insocialwork podcast series. buffalo, ny: university at buffalo school of social work. available to view at: https:// www.insocialwork.org/episode. asp?ep=278 goldkamp, j. s. (1994). miami's treatment drug court for felony defendants: some implications of assessment findings. the prison journal, 74, 110-166. lowenkamp, c. t., holsinger, a. m., & latessa, e. j. (2005). are drug courts effective? a meta-analytic review. journal of community corrections, 15, 5–28. marlowe, d. b., hardin, c. d., & fox, c. l. (2016, june). painting the current picture: anational report on drug courts and other problem-solving courts in the united states. alexandria, va: national drug court institute. matusow, h., dickman, s. l., rich, j. d., fong, c., dumont, d. m., hardin, c., . . . rosenblum, a. (2013). medication assisted treatment in us drug courts: results from a nationwide survey of availability, barriers and attitudes. journal of substance abuse treatment, 44, 473–480. miethe, t. d., lu, h., & reese, e. (2000). reintegrative shaming and recidivism risks in drug court: explanations for some unexpected findings. crime & delinquency, 46, 522-541. mitchell, o., wilson, d. b., eggers, a., & mackenzie, d. l. (2012). assessing the effectiveness of drug courts on recidivism: a meta-analytic review of traditional and non-traditional drug courts. journal of criminal justice, 40, 60-71. narcotics anonymous world services, inc. (2016). narcotics anonymous and persons receiving medication-assisted treatment. chatsworth, ca: author. national association of drug court professionals. (2019). justice for all. retrieved from https:// www.nadcp.org national institute on drug abuse. (2016). effective treatments for opioid addiction. rockville, md: author. nolan, j. l. (2001). reinventing justice: the american drug court movement. princeton, nj: princeton university press. schneider, r. d., bloom, h., & hereema, m. (2007). mental health courts: decriminalizing the mentally ill. toronto, canada: irwin law. shaffer, d. k. (2011). looking inside the black box of drug courts: a meta-analytic review. justice quarterly, 28, 493-521. slinger, e., & roesch, r. (2010). problem-solving courts in canada: a review and a call for empirically-based evaluation methods. international journal of law and psychiatry, 33, 258-264. u.s. government accountability office. (2005). adult drug courts: evidence indicates recidivism reductions and mixed results for other outcomes (no. gao-05219). washington, dc: author. wexler, d. b., & winick, b. j. (1996). law in a therapeutic key: developments in therapeutic jurisprudence. durham, nc: carolina academic press. wilson, d. b., mitchell, o., & mackenzie, d. l. (2006). a systematic review of drug court effects on recidivism. journal of experimental criminology, 2, 459-487. wsbt news. (2019, february). work in st. joseph county to fight opioid epidemic getting international coverage [news broadcast]. in local news. mishawaka, in: wsbt news. available to view at: https://wsbt.com/news/ local/work-in-st-joseph-county-to-fight-opioid-epidemic-getting-international-coverage c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 34 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases community engagement to improve the management of non-communicable diseases experiences from medical service trips in southeastern nigeria ukamaka m. oruche, jenny liu, tamara otey, augustina hone, ifeanyi okwuchukwu, yvonne commodore-mensah abstract in rural communities in low-and middle-income countries like nigeria, healthcare is a patchwork of services. only a small portion of the healthcare provision in nigeria comes from a unified health system. therefore, remote and rural communities receive minimal preventive health services. medical missions can play a critical role in closing gaps in care and improving healthcare access for vulnerable populations. however, long-term sustainability is difficult to achieve without deliberate community engagement from planning to evaluation. in this manuscript, the authors describe a collaborative, community-engaged global health service project in rural southeastern nigeria that included medical missions and provided continuous care of noncommunicable diseases postmission for sustained impact. the authors conclude with insights gained regarding the challenges of engaging communities at a distance through translational collaboration as well as implications for conducting such work. keywords: lowand middle-income countries, non-communicable diseases (ncds), medical mission, sub-saharan africa, nigeria, community engagement authors ukamaka m. oruche indiana university school of nursing jenny liu institute for health & aging, department of social & behavioral sciences university of california tamara otey goldfarb school of nursing at barnesjewish college augustina hone indiana university school of nursing ifeanyi okwuchukwu providence care community health initiative, nigeria yvonne commodoremensah john h opkins school of nursing picture 1. volunteer nurses registering patients at check-in station. engage! 87 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases background nigeria is a low-and middle-income country (lmic) in west africa, which has a healthcare workforce concentrated in urban tertiary health care centers, contributing to inequity of healthcare services in rural areas and poor management of non-communicable diseases (ncds) (world health organization [who], 2020). in rural communities in lmics like nigeria, healthcare is a patchwork of healthcare services. only a small portion of the healthcare provision in nigeria comes from a unified health system. therefore, remote and rural communities receive zero to minimal preventive health services (innocent, uche, & uche, 2014). lmics have limited health resources, which contribute to high morbidity and mortality from ncds, such as diabetes and hypertension (roth et al., 2018). both diabetes and hypertension are expected to increase over the next few decades, especially in sub-saharan african (ssa) countries like nigeria (adeloye, 2014; adeloye & basquill, 2014; cho et al., 2018). if left untreated, diabetes and hypertension can cause cardiovascular disease, stroke, and eye diseases (feigin et al., 2016). however, preventive care and primary care for ncds are limited in lmics, resulting in many undiagnosed cases. other cases are diagnosed late, often through free public health outreach programs or “medical missions” (sykes, 2014), resulting in suboptimal treatment and poor management (burnier & egan, 2019; danaei et al., 2011). misconceptions about the treatment of ncds, such as believing that diabetes and hypertension are healed after completing a month of medication, also contribute to the high burden of these conditions (amira & okubadejo, 2007; osamor & owumi, 2011). in many lmics, gaps in health services are partially filled by medical missions or short-term medical service trips (msts) by nongovernmental organizations. medical missions are defined as travel by trained health professionals, to foreign countries, with a specific medical purpose for a designated period, ranging from one week to years, depending on the organization (malay, 2017). similarly, short-term msts address the unmet health care needs of lmics (sykes, 2014). increasingly, travel teams also include non-medical or allied health professionals. although they prioritize medically underserved populations, medical missions often operate in silos, stay for short periods, lack longterm funding, and ultimately are difficult to sustain (adepoju, 2019). medical missions are not widely studied, nor are reports of medical missions widely disseminated (sykes, 2014). the reports that are published in professional journals often only report the frequency of procedures or the number of patient visits. rarely do reports demonstrate a thorough understanding of the social, cultural, and medical characteristics of the patient population served. thus, little is known about optimizing and sustaining this service delivery channel in harmony with public health goals and the broader healthcare ecosystem. the lack of research on medical missions has led to lost opportunities to identify lessons learned and best practices (sykes, 2014). global health service projects should improve the health and well-being of the most marginalized populations from lmics (center for disease control, [cdc], 2015; pratt, 2020), which can be accomplished by engaging the community through research and global health service projects. indeed, community-engaged experts have recommended guiding principles for forming effective community-engaged global health service projects in disadvantaged communities (cdc, 1997; 2015). items included the host community global health service projects should improve the health and well-being of the most marginalized populations from lmics (center for disease control, [cdc], 2015; pratt, 2020), which can be accomplished by engaging the community through research and global health service projects. engage! 88 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases defining and directing the program, planning for sustainability programs, regularly evaluating programs for impact, and mutually learning from and respecting local professionals. in nigeria, the community includes local government leaders, policy-makers, tribal hierarchy, community organizations, community members, and their families. anambra is a state in southeastern nigeria and the eighth-most populated state in the federal republic of nigeria. over 60% of its people live in urban areas, making it one of nigeria’s most urbanized communities. although anambra state has the lowest poverty rate in nigeria (anambra state government light of the nation, n.d.), its rural communities need sustainable global health service projects. to effectively engage the community, attention must be given to existing dynamics of power, diversity, and stakeholders (pratt, 2020). a voice must be given to those who feel powerless, such as individuals who are female, poor, under educated, and disabled (pratt, 2020). this manuscript describes a collaborative, community-engaged, global health service project in rural southeastern nigeria. compared to traditional medical missions as defined above, the global health service project described here included not only medical missions but also continuous care of ncds post-mission. the centers for disease control (cdc) recognized the critical importance of involving the community and collaborating with its members to improve health. in its seminal publication, “principles of community engagement,” the cdc defined community engagement as the “the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well-being of those people” (cdc, 1997, p. 9). consistent with this definition, community engagement processes (described herein) were facilitated through the collaboration of two leaders (a medical director and a nurse), connected by their shared affiliation to the community and shared mission to improve the health of the community using their assets, clinical experiences, and social connections. the two leaders sought input from respected residents and patients in the community and recruited local health care professionals to provide culturally relevant and acceptable services. applying community engagement principles and processes was critical to the conceptualization and implementation of an effective and sustained project that improved the health of the community. the purpose of this global health service project was to increase access to care for ncds and improve patients’ self-management of conditions, including diabetes and hypertension. using 15 years (2004-2018) of field notes and programmatic data, we describe the processes and mechanisms utilized with respect to (1) working within the social and cultural context to treat ncds and (2) engaging the community to improve healthcare; additionally, we (3) share lessons learned related to the importance of community engagement for long-term program sustainability. origin and evolution of the global health service project a nigerian expatriate u.s.-based registered nurse (u.o.) was driven by a personal passion to give back. the journey began in december of 2003 when the nurse traveled to amichi in nigeria with her nuclear family to visit extended family and celebrate christmas. while there, the nurse had planned to visit and tour the only hospital in the the two leaders sought input from respected residents and patients in the community and recruited local health care professionals to provide culturally relevant and acceptable services. applying community engagement principles and processes was critical to the conceptualization and implementation of an effective and sustained project that improved the health of the community. engage! 89 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases town to understand how medical and nursing care were structured and delivered to patients compared to the u.s. however, when she visited the hospital, the medical director, a physician, was not available, and therefore she did not tour the hospital. rather, she left a duffle bag filled with band-aids, vitamins, and over-the-counter medical supplies. she had no other plans to return to the hospital before traveling back to the u.s. however, her 14-year-old son got sick with symptoms indicative of possible malaria, which she did not know how to treat. therefore, she and her husband returned to the hospital with their son for treatment. incidentally, the medical director was present and treated her 14-year-old son. the nurse reflected that she could not forget the exam room where her son was treated. the hospital environment was very clean, and the staff was warm and kind. however, they were working with very limited resources, as depicted in picture 2 of the injection room. she made a promise to herself that she would renovate it (picture 3). the nurse requested and received an appointment to tour the hospital on january 1, 2004. the medical director (o. o.) was driven by a passion for improving the health of the local community. he had been in this position for one year, having been recruited by the hospital administrators to elevate the quality of service to residents of the community. he had been away from the hospital at a meeting the first time the nurse came and dropped off the duffle bag of medications. he appreciated that the nurse took the time to inquire about their well-being and bring medical supplies and hoped that she would return as promised. he urged the nurse to return for a tour of the hospital. the medical director and nurse decided to collaborate to develop a global health service project. host community defining and directing the program. before starting the global health service project, it was necessary to define the purposes of the engagement effort and the goals of the community. on new year’s day, when people often celebrate with their loved ones, the medical director and nurse embarked on a four-hour tour of the hospital. during this needs assessment tour, the medical director and nurse discussed what the hospital and staff needed to care for patients. the medical director said they needed running water and medications. the nurse was astonished, thinking, “really? what hospital operates without running water?” the medical director explained that the hospital had to bring water into the facility; if they did not, patients’ families would have to bring their own water. the medical director described that they did not have access to authentic, quality medications. when available, picture 2. injection room before renovation picture 3. injection room after renovation engage! 90 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases medications were unaffordable for both patients and the hospital. after learning about these difficulties, the medical director and nurse agreed to work together on a mission to improve access to health care services for the 50,000 residents of amichi and the 23 surrounding towns in anambra state. keys to community engagement: trust and shared leadership. the agreement to work together was supported by two principles fundamental to community engagement: trust and shared leadership. first, the medical director and nurse understood that building trust was important for soliciting buy-in and participation. while health services projects led by “outsiders” may struggle with building a trusting relationship within communities, this global health services project successfully built a trusting relationship because the leaders were community members. the medical director was trusted in the community, given that he had served and lived in the community for three years, and the nurse was trusted, given that she was a native of the town with strong ties to the community and cultural competence (i.e., assetbased engagement). together, these two leaders recruited volunteers and colleagues to help transform the healthcare system. second, shared leadership was important for improving access to affordable and quality health care services that can be achieved with genuine collaboration. the medical director and nurse shared leadership, codirecting the global health service project. they leveraged their respective assets and expertise to accomplish their shared mission on behalf of the community. additionally, the medical director and nurse shared leadership, co-leading the global health service project. for example, to improve the quality of care, the medical director agreed to oversee all patient treatment and leverage existing nursing staff, whose buy-in was supported with small stipends in addition to their regular salaries, to provide patient care on a designated day of the week. to make care affordable, the nurse agreed to request medications from charity organizations in the u.s., such as americares. these donated medications would be dispensed at no cost to patients in anambra, nigeria. the two leaders committed to serving all persons irrespective of demographic, socioeconomic, religious, political, or other affiliations. the partnership was not codified in any written contract; rather, it was achieved through informal commitments and trust. annual medical mission events partnering with the community was necessary to create change and improve health. in 2004, the medical director and other nigerian-based volunteers collaborated with a u.s. volunteer team, including the nurse, her husband, and a u.s.-based physician, and conducted the first medical mission in the community. since then, they have inspired the development of three other medical mission teams. the medical director and nurse worked collaboratively, led different components, and leveraged their respective social connections to improve the health of the community and its members. the nigerian-based medical director coordinated volunteers, arranged community public service announcements, and arranged on-site amenities (e.g., chairs, tables, and refreshments) for volunteer workers. volunteers were recruited via text messages and word-of-mouth. volunteers came from other parts of nigeria (e.g., lagos) as well as the u.s. this local collaboration facilitated trust among community members who saw the local volunteers as trusted partners. the multidisciplinary volunteers of health professionals included nurses, doctors, and allied health professionals. to increase reach, medical missions were announced at key community gathering spaces, such as places of worship, schools, and markets. we recruited the services of the “town crier” who announced the mission to the residents. the u.s.-based nurse oversaw fundraising. she solicited donations from family, friends, and colleagues in person and through letters. she explained that the goal of the global health service engage! 91 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases project was to improve access to good, quality care and that monetary donations would be used only to purchase medications and medical supplies for patients. additionally, she procured supplies for the medical missions from foundations and organizations in the u.s. (e.g., timmy global health in indianapolis, in; americares in stamford, ct). timmy global health provided administrative support by collecting donations and keeping records. once the donations were received, the nurse requested relevant medications (e.g., high blood pressure and diabetes medications) and medical supplies (e.g., blood pressure monitors, glucometers, and test strips). she delivered them to nigeria for medical missions and follow-up care. the size of the annual mission was tailored according to the amount of funding. we relied upon the medical director’s first-hand knowledge of the community’s most common health conditions to determine which medications and medical supplies to purchase. understanding the most prevalent health conditions, the medical director and nurse used their limited resources to treat these conditions and sought partnerships with experts in these areas (e.g., opticians, optometrists, ophthalmologists). given patients’ needs, the volunteers usually included general practitioners (e.g., family medicine or internists) and eye doctors (usually opticians, optometrists, ophthalmologists). these volunteers were found through connections with the medical director in nigeria. the medical director and nurse also collaborated with the university in the area and had their physician staff, residents, medical and nursing students volunteer during the medical missions. non-health professional volunteers also were included to manage wait lines, housekeeping, hospitality, and coordinate meals for volunteers. the medical director and the nurse handled any logistical problems, such as delayed volunteer arrival, medication stock-outs, or emergent medical cases. logistically, to reach as many members of the community as possible, the annual medical mission event typically lasted one to three days for eight hours (about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) each day. therefore, preparing for this annual medical mission event required both the u.s. and nigeria teams to coordinate their resources. preparing for each annual medical mission event began six to 12 months prior. during each day of the medical mission event, patients were served on a firstcome-first-serve basis. however, infants, older adults, disabled, or medically urgent cases were prioritized as they appeared. each patient was assigned a participant number and received blood pressure, blood glucose, weight measurements, necessary treatment (e.g., wound care), medications from the pharmacy, and reading glasses as needed (see pictures 1, 4, 5, and 6). the volunteer nursing staff supervised the pharmacy. these volunteer nursing staff also dispensed medication as ordered by doctors and educated patients on administering the medication, side effects, and signs of complications (see picture 5). they encouraged patients with chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, to return to the follow-up clinic. the host community’s health care professional volunteers fueled and sustained this annual medical mission component of the global health service project. compared to the u.s.-based picture 4. nurse measuring blood pressure for an adult patient. engage! 92 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases health professional volunteers, the host country’s health professional volunteers had a greater understanding of the community’s common health conditions, environmental and behavioral factors contributing to ncds, and the health beliefs and practices affecting care utilization. therefore, they had more culturally relevant communication strategies to increase the likelihood that patients would accept and adhere to treatment recommendations. in contrast, volunteer doctors from the u.s. often struggled with their initial patient encounters. compared to their local counterparts, they spent too much time with patients, wanted laboratory tests and results to confirm diagnoses, and used more resources to achieve the same patient goals. although challenged, u.s.-based physicians often adapted after several patient encounters. for example, by their sixth patient encounter, they learned how to treat patients in this low-resourced community with limited laboratory diagnostics and tests. community engagement was sustained by identifying and mobilizing community assets and strengths and developing the community’s capacity and resources to make decisions and act. the power of the medical director’s connection with the community cannot be overstated. in the absence of these connections, there would not have been the same number and caliber of health professional volunteers from the community. these connections were critical to effective and sustained community engagement. the medical director and nurse provided honoraria to volunteers as a small token of their invaluable contributions to the community. honoraria took different forms, including small amounts of money, certificates, pens, and bags. one year, stethoscopes, donated by a sponsor, were distributed to volunteer nursing staff and nursing students. although the volunteers from the u.s. paid for their flight tickets to and from nigeria, the nurse personally provided them free accommodations and meals. patient population served to determine community health needs and resource allocation, the medical director and nurse gathered demographic and clinical information from patients. each patient was given a registration card at check-in, upon which staff volunteers recorded the patient’s age, gender, weight, blood pressure, blood sugar reading, medical diagnosis, prescribed medication(s), and any follow-up recommendations. data showed many patients presented with malaria, osteoarthritis (especially women), ulcers, and upper respiratory infections. the most prevalent health conditions were diabetes (52%), hypertension (45%), and eye problems (74%) (see figure 1). regarding eye problems, patients sought treatment for presbyopia, glaucoma, ocular allergy, refractory error, pterygium, and blindness. although the eye conditions the team treated were related in part to chronic health conditions such as diabetes, the lack of access to specialized care and prohibitive costs of such care also played a role (international agency for the prevention of blindness 2014; world health organization, 2013). there were factors that affected community engagement efforts, and consequently, the number of patients served during the annual medical mission events. first, extensive coverage of our outreach efforts in the local community was picture 5. nurse providing medication education to mother and child. engage! 93 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases necessary to create awareness and drive patients towards our services. over time, experience showed that there was more demand for services than were offered during the yearly intensive days of the mission. in fact, the more days we offered, the more patients we served. in the early years, the annual medical mission event lasted three days and served about 225 patients per day. over time, as we honed in on community needs, the medical mission event lasted a day and served 250 patients. the medical director and nurse became more confident in their knowledge of the community’s needs, which allowed them to become more effective at identifying and mobilizing local health professional volunteers. the volunteers became more invested in the medical mission events, recruited colleagues, and returned each year as they became familiar with expectations, policies, and procedures and valued the community. in essence, the event ran much more smoothly, and because less time was spent removing roadblocks (e.g., lack of familiarity with procedures), more time was spent on patients. the average number of patients seen per day varied by the number of volunteer doctors and nurses available per day. the medical director and nurse aimed to have five doctors and ten nurses each day. second, it was necessary to tap into local leaders who had clout or were respected in the local community. the number of patients served during a mission day increased when the message was delivered more frequently and to more community venues. the effectiveness of the public announcement to the community also varied according to whether the town announcer or the medical director publicized the event. many throughout the community knew the town announcer. he drove around, announcing the date and location of the mission over a loud microphone. on the other hand, the medical director distributed letters and flyers to key community settings (e.g., churches, market places). compared to the medical director and his methods, the town announcer was more effective in reaching community residents. using culturally appropriate strategies, such as asking the town 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 diab ete s hyp ert ens ion pres by op ia mala ria oste o occu lar aa lle rgy cata rac ts pud refr act ory er ror glau com a urti pter yg ium aths ma blin d n um be r o f pa tie nt s health conditions figure 1 number of patients and health conditions addressed during the medical missions in 2018 engage! 94 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases announcer or “town crier” to pass along information to the community, was important to facilitate community engagement. third, eye care was a major issue that only surfaced through formal and informal data collection. for example, patients would ask every year if we had an eye doctor on site. more patients were served when opticians and/or ophthalmologists volunteers were available and provided eye care services. in fact, the number of patients served doubled if eye care was provided in addition to care for other health conditions. since its inception in 2004, the medical director, nurse, and their team of volunteers have provided 39 service days, during which they served 7,376 unique children and adults (2,459 males and 4,917 females) from 23 surrounding communities. the team also has conducted 50 cataract surgeries for adults, distributed 3,000 reading glasses, and provided routine follow-up care as needed. below are descriptions of three patients who illustrate the impact of the team’s work and inspirations to continue the medical missions. pseudonyms rather than patients’ real names are used. mrs. eunice. mrs. eunice was in her 30s and presented with her four children, ages 2 to 8 years old. she reported that she was stressed and worried about the children because they all had fevers over the past three days, which she attributed to malaria. she said that she was at a loss until an acquaintance told her about our free medical mission, which the acquaintance had heard about from a public announcement at a community event. mrs. eunice shared that she was especially stressed because she also was caring for her husband, who had a stroke a few weeks prior. she was unable to bring him to the clinic because she could not obtain transportation for him. given the children’s young ages, we prioritized their services. each had their blood pressure, blood glucose, and weight measured, and then were evaluated by a doctor and tested for malarial parasites. each child received free antimalarial medications from the pharmacy, where a nurse instructed mrs. eunice about how to administer the medications. we encouraged her to return with her husband to the follow-up clinic. mr. adazi. mr. adazi was in his 60s. he regularly attended the annual medical mission and occasionally sought follow-up care. he was diagnosed with diabetes, for which he took oral hypoglycemic medication for blood glucose control. he regularly received the medications at no cost from our free clinic. he stated that his symptoms had improved. for instance, he shared that he was waking up less frequently to urinate at night. he reported that these improvements motivated him to take his medication regularly. our team also provided education on healthy food choices and blood glucose monitoring so he could better manage his diabetes. mrs. uzo. mrs. uzo was in her early 70s. she has sought care from the medical mission and followup clinic since the inception of the program. mrs. uzo had bilateral knee arthritis, for which our team provided regular steroid injections. over time, we observed gradual worsening of her knees, which led to her needing crutches. our team provided her with medications through our follow-up clinic. although we wanted to perform a knee replacement surgery, it was cost-prohibitive and something the mission could not provide for free. picture 6. volunteer student from u.s. and nurse from host community sorting reading glasses. engage! 95 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases sustainability and continuity of the global health services project global health service projects must plan for the continuous care of ncds after the annual medical mission events. the ability of this global health service project to provide follow-up care is what sets it apart from traditional medical missions. since starting this health service project, the medical director and nurse have inspired three other medical mission teams. however, only the medical director and nurse have instituted continuous care of ncds post-mission. they believed that the provision of follow-up care was not only a professional responsibility but also an ethical imperative. therefore, they offered a weekly clinic for followup visits after the annual medical mission event ended. the weekly follow-up clinic was designed to facilitate continuous care and help patients gain the knowledge and skills necessary for selfmanagement. a member of the community donated a building from which the follow-up clinic operates every wednesday. this donation was a testament to community buy-in and engagement. the donor renovated the building to include exam rooms, pharmacy, and waiting areas. the medical director, led and conducted the clinic with a small crew of three nurse assistants who received a small stipend for their time. every wednesday for half a day, patients were seen for different ailments. visits began with checking vital signs and were followed by medical consults. if needed, medications were dispensed at the pharmacy. since 2007, the weekly follow-up clinic has expanded its services to two days a week, including one day on the weekend to meet the needs of both walk-in and scheduled patients throughout the year. regular evaluation of impact, mutual learning, and respect for local professionals was critical to effective community engagement. like the annual medical mission events, collecting formal and informal data from community members was necessary to address key health issues (e.g., high blood pressure, diabetes, eye diseases) affecting community members’ well-being. for example, within the early years of the project, the medical director and nurse confirmed that the most prevalent health conditions in the community were diabetes, hypertension, and eye diseases. subsequently, they used this data gathered onsite to benefit the community. the human and medical resources were targeted to screen, treat, and educate patients about diabetes, hypertension, and eye diseases. the health conditions for which there was the greatest demand (e.g., eye care) received the most resource allocation. therefore, the nurse and medical director sought partnerships with experts in these areas (e.g., opticians, optometrists, ophthalmologists). additionally, consistent availability of medications in the pharmacy and provision of walk-in clinics were concerns that only surfaced through community stakeholder discussions. the medical director and nurse deliberately sought feedback from patient stakeholders to understand patterns in attendance (e.g., did more patients keep an appointment if it was scheduled or walkin) and adherence to medication regime (e.g., did patients purchase medication prescribed or not when they had to buy from outside pharmacies). all data were de-identified, digitalized, and in a database, and used for annual reports to individual and organizational medical and financial sponsors. since 2014, a donor and volunteer base maintained records on a website at www.providencechi.com. lessons learned from the field lesson 1. thoughtful and deliberate approach to community engagement required to enhance long-term sustainability. consistent with community-engaged inquiry, the medical director and nurse were involved in all engage! 96 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases aspects of the global health service project, which included two components – an annual medical mission and follow-up clinics. their collaboration was vital to the success and sustained operations of both the medical missions and follow-up clinics. while the medical director committed to garnering resources in nigeria, the nurse committed to leveraging her connections in the u.s. to meet the healthcare needs of the community. the medical director contributed assets related to his knowledge of the lay of the land and all of its cultural nuances and, therefore, was instrumental to the development and implementation of the global health service project in the community. he advertised the medical mission and invited volunteers from the community, health professional organizations, and the local university. although the medical director and nurse did not explicitly discuss power dynamics, they made a verbal commitment to work together towards a shared mission. they nurtured this collaboration with mutual respect, inclusion, equal leadership, and acknowledgment of partners in reports and publications. consequently, they extended services to all members of the community without discrimination. the multidisciplinary team of health professional volunteers was essential to providing high-quality care to thousands of patients while keeping labor costs to a minimum. several volunteers have served an average of five years, and this is a testament to the mission’s success in engendering community service. partnerships with committed and reliable individuals and organizations facilitated credibility, community buy-in, execution of annual medical missions, and program sustainability. lesson 2: mutual learning and respect for local professionals. both the medical director and nurse needed each other to actualize and achieve the global health service project. although the donated money, medications, and medical supplies from the u.s. were helpful, neither the medical director nor nurse would have been able to provide or sustain services over the course of 15 years without the host country collaborators (e.g., medical director, volunteer team, and partner university). while the medical director accessed the medications and medical supplies needed to improve the community’s health, the nurse realized her passion to give back to this community – all from a distant continent away – thanks to the trusted partnership and shared affiliation with the community. however, engaging with communities from a distance is not for the faint of heart, as trust is essential. for example, individuals must trust that people will do what they say they will do, relying on each person’s intrinsic motivation and commitment to public health. additionally, transparency is important, especially given that partners may not always agree. for example, the nurse once suggested increasing care access and utilization by providing blood pressure screens at the marketplace. however, regulations prevented public health screenings to ensure equal access to patient populations by local health care providers. if the medical director had not redirected the nurse, and the nurse had proceeded with this care delivery idea, they would have been perceived as taking patients and revenue away from the local professionals. the nurse acknowledged the medical director’s advice and did not pursue this idea to maintain relationships with providers in the community. in sum, the partners needed to be open to adapting care practices and delivery structures to meet the needs of all community stakeholders. furthermore, regular communication fostered trust and accountability among partners and community stakeholders. the although the medical director and nurse did not explicitly discuss power dynamics, they made a verbal commitment to work together towards a shared mission. they nurtured this collaboration with mutual respect, inclusion, equal leadership, and acknowledgment of partners in reports and publications. engage! 97 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases nurse and medical director maintained regular communication via whatsapp, sometimes multiple times a day. communication required a reliable medium or platform, particularly in a lowresourced community where broadband was not readily available. they learned flexibility and patience, which helped them persist and achieve their shared mission of improving the health of the community. lesson 3. capacity building within the host community to enhance sustainability. both the medical director and the nurse believed they had a responsibility to develop the host country’s workforce capacity so that the program could continue when the u.s. team left. they also recognized the importance of developing a pipeline for the next generation of leaders. for example, one year, a u.s.-based physician trained the host country medical director on how to administer steroid injections to women who had osteoarthritis of the knees. both the u.s.-based nurse and nigeria-based medical director have mentored young clinicians. they engaged nursing students, medical students, and residents from the local university in the medical missions. since 2013, the global health service project has maintained a small crew of four paid staff, including the medical director and four nursing staff, to run the follow-up clinic. the art of community service has been infectious. although nigeria is considered a developing country with limited resources and a weak healthcare infrastructure, community-based care (i.e., global health service projects) delivered by expatriate and local health care professional volunteers filled critical gaps in healthcare. in the u.s., underserved populations in urban areas could benefit from similar community-based outreach projects. lesson 4. planning for the continuous care of non-communicable diseases postmission. follow-up care is critical to not only track patient progress but also promote education (e.g., signs and symptoms of hypertension), treatment, and self-management. misconceptions about the treatment of non-communicable diseases were common, and intervention beyond the initial visit was critical. many patients believed that chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, heal after completing a month of medication. given that there would still be ongoing healthcare needs, the team taught patients that diabetes and high blood pressure do not just go away and helped them develop self-management skills through diet and increased physical activity. unlike other medical mission teams in amichi, our team was the only one that provided followup clinical visits. this allowed for effective and sustained behavior changes that improved the health of the community. ideally, medical mission teams would form a coalition and pull their resources to scale staff and service capacity, thereby increasing follow up clinics from a few days to every day of the week. that kind of coalition would optimize and sustain this service delivery channel in harmony with public health goals and the larger healthcare ecosystem. lesson 5. data collection is key to regular evaluation of programs for impact. there is a need for medical mission programs to collect data, use it, and share findings. data collection serves several functions. first, data were needed to identify areas for improvement. second, data were needed to assess and document the impact of medical missions on patient population outcomes. documenting the impact on populations could better position teams to seek the success of the mission was grounded in community-engaged partnerships between the host and u.s. teams with committed individuals and organizations who facilitated credibility, community buy-in, coordination of resources, execution of annual medical missions, provision of follow-up care, and program sustainability. engage! 98 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases sustained funding from organizations such as the bill and melinda gates foundation, rotary international, and other global organizations. lastly, careful tracking of the impact of medical missions on healthcare costs is needed. quantifying the economic benefits of addressing these health conditions may motivate government agencies to lend their support to non-profit organizations working to improve access to and affordability of care for underserved populations. having alignment between the global health service project and local government’s priorities may improve internal and external funding and long-term sustainability. policy and practice implications the team’s field experiences can be of benefit to health policy and practice in local communities. first, community-engaged medical missions and follow-up care engender public service, build goodwill, and break down walls. nurses, physicians, and other health professionals seeking to establish medical missions will need to develop collaborative partnerships with the community, provide follow-up care services, and build workforce capacity in host communities to ensure sustainability. while these collaborations can address the health care needs of the host community, visiting volunteers also can learn from the host community to inform work in rural and underserved communities in the united states. this team collaboration has the potential to drive policies that lead to systemic changes in funding, structure, and delivery of health care. second, the critical importance of data cannot be overstated. medical mission teams need to systematically collect sociodemographic and clinical data to help determine the prevalence of health conditions in communities and inform data-driven decision-making. these local data from various teams conducting medical missions can be de-identified, aggregated, and submitted to local public health agencies, then analyzed to inform need and large-scale implementation across communities. third, given care gaps in eye care, there is a need for the provision of eye care services both during the medical mission and during follow-up clinics. for example, an optometrist and optician could visit once a month to serve patients during the follow-up clinics. patients who need eye care would be scheduled ahead of time. similar models could be adopted and scaled up across communities by local health governments. conclusion we have described our experiences with conducting an ongoing global health services project in rural southeastern nigeria. our local and global collaboration, which consists of u.s.and nigerian-based health care professionals, has spanned 15 years. community engagement and stakeholder involvement have contributed to the sustainability of the medical mission project. the success of the mission was grounded in community-engaged partnerships between the host and u.s. teams with committed individuals and organizations who facilitated credibility, community buy-in, coordination of resources, execution of annual medical missions, provision of follow-up care, and program sustainability. the medical director and nurse successfully shared knowledge and skills among volunteers from the host country and the u.s. the multidisciplinary volunteers included not only professional nurses but also the next generation of health professionals, including nursing and medical students. the medical director and nurse modeled mutual respect and trust, patient-centered care, and commitment to community service. therefore, volunteers returned every year to work and support the health of the community. additional work is required to monitor health outcomes, evaluate the impact of our medical mission, and create a cost-effective and sustainable model to improve the health of this population. thoughtful consideration of the types of data to collect and implement uniformly is critical to tracking trends in population health over time. engage! 99 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research oruche | non-communicable diseases references adeloye, d. 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(2014). short-term medical service trips: a systematic review of the evidence. american journal of public health, 104(7), e38-e48. doi:10.2105/ajph.2014.301983 world health organization (2013). universal eye health: a global action plan 2014-2019. https://www.vision2020australia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/universal-eye-health-aglobal-action-plan-2014-2019.pdf world health organization (2020). nigeria. https://www.who.int/workforcealliance/countries/nga/en/ engage! 101 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth enacting truth and reconciliation through community-university partnerships a grassroots approach anthony james, simran kaur-colbert, hannah stohry, nytasia hicks, valerie robinson abstract this paper presents a grassroots model for engaging truth and reconciliation (t&r) for racial terror lynching in the u.s., using as a case example two lynchings that occurred in oxford, ohio. moreover, processes used to reconcile these events are the result of several community-university partnerships. while many citizens are aware of national or macro level examples of t&r, such processes require state level entities to implement. such requirements leave communities with little options for reconciling past atrocities. the grassroots approach presented in the current paper remedies this by also connecting local communities across the u.s. to engage in a national movement attempting to fully reconcile historical racial terror in absence of a federal mandate. guided by the equal justice initiative’s community remembrance project, the current paper provides local coalitions a clear framework to engage in examining injustices that occurred in their local community during this brutal period of u.s. history. the aim of this paper is to provide communities with a grassroots approach that can be used to promote continued and sustainable t&r for racial terror lynchings that continue to haunt communities in contemporary times. keywords: truth and reconciliation; grassroots approach; communityuniversity partnership authors anthony james simran kaur-colbert hannah stohry nytasia hicks valerie robinson community-engaged scholars-activists at miami university engage! 18 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth introduction …as shadows extend across oxford memorial park, two african american scholars from miami university will place small shovels into soil and place it into one of two clear, glass jars with a black lid. a clear plastic label is affixed to the jars. they were sent from montgomery, alabama, where they will be returned for display in a museum that honors an estimated 4,400 known african americans who were lynched during a reign of terror between the mid-19th – 20th centuries. in white lettering, the labels read: henry corbin, oxford, ohio, january 14, 1892, and simon garnett, oxford, ohio, september 3, 1877. remembrance ceremonies like this have been held across the south and midwest for several years. the resting place for the filled, uniform jars will be the legacy museum, twin institution to the national memorial for peace and justice in montgomery (curnutte, 2019). our paper begins with a description of a soil collecting ceremony modeling a truth and reconciliation process centered on a grassroots approach. moreover, we introduce and apply this model through a community-university partnership that continues to enact truth and reconciliation for two brutal racial terror lynchings that occurred in oxford, ohio, in the late 19th century. specifically, we center writing this paper as an act of “facing with courage” (angelou, 1994, p. 272), the “wrenching pain” (angelou, 1994, p. 272) of the lynchings of henry corbin (1892) and simon garnett (1877), so that the legacy of this historical wrongdoing "need not be lived again" (angelou, 1994, p. 272). important in any conceptual framework guiding practical action process is communicatively establishing shared meaning with receivers (jaccard & jacoby, 2020), or in this case, those that will read about our model. because formal truth and reconciliation has typically occurred via a national or macro-level approach, we share four cases (i.e., germany, south africa, south korea, and canada) that enacted truth and reconciliation for past atrocities that occurred in their history. this sets the stage for making distinctions between the typical macro or national approach and our micro or grassroots model, fueled by community-university partnerships. next, we describe our community-engaged approach in oxford, ohio, as an ongoing process and practice; pedagogy and path; and project and proposition that we hope will engender truth and reconciliation from past injustices to contemporary problems. legacy of risks: global truth and reconciliation movements the movement for truth and reconciliation in the united states (u.s.) is rooted in the tradition of the black north american struggle. a struggle that influenced liberation movements in china, ireland, germany, india, south africa, korea, and the philippines, and throughout latin america and the caribbean (cone, 1999, p. xvii). we note that each truth and reconciliation effort demonstrates a very different cultural approach, motivation, and outcomes. the u.s. system is built to have the policies de-centralized and enacted at the micro or state levels, with local representatives deciding how to enact change, as determined by political processes they deem appropriate (e.g., democratic). the u.s. has also historically maintained moral superiority and enforcing compliance in other countries while neglecting acknowledgment of its own wrongdoings, even within the u.s. this is true despite the efforts of the national coalition of blacks for reparations in america (n'cobra, n.d.), the long-standing works of representative truth and reconciliation is possible in every context and can be inspired by our interconnection with other nations that are doing this work. engage! 19 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth john conyers and colleagues introducing bill h.r. 40 commission to study and develop reparation proposals for african-americans act (congress, n.d.). this bill recognizes the harm done by the slave trade, slave labor, and racial terror lynchings toward people of color, in concert with other nations operating under the guise of a global oppressive hegemonic structure. nonetheless, the work of this group is inspired by intentional macro-level efforts of truth and reconciliation in other countries, who attempted to reconcile aspects of their hegemonic oppressive pasts. many other countries have faced the responsibility and weight of historically significant atrocities, forcing them to address reconciliation via national movements or efforts. each country demonstrates that the nature of such events has not only been unique to each country, but the approaches have also had distinct methods of addressing those atrocities. this paper utilizes the four international cases (canada, south africa, germany, and south korea) to broadly demonstrate the uniqueness of truth and reconciliation commissions, the global interconnections, and the diversity of macro-level approaches to addressing national events of terror. each case is historically contextual and complex and cannot be fully fleshed out in this paper, so they are provided to demonstrate the potential for the u.s.'s ability to enact truth and reconciliation, albeit in other ways. canada case for over 150 years, residential schools operated in canada, and over 150,000 aboriginal children attended these schools, with many never returning to their homeland. the central goals of canada's aboriginal policy were to eliminate aboriginal governments; ignore aboriginal rights; terminate the treaties; and, through a process of assimilation, cause aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in canada. the establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as "cultural genocide" (truth and reconciliation commission of canada [trc], 2015). canada engaged in cultural genocide by destroying the political and social institutions of aboriginal people. in 2009, the trc of canada began a multi-year process to listen to survivors, communities, and others affected by the residential school system. appeals to the south african truth and reconciliation commission (trc) haunts most post-1990s institutional attempts to address historical injustice (grey & james, 2016, p. 303), including that of canada's. comparing canada and south africa, nagy (2012) notes that loose comparisons have hampered the application of important lessons from the south african to the canadian trc—namely, the discovery that narrow approaches to truth collude with superficial views of reconciliation that deny continuities of violence. the trc of canada (2015) discusses their approach to "reconciliation" in the context of indian residential schools as comparable to a situation of family violence (p. 118). it is about coming to terms with events of the past in a manner that overcomes conflict and establishes a respectful and healthy relationship among people going forward. for the trc of canada, "reconciliation" is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples in canada. and the commission states that for that to happen, there has to be awareness of the past, acknowledgment of the harm that has been inflicted, atonement for the causes, and action to change behavior. south africa case in 1948, when several countries were attempting to dismantle the effects of racism, the social system of apartheid (act of discrimination where persons are separated by class, race, economic status) was being implemented in south africa. after a severe economic downturn caused by world war ii and the great depression, the engage! 20 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth south african government saw fit to integrate racial segregation into policy. the implementation of discriminatory practices and race-baiting policies cruelly targeted darker skin complexions, where black people were viewed as less equal than white people. the hierarchical nature of south africa's racial discriminatory social system, where the white minority ruled, had the most severe effect on persons of african descent. the policies prohibited activities such as interracial marriages while creating race-based designated employment and segregated neighborhoods. during apartheid, women of african descent were among the most restricted as race and gender were influential (grey & james, 2016). for example, apartheid excluded black women from paid labor and viewed them as free employment. additionally, black women were isolated from black men and forced to work in houses as well as in the field (grey & james, 2016). in response to the struggle over apartheid in south africa, south africa's truth and reconciliation commission was created. the goal of the commission was to "promote national unity and reconciliation in a spirit of understanding which transcends the conflicts and divisions of the past" (preamble, 1995). the commission largely focused its efforts on amnesty, where persons are forgiven for political offenses by the government, for criminals of apartheid. criminals who came forward and admitted to violating human rights in the struggle for apartheid were granted amnesty. the effect of amnesty led to a traumatic transition through south africa, but also a solution considered morally legitimate by citizens. the south african truth and reconciliation process is often referred to as one of the most successful models of truth and reconciliation (ibhawoh, 2016). today, reconciliation scholars view south africa's truth and reconciliation process as a universal paradigm or model. for example, the model was adopted by the indian residential school of truth and reconciliation commission in canada as well as the vienna declaration of crime and justice (ibhawoh, 2016). the adoption of south africa's trc process supported domestic and international legitimacy of restorative processes. however, under the domestic and international adoption of south africa's trc process, truth regarding the experiences of black women under apartheid remains overlooked (grey & james, 2016). germany case german history is most well-known for world war ii (world conquest efforts and imperialism) and the holocaust (genocide of jews, people of color, people with disabilities, non-aryan peoples, and many innocent victims). the nuremberg trials, formed by the allied powers, indicted nazi officials and the united nations "passed a resolution in 1946 making the crime of genocide punishable under international law" (history.com, 2018). the study commission for working through the history and the consequences of the sed dictatorship in germany was tasked with investigating and documenting "human rights abuses, and to assess the politico-historic, economic, ideological, and society factors of the dictatorship as well as the misuse of environmental resources" (united states institute of peace, 1992). germany established another commission in 1995 "because all of the topics could not be dealt with in one period of legislature" (usip, 1992). the 1992 commission recommended "national holidays, memorials, documentation centers, and mapping of government buildings used by sed institutions…[and] the establishment of a permanent independent foundation for follow-up on the recommendations" while the 1995 commission succeeded in establishing "a permanent foundation...to take symbolic and restorative measures" (usip, 1992), modeling and inspiring other countries to participate in accountability measures to addressing national atrocities. engage! 21 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth south korea case in the case of south korea, a truth and reconciliation commission was established in 2000 (modeled after the south african trc) (kim, 2013) and then expanded by law in 2005 in order to address "japanese colonialism, the partition of the peninsula, and decades-long anticommunist dictatorships" (united states institute of peace, 2012), also addressing civilians killed in the korean war. the commission found a total of 1,733 cases; however, they only issued 1,679 recommendations, including 1,461 cases of massacres, 162 cases opposing korean independence, and 56 human rights violations cases (truth and reconciliation commission, republic of korea, 2005). they provided recommendations including "a policy of memorialization, by organizing events, establishing historical records and monuments, and furthering peace education" (usip, 2012) and recommended the creation of laws for victims to receive reparations. other commissions even influenced the s. korean government to implement recommendations from those efforts, including presidential apologies (for state violence) toward victims and families. on a more specific note, the korean council for justice and remembrance for the issues of military sexual slavery by japan (일본군성노예제 문제해결을 정의기억연대) makes demands of the s. korean government and demands toward the japanese government, a movement to educate and restore justice for the sexually enslaved women, many of whom are no longer living (korean council, 2020). this movement elicits national and international support; on a contemporary note, u.s. politicians even find themselves involved in asking japan for reparations toward the sexual victims of japanese imperialism and colonization of s. korea. s. korea and germany have also collaborated as nations, not only to learn from each other's truth and reconciliation efforts that were mentioned above, but to even address reconciliation for their own geopolitical relations (e.g., korean guest workers in germany) and inner-korean countries' reunification (federal foreign office, 2020). truth and reconciliation is possible in every context and can be inspired by our interconnection with other nations that are doing this work. a grassroots approach to truth and reconciliation the previous international cases show various, but reasonably well defined, models for national action to atone for past atrocities. the elements in each (e.g., acknowledgment of past atrocity, validation of the pain to victims, engagement of community events to symbolize remorse, etc.) are key pieces of the puzzle to reconciling the past acts. thus, it is imperative that grassroots efforts also incorporate into their models such practices for them to be sanctioned as legitimate acts of reconciliation by citizens, especially those who are victimized by the heinous acts. as the greensboro truth and community reconciliation (gtrc) project shows, in absence of a governmentsponsored mandate to reconcile past atrocities, a grassroots approach is ideal for engaging in "research and community outreach by taking private statements, holding public hearings, and conducting documentary research" to reach similar reconciliatory ends (williams, 2009, p. 145). to be sure, the examples listed above would land on the spectrum of fully governmentsponsored, whereas the gtrc model would be entirely on the community-based approach. our model is between the two, as we are starting as fully grassroots but working with government entities to manifest truth and reconciliation. we are not arguing that engaging in this process will be a panacea for racial tensions. rather, we argue that this process puts into place a public standard for what is and is not appropriate, a standard that clearly was not in place during the period of these racial terror lynchings. engage! 22 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth the model advanced in the current paper incorporates these elements, but through grassroots coalition building. moreover, the current model uses a community-university partnership to advance efforts and galvanize resources to help communities address evils of the past. as more communities learn of racial terror lynching in their own past, this model serves as a guide for approaching truth and reconciliation in absence of national action. our model aligns with the work of the equal justice initiative (eji; montgomery, al), which has taken the lead on documenting the many cases of racial terror lynchings that occurred in the u.s. from the end of the civil war to the mid20th century. eji encourages local communities to engage in systematic community remembrance activities that allow for bringing awareness to the cases and allowing communities to reconcile that past (equal justice initiative, 2017; n.d.). we juxtapose our micro-level or grassroots model of truth and reconciliation against international approaches. we conceptualize our praxis for truth and reconciliation as one that joins a legacy of risks taken by those who came before us and those who will come after us toward collective reexistence (walsh & mignolo, 2018). lastly, we offer our interpretations of the social and political implications of organizing for truth and reconciliation. overview of the communityuniversity partnership community-university partnerships can take many forms or structures because both sides encompass many components. the partnership for the local oxford truth & reconciliation project includes a university faculty member representing one academic unit, a staff member from the university's graduate school, and thirteen students representing three academic units (college of arts and sciences, college of creative arts, and college of education, health and society). those community members are a subset of a broader university coalition that includes: faculty members from other academic units, the office of institutional diversity & inclusion, and the office of global initiatives. on the geographically-bound community side, coalition partners included members of the oxford city council, the local unitarian universalist church, the smith library of regional history, the oxford community relations and review commission, the local naacp, the former and current oxford mayor, and residents whose families resided in the area over several generations. finally, this partnership includes the formation of a relationship with a direct descendant chris corbin of one of the lynching victims profiled in this project (i.e., henry corbin). partnerships can have many meanings, and need specificity of the components included in the partnership. the structure of the partnership profiled in this paper included a one-credit hour study away course offered at the university, funding from three academic units to provide expenses for faculty and students to travel to montgomery, al during the spring break, and approval from the city to conduct a soil remembrance ceremony (equal justice initiative, 2017). it also included a preliminary approval from the city to erect a historical marker profiling the lynchings, research help from the smith library of regional history, and participation in ceremonies from local religious leaders. the partnership connected key university and community stakeholders to advance the efforts of the project. in this case, this included obtaining buy-in from multiple university stakeholders. one example of this included securing funding from multiple deans and multiple units on campus, which allowed the course to be offered and for the students and faculty to travel to montgomery, al to connect with eji and visit their museum and monument. another critical connection was determining which institutional employees had key leadership positions in the city government (i.e., the city mayor was a faculty member at the institution and the previous mayor was the dean for a major unit on campus). each of these engage! 23 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth individuals were able to advise the project on how to move the work forward through bureaucratic steps in the city council. lastly, the current vice president of institutional diversity & inclusion invited the new city mayor to serve on a major university task force examining issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. this non-exhaustive step assured that the efforts of the truth and reconciliation coalition were part of the conversation between key community-university state holders. this process facilitated opportunities to continually move the work forward in absence of a government-sponsored mandate for reconciling these past atrocities. conceptualizing concepts essential in any theoretical or practical model is to clearly define the concepts embedded in the model (jaccard & jacoby, 2020; klein & white, 2015). the major concepts in our model include truth, reconciliation, and grassroots approach. in this model, truth is defined as bringing awareness to a historical event. specifically, events that distorted or muted the voices, or truths, of marginalized members of a given context. this particular conceptualization helps validate the narratives of those historically marginalized by more powerful members of society. by validation, this can also mean that additional narratives are or have components that are just as accurate as prevailing narratives. to be sure, our conceptualization is not necessarily designed to determine 100% accuracy of a given narrative. across the many instances of racial terror lynchings, there is a wide spectrum of narratives for many of the cases, and actual or objective truth is somewhere on that spectrum. however, in a process of truth and reconciliation, there must be a mechanism for acknowledging narratives that have historically been silenced or ignored. through the acknowledgment of those narratives, there may be an increased chance of getting closer to an accurate account of the actual events that took place. reconciliation in this model is conceptualized as public atonement of a past event by an official element of the offending party. important in this model is that in a given event, there may be multiple offending parties. as it relates to racial terror lynchings, multiple entities were culpable for, or complicit in, the lynchings that took place in the u.s. between the period of reconstruction and the end of world war ii (equal justice initiative, 2017). specifically, law enforcement officers that did not always protect black citizens from mob attacks, ordinary white citizens seeking vigilante justice, community members attending public lynching, people posed in pictures next to brutalized black bodies, lawmakers who did little to construct laws that protected black citizens from racial terror attacks, individuals who accused black residents of crimes that resulted in racial terror lynchings, etc. this minor list pales compared to the many levels of culpable parties responsible for the 4,000+ documented racial terror lynchings that took place during this period of u.s. history. we offer several caveats to this conceptualization of reconciliation. first, we suggest a process approach that allows for multiple layers of atonement to occur so that the process of reconciliation can promote healing over time and take a non-linear form. to be sure, having state officials (e.g., city, county, state) engage in formal recognitions (e.g., resolutions, public ceremonies, historical markers) can serve as a standard that sparks the process of reconciliation. secondly, such processes may take place long after the lives or presence of the individuals, families, and communities directly impacted by the racial terror lynchings. however, the amount of elapsed time should not be an excuse for ignoring and/or neglecting to reconcile this past. rather, we propose that engaging in this process helps prevent such events from occurring in the future (stevenson, 2014; taylor, 2015). third, it would be naïve to suggest that atonement at all of these levels of context is required for reconciliation to occur. however, having officials in positions of power engage in a process of atonement sets a moral and ethical standard for engage! 24 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth behaviors that are not accepted; in this case, terrorizing vulnerable communities. fourth, though it would be hopeful that all members of a given community would offer buy-in for the reconciliatory act, this may not be a reality. the seemingly annual vandalizing of race-based historical markers in the united states (u.s.) american south -e.g., emmitt till marker was replaced due to being repeatedly vandalized (associated press, 2019)serves as reconciliation processes that can take place without the full support of a given community. similarly, we are not arguing that engaging in this process will be a panacea for racial tensions. rather, we argue that this process puts into place a public standard for what is and is not appropriate, a standard that clearly was not in place during the period of these racial terror lynchings. it is also a movement to ensure that we recognize and acknowledge this aspect of u.s. history and we never forget racial terror lynchings, its lingering impact, and serves as a deterrent in that society never allows such instances to happen again. atoning for past atrocities is not new. in fact, since humans have walked the earth, there have been bloody conflicts due to the limited resources available to meet the needs and desires of all human beings (sowell, 2007). for many of these atrocities, state entities have engaged in macrolevel truth and reconciliation to atone for such past events as a mechanism for healing and bringing peace to a given geographic area (we discuss these later in this paper). however, our approach differs from those macro-level approaches to truth and reconciliation in that we are using a grassroots approach. by grassroots, we mean a coalition of local citizens engaged in the process of bringing public awareness and atonement to past events. we apply the model here by examining racial terror lynchings in oxford. desired outcomes of reconciling racial terror lynchings our approach to grassroots truth and reconciliation is not fully original. in fact, our desired outcomes are derived from a model based on the suggested practices outlined by the equal justice initiative (eji; 2017). their founder and director, bryan stevenson, started down this path through engaging in social justice work in montgomery, al. he notes in his ted talk (stevenson, 2012) that on a trip to germany, he was amazed at the number of historical markers he passed that profiled the atrocities of the jewish holocaust. however, in his own country, he was appalled at the number of confederate markers in montgomery, which represent a powerful message about the pride in pre-civil war values, and the lack of markers profiling the many racial terror lynching tied to that period in u.s. history. this sparked his work to build a memorial and museum in montgomery to provide a more balanced (or accurate) narrative for this period of u.s. history. this led to the research which found that many more racial terror lynching occurred from years 1870 – 1950 than had previously been reported. because he was ambivalent that the u.s. would engage in a macro approach to reconciling this past, he offered a pathway for communities to engage in this process through local coalitions (eji, n.d.). we have learned through our work here in oxford (oh) that as people become more aware of their county's history of racial terror lynching, many desire to engage in the truth and reconciliation process. however, they are unsure of the steps in this process. this project includes specific components that allow local communities to actively engage in truth and reconciliation, specific to their local context. first, we discuss the desired outcomes of our local project using components from the model suggested by the eji model. then, we discuss the subsequent progress of our efforts in realizing truth and reconciliation. building a diverse coalition the first desired outcome in the process calls for building a diverse coalition that allows community engage! 25 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth members (not geographically bound) to have a role in the process. this desired diverse coalition of community members would include faculty, university administrators, historians/librarians, officials elected to local office, descendants of victims of racial terror lynching, and faith leaders. our local project began with two faculty members interested in providing an opportunity to teach a graduate-level study away course on truth and reconciliation for spring break. their desire to include campus leaders involved administrators accepting invitations to engage with and support both faculty and graduate students. of note, several graduate students of the coalition were and are also residents of the local community. faculty and graduate students then reached out to local historians/librarians about events in oxford to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the lynchings of henry corbett (1892) and simeon garnett (1877). librarians helped compile primary documents (e.g., local news articles) related to the two lynchings that occurred, providing us with necessary materials to review the historical context surrounding those involved with the racial terror lynching events. the authors of this paper identify as diverse community members who are invested in the historic and restorative nature of this reconciliation project for oxford (oh), inspired by chinese-american activist, grace lee boggs, who in her reflection on sustainable activism writes, "we need to embrace the idea that we are the leaders we've been looking for,” (2012, p.159). we also connected with geographically local community members. two faculty members of our university, but also members of the community, joined us on our trip to visit the legacy museum and national memorial for peace and justice (montgomery, al). forging relationships with other faculty members with whom you share a traveling/learning experience opened up opportunities to connect with the community. engaging outside the classroom and in the community allowed for more opportunities to build trusting community-university partnerships and having meaningful conversations about racial justice. additionally, community members also allowed us to connect to the local historic and architectural preservation commission. this partnership led two team members (students) to attend a public city meeting and share information about the course content, travel to the national memorial for truth and reconciliation in alabama, and support the local efforts to recognize the impact of the racial terror lynching that occurred in the local community. engaging library historians as community gatekeepers the second desired outcome in the process involved engaging library historians as community gatekeepers who might support faculty and graduate students with advancing the truth and reconciliation process. librarians served as historians who joined the student-faculty coalition by supporting research of primary source evidence and archival documents about the local racial terror lynchings. this expanding coalition would compile documentation of the racial terror lynching. the librarians collaborated with other library systems across the country to retrieve the historical documents from archives. this level of engagement from librarians built a sense of coalition work amongst the now three parties of faculty, students, and librarians. students were able to ask for the librarians' assistance with locating files, understanding archived newspaper articles, and navigating library systems for detailed personal searches about the lynchings. indeed, reading through the stories also gave historical context of the culture at the time, and the ways in which narratives were (un)told, and for both approaches –national and grassroots– to truth and reconciliation, the process must start with honest conversations and engagement with impacted communities. engage! 26 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth from whose perspective. all of this must be considered in the process of uncovering truth in order to understand the need for reconciliation. in addition to helping provide these documents, the librarians also served as gatekeepers into the community as they linked the two faculty members and students with residents of the local town whose families date back to the time of the lynchings. these members met with the coalition to give more history about the nature of the relationship between the town and its black residents. connecting with descendants of racial terror lynching victims the third desired outcome is connecting with the descendants of victims of racial terror lynching. this outcome was a result of the efforts of faculty, student, and librarian research. connecting with a descendant of one of the individuals who was lynched allowed us to fulfill the component in our model of allowing individuals and families directly impacted by the event to possibly start the process of closure. additionally, in the current situation, this also allowed the family to finally have their accounts of events to be heard and considered. the descendant also visited our class to give a guest lecture on how this event impacted their family over time. engaging with local city-elected officials and faith leaders the fourth desired outcome was to engage offcampus community leaders, including elected public officials and faith leaders. this diverse coalition invited the mayor of the city that houses the university as a guest speaker to the graduate course. the class was able to share information with the mayor about the project, but also the local lynchings. in turn, the mayor shared information about how to engage the city in efforts to approve elements of the soil remembrance ceremony and eventually erect a historical marker on city property. collaborations with the city are ongoing as they are the key stakeholder in erecting a historical marker in the city that memorializes these events. representatives of the city have met with the local librarians and recommended locations in the city where the marker can be erected that provides visibility and recognition of this history. through this, a few of the commission members attended our local soil remembrance ceremony. as a result of exposure to the local police community relations and review commission (pcrrc), one of the two students who shared the local efforts at a public meeting applied and was accepted as a commission member, where pcrrc responsibilities include building relationships, taking community complaints and improving local policing. during the soil remembrance ceremony, a pastor of the local african methodist episcopal church conducted the opening and closing prayers. through rapport-building with other members, the student found out that one of the commission members (and their life partner) made their own trip to montgomery, al, after hearing about the local truth and reconciliation efforts at that public meeting. we share this to demonstrate that this is what we mean by grassroots movement-building. furthermore, the leaders of the local unitarian universalist church read about the activities of the coalition in the local newspaper and reached out to the faculty members to gain more knowledge about the project. this resulted in two members of the team visiting a gathering by the church and speaking with them about ways to collaborate in the future to support truth and reconciliation. one specific suggestion by members was to donate funds to help future members make the trip to montgomery to visit the eji museum and monument. communicating efforts to the public via local news media our fifth desired outcome involved successfully engaging with a journalist who profiled the stories in a national newspaper outlet, the cincinnati enquirer. the news media has the power to share stories in larger platforms, and to provide engage! 27 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth visibility and outreach. this provided an opportunity to expand the network of coalition partners, but also spread the story to a wider audience. getting buy-in was, and will continue to be, a crucial part of being able to engage in the process at multiple levels of society (e.g., local, state). furthermore, the university also dedicated a webpage highlighting the efforts towards local truth and reconciliation (miami university, n.d.). subsequent outcomes of truth and reconciliation activities beyond building a coalition, several steps are outlined in the eji model regarding engaging the community in truth and reconciliation. in the previous section, we outlined the desired outcomes of building a diverse coalition, engaging librarians as community gatekeepers, connecting with descendants of racial terror lynching victims, communicating efforts to the public via news media, and engaging local elected officials. in this section, we will share the progress we made since we first set out to remember the lives of those who were lynched in the local community. determining location of events first, we were able to unearth these narratives and provide families and communities with the first step of healing the harm that had been done. to assist communities with this step, the equal justice initiative encouraged local coalitions to contact them and engage in ceremonies that helped initiate the process of truth and reconciliation. in their landmark report "lynching in america: confronting the legacy of racial terror," the eji (2017) identified more than 4,000 documented lynchings that were carried out from 1877-1950. using public documents, newspaper reports, personal histories, family oral traditions, etc., the equal justice initiative was able to approximate nearly exact locations of where most of these lynchings took place. importantly, the results of this study included 800 more lynchings than had been counted in previous reports. soil collection ceremony second, gathering soil and engaging community members in contributing soil to the same jar to send to eji unites communities in the shared pain and reverence for the lives that have been lost due to racial terror lynching. this ritual allows communities to bear witness to their legacies and demonstrate connection. additionally, considering the locations of many of the lynchings (e.g., rural areas), it could be that the same soil still holds the dna remnants of individuals terrorized in those locations some 70 170 years earlier. equal justice initiative's community remembrance project of gathering soil from the site of lynchings establishes "relationships to the universe, to the landscape and to stones, rocks, insects and other things, seen and unseen," and that this notion of reconciliation is a difficult one for western systems of knowledge to deal with or accept (tuhiwai-smith, 2012, p. 78). erecting historical markers third, as of fall 2020 the coalition is completing the necessary paperwork for local city elected officials to review and approve the erection of historical markers for truth and reconciliation. this phase is the apex of the model in that it institutionalizes a memorial of lynching victims, through grassroots approaches. because the efforts are centralized through eji, markers have shared design and text to help create a movement of truth and reconciliation that can occur over time in multiple locations. a major point of the process is to create dialogue about this period of u.s. history while also allowing communities to atone for the racial terror inflicted on communities of color throughout the land for nearly 100 years. the markers serve as a springboard for facing this past and creating opportunities to prevent such acts from occurring again in the future. engage! 28 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice james | enacting truth sustaining grassroots approaches to truth and reconciliation in conclusion, this particular method of truth and reconciliation fuels a national movement. it is a "bottom-up" approach that allows separate communities, via coalition teams, to independently progress through truth and reconciliation at a pace that is appropriate to their local area. for our project, our coalition utilized a community-university partnership. because it is connected to the broader eji approach, though we have some independence and unique aspects to our approach, we are also connected with a broader truth and reconciliation movement. we also are creating a model that can be repeated in other places that need additional resources to help with coalition building. we have conceptualized truth and reconciliation by blending what we have learned, others' conceptualizations, and our experiences working on truth and reconciliation efforts through our graduate course. examining four international cases (canada, south africa, germany, and s. korea) has shown that it is absolutely possible for countries to demonstrate national efforts to address macro-level terrors. we note that truth and reconciliation is an ongoing process and not an outcome. additionally, it is a process that includes both macro (e.g., national) and micro (e.g., grassroots) approaches. so, what would be some indicators that we are ensuring progression in the process and not stagnation across these approaches? for both approaches –national and grassroots– to truth and reconciliation, the process must start with honest conversations and engagement with impacted communities. example cases from national approaches above were able to ignite this process with the resources of state entities. however, in grassroots approaches, multiple sparks are needed to ignite a broader discussion across a given community. for our communityuniversity partnership, this included creating a study away course that impelled students to reach out to community stakeholders to engage coalition building around the topic (e.g., conversations with local librarians). more formal steps are also needed to create sustainability in the movement. the eji has included a mechanism for engaging students in the process via an essay contest (equal justice initiative, 2017). this is a step that is included in the process of erecting historical markers, for which our local efforts are just beginning. students are encouraged to learn about the events, reflect on their thoughts and feelings, and submit an essay to the local coalition. winners are rewarded with a monetary award that goes towards their college expenses. this aspect of the process includes local schools in, and adjacent to, the local communities where the lynching(s) took place. including schools in the process adds another coalition member and creates an opportunity to broaden the discussion to future generations. finally, awardees read their essay at the unveiling ceremonies of the markers. key to this process is the ability to obtain buy-in from key community stakeholders, with the intent of engaging and contributing. our process used a community–university approach because the resources of the university have a wide reach that creates a certain level of respectability and validation to the project. engaging communities whose current members were not directly responsible for the past events creates a significant barrier to starting the conversation and continuing it. however, partnerships with key community stakeholders (i.e., university) help ease buy-in and promote coalition building. we hope that the model we have chosen to implement can guide other communities wanting and needing to start this process. the model can be used to promote continued and sustainable truth and reconciliation for racial terror lynchings that created modes of interaction that continue to haunt communities in contemporary times. engage! 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(2009). legitimacy and effectiveness of a grassroots truth and reconciliation commission. law and contemporary problems, 72(2), 143-149. engage! 31 vol. 1, issue 3 engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 vol. 1, issue 1 engage! 2019 vol. 1 no. 1 https://doi.org/10.18060/22818 copyright © 2019 author(s). this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. artful spaces/safe places: a gallery provokes voices that interrogate common narratives of latino immigrant children cindy bixler borgmann and stacy peñalva abstract what do latino immigrant children’s voices say as they are provided a safe community space to be heard and soft clay through which to speak? through art work, focus groups, gallery exhibitions, and filtering data (peñalva, 2018) this critical ethnographic research (madison, 2012; merriam & tissdell, 2016; wolcott, 2008; thomas, 1993) exposes the complex political nature of linguistic, cultural, and national negotiations in which latino children and their families in this study engage daily. this work troubles stereotypic mainstream narratives (dillard, 2012; hooks, 1990, 1994; janks, 2010) and points out the need for strong community/university collaborations to impact the excavation of deeper understandings of people in our neighborhoods. this ethnographic portrait of families, part of a larger study, involved the community director in an urban spanish speaking church and faculty from literacy education and visual art at iupui. in this study children created clay objects called “hanging journals” during a summer program. these clay artworks acted as semiotic mediators (kress, 2010; pahl & rowsell, 2012; borgmann & berghoff, 2005) for voices of this group—voices which routinely go unheard, or are devalued. in other words, the clay became a container for meaning and was imbued with life stories and memories of the young artists. using theoretical frameworks from the fields of literacy and art, layered with ethnographic tools of observation, dialogue, reflection, interview, video, and analysis, the volume on these important and complicated voices was turned up to hear buried stories and to interrogate commonly accepted narratives that swirl around latino immigrants and their families. this study provides a peek into the authentic narratives of children as they share daily navigation across national, cultural, and language boundaries and shows the power of the arts to communicate across contested spaces spaces of fear, tension, and resistance. this study embraces the necessity of authentic university/community collaborations as a two-way street to understand and empower latino youth, to better prepare future teachers as agents of change, and to expose versions of immigrant ways of being and knowing that are misconstrued. stacy: are you all able to speak spanish in school? carla: oh yes, we speak spanish with our friends. stacy: really! so your teacher lets you speak spanish at school? carla: well, we hide under our desks and that’s where we speak spanish with our friends at school. peñalva, 2016. focus group with children from first generation, latino immigrant families https://doi.org/10.18060/22818 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 6 stacy has known carla since she was born. her parents are immigrants from honduras, and have been members of the church (where the community center site of this research is housed) for many years. while she has worked among the latino immigrants at this site for decades as a pastor’s wife and teacher, this was one of her first conversations with the children at the site as a researcher. the literal as well as the metaphorical impact of carla’s statement did not go un-noticed. here the voice of a strong, bilingual and confident little girl was being “shoved under the desk,” hidden, devalued, not welcomed in that school room. there was a strong disconnect between the community center and the school; between a place where immigrant voices were heard and welcomed and a place where native language and all the identity and family history wrapped up in that tongue were rendered unimportant and forced to be hidden. subsequent research grew from this desire to hear and value the voices of immigrant children and their families—what would these voices say if they had a safe place to speak? how could the volume on these voices be turned up to understand their deep undertones, histories and nuances? situating the study this paper, part of a much larger research study, explores how spaces can be created to truly hear voices of immigrant children and their families. the study strains to hear what those voices are really saying by examining the children’s artwork and the voices that flow from that work, and interrogates ways that academia and community spaces can work together to hear, value and learn from those voices. the researchers stacy i was born in pennsylvania and grew up in a monolingual, predominantly white, middle class world. upon attending college, i met people from other countries who spoke other languages and had much different histories than mine. i married a man from honduras, and went to live in the mountains outside the capital city of tegucigalpa for 5 years. there i lived my life as “the other,” learning a new language and muddling through an unfamiliar culture. my two oldest sons were born there, and i watched with wonder as they learned two languages simultaneously and navigated the countries and cultures of their birth with apparent ease. this is where my curiosity began regarding the ways that people navigate daily across the borders of language, nations and cultures translingual, transnational, and transcultural. for the last 30 years i have worked in a church and community center where first generation latino immigrant families congregate and form bonds, sharing histories, languages and struggles. in recent years i have worked among this group as the pastor’s wife and community director but also as a researcher, digging into stories they willingly share and trying to honor their voices—all the while in awe of their resilience and resourcefulness as they carve out a life in this country (peñalva, coggin and medina, 2014; peñalva, 2016). my stance as an advocate and partner with those who “come to a new awareness of selfhood, looking critically at the social situation in which they find themselves” (freire, 1970/2009) is unapologetically evident in this research. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 7 cindy i was born in indianapolis and, like stacy, grew up in a monolingual, predominantly white, middle class world. as an art teacher i taught in the suburbs of indianapolis, completed graduate school working with colleagues from different cultures, nations, and languages, and entered higher education at indiana university purdue university indianapolis. for the last 30 years i have taught in the urban teacher preparation program at herron school of art and design working with schools and teachers across the city. our school now sits where a long history of immigrants once resided and our campus is neighbor to latino residents. like many major cities, indianapolis schools have experienced a rapid increase in immigrant populations, though curricula have not been as quick to change. in my work with urban teachers i have seen the struggle of crossing language barriers in a scripted curriculum and empathize with students and teachers as they negotiate new terrain. through my research, studying the impact of arts-integrated curricula in general urban classrooms, i have seen the power of the arts in providing equal access to knowledge where high stakes testing, dominant language curricula have denied it to all but the mainstream culture. i have witnessed the transformative power of the aesthetic experience afforded through the arts, to unleash personal voice, nurture agency and empathy, and change dispositions in students and teachers. teachers have used this newfound agency to push back against test prep, pre-packaged curricula that privilege one way of knowing, and to bring student voice back to their classrooms (borgmann & berghoff, 2013). art provides an avenue for personal expression, empathy, and meaningful narrative often denied learners outside the dominant language. providing space in classrooms for a visual language where all can communicate helps break down stereotypic narratives and biases in both learners and teachers. the arts allow teachers to cross language barriers, to find space in the general curriculum for children’s voices, to honor multiple ways of knowing and being, and to provide more equitable and caring learning communities for all. (borgmann & berghoff, 2011, 2013). through this work stacy, a language arts doctoral student at the time, invited me onto her doctoral committee to join in this study on the voices of latino youth using art media. on visiting her youth group at the community center it was apparent these children were comfortable in their “habitus” (bourdieu, 19983/1991 space of the church at home with the director. as the gatekeeper of this group, stacy provided access that would be the envy of any teacher/researcher. here students spoke openly and candidly of their opinions, faith, and their responses to the day – in english and spanish. we interpreted the work of maria lomas garza’s work, an artist who paints the rich stories and histories of latino culture, if teachers have passion for the arts, for storytelling, and for the cultural histories of their students they will push art into the cracks of tightly packed curricula to elicit evocative responses from those students and allow everyone to be heard. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 8 and the children painted important objects, food, and traditions from their daily life. as these children painted, defenses were down and the voices flowed in this safe, faith-based community space. stacy continued curating that safe, artful space using children’s clay objects strung together to tell stories of daily life – life as immigrants. these clay objects became “hanging journals” operating as visual text and are the focus of this present manuscript. the site to the west of campus sits an old church, built in 1924 and a longtime home to immigrant families in the city. for 30 years stacy and her pastor husband have served a dominant latino population at this site with 150 church members from many different latin american countries and a community center which provides classes and services for the neighborhood around the building. the church/community center is a place where latino immigrant families come to share language, faith, and fellowship. they share a similar story in their struggle to arrive at this city and make a life here. they hope for a better future for their children, many who were born here in the u.s., resulting in mixed status families or families where the parent(s) are undocumented and the children are citizens. this church is an in-between space where english, spanish and the hybridization (medina, 2010; canagarajah, 2013) of the two are routinely heard through the building. it is a place where children eat pizza and play on their phones while parents prepare tamales and laugh in spanish. a place where the mixing of cultures, languages and national affiliations create a “zone of contact” (pratt, 1991) allowing and even welcoming the bumping together and jostling around of cultures, languages, ways of doing and knowing. it is an in-between space where these transnavigations -flowing through available cultures and languages, become common and every day. for example, when the children were shown a picture of food (see photo 1) and asked to talk about it, they noted nothing out of the ordinary. the mexican crema and typical american macaroni and cheese sit on the shelf side-by-side at a neighborhood store just down the street from the community center as unceremoniously as the children in the church mix their stories from native lands and current residence. this is a powerful narrative, yet has become so embedded into the lives of the people in this “inbetween” space that they do not notice it as conversation-worthy. it just is. (photo 1: the ordinary side-by-side nature of transnavigation as seen on a neighborhood store shelf -a reflection of how immigrant children understand their lives.) how could spaces be opened to explore the complex choreography of this intricate dance through engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 9 languages, cultures and national identities which seemed to be such a natural way of life for the children? how could the volume on voices at this church/community center be turned up to allow typically non-sanctioned topics to be interrogated freely (jones, 2004)? only by genuinely and profoundly hearing these voices could one come to know (palmer, 1993) and understand this complex group who are often characterized by stereotypical or simplistic narratives. the participants the research discussed in this publication is part of a much larger study but due to limited space, we will focus our discussion around data obtained from one child (maria). however, each of the 20 childrenartists who participated in the original study share certain characteristics with maria. they are all children from first generation latino immigrant families. all know the story of their parents’ journey to this new land—some are more horrendous than others. each one is bilingual, with spanish as their first language. each child’s family is involved in this church and each child attended a summer program at the community center located there. it was during the summer program that the children engaged in an art making project called “hanging journals” that became a focus of this research. all the children in the annual summer program were between the ages of 6 and 12 during this project. maria was 8 at the time. when maria speaks, it is hard to tell that she spoke spanish exclusively for the first few years of her life, since she speaks english as clearly as any other l1 english speaker. maria was born in the u.s. her parents are from mexico, and while her father has permission to live and work in this country, her mother does not. she has two brothers, one older and one younger, who were also born in the u.s. maria’s family is typical of many families at this church. her parents work long, hard hours. her father has a painting business. her mother helps with the business and does other work as it is available. they own a home not far from the church, and are deeply involved in the life of the church. stacy had known maria for 4 years at the start of the research since she had participated in many of the programs at the community center. this study using art as a mediator (as a conduit to hear voice) helped to understand and know her in ways not previously imagined. critical ethnographic methodology/data analysis ethnography as a research methodology is devoted to describing the ways of life of human kind - in this case, children from immigrant families. goodall says that “voice is the sound of the ethnographic world being called into being” (goodall, 2000, p. 139-140 as cited in madison, 2012. p. 228). in this study, criticality blends with ethnography as the work involves an effort to confront issues of power and injustice through the sharing of voice… the critical ethnographer resists domestication…by using the resources, skills and privileges available to her to make accessible…the voices and experiences of people whose stories are otherwise restrained and out of reach. this means the critical ethnographer contributes to emancipatory knowledge and discourses of social justice. madison, 2012, p. 6 engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 10 during the summer program, the children participated in a curricular activity called “hanging journals.” here they were asked to think about their lives and to remember important events. next they thought of a way to represent this event by forming clay objects. these objects were hung from sticks decorated with colorful yarn that created a visual story of the child’s life -a text full of storied significance (see photo 2). each child was asked to talk about his/her hanging journal with a videographer who created a video with snippets from each interview. (photo 2: maria’s hanging journal) a gallery was created where the journals hung alongside words the child used to talk about that journal (see photo 3). a video monitor in the gallery showed the movie created during the interviews on a loop. the gallery was called “voices/voces.” it had a grand opening and became a popular space in the church/community center for both the children artists and other visitors. (photo 3: the gallery called voces/voices located at the church/community center) a few months after the gallery installation went up, stacy held a focus group with a dozen of the artists. we met in the gallery and talked about their art and topics that emerged from their hanging journals. shortly after that, another focus group with 8 of the artists’ mothers provided yet another layer of data to understand the deep historical narratives contained in the artwork. transcribed voices were coded for emerging themes and axial analysis -examining the data across all the sets collected -(merriam, 1998; cresswell, 2007; patton, 2002) revealed explanations that interrogated the simple “one story” of immigrant families, providing a peek into what it truly means to live as a child in such a family. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 11 hearing maria the heart maria chose to put a heart on her hanging journal (see photo 4). (photo 4: maria’s clay heart) she briefly told the videographer about this part of her journal: maria: i put a heart because my family is always with me. we might expect this comment from an eight-yearold girl as she talks about her mother -this feeling of closeness and love. but as maria’s voice continued, other nuances and more obscured narratives seem to peek out from those sweet words. why did she and many of the other children seem to emphasize this sense of always? linda and gabby, for example, also seemed to focus in on the importance of permanence in family love… linda: this is my family and i will cherish them forever. gabby: and i put three family, and it’s important to me ‘cause if something happens to my family, it’s my family still. i wondered if i was hearing a barely audible message of family togetherness as a tenuous or fragile condition. later, during the artist focus group in the gallery, maria’s artful voice was articulated in deeper ways, as she turned up the volume on the message mediated by her clay heart. apparently, the heart told of a story deeper than just affection shared by a young girl and her family. maria: my mom uses the other side of this (she is wearing a necklace with half a heart) and this reminds me of her when i’m at school. ‘cause i always wear it, but if i wear it inside the shower it will get ruined. the clay seems to be speaking louder now -it is actually a model of her necklace, a physical connection between the two -a way to feel her mother close even when they are apart. now it becomes clearer why she said the heart meant that her family is always with her. later in the artist focus group, maria uncovered the meaning contained in that little clay heart even further. listen to the voice of this citizen child from an immigrant family as she and her friends got around to the topic of deportation: engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 12 maria: we can’t go to mexico. my mom said we are not going to go anywhere. we are just going to stay here until they kick us out of our house. while this may be an unsanctioned topic in many settings, here at this in-between space (soja, 1996; gutierrez, 2008) where citizen children live in mixed status households, the topic was not only sanctioned but a daily lived experience. all the children have been touched in one way or another by deportation. those who have parents without proper documentation take on the life of hiding and fear so common of undocumented people. maria, a u.s. citizen, hides in her house, close to her mother with whom she shares the heart, in fear that they will be kicked out. she is not the only child who lives this fear… gaby: yeah, that’s what i’m worried about. a couple just came to my house and say you need to go back to where you are from and your kids too. you’d have to live with others, other members. you might have to go to a place where kids don’t have parents. the most terrifying scenario for the children in this group seemed to be the possibility of separation from their parents. they talked openly about the fear of being taken away from parents who could be deported. this fear became clearer and the aching anxiety and love pulsing in the clay heart more profound as maria’s mother spoke at our mother’s focus group. gracia (maria’s mother): the question you asked, miss stacy, about it being a carga (burden or heavy load) that we give our children knowing if we are legal. for me, yes, it was a carga because when she (maria) listened to things in school, she cried. she would come home crying saying, ‘i don’t want them to send you to mexico and with whom will we live?’ and i told them not to worry because your dad at least has a permit. if something would happen, if i would not come home, don’t go out in the street looking. just wait for your dad and he will take care of things because one never knows what could happen. the voice flowing from the mediator -that clay heart -became more meaningful after hearing the words and seeing the heart as situated in maria’s lived histories and everyday realities. maria: i put a heart because my family is always with me. the art along with the dialogue around it turned up the volume on the voice of this young girl from an immigrant family. now we hear her saying that the clay heart presents narratives that swirl around a piece of jewelry she shares with her mother - narratives that speak about fear of separation, of hiding in the house together, of hoping to be together always. as this little girl sits in a classroom each day, wearing her precious half-heart necklace, how many know about her hidden terror, her obscured narratives of potential separation from her family on any given day, her fear about what she might encounter as she arrives home from school? the flag maria also chose to put an american flag on her hanging journal. of all the many memories or important events that she could have included on her journal, she chose to craft the flag (see photo 5). in engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 13 fact, many of the children voiced deep connections to the united states. notice the clay is structured with american stripes colored in red and white but in place of stars is a field of green, the color of the flag of mexico – a blending of cultures. (photo 5: maria’s flag) she spoke of her flag: maria: this is the flag of the united states. every time i go to school in the morning i say the pledge of allegiance. in fact, maria pledges allegiance to the flag which stands for the same government from which she hides, which might snatch away her home and her family. this citizen-child lives in the world of the undocumented with all the feelings of powerlessness and fear wrapped up in that existence. does her teacher hear the conflicted voice as she wears a heart that assures connection to her mother, while pledging allegiance to the same country that could rip her mother away? in the everyday-ness of maria’s recitation is a political message that could only be heard as the artful mediator opened up safe spaces at this community center for talk that is often unwelcome or misunderstood in schools (garcia, 2002). maria’s voice now sounds loud and political -– the outcry of a citizen-child who has put on the fear and powerlessness of her “illegal” parent. it is a voice that grapples with both entitlement and fear. this is a narrative not often acknowledged in the typical immigrant story. the t.v. maria chose to put a television on her hanging journal to represent this part of her life story (see photo 6). she states… in this one i tried to draw me watching t.v. with my family. sometimes i watch movies with my family and it makes me feel good. (photo 6: maria’s t.v. artwork) engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 14 her story around family togetherness is contained in this artwork, creating a picture of warm times, gathered around the t.v., watching favorite movies in her home. her mother’s voice from the parent focus group adds complexity to this simple narrative providing deeper insights… gracia: for me, i watch cartoons with the children, because they repeat and repeat so that children can learn things, and for me it is easier. i have been here almost 14 years and don’t know how to speak english, but it’s because i was always watching everything in spanish, until my husband said, ‘no more. we are going to take away all that so you can learn english watching cartoons with the children.’ and so now i watch t.v. in english. i cannot speak, because i get nervous and tongue tied, but i understand most of what they are saying. if i put a movie and watch with the children, i can understand 80%. i have realized that it is a good way to learn english, watching the television with the children in english. and when i say a word wrong, they correct me. in this new portrait, painted with deeper and more historical colors, maria and her family sit on the couch to watch t.v. not just for fun times but for learning a language that provides access to the dominant culture and to power (bourdieu, 1983/1991). re-interpreting that clay piece, we now hear a story of a mom who has been willing to surrender her place as the one in charge, and become the student. she watches children’s programs and learns a new language from her children who have become the patient and capable language instructors. this is the “resistance story” (whitehead, 2012, p 36) that when told counters stereotypic narratives and positions latino youth as assets (cosier, & gude, 2012). this story was completely missed in that clay piece, until reinterpreted and shared through dialogue during the parent focus group. as parents spoke together, sharing common stories and engaging in dialogue full of trust and caring with others who share similar narrative, they provided a profound and powerful backdrop to meanings contained in the children’s clay artifacts! this little clay medallion unwrapped a story full of unexpected scenes: a mom watching cartoons together with her children, children patiently helping her to understand the english dialogue, children softly and maybe laughingly correcting mom’s mispronunciations, and lots of good feelings and love. this scene is one that makes maria “feel good.” maria’s hanging journal was tacitly telling this story of family support and caring all along, but the buried and obscured narrative was not uncovered until all the voices were heard and the volume carefully turned up. by considering the data across all available sets (the artifact, the children’s stories and the parents’ voices), powerful counter-stories could be heard. the borderlands created at the gallery threshold the children in this group live in the borderlands -linguistically, culturally and geographically -navigating the choppy waters of their lives as children who have ties to more than one language, historical storyline, and national affiliation (campano, 2007). but these are not the only kinds of borderlands these children pilot through. sometimes the children in the research study constructed their engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 15 own borders, and these borders reflected lived stories, real life struggles, and the enactment of agency. for example, the threshold into the gallery -a place that contained the life stories of the children molded into clay -was constructed as a line that was meant to keep some in and some out. the children defined the boundary line at the doorway and acted as the sentries there. maria and many of the other children understood this borderland, and were clear about who could cross and who could not. their comments seem to be emblematic of a much larger narrative that examines the notions of knowing and caring (noddings, 1984) -things that maria and her friends wish they had more of at school. they believe the gallery may be the type of place to elicit that love and compassion. stacy: why do you think it’s important that other people from outside our group see your work [in the gallery]? maria: so that they can see that we worked hard, cause at school let’s say someone comes to church from your school and you tell them that you have been working really hard on your art, and they don’t believe you, but if they come and you can prove it cause it’s in the gallery. the gallery seemed to be a place where the art was validated -those who came across the borderlands would be able to believe that you really did work hard. those who did not come in may not believe that you had worked hard. stacy: what would be important for your teacher to know about you that maybe you never had a chance to tell her or she never asked you? maria: like, more stuff about you, ‘cause when i go to school i just tell them about my week and i want them to know more about me. hector: sometimes people don’t know you … your teacher could know that you are unique. gaby: if my teacher came in here and it was just me and her i would tell her about my life and about my journal and now she can understand what happens in my life and home and at school. this community space promoted conversation around the need for knowing and caring in the form of teacher action (noddings, 1984, p. 10) so coveted by the children. one wonders if maria’s teacher realized how desperately this little artist longed to be known in deep and intimate ways. maria wanted her teacher to know more than simply what she does in her week. maria goes on to converse with her friends in the gallery, noting the frustrating disconnect that she feels with her teacher. maria: one day my teacher was just eating an apple, that’s all, just eating the apple. and i said i wanted to tell her something and she was like, “i’m eating right now.” stacy: maybe she can’t eat and talk at the same time. maria: but when we are eating she bothers us! gaby: yeah, because they just don’t want to hear it -they say “hold on, i’m busy” but then you look at them just doing nothing and you’re like, come on! while the teacher’s voice seems to be considered important and valid, maria feels like she is being pushed away and that her voice does not matter. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 16 in this case the powerful teacher demands respect at all times (demanding attention when she speaks and silence when she does not want to listen), while the docile student is expected to comply here the teacher talks and the students meekly listen (freire, 1970/2009). various children in the group used their voice and the notion of the gallery border to express their yearning for a teacher who hears them. they would gladly open the border of the gallery for this teacher and invite her to truly hear their voices. there is quite a contrast in reaction when the artists were asked what they would say if president donald trump came into the gallery -across that same borderline. reactions ranged from running away, to lying about the hanging journal to telling him to get out or locking him in the gallery and not letting him out. these citizen children held firm to secure a boundary where powerful forces threatening their families attempted to cross. in fact, maria had a question for president trump: stacy: maria, what would you tell donald trump? maria: why are you going to build a wall? she questioned the construction of a border wall, just as she constructs her own border, trying to keep out a government that she sees as a threat to her family unity. the children defined and decided who would be welcomed across this border and who would not. maria and the other children longed for the teachers to cross the border into the gallery, to hear about their journals and truly get to know them -something that had not been happening in school. on the other hand, they guarded the border from government and power, pushing the president of the united states out and telling him lies. stacy: kenzie, what would you want donald trump to know about you. kenzie: nothing! gaby: if donald trump came in here i would open up the thing and throw him out of the thing. camila: i would run away, because one of my friends got deported back to mexico. it is the same space, the same border, and yet extremely different decisions and demonstrations of agency at the line. the same space defined by the same border became at once a place of welcome (for teachers) and a place of contention and dispute (for the president). discussion: personal narrative as counter discourse the arts are forms of communication about things that count (anderson, et.al., 2010) anderson & milbrandt, 2005, dewey, 1958/1934). through the mediated sign of visual imagery artists of all ages shape media into personal expressions that dance around the core of life -big issues such as identity, power, or place. (walker, 2001, robertson & mcdaniel, 2017) these hanging journals had culturally significant meaning encoded into the bits of clay that told complex stories of their identity. in a classroom where teachers are taught to unwrap these artworks to hear the powerful narratives of all children, the results can be transformative. humans construct what they know and who they are through narrative -or story -in word, text, engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 17 gesture, visual imagery, or song. as a way of knowing, narratives seek to establish personal truth. narratives emerge from an individual’s reflections on life. as we tell our stories, we organize and re-organize our memory, and construct our own reality (bruner, 1985). it is not only critical that students have opportunities to create these narratives, but that they have time to reflect on and dialogue with others about these stories. these latino children share their fears, struggles, and joys as they work, each with unique families and stories, but a common theme begins to emerge. the cultural histories of separation from border crossing and the threat of deportation or separation from loved ones is a constant fear. yet, these children build bridges of resilience around the threat that looms close, finding normalcy in this way of life. it is through the voices of children that we see beyond the black and white of immigration. these children are active participants that do not take family responsibility lightly -they shoulder the burden together. the latino children in this study do not see themselves or their families as helpless victims of a political system or as ones who break the law. their voices offer counter discourses to stereotypic narratives of latino youth by the mainstream culture (alarcón, 2014). they are not slow, uneducated, lazy, or disrespectful. they love school, follow the rules, and desperately want to be valued as worthy, respected contributors of their class. they are resourceful, exuberant, and full of agency. and, they have taken on heavy family responsibilities as they navigate through the in-between spaces of different cultures, nations, and languages. spaces that are further troubled with the social stereotypes of an often-misinformed mainstream culture. curricula focused on high stakes testing of the dominant culture privilege one way of being in the world. they create invisible boundaries which leave little room for empowering projects such as these in schools. as o’loughlin (2009) explains, schools are the chief ideological instruments of governments … and are therefore likely to be held on a tight ideological leash. teachers are part of the establishment, and any subversive leanings that they might have are typically disciplined through extensive mandated curricular requirements and onerous regulation that appears to be increasingly global in reach. (o’loughlin, 2009.p. 146) however, teachers can find gaps in the daily curriculum through which to integrate the arts and support the personal narratives of all students, not just those of the dominant culture. providing curricular spaces for these personal narratives or counter discourses offers a prime opportunity to break down stereotypes and turn up the volume on all voices. here o’loughlin (2009) explains the critical role of the community group: such counter discourses need to emerge organically out of community members and must be cultivated from the felt needs of particular groups rather than being handed down from on high. o’loughlin, 2009. p. 147) implications for community/academic collaborations this community center space, an in-between space with regards to languages, cultures and national engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 18 ties, presents certain affordances when it comes to accessing voices of children from immigrant families. in the case of maria and the children in the summer program at the community center, narratives were permitted to unravel out of hanging journal - stories that may not have been expected and that are often not welcome in schools or more formal settings. the arts intersecting with open and safe community space sanctioned topics that may often be absent from discourse in academic settings. these rich stories, full of insights around what it means to be a child in a mixed status latino immigrant family, are beautiful and powerful but often hidden or buried in the regimentation of school or academia. through collaborative art making and subsequent dialogue and reflection around artwork, stories spilled from the artists. the stories told of struggle, fear and agency. they told of critical political issues of deportation, family separation, the upside-down picture of family power regarding language, and the real ways that children construct and act as sentries to their personally created borderlands. there is nothing mindless or disconnected in the art experience. when children form clay into significant shapes from their world a story evolves. the form becomes a visible placeholder for this thought. each time we encounter that form we bring new information to it, but the form remains to invite us in the viewer or the artist -for yet another interpretation. the beauty of art is that it is presentational -its very form presents the idea providing wide access not bound by language (eisner, 2002). another critical part of this study was the dialogue shared while interpreting the clay pieces as conversations that might have otherwise never been spoken flowed from reflecting around the art and the themes it posed. this dialogue around the stories with which the clay was imbued gave the works meaning that was mediated in such a way that we -the outsiders - could “get it.” not to be overlooked, however, is the way that the art allowed the children and parent participants to gain deeper understanding of themselves, their conditions and their connections with others of like history. while the project informed us -the outsiders -it also provided a consciousness raising (freire, 1970/2009 experience for those engaged in dialogue around the art, unraveling and reflecting upon their own stories collaboratively. using visual imagery with clay as well as dialogue allowed for multiple ways of presenting information and making meaning (serafini, 2014). as the unexpected narratives emerged, a more profound and intimate picture of maria (and her family and friends) came to light. suddenly, through her simple artwork, we began to understand her fear of separation from her mother. we felt her patience and admiration for her mom as she worked so hard to learn english. we felt her longing for a teacher who cared enough to know her. we began to relate to her frustration with a government who would, for some reason, want to keep her and others like her out with a wall. this little girl is a student in any school. she could be a student of any teacher. she sits quietly at her desk, says the pledge of allegiance, and comes to school each day with the blessing of her mom and dad. she longs for a teacher and her peers to know and respect her, and strives to understand why anyone engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 borgmann/ artful spaces 19 would want to kick her, or people like her, out of the united states. she is a citizen of the united states, reciting the pledge of allegiance, and yet takes on the cloak of an “illegal” hiding in her house until she gets kicked out. does her teacher know this complex and powerful girl? does her teacher ask her about her life, her struggles, and her fears? does her teacher recognize her strengths, gifts and resourcefulness which she lives day to day? or does her teacher administer high stakes tests and characterize her as a number or a level -understanding her through the common and stereotypical “one story” of latino immigrant families in this city, and labeling her rich and diverse historical gifts as a problem to be solved. as neighborhoods, families and academic entities partner together, we envision a wide open and caring space where identity and authentic story enter the classroom as welcomed ingredients to a community of learning that sees families, histories, languages and cultures as important parts to the recipe for inclusive and equitable learning sites. we envision caring as: we see the nurturing of a “social imagination” -envisioning possibilities that attend to the justice and equity of all humans (greene, 2003). we see a place where obscured stories are heard, sanctioned and valued. we see classrooms where children like maria are seen as capable, full of strengths, and with voices important enough to be valued and heard. we hope to see teachers who open up their arms and hearts and even become learners (freire, 1980), willing to truly know and appreciate their students. we hope that stories, though hard to talk about and uncomfortable for those of us who have not lived them, are invited in and entertained. in this work, we have noted the ways that art can open up those spaces, unravel those narratives and create collaborative communities willing to reflect upon topics shared by voices that may have been “shoved under the desk,” but are now loud, clear and full of beauty. we have shown here how visual art transcends language and provides all equal access to learning. if teachers have passion for the arts, for storytelling, and for the cultural histories of their students they will push art into the cracks of tightly packed curricula to elicit evocative responses from those students and allow everyone to be heard. these alternative discourses trouble stereotypical narratives and begin a process of understanding of and empathy for “the other.” teachers and community places can collaborate to make sure all children can find a sense of identity and self-respect as they construct personal narratives of possibility. stepping out of one’s own personal frame of reference into another’s. when we care we consider the other’s point of view. 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(2008). ethnography: a way of seeing. lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield publishers. abstract situating the study critical ethnographic methodology/data analysis hearing maria discussion: personal narrative as counter discourse implications for community/academic collaborations references h an interview with associate vice chancellor hillary kahn 8 hilary e. kahn is associate vice chancellor for international affairs at iupui and indiana university associate vice president of international affairs. she is also editor for the framing the global book series with iu press and associate professor of anthropology at iupui. she has been in the field of international education for nearly two decades and is the author of multiple articles and four books. at her core, hilary is an ethnographer, an identity through which she views the world and that anchors her commitment to advancing global learning and chipping away at our territorialized notions of responsibility. q: how did you first become interested in leading the campus in advancing the sustainable development goals (sdgs)? kahn: i first became interested in the intersection of the un sustainable development goals and internationalization with my work internationally. i was having a number of conversations with colleagues and institutions and international education leaders and scholars from around the world, when i was the president of the association for international education administrators. and everybody was talking about the un sustainable development goals and how we needed to fulfill that agenda through the lens of international education. and i knew that very few people, very few institutions, very few people, very few communities in the united states were having such conversations. so it truly was through my international networks that i started seeing how important it was for institutions to embrace the agenda, but i also saw the unique position of international offices to take it on and to in some ways lead these efforts. even so, while the sdgs are global in scope they are also manifest and made real in local context. q: can you say more about why these international offices are unique, especially at the designer rio santos iupui online journal development ted polley iupui editors khaula murtadha iupui andrea copeland iupui associate editors william b. crow lehigh university carolyn gentlegenitty indiana university jim grim iupui rita hodges university of pennsylvania natasha howard morehouse college terri jett butler university brendan maxcy iupui carol mullen iupui mary price iupui carol rogers iupui javiette vashan samuel university of tennessee knoxville sarah stanlick worcester polytechnic institute ellen szarleta iu northwest laura weaver indiana campus connect office of community engagement staff liz m. terry marisa watson-juárez a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s universities? kahn: i think one of the misunderstandings of the sdgs is that they are international and only international and that they only impact things that are outside our borders. nothing could be farther from the truth. i also actually think that the same thing can be said for internationalization and international learning. that there is this misunderstanding that what we do is only meaningful beyond our borders and that all we’re doing is either informing students about the world beyond the united states or only bringing in individual scholars beyond our borders, and that we are not doing anything for our local community. and again, strongly, nothing could be farther from the truth. global learning and the sdgs are so relevant to what we are doing in indiana, in central indiana, in marion county and we have to act on this responsibility. iupui has a deep heartfelt commitment to community engagement. that’s why we’re here. and nonetheless the definition of community is too often geographically territorialized and territorialized in ways that are very local. and we very rarely step out of those geographic boundaries when we are thinking about how to engage others and how to make the world a better place. what it comes down to is our sense of responsibility. our sense of responsibility is too bounded. it’s an aspect of global learning that i’ve tried to implement in professional development settings or in teaching and curricular settings. global learning is not just about knowledge. it's not just about attitudes, and affect. it's about a sense of ethics. it's about a sense of responsibility, a sense of caring. and, and we tend to align our sense of commitment at very localized settings where we feel most comfortable and that's where we care the most. but the truth is it's also tied to our identities. we have localized identities, and our cultural i n t e r v i e w | k a h n 9 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 10 identities are often extremely rooted, in our particular cultural, historical, geographic locations. and we don't often expand ourselves beyond these concentric ways of thinking about our identities. we don’t identify with our broader connections. then the same thing goes for our sense of responsibility. because our sense of responsibility and sense of commitment is very much layered on top of how we define ourselves. but if you started to define yourself and reflect on yourself and see yourself global and complicated and multilayered and transnational, which is what we really are. that everything we do is actually somehow impacted or informed by global phenomenon, processes and powers and people. if you can do that, then you can start to dissect yourself and your identity, then you can start to care about the world too. but the first step actually starts with yourself. just like all learning starts with yourself. q: but what does that mean when we are messaging to our local communities so that they do move beyond that sense of space, bounded space? kahn: i think there is such a misunderstanding about how international indiana already is. do you know that nearly one in ten households speak a language other than english at home! and there are around 275 languages spoken in the state of indiana. can you believe that? q: yes, this is what we are finding out from the immigrant welcoming center too. kahn: incredible. and so it is really an educational campaign that we need to be doing and starting with the fact that our definition of indiana needs to be dismantled [it needs to be] diversified, and be much more complicated than it is. the definition of a hoosier needs to be revised. iinternationalized. because it is inherently about difference. even think about things that are the epitome of indiana. motorsports. we can't build our cars without international commodity chains. and we can't think about just the sport itself. it’s intensely global. think about limestone quarries, and where all that limestone ends up in buildings all over the world. think about where all our corn, ducks, soy beans, and engines land around the world. think about all the people and companies we have here in indiana. think about everything. it's all about the way it's being framed. and, we are framing ourselves as this land locked, isolated state, when all you have to do is live here for a little while and realize that that's the farthest from the truth. q: when you said it is the way it is framed, can we link that to the educational work that you referenced a moment ago? what would that mean in terms of our relationship with educators. kahn: i always think part of global learning and any powerful critical learning process starts with rethinking whatever categories you're supposed to be starting with. and in this case it's about starting with the diversification of our definition of the state of indiana. and as you say, ‘educate,’ what does that mean about the educational mission? i don't know whether this is where you're going or not, but we need to redefine the term ‘educator.’ i always like the fact that we've gone away from calling ourselves ‘professor’ or that we often call ourselves educator. but we need to be learners too, right? we try to focus on processes of learning and educating and not necessarily identifying or aligning them with a particular person. so we're almost at a point where we need de-territorialize that; to decouple the process of learning and teaching away from these preordained categories or appointed positions and so on. we need to make it more about the process. that's actually one thing i recognize. we’re proud of our learner-centric learning, right? but it should really be learning. it is about learning. it's about the process and what comes out of it. q: you are making such an incredible important point about the process. say some more about your vision for furthering the un sustainable a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s development goals. where do you see it going for your vision? kahn: it's interesting. i think i entered into the work with the sustainable development goals very focused on international education. and, and as you said, it's a cornerstone for our efforts for internationalization at iupui. i'm delighted that we're able to move on that. but i really do see it as more than international education. and i want to make sure that we are able to decouple the sdgs from our global identity. because this is about what we do locally as well too. and this is what we do generally with the communities that we engage with. we can move this agenda forward when we're working together; when we're working collectively, when we're working as partners. one of the sdgs is about partnership. it's one of the most critical ones. number 17, it's the last one, but it's really the first one. it's where it all starts. and we need to be doing that with people and communities all over the world and in ways that are very reciprocal and transformational, and not necessarily about what we're getting out of it, but it's about what we're doing together. q: i know that notion of ‘together.’ people often say that. but how do we foster equitable partnerships? i think that is a major challenge if your vision is to really have these reciprocal relationships; this transformation of what we have been doing. how do we really foster this as a part of your vision and furthering the work? kahn: i think it's an area where we can contribute. it is in our office’s dna, thanks to the work of people like susan buck sutton. but i do think we must work hand-in-hand with offices of community engagement. we should probably need to have more really good conversations. and now that i'm talking to you, we should do an event, specifically about that—community, reciprocal, transformational bi-directional partnerships. what does that really mean? how do you develop these? because it's one thing to say you do it and it's another thing to actually do it. too often we end up falling back on those darn categories, you've got those darn binaries that you need to undo. and i think in many ways that's what's lovely about the sustainable development goalsis that it's not about binaries out the system. it's about how this is all connected and holistic, and integrated, iterative, integrated and interdependent. q: you mention the interdisciplinary and the iterative. those are two words and ‘engage ‘we will probably ask you to elaborate for just our everyday readers. because it is a journal for supporting faculty and staff and students, but it is also for our community. and so when you talk about interdisciplinary work and iterative work, those are not necessarily words some of our folks out in the community would use. can you say a little bit more about what the two words mean? kahn: well, it's not linear. right? it's not about even having even a preordained sense of where you're going. it’s about letting the collective knowledge production be the direction. it's about allowing the empirical to speak. don't ask me to define that one either. q: but i am tracking with you. that is our tag line for engage! co-created knowledge, serving. kahn: it’s about serving, but it's allowing the process to direct you. and so many people are uncomfortable with that lack of direction. unless are goals are truly collectively articulated, then there will always be the power differential. you see quite a bit on that international level when we're talking about international partnerships and locally too. you have a big power house like indiana 11 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 i n t e r v i e w | k a h n engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 12 university and iupui, working with communities. it's tough to truly focus on the collective and to do things together, and even when you try and even when you have the best intentions, it's still very difficult. so you must constantly be checking yourself, constantly going back and re-learning and rethinking and reeducating and making mistakes and recognizing that this is a process, an iterative process that will never be fully completed. the sustainable development goals, there is not an end point, even though we have a lot of metrics and so on. it's a process. and it will constantly be a process, making the world a better place. it always can be better. there's always room for advancement. there’s not a best. there will never be a best place. even the term ‘best practices,’ there's no such thing as a ‘best practice.’ there's a lot of promising practices that we should adhere to. but there's always room for improvement. and the interdisciplinary nature is just so key. we can't do this by ourselves. we can't pick your profession, your discipline. we have to do this collectively too. and i think global learning and community engagement recognizes that. the sustainable development goals clearly recognize that. this must be done with as many different perspectives, with as many different ideas with as many different theories and methods and forms of practice and different ways of doing things, and different ways of interpreting things. that's how you learn, right? and we've learned that too. that's where you are creative. that's where you're nimble. that's where you're the most skilled. that's where you’re better is when you're working together. q: better together. you talked about being nimble, it made me think about how many times within our disciplines we are not necessarily nimble. sometimes we are very confined. kahn: the other day we were talking about our cultural lenses through which we see the world but disciplinary lenses, oh my goodness! i mean, that’s another great example of how we're enculturated into a thought process that we're not even aware of it. it’s so tacitit’s why it can be so difficult to teach disciplinary thinking. q: sometimes it is about the teaching-not necessarily supporting the learning. . . . this disciplinary lens is enculturated just like you said. yes, it is all these, there are all these theories. the theories. kahn: i think there's a misunderstanding that interdisciplinary work is somehow a threat to the disciplines. but i think it actually makes you a better disciplinary thinker. it makes you stronger. if you're able to strengthen that positionality through diversity. it isnt’ just about gender equity, but about poverty, about cleaner cities, about education,. . . it is about social work, anthropology, and public health. q: is it about intersectionality? kahn: yes, it’s about intersectionality. and that's the only part about the sdgs that kind of irks me sometimes. it’s those darn boxes. they're beautiful, but they're not meant to stay in boxes, right? they should come up with something elsepuzzle pieces perhaps. q: there is another diagram that i wanted to put next to this interview column. and i looked at the ones with the boxes. i liked how they had a little definition with each one. but the boxes. . . kahn: that's not the point. and that's why i always have a hard time, like what could we do to scale this up? should we have a theme for the campus? should we choose a goal and then we can all focus on that. i'm not against that. but again, i just don't think that this is about choosing a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s i n t e r v i e w | k a h n 13 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s a particular global issue. it's might be about focusing on one, but then always recognizing the interconnections between them. which is why it's such a powerful curricular piece too. and such a powerful research device as well. actually, the grant that we are collaborating with ovcr [the office of the vice chancellor for research] on is requiring the proposals to cover at least two of the goals. so again, that interdependence, whether it's between goals; between local and global, whether it's between partners-that's so critical to what we do. it is also critical for us to translate our work at iupui, all of the work, from research, to service, to teaching, into the lexicon of the sdgs. because what we found out a year and a half ago when we were starting this work in early 2020, was that nobody really knew what the sdgs were-maybe about half of them. but then when you started to outline all the 17 different sdgs: about gender equality and healthy lives and ending hunger and ending poverty and so on. then they were all like, ‘oh, well, of course i do that.” and then it ratcheted up to something like 90 percent were contributing to the sdgs in one way or another, but they just weren't doing it in the lexicon of the sdgs. and so ian mcintosh, in our office, is actually working in this area and translating what we do at iupui into the vocabulary of the sdgs. and so we're going to keep working on that. we are currently doing this school-by-school but we do need to do it more systematically. we need to start developing a more formal inventory. institutions of higher education are doing that. i just received something from uc davis. it was so beautiful. they are really doing such great work and have great support. and i think we have that at iupui as well. we've got great support, but we need to ratchet this up a bit. we need an “all in” approach. having an all in approach includes connecting more with business. the business communities in central indiana and beyond, care about this work, and they need research to support it. i think there's many, many more businesses that are committed to this work than people would ever know. some of the biggest advocates for this work are coming out of our business community. and that includes businesses and ceos in central indiana. there's the un global compact. that is where businesses and institutions sign on to a sustainability agenda. and two of the biggest, cummins and lilly, are signed onto it. they represent an important cornerstone of scaling up this work. q: are us foreign policies impacting other nations around the world as to global health and wellness? kahn: let me just say this--that nothing that we do in the united states or, i think anywhere, is done in isolation. and everything that is done, from policies to our practices, to our preferences, to our various different commodities, we do not do it in isolation, there is always a ripple effect. and it ripples in ways that i think we can't even ascertain. we have no idea. that's why i think one of the problems, just generally a foreign policy, not just us foreign policy, but all policies, all everything- is that it's so hard to really understand the ripple effect. and we all can think of so many different examples of when we've created a new policy or a new approach or a new law thinking that we are going to be stamping out this, or helping in this area when in fact, we are completely blind to what it's doing and other areas. and i guess this comes down to need to be thinking holistically, systemically, about the interdependence of it all. and that's a skill set though that we don't learn. we are taught to think as individuals. we're taught to think in isolation. we're taught to think about categories. we learn to think within disciplines. were taught to think about the present, and not engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 14 necessarily the future either. so the more that we can be thinking-across our boundaries, across our borders, across all our different policies and practices and the different phenomenon that we encounter on a regular basis, then the more apt and the more able we might be able to think about that impact of our policies. so that's how i'd be answering that question. it's hard though. how are we supposed to know? i think about if we can at least know-see those connections, then we'll start to understand that we need to be thinking about the longer-term impact. it goes back down to the sense of responsibility, right? if we're only thinking about ourselves; and if we're only thinking about our own geographic territories, or if we're only thinking about one problem and one issue, then our ability to think more broadlyto have a responsibility that transcends oneself and one's localized sense of who they are is severely limited. we need to be having a broader sense of self, a global sense a global sense of the united states, a global sense of indiana. and that's how we make change. ultimately that's how we make the world a better place. q: and that's how we ultimately make the world a better place. and it's never the best place. kahn: no! and what fun would that be anyway? 15 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 i n t e r v i e w | k a h n the business communities in central indiana and beyond care about this work, and they need research to support it. i think there's many, many more businesses that are committed to this work than people would ever know. a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s s vice chancellor's letter amy conrad warner social justice and peace in the time of covid the impact of a global pandemic rattles through a community like an earthquake; tremors spiking from the epicenter for months, years and perhaps decades. early u.s. reports of covid-19 in metropolitan areas described a non-discriminating villain suddenly sweeping like a plague through neighborhoods regardless of income, nationality, ethnicity, or gender. as we collected data, observed early death rates, and identified epicenters of infection, is this truly a non-discriminating virus? the covid-19 positivity rate in our county was nearly twice as high for blacks as for whites. the surgeon general said that people of color are not “biologically or genetically pre-disposed to get covid-19, but they are socially predisposed to coronavirus exposure.” among black residents, 34% are employed in essential jobs sectors at risk of exposure to the virus, compared to 26% of white workers. in our city, black residents live in denser neighborhoods than white residents, with crowding of the space per person leading to a higher prevalence of covid-19. the health disparities continue into hospitalizations and death rates as a result of covid19 at a higher rate for people of color than whites. as of october, the centers for disease control’s weighted national average of coronavirus death rates for latinos was 32.4%. this inequity will continue to spike without consideration of equitable actions. (savi-the inequalities behind covid-19 disparities for african americans in indianapolis) to reduce the concentration and spread of covid, educational institutions transformed learning to an online environment to reach learners at home. corporate headquarters sent employees home to work remotely. restaurants and bars closed, health care visits were reserved for emergency care rather than routine wellness visits, and minor colds and flu visits. sounds equal on the surface; we all simply learn and work from home doesn’t it? is this really equitable? according to the bureau of labor statistics, 8 out of 10 black workers in the united states cannot work from home due to their job functionality. in addition, 31% of black residents are without computers or the internet at home, compared to 16% of white residents, creating access to work and learning inequity which may impede future success. (savi-the inequalities behind covid-19 disparities for african americans in indianapolis) a nation of families responding to stay at home orders, social distancing and wearing protective gear followed news headlines and social media observing first-hand the abuse of force and racial inequities experienced by people of color like breonna taylor and george floyd in cities across the country. yet still nearly 25% of america’s families are black or hispanic and repeat “the talk” to their sons and daughters and pray for safety. (us census data 12.4% black and 12.5% hispanic) is our justice system equitable? are all citizens treated fairly and equally? what actions will be forthcoming to extend the american dream equitably to us all? peace and restorative justice are a pathway toward equity. i applaud the contributors to this issue of engage!. the stories unite bridge builders from the university with the community to address common issues and seek mutually beneficial outcomes. these co-creators of knowledge bring their lived experience, quantitative and qualitative data, policy advocacy and humanity to the table together to seek social justice and racial equity in the communities in which we live. c o n t e n t sacknowlegments engage! 6 vol. 1, issue 3 a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s r bienvenidos dr. khaula murtadha, editora reflejado a lo largo de este número de engage! celebratorio del bicentenario de indiana university, está el principio de democratización del conocimiento; conocimiento este que está en continuo desarrollo, como la noción misma de democracia. el número es un homenaje a indiana university y su compromiso con lo local. se describen aquí los diálogos comunitarios que han ocurrido en regiones urbanas y rurales del estado, así como las asociaciones para investigación que se han conformado entre el campus de iu y la comunidad. la investigación comprometida con la comunidad (cenr) es un enfoque en el que las relaciones recíprocas entre académicos y comunidades generan conocimientos relevantes al interés público y el enriquecimiento disciplinario. siguiendo este objetivo, se seleccionan los métodos de investigación comprometidos con la comunidad porque incrementan el conocimiento para el beneficio mutuo de todos aquellos comprometidos con el cambio social. la dra. ellen szarletta, directora del centro de excelencia urbana y regional (cure) de indiana university northwest señala en su artículo que “las relaciones entre la comunidad y la universidad deben ser fluidas y estar en constante evolución”. este número captura el dinamismo en la construcción y manutención de relaciones descolonizadoras --desde un miembro de la facultad trabajando en asociación con un individuo, hasta la descripción que hace la decano de la escuela de enfermería de iu, la dra. robin newhouse sobre un esfuerzo de colaboración altamente complejo entre agencias comunitarias cooperando con profesores universitarios, personal y estudiantes de posgrado para dar respuesta a la crisis de opioides. el objetivo final de la investigación comprometida con la comunidad, según strand, k., et al, (2003) es cambiar la sociedad “. . . para empoderar a los necesitados, ampliar las oportunidades y recursos para los desfavorecidos y mitigar las inequidades estructurales ”(p.184). este es un desafío para los investigadores que trabajan en la comunidad y la universidad. ¿pueden ellos alterar aspectos del funcionamiento económico, social o político-institucional o los contextos culturales? ¿podrán sus investigaciones colaborativas provocar o afectar el status quo? por ejemplo, el profesor john gallagher de iu south bend y un equipo de investigación están evaluando los tribunales especializados en drogas y difundiendo sus hallazgos de investigación a toda la comunidad a través de noticias locales, podcasts y conferencias públicas. ¡el éxito y desarrollo académico de los estudiantes de iu son la columna vertebral de todo lo que hacemos! kayla nunnally y los directores de centros de aprendizaje y servicio en todo el estado han encontrado formas de reunir y sumergir a nuestros estudiantes de iu en una labor de amor ofreciendo tutorías y mentorías a jóvenes entre 6º y 12º grado. el programa de “tutoría, mentoría y preparación para la universidad y vida profesional de iu-indiana kids”, involucra a nuestros estudiantes en experiencias que causan un impacto duradero tanto en quien recibe la mentoría, como en el mentor. mientras desarrollan habilidades para la tutoría a través del desarrollo profesional, los estudiantes de iu en pregrado y maestría en ciencias, artes liberales, ingeniería, educación son desafiados en cuanto a sus pre-concepciones sobre status socioeconómicos, y acerca de personas que hablan diversos idiomas o poseen diferentes referencias religiosas y culturales. las estudiantes del programa de doctorado en urban education studies de la escuela de educación de iu, latosha rowley y susan kigamwa, enfatizan en “speaking up, speaking out” la importancia del espacio compartido para el diálogo. para ellas, los espacios comunitarios se convierten en lugares donde se genera confianza y se escuchan múltiples interpretaciones a problemas que son críticos para la comunidad, en la misma medida que les ayudan a traducir la teoría a la práctica. estas estudiantes se están convirtiendo en líderes, decididas a tener un impacto positivo a través de la investigación. a menudo se dice que las grandes naves giran lentamente, pero con el 80% de residentes de indiana viviendo a una distancia promedio de una hora en automóvil de los campus de iu, estamos persistentemente haciendo la diferencia a través de nuestro compromiso de democratizar la investigación, la enseñanza y la actividad creativa, atendiendo colaborativamente a los intereses y necesidades de las muchas comunidades diversas a las cuales servimos. 5 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 what does justice mean to you? c.r : justice is a joke; it’s a money and power game. the more influence you have, the more a just system will be in your favor. it means that whoever is wrong or right in the eyes of the law, of somebody else’s eyes or dang near in the eyes of god can and will be seen as innocent with enough connections, money, time in a subject, or overall influence. i know it’s a warped way of viewing if but i’ve never seen a just society outside of new zealand, and that’s a stretch. j.r :justice is fairness and the people should get what they deserve both good and bad. but who determines what’s fair? that’s the question. if you do crime then you should be punished no matter who you are. what a young people’s concerns about the future? c.r : i’d say in terms of concerns, it’s the environmental and economic situation that’s been going downhill since before your generation. since i was a kid i’ve heard that global warming will get to an irreversible point by 2050 and a large part of the planet will be practically uninhabitable because of the heat and the rising sea levels (like most of california just being gone and stuff) and the prices of housing and living expenses increasing without pay increasing equally. most people in my generation are firmly convinced that because of large companies like the oil barons there won’t be much when we “grow up” and cause of student debt or low paying jobs actually buying and paying off houses is not going to be available in our lifetime, myself included. j.r : we are all gonna die because the generation before us are wasting everything. there’s a food shortage and with no food we die. people are destroying the environment which is causing climate change and we die. what needs to change to address environmental injustices, inequities, and inequalities? c.r :the only major way of changing it is by doing what europe is working on, which is going green completely or using safer forms of energy. have the multi-billion, dollar energy and automotive industry put their profits towards renewable energy before the decade is over and going away from oil e n v i r o n m e n t a l p o l i c y speaking up and speaking out: youth voices on environmental justice a discussion with two young black men to hear their voices and concerns about justice. c.r is a sophomore attending an urban university in the midwest and j.r is a junior attending an urban high school in the midwest engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 60 e n v i r o n m e n t a l p o l i c y and coal completely, or by a significantly smaller margin then where we are right now. j.r : our planet is dying. our society has to change and care about people. it doesn’t seem like it is getting better and it will only get better when people change. closing comments? c.r :i guess our generations are very nihilistic but for pretty real reasons. young people are on the same page about what is happening and many are so unhappy. the standard of leadership has really dropped. our society is morally decaying, our kids will have very little to enjoy from communal life. we cannot afford the life our parents lived. j.r :it’s just not getting better. we need good leaders to make decisions and to lead people in the right way. that doesn’t seem like it’s gonna happen any time soon. reflecting on these youth voices it’s obvious that our youth are angry about the lack of concern in protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people. rightfully so. adults have made decisions that have caused so many problems. if we are going to solve problems we must include youth voice and really take the time to listen to them and understand their stories, hopes, and dreams. we, as adults. must hear youth voices and concerns without making judgements or assumptions of right or wrong. in listening to these two young black males about their concern about environmental injustices i realize that we cannot just put a band-aid on the climate justice problems because the bleeding problems are beyond a band-aid. we are in a state of emergency. in emergency life or death situations, we need a tourniquet that is used to apply pressure that will stop the bleeding. therefore, collectively, we must put pressure on decision-makers and legislators to demand a focus on ensuring the wellbeing of all people, the sustainability of the land, and equitable access to education, economic stability, and meaningful employment, so that all people, not just the wealthy elite, will benefit from a healthy livelihood. the vicious cycle of living hand to mouth must be stopped. this erosion of soil and our souls must be stopped. the only solution is to embrace life and protect the earth with life-sustaining solutions. collaboration of the youth and the elders to share knowledge from the past and experiences of the present to create policies and practices that protect everyone from toxic environments. climate justice is everyone’s responsibility. everyone must have a passion for preserving life by reducing our carbon footprints. together, we must find solutions to save our planet and save ourselves. we must have a commitment to protect future generations. making preventative healthy decisions must start now if we want to create a cleaner and healthier environment. demanding leaders who are passionate about changing policies and practices to stop abuse, harm, and destruction of our environment must become our mission in life. the oppression on marginalized, underserved populations in a capitalistic economy must stop. we must stop focusing on consumption by relying on greener solutions that save lives, make changes, and ensure hope for a better tomorrow. 61 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 serving those who have served: creative arts for veterans engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 30 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d authors lauren daugherty arts-based wellness experiences manager, todd burkhardt director of campus partnerships at indiana university center for rural engagement keywords: art therapy, veterans, rural, wellness, museums, outreach abstract this paper discusses creative arts for veterans (cav), a program launched in 2021 to connect veterans across the state of indiana with the healing power of the arts. a collaboration between the sidney and lois eskenazi museum of art, the indiana university center for rural engagement, and various community veteran and arts partners, creative arts for veterans utilizes therapeutically informed arts-based approaches to assist veterans and their families in promoting general health and wellbeing. the origins of the pilot project, new adaptations and directions for programming, the overall approach to the program, program goals, and specific examples of programming are discussed. introduction transitioning from almost 30 years of activeduty military service to becoming a civilian, todd burkhardt, director of campus partnerships at the indiana university center for rural engagement, struggled with finding a sense of purpose and in many ways felt alienated. during this time of transition, lauren daugherty, arts-based wellness experiences manager and art therapist at the sidney and lois eskenazi museum of art at indiana university bloomington, invited todd and a group of center for rural engagement staff to an open studio wellness experience (figure 1). todd had not engaged with art since high school but was drawn to the intentionality of artmaking because of this experience. he found it was a way he could express himself through nonverbal means and lessened some of the difficult feelings he was experiencing during this time of transition. he thought, “if art can somehow assist me, maybe it could also assist other veterans who are struggling.” indiana ranks 16th in the nation in veteran population size, and many veterans in the state reside in rural communities that may not have adequate access to mental health care or other forms of support in promoting their well-being. managing the mental and emotional stress of a demanding workload, deployments, uncertainty, combat experiences, and the commonly upheld values of stoicism, stability, and endurance present in the military profession, with that of new and changing career and family dynamics upon returning to civilian life can be overwhelming. veterans and their families need tools to address these concerns. vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 31 the arts are one way to support veterans who are dealing with these and other stressors. art therapy has been found to effectively assist veterans in identifying and expressing internal thoughts and emotions, developing a sense of safety, and fostering improved communication leading to improved interpersonal relationships (jones, drass & kaimal, 2019). with these benefits of art therapy in mind, lauren and todd developed creative arts for veterans (cav), a program promoting general health and wellbeing for veterans and their families across the state by connecting them with the healing power of the arts. in early 2021, the program launched with a pilot 8-week virtual art therapy group held synchronously with an in-person location at the elks lodge in rushville, indiana, for those with limited internet access. participants ranged from heir mid-thirties to early fifties and had served in the army or marines. they were all veterans of either the war in iraq or afghanistan or both. seventy percent of those that participated were women. participants were mailed art kits with all art supplies necessary to successfully participate in the group. participants engaged in thinking routine exercises with works of art from the eskenazi museum collection, created their own works of art using art supplies such as air-dry clay, oil pastels, and colored pencils and shared their experiences with one another verbally. the group served as a way to expose veterans to different art mediums they may not have used before. some veterans favored certain art materials and reported they bought more of those specific materials to use figure 1. todd burkhardt, director of campus partnerships at the indiana university center for rural engagement uses a purple marker to fill in a pre-drawn mandala during a wellness workshop at the eskenazi museum of art.  figure 2. lauren daugherty cuts out a magazine image to use as collage material for an affirmation trading card. engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 32 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d on their own in between sessions and after the conclusion of the group experience. regardless of location, participants in this pilot program reported a decrease in isolation and an increase in their ability to identify and regulate emotions following the series. participants also reported strong desires to meet in person and to have fewer sessions with longer time frames for artmaking and discussion. a major success of this pilot program was its ability to reach women veterans. women make up 7% of indiana’s veteran population and account for 20% of current u.s. military members. women veterans in rural communities are often even more isolated and marginalized than their male counterparts, making reaching women veterans a necessary component of cav programming. according to military times magazine, “four out of five wounded women veterans reported feelings of loneliness, isolation, and disconnect from their peers.” (shane, 2021). several factors can account for this isolation and disconnect in disabled female veterans and non-disabled female veterans as well. social work today reports female veterans can struggle with their mental health due to sexual assaults that occur during their time in the service, can experience social bias about being away from the home for deployments, and other traumas (dripchak, n.d.). while conceptualizing the pilot art therapy group, todd and lauren were connected to melissa bellanceau, a retired marine who recently completed her master's degree in social work and found peace in creating art following her military retirement. utilizing a grassroots approach, melissa was able to help todd and lauren recruit women veterans in her community for this initial program. based on feedback from participants in the pilot group, todd and lauren began to think about how they could shift from an art therapy approach to an arts-based wellness model with more emphasis on community engagement with local veteran and arts organizations. the changes made following the initial art therapy pilot group reflect participant feedback and observations from todd and lauren. moving away from the telehealth model and prioritizing in-person programming was a major change made in the program, reflecting participants' strong desire to meet in person. in addition, lauren noticed the members of the group that met in person at the elks lodge in rushville, indiana, for this pilot group due to lack of internet access at their home appeared to have a stronger bond as evidenced by the amount of support they gave one another verbally before, during, and after each group. in-person programming would allow all members of a group to develop stronger bonds and support one another in ways that telehealth does not allow. another major change was the shift from an 8-week group model to one-day experiences. following the pilot group, todd and lauren discussed possible reasons for a few participants not attending more than one group meeting or coming for a portion of the 8-week group and not returning. while these participants did not provide feedback about this, other group members reported they had a desire to meet less often but for longer periods of time. because of this feedback, todd and lauren speculated that the 8-week group model could have been too much of a commitment for participants. a workshop model would allow participants an introduction to art-based approaches to support their mental wellbeing without too much of a time commitment. the initial program has grown into a catalog of options that include one-day or partial-day workshops, presentations, and family-focused events to support reintegration with a holistic approach. all events utilize therapeutically informed arts-based approaches in communitybased settings that are co-developed with partner 33 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d organizations. considering the interests of each community organization and information the organizations know about the veterans in their communities, lauren tailors art-making experiences to fit specific needs, making each iteration of a cav program unique. while lauren facilitates the artmaking experiences, todd attends each cav program as a participant, providing feedback that allows for continual improvement in the overall program, methodologies, and artbased wellness experiences. todd also believes that artmaking plays a vital role in his mental health and wellbeing and can provide a firsthand account of his experiences with various art media to veterans that might be hesitant to engage fully in the artmaking processes offered. art-making experiences use a variety of art materials to meet the specific needs of each group. in the fall of 2021, cav partnered with the center for veteran and military students at indiana university bloomington to provide an arts-based experience. participants ranged in age from early twenties to early thirties and had served in the army or were currently serving in the indiana national guard. some participants had multiple combat deployments to iraq or afghanistan, and a few had not deployed yet. participants in this group were mostly male. the art-based wellness event focused on the japanese art of kintsugi. kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with gold. the philosophy and process treat breakage and repair as part of the history of an object and something that should be celebrated rather than something to disguise. participants in the program broke a ceramic object and glued the pieces back together with epoxy and gold mica powder to replicate the gold used in the traditional japanese art form. during artmaking, the group shared military stories and experiences, engaged in discussion about visible and hidden wounds, and connected their experiences as veterans with the kintsugi process and philosophy. each veteran's experience is unique, containing specific struggles, setbacks, challenges, and triumphs. the process of kintsugi epitomizes this by bringing awareness to and celebrating the beauty in imperfection. in january of 2022, cav partnered with vet2vet, a nonprofit organization based in vigo county to host an initial arts-based experience for members of a monthly veteran support group. participants were all male and ranged in age from late thirties to late seventies. they had served in the army, marines, or air force and many had deployments to vietnam, iraq, or afghanistan. others had deployments to kuwait. the group began by looking at and talking about a work of art by a veteran artist in the eskenazi museum’s collection, bird watcher (1941) by john graham. an image of the work of art can be found using the eskenazi museum’s collections online resource. graham was a veteran of world war i where he served as a cavalry officer for the russian imperial army. several participants responded to the colors in the image stating they reflected feelings of anger, anxiety, and turmoil, while other participants more generally related the image to their experiences seeing injured soldiers in combat or other components of their time deployed overseas. some responded to the flatness of the figure depicted in the image connecting the flat facial features to each veteran's experience is unique, containing specific struggles, setbacks, challenges, and triumphs. the process of kintsugi epitomizes this by bringing awareness to and celebrating the beauty in imperfection. engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 34 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d numbness or voids present in their current lives. participants questioned the intention of the artist stating they wondered if this image was reflective of his internal state because of his time in the service. following the looking exercise, participants created affirmation trading cards using collage and other 2d materials (figure 2). the cards consisted of positive messages of support they could share with another veteran or keep for themselves. using collage in therapeutically informed art-based groups can be especially beneficial when working with a wide range of ages and abilities. “the art materials of glue, magazine images, and scrap paper are generally accessible, and many people are able to cut, tear, and adhere selected images to complete a collage” (chilton & scotti, 2014, p.163). working in collage also allows for the creation of metaphors through the imagery selected, often leading to new insights or discoveries about a certain situation or experience (chilton & scotti, 2014). after this art wellness event, stacy birk, m.s.w., vet2vet director stated, "cav provided an inspiring art activity that opened up the thinking process of how we deal with trauma. this program provides another outlet for our veteran population to learn coping skills when dealing with trauma from the past alongside current stressors in their life. it was amazing to see the interaction between the creative arts team and the veterans who attended the coffee and chat peer group. it was a positive experience that focuses on how to use art as an outlet for emotional issues." art materials and instructions on how to replicate this activity were left with vet2vet facilitators to use in additional support groups forming in other counties across the state. todd and lauren are currently working to connect vet2vet with a local arts organization that can provide additional artsbased programming. in april of 2022, cav partnered with the indiana department of veterans affairs for its women veterans wellness retreat which was held at the abe martin lodge at brown county state park. participants were all female and ranged in age from early thirties to late sixties. they served in the army, navy, marines, or air force and many had combat deployments to iraq or afghanistan. katy wagner, an art therapy graduate student at herron school of art and design developed and led this program alongside todd. the group used an array of textiles, embellishments, and militaryinspired materials to create personalized mixedmedia collages. the surface used was a 14 inch cardboard round chosen to represent wholeness. the art experience was an opportunity to play, explore, and create in a supportive group setting. a study conducted in 2011 by ann futterman collier found that women that worked often in textiles such as fiber making, sewing, or quilting, reported improved moods. while the group did not sew or quilt, this activity served as an introduction to working with textiles, a new art medium that many had not worked with before. the goal of each cav program is not only to serve as a point of connection amongst participants but to introduce different forms of art-making in hopes that participants will continue making art after the events conclude. there was a lot of positive feedback from veterans about this event that ranged from: "it was wonderful being with fellow women veterans," to "i needed a getaway, some time to quiet my mind from the issues and concerns at home and the world. i could go to my/a happy place!,” and “connected to my inner peace. thank you.” after multiple iterations of art programming for and with veterans, the sense of connectedness and community across veterans cannot be overstated. conversations were light-hearted, often about 35 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d family or learning about each other's time in the service. these wellness experiences provided a venue not only to engage with various art modalities but to connect with their veteran brothers and sisters. commonalities were easily found with other veterans. regardless of their military occupational skill (job), where they were stationed, or what branch of service or years they had served in, they have shared lived experience. because of this experience, there is implicit trust and veterans share war stories, triumphs, and struggles with other veterans. our hope is that through these events, those veterans share contact information with each other to remain connected and continue developing bonds with each other upcoming programs in the late spring and summer of 2022 include several partnerships with horse stables, including anam cara stables in laporte, indiana, and people and animal learning services and lauren will be co-facilitating programs with equine-assisted psychotherapists to connect artsbased wellness activities like the ones mentioned previously with the healing presence of horses to promote a sense of safety, connection, and resiliency among the veterans who participate. regardless of their military occupational skill (job), where they were stationed, or what branch of service or years they had served in, they have shared lived experience. because of this experience, there is implicit trust and veterans share war stories, triumphs, and struggles with other veterans. our hope is that through these events, those veterans share contact information with each other to remain connected and continue developing bonds with each other. figure 3. veterans design various personalized textile, mixed-media collages. engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 36 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d working with horses in a therapeutic way with trained facilitators "heals and integrates the brain, develops self-awareness and self-regulation, and empowers people to build the kinds of relationships we all need" (doran, 2021). by working with horses, individuals gain knowledge of how to build relationships that they can then transfer to their daily lives (doran, 2021). the artmaking portion of these experiences will focus on using tactile 3d materials like recycled military uniforms to create large-scale weavings and natural materials to create mandalas focusing on ideas of transformation, impermanence, and letting go. mandalas have been found to improve mood, specifically drawing or creating within the circle shape. rather than using pre-drawn mandala patterns, participants in these programs will be creating their own patterns within a circle using natural materials (sticks, rocks, flowers, leaves, etc.) to form their mandalas (campenni and hartman, 2019). utilizing these tactile materials as well as having other tactile experiences such as using fabric to weave or create collages has the ability to stimulate specific regions of the brain that can help treat trauma (homer, 2015) while lauren will lead these initial arts-based wellness experiences, the goal of cav is to connect interested organizations like vet2vet with community arts organizations or other arts professionals in their communities to continue arts-based programming. these arts organizations will provide programming based on their area of expertise, which could include music, visual art, drama, creative writing, and other artistic media, to expose veterans to different art modalities, providing a sense of connection, and establishing a supportive environment where veterans can express themselves. since future programs will not always be led by a trained art therapist or other mental health professionals, it is also a goal to provide toolkits to community organizations hosting programs with mental health resources and guidance on what to do should a veteran need to seek additional professional help. as creative arts for veteran programming expands, lauren and todd plan to utilize the resources at indiana university to allow graduate art therapy students or students in other disciplines to lead arts-based groups, find community partner connections, and provide other general program support. creative arts for veterans is a notable example of the ways we can activate resources shared across indiana—including higher education, state and local programs, and nonprofits—to improve the lives of rural residents who have dedicated their service to our country. 37 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 d a u g h e r t y & b u r k h a r d t | s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o h a v e s e r v e d references "bird watcher | collections online." collections online. sidney and lois eskenazi museum of art, indiana university, 2020. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/ collections-online/browse/object.php?number=69.86.3 campenni, c. e., & hartman, a. (2019). the effects of completing mandalas on mood, anxiety, and state mindfulness. art therapy: journal of the american art therapy association, 37(1): 25-33. chilton,g., & scotti, v. (2011). snipping, gluing, writing: the properties of collage as an artsbased research practice in art therapy. art therapy: journal of the american art therapy association, 31(4) 163-171. doran, s. (2021, december 6). the healing power of connection. natural lifemanship. https://naturallifemanship.com/ the-healing-power-of-connection/ dripchak,v. l., (n.d.). issues facing today's female veterans — 'feeling invisible and disconnected.’ social work today. 18(6), 24. retrieved april 10, 2022, from https://www.socialworktoday. com/archive/nd18p24.shtml homer, e. s., (2015). piece work: fabric collage as a neurodevelopmental approach to trauma treatment. art therapy: journal of the american art therapy association, 32(1), 20-26. jones, j. p., drass, j. m., & kaimal, g. (2019). art therapy for military service members with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury: three case reports highlighting trajectories of treatment and recovery. the arts in psychotherapy, 63, 18-30.   shane iii, l. (2021, march 12). wounded women veterans face higher levels of loneliness, isolation: report. military times. https://www. militarytimes.com/education-transition/2021/03/12/ wounded-women-veterans-face-higher-levels-of-loneliness-isolation-report/ vol. 1, issue 1 vol. 1, issue 1 engage! 2019 vol. 1 no. 1 https://doi.org/10.18060/22817 copyright © 2019 author(s). this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. a mixed-methods, community-based study to identify predictors of depression in latino adolescents by gender silvia m. bigatti, virna diaz, katrina k. conrad, michelle ramirez, and tess d. weathers abstract latino adolescent depressive symptoms are a growing national problem. in this mixed-method, community-based participatory research study we quantitatively examined predictors of depression known to impact adolescent mental health that are amenable to interventions. concurrently, we qualitatively assessed parents’ perceptions of mental health problems in children, their causes and potential solutions. the data from parents (n = 108) was obtained in focus groups led in spanish, and the data from the majority of adolescents (n = 86) was obtained in english language surveys. among the adolescents there was an even representation of males (47.7%) and females (52.3%), mage = 15.24 (sd = 1.97). nearly half (47.7%) of the adolescents were experiencing minor depression and one in ten (10.5%) were experiencing major depression according to their scores on the 9item patient health questionnaire (phq-9). adolescent participants reported low acculturative stress, average social support, and high mastery, as well as highly functional families. males reported higher self-mastery than females and lower acculturative stress. predictors of depression differed by gender. for males, self-mastery predicted lower depressive symptoms; for females acculturative stress predicted higher depressive symptoms. the focus groups with parents supported and expanded quantitative findings. the parents demonstrated a keen awareness of depression in teens and their own contributions to the problem, including their efforts to maintain their culture of origin, which may contribute to their teens’ acculturative stress. parents also reported difficulties knowing what steps to take and finding resources. the additional dimension of parental voice is often missing from studies of adolescents, and here it clarified many of the issues identified in the teens. these findings suggest the need to focus on mental health in this population, potentially developing differential interventions by gender and taking a family systems approach. keyword: depression, acculturative stress, selfmastery, latino adolescents, gender. introduction in the united states, more than four-in-ten latinos can be found in 10 metropolitan areas, six of which are located in california and texas (brown & lopez, 2013). however, the latino population has been establishing roots in other communities across the country. from the year 2000 to 2011, among the 60 https://doi.org/10.18060/22817 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 86 metropolitan areas with the largest growth in latino population, indianapolis, indiana saw the highest increase at 197% this represents a growth from 33,290 to 84,466 in that decade alone (brown & lopez, 2013). many of those that arrived in indiana during those years settled in the state and started families. among the then 426,000 individuals who identified as latino in the whole state, 32% were foreign born, and 76% were of mexican origin, 8% puerto rican, 6% central american, 2% cuban/dominican, 2% south american, and 6% other (strange, 2013). the average age of the foreign born subgroup was 36, and the average age of the us born was 16 (pew research center, 2014). these latino parents are now facing the challenges of raising adolescents in a culture and environment different from their own, and far from extended family support. in these newer migration destinations for the latino population, latino parents cannot depend on the resources and connections present in communities with long-established latino populations, and are more likely to have unmet needs, especially parenting support. this is a problem given the mental health needs identified in indiana teens, and latino teens in particular. specifically, compared to the us as a whole (11.9%), a higher percentage of indiana youth (14.6%) experienced a major depressive episode in 2014 (samhsa, 2015). a 2015 report from the youth risk behavior survey (yrbs) identified higher rates of suicide attempts in latino youth (15.5%) in the previous year compared to their non-hispanic white peers (8.7%) (cdc, 2015). these data point to a serious problem for latino youth, one that vd, the community partner, and sb and her team, the academic partners, decided to explore jointly given their shared interests in the wellbeing of this population. we sought to identify predictors of depression in latino youth, as a first step in developing community-based prevention programs. we examined intrapersonal factors (acculturative stress, mastery) and interpersonal factors (social support, family functioning) known to impact adolescent mental health in general and to be amenable to interventions. acculturative stress may contribute to depressive symptoms among the teens who are themselves immigrants or have immigrant parents (lawton & gerdes, 2014; lorenzo-blanco, unger, baezcondegarbanai, ritt-olson, & soto, 2012; roche & kuperminc, 2012). acculturative stress is the stress experienced as individuals go through the process of acculturation and adjustment between their native cultural values and customs and the mainstream american customs and cultural values (lawton & gerdes, 2014; stein, gonzalez & huq, 2012). for these teens, acculturation to the us may happen more quickly than for their parents, potentially causing problems at home (cox jr., zapata roblyer, merten, shreffler & schwerdtfeger, 2013; lawton & gerdes, 2014). latino parents cannot depend on the resources and connections present in communities with long-established latino populations, and are more likely to have unmet needs, especially parenting support. this is a problem given the mental health needs identified in indiana teens, and latino teens in particular. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 87 teens experiencing acculturative stress may be at risk for depression; yet a well-functioning family, as well as self-mastery and social support, may be protective (kuperminc, wilkins, roche & alvarezjimenez, 2009; lorenzo-blanco et al., 2012). a family that is strong and cohesive will not only protect against stress and depression, but may be less likely to contribute to stress, especially acculturative stress (dillon, de la rosa & ibañez, 2013). teens high in selfmastery are more likely to see stressors as temporary events that they will be able to overcome, and are less likely to experience depression. social support is instrumental to mental health and protective against depression for youth (rueger, malecki, pyun, aycock & coyle, 2016). low peer, family and school social support are associated with suicidal ideation and attempts in youth (miller, esposito-smythers & leichtweis, 2015). during adolescence especially, females face higher risk for depressive symptoms than males overall (mojtabai, olfson & han, 2016). moreover, adolescent latina females are more likely to suffer from more severe depressive symptoms than their male counterparts, and are more likely to attempt suicide than any other race and ethnicity (lorenzo-blanco et al., 2012), thus gender is an important factor to investigate when considering the mental health outcomes of latino adolescents (lorenzo-blanco et al., 2012). therefore, in the present study we examined depressive symptoms among latino teens in an emerging latino community, focusing on gender differences, acculturative stress, and protective factors, such as family support. we assessed parents because parental perceptions are key to understanding youth mental health issues (miller, esposito-smythers & leichtweis, 2015). methods community-based participatory research (cbpr) the present study was conducted using a community-based participatory research (cbpr) approach. cbpr “equitably involves all partners … with a research topic of importance to the community with the aim of combining knowledge and action for social change to improve community health and eliminate health disparities” (wallerstein & duran, 2010, p. s40). we employed several key principles of community-based research as described by israel and colleagues (1998). first, we developed the study collaboratively after discussing the challenges that indiana latinos face. once the study was developed, the entire team built upon the strengths of the community partner in terms of knowledge about the community and their existing cadre of community contacts for recruitment purposes. throughout the duration of the study, both the community partner and the academic partners were actively engaged and included in all phases of research. both the community partner and academic partners conceptualized and wrote this manuscript. the study described here was the first collaboration of this community-university partnership. the academic partners (sb, kc & tw) shared with imhc their interest in focusing on latino youth mental health after exploring statistics regarding this health disparity. the indiana minority health engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 88 coalition (imhc) facilitated the connection with the latino health organization. once we were introduced, we began to jointly explore the literature and decide on the focus and methodology of the study, which was funded by imhc. design the study employed a concurrent mixedmethods research design with different participants for each method of data collection. quantitative data were obtained from adolescent participants via several survey instruments, while at the same time complementary qualitative data were collected from parents in focus group sessions. these adolescent and parent study sessions were held simultaneously. the academic partners and the community partner were involved in data collection. recruitment following university irb approval, the community partner initiated recruitment. selfidentified latino adolescents and their parent(s) living in the indianapolis metropolitan area were eligible to participate. phone calls were made and/or letters were sent to clients of the community partner with adolescent children, requesting that only one adolescent per family participate, chosen by the parent. the community partner also sent flyers and letters to community centers or churches where she has pre-existing ties and approval. families who learned about the study through the flyers or letters and were interested in participating called the community partner and signed up for the study. eight meetings were planned and held in community locations in two counties, one urban, one suburban, over a time period of four months. each session lasted 60-90 minutes. consent and assent the study was thoroughly explained in spanish to parents and adolescents. opportunity was given to all potential participants to ask questions. a study information sheet was available for their convenience. it was made clear to both parents and adolescents that the responses that each gave would be treated as confidential and anonymous by the study team. a process of implied or passive assent/consent was employed; attendees who did not wish to participate following the study explanation were given the opportunity to leave the event. at this point, parents and adolescents were separated into different rooms in the facility to conduct the separate assessments. to participate, at least one parent and one teen per family had to voluntarily consent to be part of the study; however, in some cases both parents participated in the focus groups. study procedures adolescents no identifying information was collected from any participant, primarily to encourage adolescents to answer honestly without worry that their parents may discover how they answered. the researchers offered to each adolescent participant 1) written surveys in english or spanish, whichever they preferred, or 2) the option to have the survey questions read out loud (privately) in the case that there were any participants who had trouble reading or writing. eight (4 girls and 4 boys) completed surveys in spanish; none asked to have the surveys read to them. they were informed that they could ask any questions if needed, and also engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 89 stop if they felt tired or uncomfortable. on average, it took approximately 60-75 minutes to complete the questionnaires and participants received a $10 gift card for their time. kc managed the adolescent data collection with the help of research assistants. parents at the same time the adolescents were completing their questionnaires, parents participated in a focus group session. more than one parent per child could, and sometimes did, participate. members of the group were asked a variety of questions in spanish to explore their perspectives on the overall study theme of stress and sadness among latino adolescents. parents were asked to think of adolescents in general, including their own children and their children’s friends, to reduce fear of personal disclosure. questions included: 1) how much stress do you think adolescents are under, and why? 2) what does this stress look like in adolescents? (eg.: he/she cries frequently, sleeps too much, is not hungry, does not socialize) 3) what do you think is causing stress in adolescents? 4) what might parents do that causes more stress to their adolescent child? 5) what can parents do to help their adolescent child deal with stress? 6) how sad do you think adolescents are in general, and why? 7) how worried are you about the behavior of adolescents in their daily life environment, and why? 8) what specifically are adolescent children doing that worries you, and why? 9) how much do you think the new culture is related to the stress in latino adolescent children, and why? these focus group discussions were co-led in spanish-only by sb and vd. the choice of spanishonly was based on the community partner’s knowledge that adults in the latino community she serves are mostly limited english proficient. she informed parents of the language of the focus groups when she recruited them. mean number of parents per focus group was 13.5 (median = 13), with a low of 11 parents in one of the groups and a high of 15 parents in two of the groups. parents were told that they could stop participation at any time if they felt uncomfortable, and none were required to answer any of the questions. no identifying information or demographics were collected from parents on advice from the community partner (vd), to encourage participation, increase their comfort level with participation, and confirm the anonymous nature of participation. with participants’ consent, the discussions were audiorecorded for subsequent transcription. upon conclusion of each focus group, each parent received a $10 gift card as a token for participation. measures (for adolescents) demographics. the demographic form included age, gender, immigrant status (immigrant, first, or second generation), language most spoken engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 90 with friends, language most spoken with family, and proportion of latino friends. depression. to measure depression levels, the phq-9 (kroenke & spitzer, 2002) was utilized. the phq-9 is a 9-item instrument that measures different manifestations of depressive symptoms and has been validated in several languages, including spanish. the answers selected (on a 4-point scale) range from 0 = not at all to 3 = nearly every day. sample items include: “little interest or pleasure in doing things,” “feeling down, depressed, or hopeless,” and “feeling tired or having little energy.” scores range from 0 to 27 when computing raw scores. there are also cut-offs for depressive severity diagnostic categories. scores from 0 to 4 suggest minimal or no depression, 5 to 9 suggest mild depression, 10 to 14 suggest moderate depression, 15 to 19 suggest moderately severe depression, and scores from 20 to 27 suggest severe depression. in the literature, the phq-9 has been shown to be reliable. in a study of hispanic american women, the reliability was α = .84 in the sample who chose the english version and α =.85 in the sample who chose the spanish version (merz, malcarne, roesch, riley, & sadler, 2011). reliability in the present sample was α = .87 for the english version. acculturative stress. the social, attitudinal, familial, and environmental (safe) scale (mena, padilla & maldonado, 1987) was utilized to measure acculturative stress. the safe scale is a 24-item survey rated on a 5-point scale from 1 = not stressful to 5 = extremely stressful. sample items include: “it bothers me that family members i am close to do not understand my new values,” “it bothers me that i cannot be with my extended family,” and “i don’t feel at home in this country.” a ‘does not apply’ response option was also available, with a score of 0. thus, possible scores ranged from 0 to 120. in the literature, the safe scale has been shown to be reliable with α = .89 (mena et al, 1987). vd, sb and mr translated the safe into spanish. reliability in the present sample was α = .90 for the english version. social support. the child and adolescent social support scale (casss) (malecki, demaray & elliot, 2000) was utilized to measure perceived support from family and school. the casss consists of 60 items that may be broken down into five subscales of 12 items rated on a 6-point scale from 1 = never to 6 = always. subscales measure perceived social support from parents, teachers, class, school, and close friends. the full scale ranged from 60 to 360, with each subscale ranging from 12 to 72. sample items include: “my close friends understand my feelings,” “my teachers make sure i have what i need for school,” and “my parents show they are proud of me.” in the literature, the casss has been shown to be reliable with α = .96 (malecki & demaray, 2003). we used the full scale in the present study to preserve statistical power and to capture the totality of available support from all sources. vd, sb and mr translated the casss into spanish. reliability in the present sample was α = .97 for the english version. self-mastery. in order to measure self-mastery, pearlin and schooler’s (1978) self-mastery scale was utilized. the self-mastery scale is 7 total items that are scored on a 5-point scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. scores had possible ranges from 7 to 35. sample items include: “i have little control over the things that happen to me,” “i often feel helpless in engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 91 dealing with the problems of my life,” and “what happens to me in the future mostly depends on me.” in the literature, the self-mastery scale has been shown to be reliable with α = .74 -.75 (scheier, carver, & bridges, 1994). reliability for the spanish version has been reported at α = .74 (rini, wadhwa & sandman, 1999). reliability in the present sample was α = .80 for the english version. family functioning. the family apgar (smilkstein, 1978) was utilized to measure perceived family functioning. the family apgar consists of 5 items that are scored on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 = always to 5 = never. scores had possible ranges from 0 to 10. sample items include: “i am satisfied with the way my family and i share time together,” “i am satisfied that my family accepts and supports my wishes to take on new activities or directions,” and “i am satisfied that i can turn to my family for help when something is troubling me.” in the literature, the family apgar has shown to be reliable with α = .77 (gómez & ponce, 2010). the spanish version has shown reliability of α = .84 (bellon-saameno, delgadosanchez, luna del castillo, & lardelli-claret, 1996). reliability in the present sample was α = .86 for the english version. data analysis plan after each collection session, surveys were taken back to the academic team’s office where the results were securely entered into statistical software (ibm® spss® statistics). our first step was to describe the sample and the variables of interest, and determine relations among them. for this purpose, descriptive and bivariate analyses were completed for each collected measure. our second step was to determine what factors may explain depression and whether these differed by gender. for this purpose, regression analyses were used to examine predictors of depression and multivariate analyses of variance to compare males and females. a power-analysis for the regressions with g*power, alpha = .05, power = .80, four predictors indicated a needed sample size of 84 (faul, erdfelder, buchner & lang, 2009). focus groups were analyzed following a thematic approach (boyatzis, 1998). audiotaped focus group discussions were transcribed and translated verbatim by one of the authors (mr). independently, mr and sb identified themes, and then met to discuss the themes and reach agreement on the set of themes to be used. they each then coded the transcripts according to the themes. once the transcripts were coded, vd and kc verified the results. crosscomparisons of focus group results for consistency with findings from adolescent surveys are detailed below. results demographics our study sample consisted of 86 latino adolescents (mage = 15.24, sd = 1.97), and 108 parents. demographics were not collected from parents participating in focus groups at the recommendation of the community partner to increase participation and facilitate disclosure. the responses from adolescents show that all but 3 parents were foreign-born (see table 1). among the adolescent participants, there was even representation of males (47.7%) and females (52.3%). see table 1 for additional adolescent demographic information by gender; chi-square engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 92 analyses showed no differences by gender in any of these demographic variables. proxy measures of acculturation among the demographics, such as language spoken outside the home (english was between 82.2% and 91.1% of the sample in the present study) and choice of friends (mostly or all hispanic, between 57.7% and 68.3%), suggest that overall, this sample of adolescents was already acculturated. this is noteworthy given that most of the adolescents were foreign-born (68.9% for females, and 56.1% for males). table 1: demographic information by gender females (n=45) males (n=41) age mean=15.20 (sd=2.19) mean=15.29 (sd=1.72) immigrant status ¹ i was born outside us 68.9% 56.1% i was born inside us 28.9% 39% my parents and i were born in us 2.2% 4.9% ethnicity of friends ² mostly hispanic 53.3% 61% mostly not hispanic 35.6% 24.4% all hispanic 4.4% 7.3% all not hispanic 6.7% 7.3% language for survey english 91.1% 90.2% spanish 8.9% 9.8% language with friends english 82.2% 90.2% spanish 17.8% 9.8% language with family english 4.4% 4.9% spanish 95.6% 95.1% notes: ¹coded as born in us vs. not for analyses ²coded as all or most hispanic or not for analyses no statistically significant differences by gender on any of these variables. descriptive and bivariate analysis means and standard deviations for study variables by gender can be found in table 2. when examining cut-off scores for the phq-9, nearly half (47.7%) were experiencing minor depression and 10.5% were experiencing major depression. as a group, participants reported low acculturative stress, average social support and high mastery; they also reported highly functional families. boys and girls differed in self-mastery, f(1,84) = 6.89, p = .011, with boys scoring higher than girls. they also differed in acculturative stress, f(1,84) = 6.68, p = .010, with girls scoring higher than boys. table 2: correlations and means (sd) among study variables by gender females phq-9 safe cass mast apgar phq-9 depression (raw score) ♦ .679** -.306* -.302* -.268 safe – acculturative stress ♦ -.281 -.459** -.399** cassss – social support ♦ .069 .247 mas – self-mastery ♦ .061 apga – family functioning ♦ mean 7.8 37.33 129 24.26 7.58 sd 5.48 20.28 20.54 4.68 2.32 minimum 0 2 71 14 1 maximum 25 80 180 32 10 engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 93 males note. *p < .05; **p < .01 statistically significantly different means by gender: self-mastery (p = .011) and acculturative stress (p = .010) pearson correlations among variables are shown in table 2, separated by gender. in general, correlations were low to moderate for all variables; however, it is noteworthy that correlations among some variables differed in strength by gender. in order to determine whether the differences in correlations were statistically significant, we used fisher r-to-z transformation. with this approach we found that the correlations between depression and self-mastery were statistically significantly different by gender (z = 2.04, p = .04), as were the correlations between social support and family functioning (z = -2.72, p = .007). we also examined demographic variables and their relationship to depression. age was moderately correlated to depression (r = .32, p = .003); closer examination showed scores in depression ranged from a low of m = 3.44 (sd = 1.02) at age 12, to a high of m = 12.78 (sd = 2.59) at age 18, with fluctuating scores across ages. one-way analyses of variance examined differences in depression by gender, immigration status, and ethnicity of friends. females reported higher scores in depression than males, f(1,84) = 4.172, p = .044. when we examined males and females by severity of depression based on cut-off scores, females were more likely to be at least minimally depressed than males (73.3% compared to 41.5%; see table 3). there was no difference in phq-9 scores between those born in the us and those born outside the us, nor among those whose friends are mostly or all hispanic or not (p > .05). table 3: phq-9 depression diagnostic categories by gender diagnostic category female n (%) male n (%) minimal or no depression (score ranges 0-4) 12 (26.7) 24 (58.5) mild depression (score ranges 5-9) 19 (42.2) 8 (19.5) moderate depression (score ranges 10-14) 9 (20) 5 (12.2) moderately severe (score ranges 15-19) 4 (8.9) 2 (4.9) severe depression (score ranges 20-27) 1 (2.2) 2 (4.9) main quantitative analyses in order to examine the combined relationship of all predictor variables with depression, we ran regression analyses. separate regression analyses were run examining predictors of depression for each gender to examine strengths of association and prediction values between groups. for both males and females, depressive symptoms (total phq-9 scores), the dependent variable, were regressed onto the various predictors: acculturative stress (safe), social support (casss total scores), self-mastery, and family functioning (family apgar). the regression for females was statistically significant, f(4,40) = 9.09, p < phq9 safe cass mast apgar phq-9 depression (raw score) ♦ .485** -.430** .646** -.498** safe – acculturative stress ♦ -.250 -.671** -.273 cassss – social support ♦ .416** .697** mas – self-mastery ♦ .397* apga – family functioning ♦ mean 5.29 27.51 123.01 27.07 7.29 sd 5.91 14.07 22.66 5.27 3.08 minimum 0 4 60 16 0 maximum 21 61 183 35 10 engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 94 .01. the full model explained a total of 42.4% of the variance in depression. only acculturative stress showed enough strength to enter the regression equation (β = .656, p < .001), with higher stress predicting higher depression. the regression for males was also statistically significant, f(4,36) = 8.69, p < .01. the full model explained a total of 49.1% of the variance in depression. only self-mastery showed enough strength to enter the regression equation (β = .467, p = .010), with lower mastery predicting higher depression. these findings suggest that although all predictors as a whole played a role in male and female depression, there was one specific variable in each group (stress for females and self-mastery for males) that stood out. qualitative findings from parent focus group five major themes emerged from the eight focus group with parents (n = 108). these were: 1) parents’ awareness and worry about depression in their children 2) parents’ awareness that their own behaviors and emotions impact their children 3) parents’ lack of resources to deal with stress in the family 4) minority/immigrant status is both a cause of depression and a barrier to solutions 5) conflicts between parents and teens are caused by cultural adaptation differences. theme 1: this first theme addressed the focus of the present study, i.e. the depressive symptoms in latino teens. parents were asked several questions about this topic, and were informed that this was the focus of the study. it is therefore not surprising that describing teens’ depressive symptoms was a major component of parent responses. the teens’ externalizing and internalizing behavior made it clear to parents that something problematic was happening. some of the comments of parents that indicated problematic changes in behavior included: “they do not want to talk, so one can tell that something is going on whether it be in school, with friends, at home.” “she was so depressed she would go into the closet and cover herself with a blanket, and that scared me.” “they get into a bad mood. they also demonstrate it with anger...you can tell by their facial expressions…it worries me a lot.” “…my son will isolate himself, lock himself in his room—he does not want to come out.” “with the story of the girl [the cutting], i wanted to mention it to my children because i worry a lot. …” theme 2: throughout the focus group meetings, parents showed insight into their own contributions to their children’s mental health. these were demonstrated by comments such as: “we do not always express it, but sometimes the teens will hear us talking about our economic situation, about not being able to pay the rent, to buy food.” “sometimes there are conflicts between a couple…a lack of money and family problems so they find out and i think that is a cause of great stress for them.” engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 95 “we are living in an age where the latino is persecuted because of the migratory situation. so if the parents are feeling affected, it is to be expected that the adolescents feel it as well.” “…sometimes parents make it so that the kids are embarrassed of their background. so we cannot do that because they do not know what or who they are, if they are from here or from there, although they were born here.” theme 3: however, in spite of recognizing the problem and potential causes, parents often reported feeling helpless to find solutions because of various limitations. some of the parents’ limitations were financial: “there are support centers but those are not accessible. … sometimes our income is not enough to send our teens to a good psychologist or support group.” “…i do not have any other family here to help me take care of them or to give me advice on how to help them. this is difficult for me.” other times the limitations were related to free time: “…he does not confide because he says, ‘you work too much and come home tired and if i tell you my problems…’” “so if they are happy and want to do things but i am not, i am stressed with work and bills, all that, i cannot give them the quality of time that they need. so they become stressed and lock themselves in their room, separate themselves from us.” mostly parents reported limitations in terms of not knowing what to do: “as a parent, one feels powerless/helpless. they are at that age where one does not know what to do…we do not want to make them feel worse.” “one does not know how to talk to the girls …what do i do to take her out of that place to make her understand that i need to be with her and she needs to be with me? i have not been able to achieve that, i do not know how.” “they do not know how to communicate with us and we do not know how to be with them. … i do not know how to go about doing that.” theme 4: parents reported that minority/immigrant status was a barrier because of language and cultural differences, interpersonal problems, or legal issues. examples include: “…the culture influences them as well because migrating to another country as an adolescent is difficult because they want to go out but it is hard because it is another language.” “[the latino adolescents] do not identify with the [american teens] because of the language and the school and they do not identify with us because we are in a new country and we do not have our culture, our people.” “my son has talked to me about how he has heard how teens make fun of students that have arrived from other countries so that causes stress.” “…we do not have documents; they cannot get driver’s licenses, all that perturbs them. so all that causes them to constantly think about all engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 96 those stresses and how we are going to pay for college when we do not have a social security number to be able to keep studying…” theme 5: in this theme parents address the effects on the family of the process of adaptation to the new culture. parents evidenced pain at watching their children adapt and possibly lose their culture of origin, and at times understanding that this may be a necessary step for adaptation. comments included: “i impress upon her that she can be american because she was born here but she has our culture. so i have always told her that she has to embrace her culture. that she has hispanic parents, that she looks hispanic, that she does not look american, so she has to know that it is her culture, it is her roots and that she should not forget that.” “we as parents are never going to lose our culture. but we also need to understand that they are living in another culture. so for them, many times it is difficult. it provokes stress. so sometimes there is no identification with them because we teach them one thing, but they live in a different culture. and sometimes as parents we close ourselves off; we are also at fault for that.” “even in the language, they come home talking in english and one tells them to speak spanish because it would be terrible to be a mexican that does not speak spanish.” triangulation of quantitative and qualitative findings we found that the focus groups with parents informed and explained the quantitative data from the youth surveys. our quantitative findings identified various levels of depressive symptoms in the adolescents. these were described by parents as a variety of behaviors, both internalizing and externalizing, in theme 1. furthermore, the quantitative findings suggested that factors within the family contributed to depressive symptoms. specifically, our assessment of family functioning using the family apgar scale, and of social support with the casss correlated with depression in boys. the casss, but not the family apgar, correlated with depression in girls. theme 2 from the focus groups, where parents recognized that some of their behaviors and emotions contributed to the depressed mood in their children, clarified what sorts of couple and family issues might be leading to the observed correlations. theme 4, where parents reported language and cultural differences, interpersonal problems, and legal issues related to minority status, may partially inform why acculturative stress, as measured with the safe, correlated with depression among teens. acculturative stress is the stress experienced as one adapts to a new culture, and the issues identified by parents might be the pain some parents experience as they see their children become americanized may cause strain in the family. although parents report understanding the need for their children to integrate, they expressed difficulty with the process. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 97 interrupting the teens’ integration, or making it more challenging. theme 5 may be the most interesting and informative for future interventions. in this theme, parents address the effects of acculturation on the family. parents explain how the process of acculturation and its associated stress (safe) relate to family functioning (apgar). in the quantitative analyses, among females, family functioning correlated with acculturative stress, which was the only statistically significant variable in the regression predicting depression scores in girls. among boys, family functioning correlated, at similar strength, with mastery, which was the only statistically significant variable predicting depression scores in boys. the pain some parents experience as they see their children become americanized may cause strain in the family. although parents report understanding the need for their children to integrate, they expressed difficulty with the process. discussion the results from the quantitative data gathered from the adolescents are consistent with the findings from other studies. in the present study latino adolescent females reported higher rates of depression than their male counterparts, which matches extant literature (lorenzo-blanco et al., 2012; garcía, manongdo & ozechowski, 2014). importantly, we found different predictors of depression among males and females, with girls’ depression predicted by higher acculturative stress, and boys’ by lower self-mastery. social support from friends, family and school, and self-mastery correlated with lower depression for girls, but in the presence of higher acculturative stress, did not reach significance in the regression, suggesting that the negative impact of acculturative stress was stronger than the positive impact of social support and self-mastery. for boys, higher social support from friends, family and school, lower acculturative stress, and higher family functioning correlated with depression, but in the presence of self-mastery did not reach significance in the regression, suggesting that the positive impact of self-mastery was stronger than the positive impact of social support and family functioning and the negative impact of acculturative stress. latino cultural norms show large differences in how parents raise latino girls and boys. traditional latino cultural norms set expectations that female outside-the-home activities will be more restricted than males’ (lui, 2015; roche et al, 2018) and that within the home they will perform household activities and be submissive to the rest of the family (cupito, stein & gonzalez, 2014). these norms differ from the cultural norms in the us, which do not make such marked differences by gender (raffaelli & ontai, 2004). it may not be surprising then that immigrant girls acculturate at a faster rate than their male counterparts, possibly attracted to the greater freedom experienced by adolescent girls in the us (céspedes & huey, 2008; lorenzo-blanco et. al, 2012), a freedom that immigrant boys are not denied within their own culture. unfortunately, this process threatens adolescent girls’ mental health (cupito, stein & gonzalez, 2014). furthermore, parents who arrive in the us may be struck by the cultural differences in behavior, dress, and freedom for girls. these engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 98 differences may cause them to enforce their own cultural norms even more strictly than they would otherwise. these different cultural norms and rates of acculturation may explain why acculturative stress was the most powerful predictor of depression among the girls. for boys, who in our sample did not experience as much acculturative stress as girls, the experience of adapting to the new culture may not be as impactful. instead, the confidence and ability to deal successfully with stressors plays a more salient role. self-mastery has been consistently found to protect from depression in adolescents (gilster, 2014; watkins, hudson, caldwell, siefert & jackson, 2011). it is important to note that self-mastery correlated with depressive symptoms at the bivariate level for the girls in our sample as well. programs that increase self-mastery may help latino teens, especially first or second generation or those whose parents have yet to acculturate. although the focus groups asked parents about teens in general and did not match the parental reports with the children’s data, the mixed methods findings suggest other factors that relate to depression as well. family functioning is invariably impacted by the experience of immigration and adaptation to a new country and culture (lawton & gerdes, 2014). in the focus groups held with the latino immigrant parents, conflict related to cultural differences they experience with their children was often reported. as parents strived to maintain their cultural identity, their children seemed to strive to assimilate, or at least this was what parents perceived. parents perceived danger in this, as they saw their culture and its values as sources of strength for themselves and potentially for their children. as the children acculturate, they may not readily adopt, or may even reject, family traditional cultural values, causing even more family conflict and less family cohesion (lorenzo-blanco et al., 2012; lui, 2015). efforts to solidify family relations in latino families may reduce family conflict. familismo, a latino cultural value of loyalty, respect and obedience to family, is protective of mental health in youth and may be diminished during the process of acculturation (stein, gonzalez, cupito, kiang & supple, 2015). interventions aimed at parents that explain the process of integration as an adaptive one may help them maintain familismo while at the same time allowing their children to integrate effectively into their new culture. this decrease in family functioning may be especially difficult for girls. although family functioning was not related to depression in girls, it was related to acculturative stress suggesting a potential indirect effect of family functioning for girls. latino girls’ acculturation may be accompanied by the deterioration of family cohesion and functioning due to the loss of latino cultural values believed to discourage family conflict (lorenzo-blanco et. al, 2012). because latino adolescent females have greater sensitivity to interpersonal difficulties than their male counterparts, they may have more difficulty with family conflict, which places them at higher risk for depression (lorenzo-blanco et. al, 2012). our findings also highlight the importance of social support from various sources for these teenagers. support from friends, family, teachers and school, the universe of relations for teenagers, were related to engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 99 lower depressive symptoms in both girls and boys. these findings are not surprising, as the relation between social support and mental health is well understood, and has been previously examined among latino teens in general (gonzales, fabrett & knight, 2009; kuperminc, wilkins, roche & alvarez-jimenez, 2009; potochnick, perreira & fuligni, 2012) and immigrant latino youth (blanco-vega, castro-olivo & merrell, 2008). these findings do, however, suggest further avenues for addressing depressive symptoms in this population. these include strengthening the available support systems and finding new avenues to address the growing concerns over these teens’ mental health. strengthening teens’ social support systems become especially important when considered in light of the main findings from the parent focus groups. theme 4 from the focus groups presents both an explanation for the frustrations of parents and a course of action if interventions are to be tailored to parents or to changes in policies at the local, state, or national level. because of their challenges with language and cultural adaptation, parents felt helpless when faced with mental health problems in their children, and unable to find professional help in their community. although at several of the focus groups parents demonstrated interest in seeking help from mental health professionals, this was not always the case. difficulties with getting latino parents to seek mental health care for their children is well documented in the literature (mccord, draucker & bigatti, 2018; stafford, aalsma, bigatti, oruche & draucker, 2019). this combination of reports from parents and extant literature suggest they are not likely to provide their teens with professional help unless it comes to them in the form of community-serving organizations that focus on mental health. therefore, strengthening the available support systems, and finding new ones, is one way in which we can address the growing concerns over these teens’ mental health; these support systems should include mental health professionals culturally competent to work with this population. our unique mixed methods approach, collecting quantitative data from adolescents and qualitative data from parents, was a strength of the study. it allowed for triangulation of data, and demonstrated that what happens within the home, what their parents perceive and how they behave, are important to understand adolescent depression and adaptation. the additional dimension of parental voice is often missing from studies of adolescents, and in the study reported here clarified many of the issues identified in the teens. it suggests a family-focused approach to interventions directed at this problem. such an approach includes family therapy, parental training, and other approaches that consider the family unit as important when addressing problems in children and adolescents (carr, 2014). there is evidence that this approach may be more effective than focusing on the individual child. a recent study of because of their challenges with language and cultural adaptation, parents felt helpless when faced with mental health problems in their children, and unable to find professional help in their community. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3289137/#r6 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3289137/#r6 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3289137/#r12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3289137/#r12 engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 bigatti / latino adolescent depression 100 family-focused therapy for depression in children, with a sample that was 15% latino, found that it resulted in better depression outcomes for the children and more satisfaction among families in all demographics included (thompson, sugar, langer & asarnow, 2017). the study presented here was a cross sectional, correlational, cbpr study, and as such, had inherent limitations. no conclusions can be drawn regarding causation among the variables. it is possible that depressive symptoms in the teens lead to problems in the variables we identified as predictors. it is also possible parental behaviors are caused by teen depression, and not the other way around. although the triangulation of the teen’s data with parental reports suggested explanations of one by the other, neither parents nor teens were privy to the others’ data. therefore, our conclusions are speculative and need to be confirmed in future research. only studies that follow families over time, preferably upon arrival to the us or even earlier, would clarify causation. of course, such studies are difficult with newlyimmigrated and low-income populations. our survey instruments as well as our focus group questions sought to determine mostly what was happening, much more than why or how it was happening. this was purposeful, as it was a first step in understanding the needs of the community. furthermore, our study was focused mainly on the teens, their parents, and their immediate surroundings. the experiences these families may have with the larger community within indiana and at the national level were not explored. future research that explores the impact of national immigration policies and the increased discrimination occurring toward this population needs to be conducted. research focused on parents suggests high psychological distress associated with immigration actions and national news (roche, vaquera, white & rivera, 2018). convenience sampling most likely resulted in a biased sample, especially given that our community partner conducted the recruitment. however, in cbpr research it is the needs of the partner’s constituents that are the focus of the collaboration, presenting both a limitation and strength of this type of research. these limitations related to cbpr, however, are counterbalanced by the importance of, and the ability to, reach a sample that seldom is represented in research. in spite of these limitations, the quantitative data from the adolescents in the present study helps to understand factors associated with depression in latino youth, and the qualitative data with parents clarified many of the dynamics between latino teens and their parents during the difficult and uneven process of acculturation in these families. it suggests further avenues for research into this important problem and informs potential interventions at both the individual, family and community level. engage! 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(2011). discrimination, mastery, and depressive symptoms among african american men. research on social work practice, 21(3), 269277. abstract introduction methods results discussion references engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 vol. 1, issue 1 engage! 2019 vol. 1 no. 1 https://doi.org/10.18060/22815 copyright © 2019 author(s). this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. trust in participatory action community-engaged partnerships: relationships and historic trauma matter barbara pierce, joan carlson, wanda thruston, paige klemme, andrew fultz, nicole oglesby, mary studley, and val tate abstract university-community participatory action partnerships can be mutually beneficial. universities often work alongside communities to establish new and innovative community-based programming and research that are intended to benefit communities from these efforts. however, mistrust has been found to be a major issue in creating and maintaining strong relationships. this paper will marry a model of trust that forms when partners exhibit relational capital, relational embeddedness, and transparency within the principles of trauma-informed care as established by the substance abuse mental health services administration (samhsa) (2014). a group of university researchers and community activists/organizers analyzed their work on a project to bring a community-engaged participatory action design team intervention to develop and implement trauma-responsive care in an established transitional african american community located in a large urban midwestern city. through our analysis we identified three major reasons for mistrust: objectification of community members; lack of real change in the community; and lack of transparency. additionally, we found that paying attention to power differentials between the university researchers and community partners is key. major findings around best practices mirrored the samhsa trauma-informed care principles and included developing “not just trust but trusting relationships,” sharing “voice and choice” with all who seek to participate, understanding the historical trauma within the community, using cultural guides and long-time seasoned community organizers to facilitate processes, “showing up” and being interested in the community beyond the research or intervention by finding a way to give back to the community beyond the project. keywords: community-engaged participatoryaction research; trust; trauma trust in participatory actions community-engaged partnerships: relationships and historic trauma matter establishing trust in partnerships is a hallmark of good practice for university researchers who work in the field of community-engaged participatory action (cepa) intervention research (khodyakov, mikesell, schraiber, booth, & bromley, 2016; israel, schultz, parker, & becker, 2001). medical and research mistrust is common in the united states, especially in communities of color. two well-known incidents of past research that led to mistrust are the tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the negro male (katz, kegeles, kressin, green, wang, james, russell, & claudio, 2006) and cervical cancer cell research study which appropriated the cell-line of henrietta lacks (skloot, 2010) without her permission or https://doi.org/10.18060/22815 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 19 compensation. in the community in which our research team is working, a community grandmother described this mistrust as, “you people keep coming into our community and promising to help us but all you ever do is collect your data and leave. we don’t even know what your data says.” it is not surprising that african american communities are especially wary. yet, in a study that identified people’s willingness to participate in research, katz et al., 2006, surveyed 1,133 adult black, hispanic, and non-hispanic white individuals and identified blacks were 1.8 times more likely than whites to express fear of participating in research. however, there was no statistically significant difference in actual willingness to participate in biomedical research. in addition to the past unethical medical research practices, fear and mistrust stems from not acknowledging systematic oppression that has resulted in historical trauma and ongoing trauma experienced in predominately lowincome communities of color. current communityengaged researchers must work to undo this fear and mistrust. using participatory action processes may help to some degree however, establishing and maintaining trust remains a key issue. to help researchers develop, implement, and evaluate cepa interventions, this paper will marry a theory of partnership trust (pierce, mcguire & howes, 2015) with principles of trauma-informed practice (samhsa, 2014) to identify best practices in cepa research using the example of one community project which the author team is working. to be clear, our definition of cepa is working in deep partnership with community stakeholders to identify issues and interventions as defined by the stakeholders to ameliorate a community issue. for this work to occur university and community stakeholders must establish and maintain trusting partnerships. trust, as defined here, is the mutual and complementary respect that partners have so that each can perform their work with integrity (mayer, davis, & shooreman, 1995). becerra, lunnan & huemer (2008) studied trust in partnerships and identified strong partnerships as having the ability to share explicit and tacit or implicit information. this sharing happens when people feel comfortable enough to form relationships by working together on shared processes (polanyi, 1967) in a transparent manner. it is when community partners share their “insider knowledge and experience” within a community that the day-today work of participatory action community-engaged projects occurs and forms trust. however, trust is easily eroded and the three components of trust - relational capital (relationships), relational embeddedness (working together on processes), and transparency -must be ever present (pierce, et al., 2015; hall, imburgia, jaggers, pierce, bloomquist, richardson, danh, & hensel, 2017). in universitycommunity partnerships, absence of trust erodes the work together and leads to the decay of the partnership (becerra, et al. 2008). a case study completed by pierce, et al. (2015) identified the rise, fall and rise again of a large university-agency partnership over the course of a number of years possibly due to issues of lack of trusting relationships, and especially transparency and working together daily to accomplish recognized goals. further, hall, et al. (2017) has identified similar results in establishing and maintaining trusting research relationship engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 20 partnerships within a university-agency research relationship. in communities that experience high oppression and historical mistrust of university researchers, partnerships may be able to facilitate mutually beneficial research to improve conditions for the community. yet, historical trauma is ever present in many communities in which researchers work and must be acknowledged and addressed. historical trauma occurs when groups of people have experienced “subjugation” by the dominant societal group (sotero, 2009, p. 99). sotero’s (2009) model of historical trauma suggests that four elements are present in these groups: overwhelming violence, segregation or displacement, economic deprivation, and cultural dispossession. given the history of slavery in the african american population with its violence, segregation, deprivation and cultural dispossession, this population group certainly has experienced historical trauma. in addition, given the alarming treatment of this population by researchers, it is not surprising that participation with researchers is fraught with difficulty and leads to the need for trusting and trauma-responsive research practices in order to partner authentically with communities to improve the health or well-being of their community. trust and attending to historical trauma are two trauma-informed principles that have been endorsed by the substance abuse mental health services administration (samhsa) (2014) who have been integrally involved in educating the public about trauma in general (harris and fallot, 2001). these principles based upon the work of harris & fallot (2001) and elliot, bjelajac, fallot, markoff, & reed, (2005) include: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment-voice and choice; and attention to cultural, historical, and gender issues. further, these principles identified and tested in many different community settings appear to be generalizable and, we argue, inform development of trusting and trauma-responsive cepa partnerships. method this study examines participatory research practices of our community-engaged partnership with a historical african american community and analyzes responses to questions around concerns and best practices regarding the university and community relationship needed for this project. thematic analysis was conducted on answers to the two questions posed to the team by the team leaders. the research team, all authors of this paper, essentially formed a virtual focus group to discuss concerns and best practices for cepa on this project to bring trauma-responsive interventions to the identified community. the research team was asked to respond to the following questions:  what are the major areas of concern for people in the community regarding working with university researchers?  what are the main best practices that university researchers can do to enhance partnership with the community? thematic analysis included line-by-line and axial coding on the quotations in the transcribed data. further analysis used the constant comparison engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 21 approach within and across data points (braun & clark, 2006). this project is bounded by the work of this research team between 2016 and present and centers on the initiation of a project to bring trauma responsive services to one african american community. the case method overarches this paper (stake, 2005) while content thematic analysis was used to explain results of concerns and best practices. case setting the work of this research team had its origins in a health fair planning group as three of the university researchers participated in the development of a health fair for the community during the summer of 2016. in developing the health fair with various community partners including residents of the community, it became clear that members of the community were frightened by the overwhelming violence and poverty in their community as well as the lack of ability to cope with the trauma that they, and especially the children in the community, were experiencing. further exploration of this concern indeed led to a member of the community asking for trauma-responsive expertise. researchers then identified a broader team of community engagement specialists who work daily within the community to develop a learning collaborative project in order to bring trauma-responsive services to agencies working with children and families in the community. the research team convened a major stakeholder meeting to listen to community needs. themes based on these needs were identified and reported back to the community. the research team extended project participation applications to community agencies who wished to work with the learning collaborative. few community agencies actually applied and only a few people from those agencies began participating. out of this, however, came an enlightening small group community discussion around historical trauma in their community that identified ways to bridge gaps between researchers and the community. as a result of this discussion, the research team expanded their team to include more community members and began to pay close attention to political forces both personal and community-wide which serve to confound work in the community or erode relational capital. the research team continued open communication (transparency) and work within the community on other projects (relational embeddedness), used cultural guides and community engagement staff more diligently, and paid attention to partnering using these new trust forming changes. researchers recruited four community agency teams with which to work. those community–based teams became energized and ready to work on the learning collaborative and continue this work today to bring trauma-responsive practices to schools and community. results demographics the focus group members include 7 participants; 6 are female, 4 are caucasian and 3 are african american. there are 2 doctoral students, 4 community organizers, and one researcher. the other researcher on the team conducted the data collection and analysis and therefore did not participate in the focus group. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 22 all quotations in this results section are directly reported from the data and represent the answers to the two focus group questions. we endorse the practice of grounding results in direct quotations from participants. table 1. themes of concerns and best practices question 1 -major areas of concern: trust overwhelmingly, the team expressed that the major area of concern for people in the community is lack of trust. this is expressed in three areas of mistrust: objectification, lack of positive community change, and lack of transparency in reporting data. five of 7 focus group participants identified that lack of trust due to objectification by university researchers is a major concern for them mainly because community members report feeling like objects to be used for a purpose. one participant noted, “historically, many researchers have taken from the community for their own benefit and not necessarily for the benefit of the community. often times community members are weary of being ‘used’ for data purposes only for a journal article.” another noted “the greatest concern for individuals in a community is being made an object of study versus being seen as a dynamic and evolving member of a community.” the understanding that researchers have an agenda of their own rather than helping to create an agenda which comes from within the community leads to the sense of being objectified, as well. “unintentional objectification by researchers led to a community with understandable trust issues,” remarked one research team participant. clearly another team member noted, “the community, first and foremost, wants to be recognized as an active, equal partner in all endeavors with university researchers.” “the ‘know it all’ attitude that university researchers have” creates deficit reactions and leads to objectification, as well. concerns: trust objectification lack of positive community change transparency best practices safety/safe space attend to historical trauma collaboration/voi ce/choice trusting relationships trustworthiness/ transparency attand to power one participant noted, “historically, many researchers have taken from the community for their own benefit and not necessarily for the benefit of the community. often times community members are weary of being ‘used’ for data purposes only for a journal article.” another noted “the greatest concern for individuals in a community is being made an object of study versus being seen as a dynamic and evolving member of a community.” engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 23 erosion of trust also evolves from not producing positive change within the community. “often the findings do not serve the community in a way of producing real change,” noted one participant. another, strongly stated, “i have heard community members express concerns that once the researchers left, the funding and programs also left, so then the community ends up back where they started, but the researchers have their data.” this selfish attitude then does not leave sustainable change. “once the university completes involvement they leave behind a gap in services.” “they generate a great deal of conversation but no real solutions get implemented … a bunch of talk and no action.” participants also discussed the community attitude toward not receiving reports back on data collected within the community which leads to trust issues due to lack of transparency. “some community members have voiced their opinions in the past and their suggestions have been ignored” which leads to gaps in transparency and not hearing all of the voices in the community that erodes their trust further. question 2 -best practices to enhance cepa the themes related to best practices emerged as creating safety/safe space; attention to historical trauma; collaboration/empowerment/voice and choice; create and maintain trusting relationships; being trustworthy and transparent; and attending to power differentials. the research team members reported the creation of safety or safe space was a foundational skill of cepa work and offered various ways in which to do this. creation of this space involves ideas such as “having a meal together;” “providing transportation;” “hiring community members or researchers who look like the community;” “paying attention to power dynamics;” avoiding the “savior complex;” and “engaging in cultural humility.” attending to historical trauma is also a major theme in this project in particular. research team members indicated that “learning the history of the community” and “practicing cultural humility” is important. one research team member said, “we must see the community as people, not as a project, not as a program.” inherent in this statement is the sense that the community has experienced trauma as a result of being “just a project.” another mentioned “community members are taking a risk by inviting outsiders into their community when past partnerships have the community members feeling like they were exploited.” being a good collaborator and promoting empowerment through voice and choice within the cepa project is vital to its success. “find out what the community wants and give it to them,” and another stated that community members have “a plethora of wisdom, knowledge and skills, that help us see their priorities and vision.” “we need to embrace their expertise.” “the community is the expert!” another clearly stated, “ignoring voices decreases trust and increases disengagement.” collaboration also involved hiring for the project “from within the community.” further, inclusion of team members from the community endorsed power sharing with the community team members to provide trainings and opportunities to “lead from within.” creating and maintaining trusting relationships is another theme crucial to best practice. the team, building trusting relationships over engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 24 time, “becomes involved in the community by attending things that are not necessarily tied to the research.” “building authentic relationships with the community consists of spending time with and in the community. attending events, forums, and gatherings as an informal participant sans title. i know from experience that i put in a lot of evenings and weekends in one particular community as a part of the relationship building stage.” trusting relationships are built through sharing power and voice and through a “dialogic engagement that all voices are respected and heard.” relationship is best expressed, says one team member, by “training and empowering them … investing in the relationships from an authentic standpoint” so the findings of the research are “owned by the community and the researchers alike.” the last theme involves being trustworthy and transparent. while the data endorses ideas such as using non-jargon and transparent language it is also important to note the inherent power differential that is important to name and claim as a result of the work. being trustworthy typically means that researchers should say what they are going to do and follow through by doing it. however, also found in the data was the idea that researchers should be particularly careful not to take advantage of the community participants. trustworthy in the data here means that as researchers we “do not leave the community” and that we provide “sustainable interventions that do not disappear when the researchers leave the project.” it is so important that “the interventions that are developed need to be practical and do not leave the community without the possibility of sustainable services.” in addition, the research team endorsed that “change needs to be real” for the community. encompassing all aspects of these data is the theme of power. researchers and community organizers all noted that a major difference between the university participants and the community participants is power. “researchers who adopt a stance of conducting research ‘on’ a community perpetuate an imperialistic form of research that seeks to ‘fix’ and ‘help.’ instead, researchers should adopt a stance of conducting research ‘with’ a community … the goals and purposes have to be decided ideally by the community in conjunction with the researchers.” other aspects of power include timing of meetings, who is in the room, sharing of processes and data, and “meeting members of the community where they are in the community in small groups on their turf … demonstrates that they are the priority.” discussion identification of trust as the major theme that emerged from the research team is not surprising. the literature makes clear that trust building in universitycommunity partnerships appears to be paramount. in the instance of this case study however, the identification of various aspects of trust is novel trustworthy in the data here means that as researchers we “do not leave the community” and that we provide “sustainable interventions that do not disappear when the researchers leave the project.” engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 25 learning. in cepa partnerships the identification of mistrust due to objectification, lack of positive community change, and lack of transparency appear unique to the research relationship. while these three areas of mistrust may be unique to this particular community, it seems unlikely. historically, as we have already described, researchers have not been trustworthy partners nor have they named the historical trauma inherent in the process. while many social science researchers genuinely want to implement positive community change, reflecting on, and defining the mistrust issue in terms of historical trauma has not been common. it is true that researchers need to collect data as part of the process. however, to aid in community acceptance and trust building, while combating the effects of historical trauma, the researcher must make the data collection as well as analysis processes clear and include community members in the process. further, this practice helps to sustain change over time. being completely transparent about the relationship and process from the beginning may also increase trust. understanding the avenues of mistrust enhances understanding of university-community partnerships and provides researchers with methods of community engagement to prevent mistrust from the beginning of a new project. given the level of historical trauma inherent in the target community of this study, it is clear the research team members were focused on finding best practices to help to ameliorate the community’s historical trauma in this particular project. yet, the research team members were not asked to answer the questions posed to them from a trauma-responsive stance. in fact, they were asked to answer the questions as cepa researchers. interestingly, as the themes emerged from the answers to the best practices question, these practices mirrored most of the basic trauma-informed care principles as endorsed by samhsa. further, while peer support, a hallmark of the samhsa principles did not emerge, another important principle did -that of power differentials. the samhsa trauma-responsive principles did not use the term “power”, yet the literature from which samhsa derived them clearly identified power as an issue (harris & fallot, 2001). the cepa literature outlines equal partnerships as one way to cope with power differentials in the researcher-community relationship (khodyakov, et al. 2016; israel, 2001). we strongly endorse that research teams reflect on power and identify ways to share power equally with their community partners. being trustworthy and developing trusting, collaborative partnerships can help with power sharing. the analysis of the data strongly identified the theme of trustworthiness and transparency. a trustworthy partner does not objectify, is transparent, and helps the community to produce positive change. we strongly endorse that research teams reflect on power and identify ways to share power equally with their community partners. being trustworthy and developing trusting, collaborative partnerships can help with power sharing. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 26 essentially, being a trustworthy partner could then ameliorate the three forms of community mistrust identified by this research team. our research team brought a quality improvement intervention strategy to the community to enhance trauma services. inherent in our practice is teaching our learning collaborative teams to use this intervention independently thereby enhancing the capacity of the community. essential practices then related to this finding include being genuinely interested in positive change within the community; building capacity by collaborating with as well as teaching the community members to use any tested interventions independently; and producing sustainable change. a trustworthy university partner also learns the history of the community and takes historical trauma into consideration. they engage in building collaborative trusting relationships with members of the community within a trauma-responsive manner. creation of relationships must occur in safe spaces in which partners can speak freely and honestly (voice and choice) about needs and concerns as well as attending to power differentials in relationships. developing a process where both the university and communities identify and define common terms up front and set appropriate group process standards helps partners feel equal and safe. it also builds collaboration and provides for empowered voice and choice. using common non-jargon language, or if necessary defining or explaining issues or concepts, helps the community to understand interventions and/or research processes. strategically embedding researchers across a room full of community stakeholders can also allow for relationships to form. eating meals together as part of the relationship building process has been a good way for our team to get to know our partners more personally. further, our research team includes community organizers and people of color, one of whom currently lives in the community, and others who have long standing familiarity and trust built within the community. the above practices fulfill our promise to the community to help devise supportive trauma strategies. this effort also begins the process of healing from past experiences with researchers. within a trauma-responsive frame and given the level of historical and present day trauma within our served community, we endorse identifying the strengths of the community and using those strengths to enhance the partnership. as one of our team reported, there is “lots of wisdom in communities.” trauma-responsive practice is inherently strengthsbased and encourages the paradigm shift in thinking from what is wrong with a community to what happened to them. when we use community strengths and build upon those we build capacity. given the literature around the need to establish trust in cepa research projects we posit that researchers have failed to name the mistrust inherent in many communities as historical trauma, nor have they taken a trauma-responsive approach to the creation and maintenance of cepa projects. our strong recommendation based on our experience with this project includes attending to the inherent trauma in communities. it is important to note that many communities in which historic trauma is of concern are also communities that cope daily with oppression, engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 pierce/trust in participatory action 27 poverty, racism, classism, and community violence. when social scientists fail to take trauma into consideration they risk re-traumatizing the very people they hope to help. the samhsa principles of creating safety, building trustworthiness and trusting partnerships, collaborating, empowering, and identifying strengths as expressed in our data with the inclusion of attending to power differentials, may help to mitigate further trauma by research teams. limitations and implications this case study reflects two questions related to a mutual cepa project in which a team of researchers and community partners are participating. as such, the results are not generalizable per se. however, our finding that identification of areas of mistrust will help to inform the construct of trust for future measurement considerations is important. further, the identification of the samhsa trauma principles as important best practices leads to practice implications for cepa researchers and provides future research questions related to historical trauma of communities, along with the trauma caused by research within communities, and important practices to mitigate such trauma. conclusion this case study of one cepa project to bring trauma responsive programming to an african american community led to the identification of a deeper definition of the construct of trust and best practices. these findings appear to mirror many of the samhsa trauma principles. future research might consider studying the trust construct more closely and identifying and studying trauma more closely in community-engaged participatory action research projects. references becerra, m., lunnan, r., & huemer, l. 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(2005). qualitative case studies. in n. denzin, & y. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. substance abuse and mental health services administration. samhsa’s concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma-informed approach. hhs publication no. (sma) 14-4884. rockville, md: substance abuse and mental health services administration, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2015.1072424 abstract trust in participatory actions community-engaged partnerships: relationships and historic trauma matter method results discussion limitations and implications references 8 c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s keywords: african american vernacular english, culturally responsive curriculum, reading initiatives, reflective teaching, sociolinguistics key terms african american vernacular english (aave) the dialect of american english that most african americans descended from enslaved people speak (rickford, 2003). barbara and edward netter center for community partnershipsan organization that uses the university of pennsylvania (penn) resources to help solve universal problems manifested locally in west philadelphia partly through establishing mutually transformative relationships with the community (netter center, 2019). culturally responsive teachingfrom gloria ladson-billings, this is a “pedagogy of opposition” committed to empowerment through academic success, the development of cultural competence, and the development of a critical awareness that pushes students to question current social contexts and social order (ladson-billings, 1995). mainstream american english (mae)often called the “standard” form of english, this dialect is the most spoken english dialect, which is also used in professional and academic settings (rickford, 2003). penn reading initiative (pri)a student-run organization at the netter center whose goal is to improve reading skills in west philadelphia; this organization works in comegys and hamilton elementary schools, two university assisted community schools. problem-solving learning paper (psl)a paper whose overall goal is to identify a universal problem manifested locally, understand it, develop a solution, and identify strategies for implementation. abstract millions of black americans speak a version of english not reflected in the american education system. this version of english—african american vernacular english (aave)—is rule-governed, oral, and systematically different from the “standard” form of english (referred to as mainstream american english (mae) from hereon) used in academic spaces. though our language belongs in our learning: a culturally responsive approach to improving literacy in west philadelphia author luke coleman, (formerly) director of tutor education at the netter center for community partnerships at the university of pennsylvania; fulbright teaching assistant at ies miguel de cervantes in madrid, spain vo l . 5, i s s u e 19 c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e many young black students enter the education system knowing aave, classroom instruction occurs in mae. black students are instructed in a language different from the one used at home yet are expected to perform at levels similar to those of students who already speak mae. this expectation contributes to the welldocumented achievement gap, wherein black students, on average, perform at lower levels than white students on educational evaluations. this manuscript is a community-centered attempt to address the achievement gap in two west philadelphia elementary schools by leveraging the university of pennsylvania’s resources. this article describes qualitative problem-solving learning research, where the author works alongside the community to address using the penn reading initiative as a vehicle for change to support students’ cultural and sociolinguistic backgrounds in the classroom, ideally improving literacy through culturally responsive pedagogy. this article lays out the problem of dialectical miscomprehension and details a solution developed alongside community members in west philadelphia. this article also reflects on the progress made in the two years since the original solution was implemented. it highlights the development of the netter center’s professional development associates team and the anti-racism working group— both having been influenced by work in this problemsolving learning framework. introduction essential context and statement of the problem this problem-solving learning (psl) article is a community-centered approach to addressing the lack of culturally responsive educational opportunities for black students in the american education system (cook, 2015). it focuses on developing a program that enhances early literacy learning for young black children in west philadelphia. a psl is a unique framework for an article. in a psl, the author identifies a universal problem manifested locally. this means the author looks for an issue—whether through direct experiences, quantitative data, interviews, etc.—widely present in society and breaks this issue down to the local level. the author begins seeking community input to learn how the issue is manifested in the area. this entails interviewing community members and stakeholders in the problem and working alongside the community to comprehend better an issue's complexities and how its local context impacts local citizens. a collaborative solution begins as the author moves through the psl process alongside community members. after months of intensive work with the community, the result of a psl is an implementable solution that relies on various stakeholders to come to fruition. it is, above all, an attempt to solve a problem with the community. it is not work done for a community nor upon a community but a mutually transformative approach to collaboration that yields a new understanding of the problem and a new way of addressing it. while taking part in this psl, i was a student in the penn program for public service (ppps) at the netter center—a program whose longterm goal is to “contribute to the radical transformation of research universities to function as democratic, civic, and community-engaged institutions dedicated to advancing learning and knowledge for democracy, social change and the continuous betterment of human life” (harkavy et al., 2020). netter is an organization whose mission is to foster mutually transformative relationships for the university of pennsylvania and west philadelphia communities. a main strategy of netter is partnering with local schools to transform them into university-assisted community schools (uacs). one of netter’s uacs programs, the penn reading initiative (pri), aims to improve reading skills through a 1:1 tutoring model. this involves improving elementary literacy at two uacs sites: hamilton and comegys elementary. this article, attacking a universal problem manifested locally, will focus on pri’s methods to yield a more culturally competent program—capable engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e of producing competent tutors prepared to teach conventions of the english language to speakers of african american vernacular english (aave). the tutors pri funnels into west philadelphia (undergraduate and graduate students from penn) possess sociolinguistic privilege. most of the tutors in this program speak mainstream american english (mae), while a vast majority of the students they teach do not (bynum, 2020). additionally, these tutors are generally very privileged—class privilege, white privilege, and educational privilege (abbott, 2020). this linguistic, socioeconomic, cultural, and racial misalignment gives way to miscomprehension, hampering the development of language skills in students working with the program (horwitz, improving cross-dialectical comprehension in our community 2020). this problem has a wide range of effects, solutions, and characteristics that make it difficult to solve. this article will reflect on each of these. statement of identity & awareness self-awareness is critical when working to ameliorate social issues. as a black biracial man of a particular socioeconomic class who attended an incredibly wellresourced university, i speak on these issues from the point of compounded privileges. i feel as though, based on my social and cultural upbringing, i rarely struggled with dialectical miscomprehension in a professional or academic setting, nor have i experienced a significant lack of quality education. thus, i came to this problem with limited insight but respect and the best intentions. i am also not a linguist, and much of this paper grapples with linguistic complexities—adapting solutions to fit each cannot be accomplished in one body of work. nonetheless, i have worked to counteract my lack of understanding in west philadelphia classrooms by gathering input from tutors, program coordinators, netter staff, and local elementary school faculty. also, throughout this work, i do not refer to black people as african americans, though i refer to the language they often use as african american vernacular english. there are three reasons for this. first, many communities have moved away from the term “african-american” to describe themselves (eligon, 2020). second, calling the language “black” english is not accurate. many black people worldwide speak english but do not use aave. for example, the black community in the uk does not speak aave—calling aave “black english” may lead to misunderstandings of which communities use this language. third, the scholarly linguistic community has referred to aave as such, and this phrase is maintained to avoid confusion the penn reading initiative: a local vehicle for change overview the penn reading initiative is a student-run organization created by a partnership between the university of pennsylvania’s netter center and the penn linguistics lab (netter center, 2018). using a 1:1 tutoring model, pri tutors instruct students at comegys and hamilton elementary schools with the reading road curriculum. their schools place elementary students in the program (faulstich, 2020). this occurs when students fall below the required proficiency (faulstich, 2020). on the tutor end, students from penn apply at the beginning of the year to be tutors (faulstich, 2020). the reading road curriculum focus on the cultural context of its intended audience— employing themes aimed at children in under-resourced communities (faulstich, 2020; netter center, the reading road). it has been used with children of varying races. 10 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e identified areas for improvement pri tutors lack a degree of community with west philadelphia students (bynum, 2020). an important facet of effective teaching is building a personal bond with students, and, as the pri assignment is 1:1, that relationship is imperative (georgetown center for new design in learning and scholarship, 2020). the students have trouble connecting with the tutors, especially within the 1-hour per week time constraint (faulstich, 2020; pri evaluation team, 2020). at the beginning of this psl process, pri tutors lacked the cultural competency required to build these relationships with students in west philadelphia. penn students are generally removed from the philadelphia community—especially areas west of 40th street. this divide has historically served as a cultural, resource, and communal barrier—preventing the two communities from positively interacting with each other (o'mara, 2015). this degree of separation yields the infamous “penn bubble.” before the collaboratively built solution was identified, pri offered linguistic and basic cultural training for tutors, but not enough sustained and reflection-based education dissecting race, privilege, culture (aave), the school-to-prison pipeline, and more (pri evaluation team, 2020). the solution and problems sections detailed later address these identified areas further. understanding the problem: american classrooms and american english the problem outlined here has multiple arms—it involves understanding aave to combat dialectical miscomprehension and implementing culturally responsive pedagogy to create more effective learning opportunities for students. key stakeholders were interviewed to identify a starting point for this work and develop it to fit the community's needs (see table 1). alongside these interviews, existing research in education, sociolinguistics, and urban studies was examined to understand the root causes of the problem. what is african american vernacular english? aave refers to the variety of english used by many black americans (rickford, 2003). aave is spoken and systematically maintains grammatical and phonetic distinctions from mae along with words unique to the black experience (rickford, 2003). while aave has been a topic of debate in education and linguistics for millions of black americans, aave has a strong cultural significance (nero & delpit, 2006). in west philadelphia, a majority-black neighborhood home to hundreds of thousands of black people, aave is a staple in daily life. distinctive features the grammar variations between mae and aave are not erroneous; classifying them as such fails to recognize that deviations from “standard” rules are not accidental (horwitz, improving cross-dialectical comprehension in our community 2020). for example, a frequent grammatical discrepancy between the two dialects is the function, presence, and even absence of the conjugations of the auxiliary verb “to be” (rickford, 2003). the present tense conjugations of “to be” are systematically removed from phrases in aave (e.g., he runnin’ (aave) vs. he is running (mae)). however, when referencing what an individual habitually does in the present, the auxiliary verb is included in its unconjugated form (e.g., he be runnin’ (aave) vs. he is usually running (mae)). this selective inclusion and omission point to rules accepted in the aave speech community. also, a common structure unique to aave is negative inversion. a negative inversion involves switching the negative quantifier and auxiliary verb (rickford, 2003). for example, nobody (negative quantifier) and 11 12engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e table 1 key stakeholders for the penn reading initiative can’t (negative auxiliary) are inverted to become “can’t nobody.” this appears to be a question. instead, it is an emphatic statement meaning no one. this can cause confusion between speech communities because these constructions mean different things in different linguistic contexts. aave also has words specific to the dialect that are staples of black culture and identity. these words, largely because of the influence of black culture, frequently transcend racial boundaries (e.g., lit, swag) and are appropriated by speakers of mae. for example, aave has often been cited as slang from generation z. this misunderstanding of where the language hails causes misuse. there are many grammatical distinctions between mae and aave; this section is small but represents these differences. words in aave are frequently omitted, conjugated differently, and inverted compared to mae. vo l . 5, i s s u e 113 c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e these phenomena may impede understanding between speech communities. cultural significance aave is a cultural treasure. its rules have been passed down through generations. when coming to the table— especially those of us who are not black or enjoy certain privileges—to discuss aave in education, there must be a recognition of the dialect’s importance. the language took root with ancestors of the current black population whose origins, much like aave, cannot be accurately traced (rickford, 2003). the dialect is significant because it is one of few things black communities could maintain throughout american history—family, riches, and power often erased by racism and colonialism—that connects the past and the present. beyond this historical perspective, aave is the language in which millions of americans first experience love and joy (nero & delpit, 2006). aave is essential in continuing black identity because it is a fixture of daily, communal life. implications of aave and the current education system implications in the classroom the american education system frequently conflicts with aave and culturally responsive teaching—often opting to instruct all students in mae with a neoliberal education model (terry et al., 2015). a neoliberal education model refers to policies in schools (like standardized testing and homogenous curricula) that measure scholarly performance and prioritize learning for production in a free market (terry et al., 2015). the lack of recognition of aave in the classroom poses a critical problem in education—a significant additional cognitive load for young aave speakers taught and tested in mae (terry et al., 2015). in schools, this contributes to the onset of the achievement gap. the achievement gap is the rift in success between students of color (specifically black students in this article) and white students. this rift can be partially attributed to the inaccurate assessment of black students, as classroom instruction is not built for their language (cook, 2015). for example, linguist john rickford found a racial dichotomy when studying california's palo alto school district. he determined that predominantly white schools in palo alto could build on students’ skills and talents, but predominantly black schools in the area could not (rickford, 2003). he notes that black students in this region did steadily worse from 3rd grade to 6th grade. his analysis points to an issue of literacy that disproportionately afflicts black students. though it is beyond the scope of this article, it is worth noting the connection between the achievement gap and the school-to-prison pipeline—both having disproportionate effects on black students. without culturally responsive teaching and lessons reflecting the language they know, many black students have their achievement trajectory set for them (cook, 2015). their “underperformance” is often criminalized by schools whose overall performance increases with the removal of underachieving students (aclu, 2020). the classroom implications for students who only speak aave in the current education system are, at best, a cognitive overload or, at worst, juvenile criminalization of “underperformance.” implications in american society neoliberal reforms—by negating the importance of context and culture—detract from the empowered learning that culturally responsive pedagogy supports (sleeter, 2012). this has dire consequences in the classroom for students of color and reinforces outdated notions of racial superiority in broader american society. because students, regardless of their culture and identity, are taught similarly with the same curriculum, students whose identities are not adequately represented disproportionately fall behind while their culture is systemically erased from education (cook, 2015). the societal implications for people in the american education system who speak only aave can be devastating. because neoliberal reforms frame education as a practice that builds workers, those who are viewed as underperforming are also considered unfit to participate effectively in an economic environment (sleeter, 2011). those at the intersection of blackness and “deficiency” are funneled into the criminal justice system through zero-tolerance policies and increased policing of schools. victimized students face reduced high school graduation, college attendance, and recidivism rates. the present condition: arriving at the problem having detailed what aave is along with its implications in american education, the problem can be adequately articulated. in schools, many black students experience a significant, additional cognitive load at the beginning of their educational career (terry et al., 2015). this cognitive load transcends disciplinary boundaries, and without specific support to counteract this burden, many students are placed on an educational trajectory below their white peers (terry et al., 2015). lacking support, black students are often pushed out of schools and into the criminal justice system (aclu, 2020). criminalization jeopardizes employment and education prospects. many who stay in the education system do not have these gaps corrected, so they may leave the system unprepared (cook, 2015). this is a prevalent problem in american society that cannot be surmounted in a single article. rather, this article chronicles a community-centered attack on this vicious cycle. the root problem this article faces is a lack of culturally responsive quality education, which, because of institutional constraints, cannot easily be circumnavigated by teachers under budget and structural pressures. using pri as a vehicle for change, the penn community can better work with teachers as they traverse this treacherous educational terrain. in attacking the problem of illiteracy, west philadelphia and penn (through the netter center) come together to attack the achievement gap, the school-to-prison pipeline, and cyclical poverty (charity hudley et al., 2019). we address this problem because, after community input, it appears to break down educational stereotypes and racist frameworks in two of the netter center’s partner schools, hamilton and comegys elementary schools. the solution: learn, practice, reflect the identified solution—built alongside stakeholders, netter staff, and pri—is to implement sustained tutor education modules focusing on responsiveness and reflection. the first training module focuses on understanding culturally responsive teaching, privilege, and oppression. these are topics identified by stakeholders to be of utmost importance (abbott, 2020). following this first training, modules occur as part of the pri’s biweekly board meetings. each module has a reflection component where the tutors reflect on their experiences through the lens of the last module and connect it to the current module. based on feedback from faculty at netter partner schools, these modules will be made available to teachers of our tutees, so they know what we are discussing and can offer input as learning continues. how should we train our tutors? how to be a good educator: an understanding of critical culturally responsive pedagogy theorists of pedagogy, politics, and punishment often overlap in education. paolo freire, in pedagogy of the oppressed, poses a question that guides this psl: “how can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation” (freire, 1968)? how can pri facilitate the 14engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 destruction of debilitating structures locally? freire’s solution is to have the subjugated perceive the reality of their oppression not as inescapable but as a limiting situation they can transform (freire, 1968). pri must thus reaffirm tutees’ culture to counteract the notion that their identities are deficient. to do this, tutors must understand this goal, educational power dynamics, educator efficacy, critical reflection, critical pedagogy, race relations, and so much more—an effective way to foster these understandings is to have a sustained method of learning, practicing, and reflecting (freire, 1968). these education modules must emphasize self-care and self-awareness. michel foucault posits we cannot care for ourselves without knowledge of ourselves (foucault et al., 1987). if the health and awareness of our educators are essential to effective education, as research has demonstrated it is, and care for oneself is knowledge of oneself, a process of critical reflection must take place (nero & delpit, 2006). thus, the general outline for the education that must occur takes form, as the graphic below demonstrates (see figure 1). one, learn— understand the concepts we must be aware of as we engage in education. two, practice— implement the lessons into interactions with tutees. three, reflect—self-evaluate, and self-advocate as a self-care practice to enrich tutee interactions and foster a better understanding of the self. what must we know and do to be culturally responsive? as culturally responsive teaching relies on engaging with students' culture, language, and community to support their identities, tutors must be knowledgeable of their students. this involves a sustained practice of critical reflection, which pushes educators to confront their personal biases (richards et al., 2007). with these biases and perceptions under review, tutors are more effective in our student interactions. maintaining focus on reflection, work must also be done on understanding students' culture. knowing students’ identities and interests fosters trust in relationships but foraying further into actively experiencing their community to bring it into learning effectively is necessary (sleeter, 2011). thus, communal interaction is imperative: bring speakers in from the schools, bring tutees to penn, and practice community enrichment programs on-site as often as possible. 15 c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e figure 1 workshop learning process as culturally responsive teaching relies on engaging with students' culture, language, and community to support their identities, tutors must be knowledgeable of their students. this involves a sustained practice of critical reflection, which pushes educators to confront their personal biases (richards et al., 2007). engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 16 c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e as discussed earlier, aave has an intense cultural significance in the black community (nero & delpit, 2006). communicating that aave is not “wrong” is fundamental. doing so demonstrates that tutors appreciate the people who speak it (woo & curtis, 1996). nonetheless, it must be simultaneously recognized that not teaching students “standard” english may inevitably hamper their prospects given current societal norms (nero & delpit, 2006; abbott, 2020; rogers, 2020). a principal problem at play in this problemsolving learning research is that of dialectical miscomprehension. aave speakers in classrooms prioritizing mae exist in quasi-foreign language situations (horwitz, improving cross-dialectical comprehension in our community 2020). though current penn students are not responsible for this, there is potential to exacerbate these challenges (horwitz, interview 2020). pri’s goal is to enhance reading skills in west philadelphia students, so tutors must consciously understand what students are saying, reaffirm their sociolinguistic identity, and demonstrate, through the curriculum and their support, what mae sounds like. the most important takeaways from this subsection are the significance of understanding the tutor’s role in the communities we work in, the language of these communities, and the culture with which they identify. when these identities ate recognized as assets and tapped into, we create an optimal environment for learning (educators team at understood, 2020). the new training pri has three different groups: coordinators, tutors, and tutees. the coordinators' responsibilities include recruitment, organization, training, and evaluation (bynum, 2020; faulstich, 2020). the tutors' main responsibility is teaching the tutees (bynum, 2020). the tutees’ responsibility is to learn, but the interaction between the tutees and the tutors is intended to be mutually transformative. i have visually detailed this organizational model below in figure 2. figure 2. organizational model for the penn reading initiative the current training methods, as evidenced by the information gathered in this article, have not been able to achieve the desired goal of the pri: to improve reading skills in west philadelphia schools (faulstich, 2020; netter center). this could result from the training’s lack of focus on critical reflection, cultural responsiveness, privilege, and systemic racism. based on conversations with stakeholders, generating training is laborious. as such, a new position at pri has been added to focus solely on tutor education. the new trainer position takes over the responsibility of educating tutors (see figure 3). c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e vo l . 5, i s s u e 117 figure 3. new organization structure for the penn reading initiative structure of the training modules the training modules have a structure designed to push pri tutors to learn the module discussed, practice that learning in their interactions with tutees, and critically reflect on that informed interaction individually and during the proceeding training module. the figure below demonstrates the outline and structure of the modules (see figure 4). the learning component of this training starts with each module. after the workshops are complete, the learning component does not stop. instead, tutors carry what they learn into their interactions with their students. in this engagement, the tutors learn how the concepts alter or reinforce their relationships with their students. as part of the reflections they complete under the current pri structure, they also discuss how this learning affected their teaching experience (bynum, 2020). at the following training module, group and individual reflections on the past weeks clearly focus on how that experience relates to the current training: how do we connect these models? why is it necessary to connect them? how do they influence one another? this structure makes learning adaptive and continuous; new dimensions to our understanding are added, and their places within the communal context are reflected upon. another integral facet of this training is practice. practicing learned topics must be emphasized to be successful in culturally responsive pedagogy. the practice portion is facilitated by the presentation of skills for implementation in each module—offering tips for adjusting teaching styles based on the module that has just been presented. it also includes small portions of discussion and example scenarios to model what informed practices look like and how to tailor interactions to mirror content. the practice portions of training occur during work with students in tutoring sessions. the last aspect of the program is reflection. reflection pushes tutors to review behavior, beliefs, and biases— interrogating negative stereotypes or untruths about the community. the reflection component provides time figure 4 new workshop learning process engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 18 c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e for this evaluation and encourages critical discussion through a system of sustained activities that occur before, during, and after the training modules. to do this, the trainer identifies the desired outcomes, designs reflection activities that support those outcomes, engages in sustained reflection, and has systems to assess learning and implementation (critical reflection, 2012). implementation at the first biweekly board meeting of each academic year, the trainer presents a module on the most important facets of the work tutors are doing: aave, culturally responsive teaching, critical reflection, the philosophy behind the training, and strategies for implementation in tutor/tutee interactions. after this first meeting, the first interactions between tutors and tutees occur. at the second meeting, the trainer presents new content on oppression and privilege to analyze power dynamics that may strain educational relationships. at the end of the module, tutors are prompted with a series of questions that urge them to reflect on their most recent interactions with students and the last training module from the prior meeting through the lens of the current module. this is to foster an interconnectedness between all the modules. the structure for the second meeting is the general structure that continues throughout the academic year. as new modules requiring expertise or communal knowledge are created, speakers from netter, the partner schools, and the community are included. the most important part of these sessions is that they are designed to be changed. because cultures, communities, identities, and the needs of our students and teacher partners in west philadelphia change, having a static set of training modules is almost counterproductive. the modules are under review based on evaluation from the trainer, pri tutors, coordinators, netter staff, and faculty in uacs schools. conclusion and reflection aave is a cultural artifact that holds significance for many black americans. when young black students enter the classroom, many speak a language not reflected in their education. many of these pupils are instructed in a language they do not understand and are expected to succeed in an education system that does not care for their cultural identity. attempts to navigate this dialectical miscomprehension in the public education system have had limited success. the solution this article discusses is a sustained, culturally responsive tutor education program that attempts to increase literacy in west philadelphia by preparing penn students to engage effectively with a different community. the overarching goal is to use the human resources of penn to assist in the navigation of institutional barriers which make culturally responsive education a logistical challenge. this problem-solving learning article is one piece of a larger culturally responsive puzzle, one that penn, the netter center, and the country must work harder to assemble. the foundational writing of this research occurred more than two years ago, during the summer of 2020. that summer, when covid-19 and protests against racial injustice dominated global headlines, this project was taken on to support early literacy in west philadelphia. black students enter the classroom, many speak a language not reflected in their education. many of these pupils are instructed in a language they do not understand and are expected to succeed in an education system that does not care for their cultural identity. c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e vo l . 5, i s s u e 119 this psl process continued after this summer with establishing of the director of tutor education position at pri. i held this position for two years until i graduated in may 2022. with a team of netter staff, modules (on linguistic identity, privilege, trauma-informed education, etc.) were built and presented to pri’s tutors. the inaugural year of this program had difficulties— with scheduling, content creation, and covid—but it culminated in creating of the professional development associates team at the netter center. as one of the founding members, i, along with four remarkable peers, centered community voices to expand reflection and development modules to all 23 netter center uacs programs—not just pri. each associate tailored modules to fit a specific subject. for example, modules to support the linguistic identities of students were built for programs like pri, while modules on unconscious bias in stem were facilitated for programs with stem-based goals. each of these modules had a goal of centering communal voices. the second and final year of my direct work on this project allowed me to serve as another inaugural member of a new team at netter: the anti-racism working group. this group’s mission is to “advance the center’s efforts to further develop approaches, strategies, and actions to actively combat and ultimately eradicate racism in all its forms” (anti-racism working group, 2021). alongside six of netter’s full-time staff and community leaders, i co-convened this working group—comprised of dozens of west philadelphia and penn stakeholders. my specific focus with this group was to co-lead the safe spaces subcommittee. the goal of this committee is to create events for staff, k12 students and parents, and partners. these events would be safe spaces for discussion, professional development opportunities for staff and penn students, and opportunities to share anti-racism and social justice ideas. safe spaces are created with the safe-spaces toolkit (a product of this subcommittee), outlining procedures and practices to foster comfortable engagement that allows for positive growth. the work of this subcommittee also culminated in the netter center’s first annual community block party, where individuals from penn and west philadelphia came together to learn about, experience joy with, and engage with each other. after graduating, i left netter and the university of pennsylvania. nonetheless, the solution generated by the community lives on through new programs established and new students eager to create a more just society. the work of pri (and its new director of tutor education), the pd associates, and the anti-racism work group continues with goals to counteract racism around west philadelphia to better support a community that has been marginalized for decades. references abbott, j. (2020, july 11). interview with joyce abbott. personal. aclu. (2020). school-to-prison pipeline. retrieved july 2020, from https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline anti-racism working group. (2021, june 18). anti-racism working group mission. about the center. retrieved september 29, 2022, from https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/about-center/ anti-racism-working-group bynum, r. (2020, july 21). interview with regina bynum. personal. charity hudley, a. h., mallinson, c., bucholtz, m., flores, n., holliday, n., chun, e., spears, a., & leonard, w. y. (2019, may). linguistic society of america statement on race. linguistic society of america. retrieved july 2020, from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/lsa-statementrace educators team at understood. 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(1968). pedagogy of the oppressed. bloomsbury academic. georgetown university center for new designs in learning and scholarship. (2020). top qualities of an effective teacher. cndls. retrieved july 30, 2020, from https://cndls.georgetown.edu/atprogram/twl/effective-teacher/ harkavy, i., simmonds, t., & moyse, n. (2020). seminar 08. urbs 208. philadelphia. horwitz, s. (2020, july 2). interview with sara horwitz. personal horwitz, s. (2020). improving cross-dialectal comprehension in our community (thesis). ladson-billings, g. (1995). but that’s just good teaching! the case for culturally relevant pedagogy. theory into practice. nero, s. j., & delpit, l. (2006). what should teachers do? ebonics and culturally responsive education. in dialects, englishes, creoles, and education (pp. 93–100). essay, lawrence erlbaum. netter center for community partnerships. (2019, june 24). our mission. retrieved july 2020, from https://www.nettercenter. upenn.edu/about-center/our-mission netter center for community partnerships. (2018, august 9). penn reading initiative. retrieved june 2020, from https:// www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/ what-we-do/programs/university-assisted-community-schools/ penn-reading-initiative o'mara, m. p. (2015). building "brainsville": the university of pennsylvania and philadelphia. in cities of knowledge: cold war science and the search for the next silicon valley (pp. 142–181). essay, princeton univ. press. richards, h. v., brown, a. f., & forde, t. b. (2007). addressing diversity in schools: culturally responsive pedagogy. teaching exceptional children, 39(3), 64–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0 04005990703900310 rickford, j. (1996, december). ebonics notes and discussion. retrieved july 1, 2020, from https:// web.stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/ebonicsexamples.html rickford, j. (2003). using the vernacular to teach the standard. retrieved july 14, 2020, from https://web.stanford.edu/~rickford/papers/vernaculartoteachstandard.html rickford, j. r. (2003). what is ebonics (african american english)? retrieved july 1, 2020, from https://www.linguisticsociety. org/content/what-ebonics-african-american-english rogers, b. (2020, july 22). interview with brian rogers. personal sleeter, c. e. (2011). an agenda to strengthen culturally responsive pedagogy. english teaching: practice and critique, 10(2), 7–23. retrieved july 2020, from http://education.waikato.ac.nz/research/ files/etpc/files/2011v10n2art1. pdf. sleeter, c. e. (2012). confronting the marginalization of culturally responsive pedagogy. urban education, 47(3), 562–584. https://doi. org/10.1177/0042085911431472 terry, j. m., hendrick, r., evangelou, e., & smith, r. l. (2015). dialect switching and mathematical reasoning tests implications for early educational achievement. in the oxford handbook of african american language (pp. 637–658). essay, oxford university press. woo, e., & curtis, m. (1996, december 20). oakland school district recognizes black english. los angeles times. retrieved july 14, 2020, from https://www. latimes.com/archives/la-xpm1996-12-20-mn-11042-story.html 20engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s c o l e m a n | o u r l a n g u a g e engage! | i u p u i 5 0 t h a n n i v e r s a ry j o u r n a l 4 u urban communities bring together myriad populations, global experiences, rich traditions, and a desire to make a difference in the world. this combination of creativity, diversity and positive energy positions us well to address challenges and issues that face urban communities. while urban centers bustle with economic vitality, the urban core citizenship can experience health disparities, high poverty rates, and chronic conditions that resist resiliency. at the same time, higher education institutions are home to scholars and students who are passionate about finding solutions to society’s most complex problems. through partnerships, research projects and collective impact strategies, collaborative efforts, with strong representation from the community, can create effective ways to observe and understand trends, find life-saving solutions, and develop predictive models to improve the health, safety and quality of life of community members. as a major urban research institution with a carnegie classification as an engaged institution, iupui and our community partners enjoy 50 years of engagement experiences. iupui releases this first edition of the engage! journal to highlight the multitude of community-university engaged participatory research activities in the central indiana region. since urban settings provide such a wide tapestry of challenges and strategies we are entrusted with preparing our faculty and developing mutual agendas with community partners that harness and embrace innovation and cultural traditions that result in meaningful solutions to the issues that face all of us in our community. we look forward to many more issues of engage! vice chancellor’s letter a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s amy conrad warner another strategy is to consider the use of a wide array of tools to communicate effectively. first, humanize complex issues. second, if you have them, use a few “killer facts.” third, use visualizations to increase accessibility. fourth, perfect your 30 second elevator pitch. and finally, “the messenger can be as important as the message.” it doesn’t always have to be the researcher who goes out and communicates results; key allies may be better placed to deliver the word. influencing environmental policy abstract cultivating relationships with policymakers about environmental issues takes time, but it can yield meaningful opportunities for policy impact. there are many key actors who have a role to play in influencing policy. identify those individuals most relevant to the policy change you want to see and seek to influence them. think about who supports the changes the community wants, and who might block the policies that the communities want. and just as important: who are the people who influence these key players in the policy turf? remember that focusing on just one champion for your results in government and policy makers isn’t ideal. framing your message questions to consider when preparing your message what is the issue? are there any bills regarding this issue? if so what is the bill number? • are they effective? what are some key facts of statistics regarding the issue? who is your audience (which people, what values?) what information and what format works best for your audience? • written or verbal? • social media or print media? what is your goal? • increase awareness? • generate support? • motivate action? what do you want to see happen? how does this issue impact you personally? what is the opposite view regarding the issue? • how would you respond? e n v i r o n m e n t a l p o l i c y engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 58 e n v i r o n m e n t a l p o l i c y 8 lessons on how to influence policy with evidence – from oxfam’s experience (worldbank.org) 59 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 healing power healing power by kara taylor my husband got a tattoo of “8:46” on his hand. reminds him that this police nation will always have knees on our neck. he says these needle strokes commemorate george floyd’s blocked airway at the knees and hands of a white man. he wants to remember. i did not understand him for, to me, his soul lives within a body that constantly reminds. his melanin sings songs of hangings and lynchings. if he was to etch all reminders, his body would be filled. so he should settle for every pigment of his dark brown skin. he should settle for his locs containing winding hairs that never let go of the dead. he should settle for our love story being built on him standing between my frightened body and an officer’s gun. i had cotton mouth from swallowing silenced stories. hushed. i wanted to say i watched my brother for eight minutes and forty-six seconds gasping calling for his sister mother who flew in the sky. my airway closed too and i gasped for i have a fictive kinship that no tattoo can capture i do not have enough body or tolerance for pain. my back cannot hold these cries. i choose to baptize myself into the waters of healing with my pen. for it is my therapist god and sword. pen cradles me at night when fear absorbs my body as white man bangs on door. pen knows i am not nigger they just need me to be one. pen is mother and father i thought i needed. pen interrupts nation’s thin lips whispering submit. pen liberates me with love and understanding because it does not hold. this poem is not supposed to be about being black but being black is my everything my pen attacks blue lines protected by white space. however, my words remember red margins bleeding down side reminding me to stay the course. this is not a poem about what being black feels like this is a poem on healing. my husband got a tattoo of “8:46” on his hand and it still has not fully healed. kara taylor is an urban teacher education clinical associate professor with the iu school of education at iupui. engage! 1 vol. 1, issue 3 vol.1, issue 1 vol.1, issue 1 engage! 2019 vol. 1 no. 1 https://doi.org/10.18060/22816 copyright © 2019 author(s). this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. forming a mutually respectful university-community partnership through a “family as faculty” project cristina santamaría-graff and joel boehner abstract in this paper, we, a university special education professor and an executive director of a parent-toparent non-profit organization, describe our collaborative partnership built on a common understanding that parents of children with disabilities are educational leaders. we address how we work collaboratively to locate and establish families as coeducators in an undergraduate special education course on families for pre-service special education teachers by using a family as faculty (faf) approach. we use narrative inquiry as a methodology to detail shared moments and individual thinking about entering into this partnership. through our narratives, we detail the ways in which we have worked together to construct a solid foundation for the first and subsequent faf projects rooted in communityengaged participatory research. we highlight the ways in which our partnership began through establishing trust, respect, and clear, common goals. these mutually created goals are tied to specific outcomes that include: a) parent leadership in higher education settings, b) greater preand in-service special education teacher awareness of family rights and advocacy, and c) on-going structured commitments by both the university professor and the executive director to support each other’s projects and organizations. finally, processes and outcomes centered around faf are built on values such as reciprocity, mutual respect, and sustainability. family as faculty’s success is ensured only to the degree that stakeholders are committed to these values and are honest with each other about their roles in faf at any given moment. keywords: university-community partnerships, family as faculty, collaboration, community-engagement, special education, disabilities, family engagement, reciprocity forming a mutually respectful university-community partnership through a “family as faculty” project this is a narrative of events relating the ongoing community-engaged, professional partnership between a university professor of special education and an executive director of a parent-to-parent non-profit organization. in relating our story, we hope to provide context for ways to establish and maintain a sustainable community partnership that is mutually beneficial for all stakeholders. we present this information as a narrative of our lived experiences, giving special weight to understandings about partnership that emerge from these tellings. we begin with who we are and our first correspondence and end with where we are now as we enter our third year of continued commitment to the families of children with disabilities whom we serve. we use narrative inquiry https://doi.org/10.18060/22816 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 51 within this paper to tell our stories, but on a larger scale, embedded within the family as faculty project, the methodology used to enter into and sustain our partnership is rooted in community-engaged participatory research (described in a later section). narrative inquiry as a storytelling tool is helpful in describing our experiences using a combination of firstand third-person voice. we use first-person singular to reflect upon our own stories, first-person plural to demonstrate our shared experiences, and third-person singular to distinguish our unique roles in this partnership. though we structure our narrative through a linear progression of events, we also interweave critical self-reflections residing outside or on the periphery of actual events. these insights illuminate underlying metanarratives or self-reflection focused on power and privilege and the ways we grapple with our distinctive positionalities or identities in relation to one another and to the community members and families with whom we interact. for clarity, some of the terms used in this paper are unpacked in figure 1. figure 1: concepts and terminology defined equity within the context of partnership, equity is achieved when all stakeholders feel represented as full participants in the project, when power is fairly and evenly distributed, and when mutually created goals and intended outcomes are honored, acted upon, and/or realized. mutual respect within the context of partnership, mutual respect is viewing and treating the partner as an equal decision-maker and stakeholder. it is also the feeling of authentic trust that is engendered through gestures, words, and actions centered in a 2-way appreciation of one another’s strengths and assets each person is bringing to the project. positionality within the context of partnership, positionality is one’s identity as understood within social and political constructs. it takes into consideration identity markers such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability that position an individual’s status differently depending upon the specific circumstances. for example, a community member with a dis/ability may have power and authority at a university-community meeting centered on equity issues and simultaneously may be marginalized by lack of access to the building at which the meeting is occurring. power power refers to the amount of status, authority, or decision-making ability one has within the specific circumstances of the partnership. it can be uneven or balanced; vertically-enforced or horizontally distributed. privilege privilege, in relation to power and positionality, is the advantage one has in a specific reality or set of circumstances. within the context of partnership, privilege can favor one group over another, cause inequitable circumstances, fuel a sense of group entitlement, or reproduce damaging patterns related to colonizing practices. reciprocity within the context of partnership, reciprocity is an intentional choice and act between stakeholders of sharing time, energy, and resources with the other while receiving a proportionate return of service. sustainability within the context of partnership, sustainability is a mutually founded commitment with long-term implications. it requires honoring processes that may take an extended period of time. our stories narrate our experience of and involvement in family as faculty (faf) approaches. family as faculty is a term to describe an approach to teaching or research in which family members take on leadership roles, teach others through their insider perspectives, and broaden understandings of those engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 52 who are working with or for their children (heller & mcklindon, 1996; johnson, yoder, & richardsonnassif, 2006). these approaches originate from familycentered healthcare models and have been adapted in special education teacher education programs to influence and impact pre-service special education teachers’ dispositional understandings of working and collaborating with parents/families of children with dis/abilities1 (forlin & hopewell, 2006; macy & squires, 2009; patterson, webb, & krudwig, 2009; williams, 2012). specifically, we are interested in ways that faf approaches can center family leadership and knowledge in special education teacher education courses and programs while, at the same time, provide structured opportunities for family members to expand upon their roles as advocates for their children and for other families (warren-gordon & santamaría graff, 2018). narrative inquiry to describe our partnership within the context of faf we use narrative inquiry. narrative inquiry is based on the premise that “stories are lived, and told, not separated from each person’s living and telling in time, place, and relationships” (clandinin, cave, & berendonk, 2017, p. 91). it is a relatively new qualitative methodology that centers individuals’ stories as a way of making meaning of larger phenomena (clandinin & huber, 2010). through storytelling, tensions can arise that shed light on specific challenges that are told, 1 disabilities with a slash (/) refers to the social construction of identity, rather than fixed, immutable traits. how meaning is attached to ability is, oftentimes, more disabling than the dis/ability itself due to the ways dominant mainstream society has normalized the conditions for ability and able-bodiedness (davis, 1995; davis 2013). in this paper, disability is talked through, reflected upon, and examined (clandinin & rosiek, 2007). this method is particularly useful in analyzing the complexities of partnership in forming and building a collaborative relationship that is both unique to our personal, lived experience as well as informative for others outside of this inquiry who are engaged similarly. we structure our narratives through a backand-forth descriptive (re)telling of events that occurred between 2016 – 2018. to capture these events in written form, we pulled from a number of primary and secondary sources that included: a) notes from meetings we both attended, b) notes from informal conversations, c) materials from a conference presentation we were both involved in, and d) reflective writings about our partnership. additionally, for this paper, we shared our writing in a google document and were able to provide one another written with a slash in specific references to children or students with dis/abilities. though this paper has in its title universitycommunity partnerships what needs to be clear is that family as faculty – though (re)conceptualized and initiated at the university level – was never intended to be university-driven. the intention was always to use the resources at the university level to support and help facilitate community-engaged participatory approaches that were, to the greatest degree possible, community-driven. engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 53 feedback over the course of two months as we engaged in written correspondence about our partnership. themes that emerged included the importance of mutual goals and values of respect, reciprocity, and sustainability. underlying these goals and values were some tensions, namely how each of our roles in relation to one another and to the partnership brought up concerns around privilege and power. these goals, values and tensions are discussed and interwoven in subsequent sections. communityengaged participatory research although we use narrative inquiry as a tool to share our lived experiences, the underlying approach to how we enter into and sustain a mutually respectful partnership is grounded in community-engaged participatory research. though this paper has in its title university-community partnerships what needs to be clear is that family as faculty – though (re)conceptualized and initiated at the university level – was never intended to be university-driven. the intention was always to use the resources at the university level to support and help facilitate community-engaged participatory approaches that were, to the greatest degree possible, community-driven. our definition of these approaches stems from the southern tradition of participatory action research (par) (fals borda, 1987, 2006; freire, 1970/2000) and is reflective of what we determine to be “community-engaged” (see figure 2). “communityengaged,” for us, is distinct from what we have defined as community-based and community-driven. all three terms, community-based, community-engaged, and communitydriven, in our view, can be represented on a continuum toward more critical approaches to how we, as researchers and community stakeholders, ask, think about and examine the following questions: • what is the purpose of the research? • who does the research benefit? is it mutual? reciprocal? engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 54 • who holds the power? in other words, who is driving the research questions, research design, data collection, implementation, and dissemination of research outcomes? who we are in this section we begin by describing who we are, our backgrounds, and what brought us to our current work in a long-term, community-engaged partnership. cristina i am a female professor in special education at a university in the midwest who has been an educator for over twenty years. i self-identify as a biracial mexicana which, to me, means that i come from a mixed-race background. my father is mexican and my mother comes from italian/irish heritages. for me it is critical to self-identify who i am in my work so that others understand how i foreground my biracial background in what i do professionally. research-wise i have chosen to work with families of children with dis/abilities, particularly latinx families. many of the families with whom i work and collaborate with are immigrants (santamaría graff, mccain, gomez-vilchis, 2013; santamaría graff & vazquez, 2014). being forthright and transparent about my positionality as an able-bodied mother of non-disabled children and as a biracial, bilingual (but english-dominant), educated female in higher education is important in acknowledging the privilege that comes with each of these identity markers. more important, is the constant critical self-reflection i undergo in checking my own ego and power as i engage with community partners who, oftentimes, are parents of children with dis/abilities. joel i am a male executive director of a parent-toparent non-profit organization, in*source. i have served in this role for just over a year and have been with this organization for three years. while what most characterized my upbringing was my family’s conservative evangelical christian religiosity, what has come to most characterize my identity as an adult is how i identify in relation to my children. i am a white non-disabled foster/adoptive father to two africanamerican children with special needs. understanding their stories before and after they entered my life shapes my understanding of privilege in an ongoing manner. professionally, i am the highest-ranking employee in an organization of about fifty employees nearly all of whom are parents of children with dis/abilities. in*source is a parent center with federal and state funding sources. our founding is rooted in the disability rights movement and the activist efforts of the disability community to establish a place in public education for students with dis/abilities. our work is based on and informed by power dynamics and privilege as it affects the disability community, particularly students with dis/abilities and their parents. leading a parent center demands a publicly expressed identity where personal experience informs and legitimizes professional judgment. i don’t think i could do my work without frequent self-identification, yet my identity as a father drives my professional life engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 55 and is my defining passion. i am often the de facto or official parent representative in meetings of systemic importance where a parent’s perspective is necessary or desired, and this representative role challenges me and informs my approach to collaborative efforts. the representative role that i play and that in*source plays in the scheme of special education in my home state challenges me to seek ways of more and more thoroughly equipping all families to advocate for their children. without explicit attention on systemic inequities beyond disability such as opportunity gaps facing communities of color and non-english-speaking communities, for example, our role as a representative is problematized. my personal experience in a transracial family is the basis of my understanding of privilege and that perspective drives my professional judgment as a de facto or official parent representative. context of our partnership cristina over two and a half years ago after i moved to a major metropolitan city in the midwest to become a professor at a research institution, i decided i wanted to dive more deeply into community-engaged work with families of children with dis/abilities. to do this, i relied heavily on my previous experiences as a doctoral student in the southwest united states and as an assistant professor in the northwest. in both regions, i had the opportunity to work with latinx families (santamaría graff, mccain, & gomez-vilchis, 2013). in the southwest, however, i was able to work closely with a parent-to-parent organization that assisted me in recruiting latina mothers of children with dis/abilities. i soon discovered through this work that these latina mother-advocates were experts about issues that impacted their children. i quickly learned that to work with these mothers meant i needed to be an active listener and learner who, in spite of my education, knew little about what it was to be a parent of a child with dis/abilities (santamaría, 2009). having had this positive previous experience with the southwest parent-to-parent organization, i decided, when i started working in the midwest, to reach out to two parent-to-parent organizations. one was situated locally and the other’s main office was in the northern part of the state about 150 miles away from where i was living and working. my first step was to research each organization’s mission statements and to find out if their goals and values were in alignment with mine. though both organizations responded positively to my initial emails, this narrative only describes the experience i’ve had with one of these organizations, specifically my interactions with in*source. joel when i first came to in*source, my job was to manage one of our grants. in this role i supervised as many as fourteen staff which included supporting personnel in a major midwest metropolitan area. the grant i managed included deliverables around “outreach” efforts to historically underserved populations including families with incarcerated youth with dis/abilities, low income families, and nonenglish-speaking families. in order to support families whose primary language is spanish, we employ staff who are bilingual in spanish and english. prior to any engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 56 awareness of faf or relationship with cristina, in*source bilingual staff had observed enough systemic shortcomings with respect to spanishspeaking access to special education information that they had begun to work with in*source administration to raise further awareness of this problem. the solution that emerged from conversations with bilingual program specialists centered around the need for in*source to present the data and stirring anecdotes to our state educational agency (sea) along with a request for a funding package that would support work training interpreters for special education. i was personally affected by the stories our staff had accumulated through their work with spanishspeaking families that involved unprofessional disclosures of private information, consequential technical details being misrepresented, conflicts of interest being unaddressed, and local educational agencies (leas) able to abide by the letter of special education law without being equipped to know whether an interpreter is properly qualified for their important work. my work with bilingual staff to develop a solution that addressed the known issues and that the sea would be able to support with funding brought me into a new place professionally. with the support of the executive director, in*source engaged the state office of special education around this concern culminating in a successful “pitch” to the state director of special education for support of this project as an additional node to our ongoing work with them. as a statewide organization, in*source often is contacted by researchers who are pursuing studies that relate to disability and special education. we have varying degrees of involvement with scholars and institutions of higher education that range from participating in studies mutually designed with our feedback and access to families we work with in mind to the all too pervasive mass email with a link to a survey. if the study seemed particularly relevant, i would pursue the author requesting our support with some follow-up questions designed to get at their approach to working with families with special needs and even more basically whether they cared enough to answer my questions. i learned that almost always, the mass email was not intended to elicit substantial follow-up conversations. it is in this context that i learned of training requests from a professor of special education whose approach to working with our staff and her students particularly valued something that we too value--the importance of a parent’s perspective in their child’s special education. it was through staff involvement in a “training” capacity to cristina’s students that led to a request for more formal, more integrated support of cristina’s research emphasis, the faf study. cristina’s approach and methods were a welcome contrast to the much more common transactional approach. establishing mutual trust and respect in the following narratives, we discuss the first time we met. our stories highlight the importance of entering into partnership with trust, respect, and clear, common goals. these goals center on family member leadership and ways that family members are engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 57 positioned in faf projects to assist future teachers in their understanding of families as resourceful partners or allies. in this section, the value of mutual respect is integral in establishing a foundation for strong collaboration and communication. cristina my first email correspondence with joel focused on my conceptualization of family as faculty (faf) and the ways i believed in*source could be a key stakeholder in its organization and implementation. in the email, i introduced myself and provided in*source with a draft of the internal revenue board (irb) proposal in which i described the mixed methods study i intended to implement through a faf approach. i hoped that sharing the proposal with joel and other in*source members would engender trust. i provided them with the context for and purpose of the faf study as well as give details about the ways i was positioning parents as teacher-leaders in my special education course. i wanted to demonstrate my commitment to the parents associated with their organization. i believed that a definitive plan with specific procedures and a timeline would provide in*source members with the opportunity to critique the project and give feedback. in the email i sent to joel and in*source, i not only sent the irb draft proposal but also i specifically asked if in*source could provide me with access to families’ emails so i could contact them to see if they would be interested in the faf project. joel shared the draft with the former in*source executive director and a few days later, after perusing the document, they asked if they could meet with me face-to-face. we met downtown in a hotel café where they were attending a state conference. over coffee, both joel and the former executive director seemed happy to meet with me and, at the same time, asked me pointed questions about the breadth and scope of my involvement with parents. though asked with respect and politeness, joel centered his questions carefully around specific protections i would be providing for parents who might be interested in participating in the study. i remember thinking how important it was for me to provide in-depth answers to his questions because he seemed to have concerns around how parents or family members may be exposed in public or academic settings. both joel and the executive director were clear that if they were to assist me in the recruitment of parents for my study, they needed to be assured parents were in good hands. in other words, i needed to demonstrate “good faith” by providing them with clearly written procedural steps, goals, and outcomes as documented in my proposal and throughout the project. i remember describing the purpose of the faf study and receiving an encouraging response by the executive director who said that our goals were “in alignment.” what i believe he meant was that my intentional positioning of parents and families as experts of their children was central to in*source’s goals as well. specifically, it appeared he shared my view that families’ innate and experiential knowledge of their children was an important component of their advocacy. the executive director and joel extended engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 58 their support by offering to assist me in recruiting parents through their listserv. i crafted a “recruitment” email asking for voluntary parent participation, submitted it to irb for approval, and then sent it to in*source. the executive director and joel approved of the language in the email and sent the email out to approximately 100 families affiliated with in*source. this gesture was significant because they sent the information from in*source’s official email and signaled to recipients that they approved of my study. moreover, because parent/family recipients trusted in*source as an organization, they, in turn, trusted me because i was now directly affiliated with in*source. consideration of steps some of the ways that mutual trust and respect were established are listed in figure 3 as delineated through specific steps. these “steps” are not formulaic nor are they always linear. cristina’s story highlights the ways she initiated contact with in*source and the steps she considered before and during the initial meeting with joel. joel’s narrative below illustrates the careful consideration he took to ensure that in*source’s parents’ and families’ best interests were being accounted for before committing to the family as faculty project. both perspectives are reflected in figure 3’s “steps” and may be helpful for those who are considering entering into university or higher education – community partnerships. figure 3: steps in establishing mutual respect and trust 1. know who you are and what you stand for. you should be able to articulate this orally or in writing succinctly. 2. know the purpose and mission of your project/organization and be prepared to articulate this for your community or university partner or other stakeholders. 3. do your homework. before establishing contact, research the partner’s information. whether it is a curriculum vita, an organization’s mission statement, or individuals’ biographies, find out if your work is in alignment with theirs. 4. learn key players’ names and their positions before meeting with them, if possible. 5. reach out in appropriate ways and through the proper channels. establish parameters for communication. demonstrate courtesy and respect in email and phone correspondence and in face-to-face interactions. 6. be open and gracious when meeting and interacting with your partner. allow one another to speak without interruptions and without set expectations. the process should flow with space for negotiation. 7. allow expansion of your ideas. in line with number 6, a partnership should be given room to grow rather than feel forced, closed, or fixed. 8. discuss alignment of one another’s purpose or mission. here, transparency is key. be upfront about number 2 with your (potential) partner and actively listen to their responses. 9. find common ground and discuss mutual goals. co-generated projects should yield mutuality – in other words – all parties involved should feel that they are benefiting from the experience. 10. make a commitment, set timelines, and discuss responsibilities. these elements should be formalized and operationalized in writing for clarity, documentation, and accountability. honoring responsibilities engenders trust and establishes mutual respect. joel initial phone conversations about in*source helping launch faf with cristina instilled confidence in her approach to working with families. broad mutual interest was established that included what was effectively an effort to establish parent perspective authoritatively in the curriculum of pre-service special education teachers at a major university. this was a gift, but cristina’s careful positioning and awareness of power differentials did not make it feel forced as it had with other researchers who had taken time to answer my questions. rather, i see the faf launch as a engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 59 collaboration in every mutual sense of the word. from an in*source perspective, there was no easily discernible or realistic path toward realizing the opportunity to participate in the education of future special educators that cristina was offering. yet, this opportunity resonated so clearly with the persistent challenges around appropriate parent involvement within special education, which is one of the very reasons why organizations like in*source exist. the broad mutual interest established with cristina was fed by the thorough vetting of her requests for access to families we’ve worked with and endorsement of the faf project by our organization. trust was extended both ways during this process, and while i was most aware of and concerned about cristina’s intentions and process with her study, it was also apparent that she was investing valuable time and energy. as cristina’s commitment to these principles became increasingly evident, my desire to see her work thrive grew. while she was not a parent to children with dis/abilities, she was clearly in this for the long haul, and we wanted cristina centrally involved in our organization’s work beyond the faf project. cristina provided letters of support for the interpreter program mentioned above and concurrently cristina joined in*source’s board of directors. creating mutual goals in this section, we begin by providing context for family as faculty’s (faf’s) first iteration (2016 – 2017) to demonstrate the careful decisions made to guarantee that the partnership between cristina, representing her university, and joel, representing in*source, remained mutually beneficial. we also give specifics of the project to provide more background about ways faf has been conceptualized to include parents as co-educators in university courses. we draw attention to figure 4 which delineates cristina’s and joel’s initial goals they created individually as they each thought about faf and its intended outcomes. then, we describe how these individual goals became shared ones that eventually drove and continue driving other faf projects. before the first family as faculty project began in fall 2016, cristina, as stated earlier, contacted in*source and made a strong connection with joel and the executive director. cristina shared her faf draft proposal with them. in it, were initial goals and intended outcomes she had created based on existing faf educational literature. she wrote these for a small, internal grant she was applying for and was eventually awarded. she had initially contacted in*source during the application process because she was interested in partnering with a parent-to-parent community organization to implement the faf study. the goals she wrote were centered on data collection procedures used to measure changes in both prefor us, the commitment to partnership revolves around an authentic dedication to facilitating opportunities through which parent and family members can step into their leadership as experts of their children. this process of seeing oneself as a leader and expert may not occur overnight; it may not even occur in one semester. engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 60 service teachers and parent co-educators over a 16week period (see figure 4). figure 4 family as faculty: creating mutual goals & their intended outcomes 1. cristina’s initial goals intended outcomes a) to change pre-service special education teachers’ views of families of children with disabilities from deficitto asset-based. to demonstrate a change in preservice teachers’ dispositions using a preand post-beliefs’ survey and journal reflections. b) to position family members of children with disabilities as leaders and co-educators in a special education course on families. for parent co-educators to plan, organize, and teach specific classes in the course on families with the hope that they would experience a greater sense of selfefficacy and empowerment. 2. joel’s initial goals intended outcomes a) to assist parents in understanding their educational rights. for parent co-educators to learn more about their rights under the special education law by teaching future special education teachers. b) to give parents information about the special education process. in line with (a), for parent coeducators to be able to articulate how processes described in state special education law pertain to their specific experiences. c) to help parents and schools work together and develop positive relationships. through faf, parents, in speaking with future special educators, will practice effective communication and interpersonal skills centered on parent/family-teacher collaboration. d) to assist parents in becoming better advocates for their children. through faf, parents will use their voice to tell their stories and feel more confident in their agency. 3. mutual goals created intended outcomes a) to structure opportunities for parents/family members to step into leadership roles in higher education settings. through faf, parents/family members will plan, organize, and teach classes on specific topics in a university special education course. b) to organize specific activities through faf for future special education teachers to develop an awareness of family rights and advocacy. classes led by parent coeducators will focus on topics of family rights and advocacy as presented through lived experience, case studies, and activities grounded in special education law. c) for cristina and joel to maintain on-going structured commitments to support each other’s projects and organizations. cristina demonstrates support by becoming a board member of in*source. joel commits to writing continuous letters of support. both work together on grants, conference presentations, and manuscripts. these goals and their intended outcomes impacted 22 pre-service teachers who were mostly white, middle-class, females and 8 parent participants. of these eight, there were 7 females and 1 male. of the females, there were 2 latinas (1 from nicaragua and 1 from mexico) and one african american. in this first faf project, the parents attended co-planning sessions in which they chose and organized content. content centered on special education topics linked to course standards included, but were not limited to: collaboration, inclusive practices, disproportionality, ableism, medical treatments, communication with school administrators and teachers, and culture and language barriers. the course was structured so parents could present in pairs or triads. four classes of 2 hour 40 minute periods in the 16-week course were dedicated to these parent-led class sessions. parent as co-educators taught pre-service special education teachers specific course content from their insider lens and expertise of their child. before the implementation of the first faf project, however, joel asked cristina questions about some of the parent presenters who were also parent advocates/trainers for in*source. he wanted to ensure that the parent presenters were supported by in*source in direct and tangible ways. for example, he provided specific parent presenters with printed copies of the state education law to use in faf parentled discussions for the pre-service teachers. he also gave access to specific powerpoints parents could use to ground their information in law and policy. through multiple conversations, joel made clear some of in*source’s main goals that he hoped to see engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 61 addressed through the faf projects (see figure 4). cristina found these goals to be very important from an educator perspective. over several conversations with joel, she described how these goals could also be written for pre-service teachers and other educators. future teachers, like parents, needed to know information about the special education process and how to work collaboratively with others to develop positive relationships. with these goals in mind, cristina and joel discussed ways their individual goals and intended outcomes could merge to create mutual ones. mutual goals, for cristina and joel, meant an intentional integration of conceptual understandings and concrete outcomes that would benefit each of them in relation to their professional commitments. they developed three. the first two were structured through faf parent/family-led sessions that focused on special education topics parents chose to teach. the last mutual goal was cristina’s and joel’s commitment to one another which entailed several ways that each of them would be supportive and accountable to each other’s organization or projects (see figure 4). making sustainable commitments in community-engaged partnerships, sustainability is crucial in maintaining long-term commitments through which mutually established goals can be realized. though short-term goals are necessary for taking first steps toward accomplishing concrete, timely actions, long-term goals require honoring processes that may take an extended period of time. for us, the commitment to partnership revolves around an authentic dedication to facilitating opportunities through which parent and family members can step into their leadership as experts of their children. this process of seeing oneself as a leader and expert may not occur overnight; it may not even occur in one semester. for this reason, we think of family as faculty as a 5or 10-year project in which there are many iterations. even though certain funding mechanisms are structured to provide monies for 1year increments, cristina, in particular, conceptualizes each year as one part of a larger whole through which parents and family members progress toward leadership in higher educational spaces. sustainability in the context of faf means working with and learning from parents year after year as co-educators who enrich the overall project. sustainable, mutually founded commitments have been at the heart of our partnership. here we take a moment to discuss the ways we have been consistently supportive of one another’s projects. specific questions that we have asked ourselves over the past three years are shared in figure 5 to assist others who are interested in establishing long-term commitments with community or university partners. figure 5: sustainable commitments: what questions to ask 1. have mutual goals been established, operationalized, and formalized (in some manner)? 2. do these mutual goals have timelines attached? are these timelines realistic? are they fair to all stakeholders? 3. has there been a discussion around what an enduring partnership around these goals may look like? 4. do these mutual goals state who is responsible for implementing and carrying them out? are the responsibilities equitably distributed? 5. has there been a conversation around accountability? what does accountability mean for each person? what does accountability mean for implementation of and follow through of mutual goals? engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 62 6. is there some type of memorandum of understanding (mou) between you and your partner? is it easily accessible? is the language clear? 7. does the mou reflect a shared vision and mutual goals? 8. what structures or mechanisms have been put in place to ensure mutual goals are realized? 9. where do meetings about accountability, long-term commitments, and mutual goals take place? how does location impact enduring partnerships? 10. is there room for the commitments to evolve and transform as the project grows or changes? in the academic year 2017 – 2018, joel became the executive director of in*source. in his new leadership role, he has written comprehensive letters of support for cristina. cristina has been awarded several community-engaged grants and fellowships due in part to in*source’s demonstrated commitment to the faf projects. further in*source has given in-kind matches to these grants consisting of administrative and staff support, material resources, and transportation costs. continued funding has allowed cristina to expand faf and to continue working with parents affiliated with in*source. in fall 2017 graduate students, parents of children with dis/abilities, and community stakeholders affiliated with local parent-to-parent organizations collaborated together to organize and host an inclusion conference for over 130 participants. in*source was prominently featured in conference panels and family-led discussions. the 2018 2019 faf project that is currently underway consists of multiple stakeholder groups including: a) in*source and a local parent-to-parent organization; b) undergraduate pre-service special education teachers; c) graduate in-service teachers and educators; d) undergraduate students acting as interpreters/translators from the latino studies department; e) parent educators from previous faf projects; and f) 18 latinx family members of children with down syndrome and autism. extensive support from in*source has been necessary in securing funding and specific structural supports needed to implement this complex study involving over 70 stakeholders. one main purpose of this third iteration of faf is to support latinx families through ongoing family-driven workshops. latinx parent participants are either spanish/english bilingual or monolingual spanish speakers learning english as a new language. this year’s project focuses on family-driven miniaction plans through which these parents, with the support of students, create shortand long-term goals to address challenges their children with dis/abilities are experiencing in schools. in*source, under joel’s leadership, has connected cristina to several bilingual parent advocates who are instrumental to the overall planning and implementation of this project. in turn, cristina has demonstrated specific commitments to in*source described in the next section that contribute to the organization’s overall stability and sustainability. for example, she has given extensive time and energy to in*source’s organization to ensure its long-term, fiscal solvency by writing letters of support, co-writing grants with joel, and connecting in*source with university-based centers to enhance its reputation as an equity-centered organization. further, she has established and maintained strong relationships with in*source’s engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 63 board members and staff and continues to co-teach with parents affiliated directly with this organization. attending to reciprocity reciprocity is an intentional choice and act between stakeholders of giving time, energy, and resources to the other while receiving a proportionate “return” of service. reciprocity, to us, should not be measured and scrutinized solely in strict, quantitative terms. for example, if we give 6 hours of volunteer time to our partner we should not expect them to return an exact equivalent as measured in the same form. from the outside, this input/output mechanism of measuring effort may appear “equal” but, in practice, it can feel forced and disingenuous. we conceptualize this “mechanism” as a fulcrum as shown in figure 6, whereby a balanced partnership can only be maintained if the effort exerted is equivalent to the load or responsibility carried. reciprocity in a community partnership should be a dynamic process in which negotiation between stakeholders is conducted respectfully, whereby mutually defined and beneficial goals are the center of all discussions. perhaps the equivalent “effort” of 6 hours shows up in a different manner, for example, in providing “free” recruitment for the partner’s project at a state conference. time, energy, and resources should be given and received within a continuous flow that makes sense to the everyday activities and choices being made to sustain a healthy and equitable partnership. additionally, intent, integrity, and accountability are core, underlying elements of reciprocity that drive meaningful and authentic relationships. simply stated, if we, as community partners, can say with 100% confidence that “we have each other’s backs” and “we can count on one another” then we know internally that the relationships are sustainable and balanced. reciprocity to parents in faf in all faf projects, cristina has been able to provide monetary compensation to parent participants to demonstrate she values their expertise as professionals who are contributing to the overall faf research. when cristina shared the initial faf engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 64 proposal with joel in 2016, one of the points of conversation was payment and its distribution. cristina explained that paying the parent co-educators was an important gesture to show she deeply respected their knowledge, time, and curricular and instructional contributions. cristina was adamant that, in spite of certain parents assuring her that they “didn’t need the money in order to participate,” she wanted to show she recognized the importance of their participation in the course. paying them for their expert input and time was an act of reciprocity. moreover, the parents trusted cristina with their lived experiences. they willingly shared their stories with pre-service special education teachers. in turn, cristina demonstrated to parents that their expertise was just as, if not more, important. she did this by replacing “traditional” course content with parents’ first-hand narratives. joel was appreciative of these actions and stated how important it was to value parents’ contributions as experts of their children in faf projects. reciprocity in partnerships specific to our partnership, there have been several moments we want to highlight that are tangible acts of reciprocity. during the first iteration of the faf project after joel had sent out the email to assist cristina in recruiting parents, he asked her for a letter of support for a grant he was writing for a language interpreter program mentioned earlier. this program was designed to prepare special education interpreters to “build cultural bridges” within their schools to better facilitate special education case conferences with schools and families. cristina felt qualified to recommend this program because of her bilingual special education background. fortuitously, in*source was awarded funding to implement this program. in line with reciprocity being given and received “within a continuous flow that makes sense,” (joel, email correspondence) we benefited from assisting one another in meeting individual goals that contributed to supporting families in our respective projects. another act of “reciprocity” was cristina’s board member application submission to in*source. she wrote a comprehensive cover letter detailing the ways she could contribute directly to advocate’s mission: “to provide parents, families, individuals & service providers in the state of indiana the information & training necessary to help assure effective educational programs & appropriate services for individuals with disabilities.” the former executive director and the in*source board of directors voted on and accepted her application. since 2016, cristina has been serving on in*source’s board and, since 2017, has acted as secretary. finally, we presented together at a regional conference held in las vegas for parent training and information centers interested in unique opportunities for partnerships to benefit families. our presentation focused on the faf project and our collaboration as university-community member partners. in addition, we recently wrote and submitted a department of education grant for a statewide family engagement center. though we were not awarded this grant, we collaborated with several other stakeholders including a federally-funded, equity assistance center. engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 65 addressing power dynamics in this section, it is helpful to refer to figures 2 and 6 to understand the balance and distribution of power in university-community partnerships. here cristina and joel extend their understandings of mutual respect and reciprocity by bringing up specific issues related to power. for cristina, the discussion is focused on tensions emerging from communityengaged work originating from dominant, eurocentric university structures and applied to community settings. joel speaks to the inherent dichotomy of “running a business” versus helping families. however, he centers his narrative on ways that power can be shared in order to attend to both the business of in*source and its mission, the latter being focused on parent advocacy. cristina power dynamics must be accounted for in all community-engaged relationships, specifically university-community partnerships. though i cannot speak for all service-learning or community-based projects originating out of universities, i can describe my own evolving understandings of power as i reflect on the ways i’ve needed to problematize the university’s role in my own faf projects. there are major tensions in my work with families as i integrate community-engaged activities within a “servicelearning” course. here, service-learning is defined as, “an instructional approach that is credit bearing and linking curriculum goals with intentional learning within the community” (delano-oriaran, 2015, p. 38). by intentionally situating faf approaches in my courses, i become accountable to university constructs that limit the amount of time allotted for faf projects. in other words: is it really possible to do authentic community-engaged projects with families and students when i only have 16-week chunks of time to build and develop relationships? another tension is constructing genuine ways to assess students. because of university norms, i need to evaluate students’ performance and learning through grades. in community-engaged work, “grading” students on the process of building important student-family partnerships seems contrary to the purpose of my work. i want relationships to develop authentically. when students “do communityengaged work” to demonstrate course expectations to “get the good grade” then the energy they bring to their “engagement” is rooted in obligation rather than in genuine acts of caring, consideration, empathy, respect, and trust. conversely, when students are open to learning about and from community partners as a means to expand their own understandings and to fully embrace the collaboration process through dialogic interactions, then, i believe, authentic beginnings for engagement are possible. as an instructor who intentionally situates faf approaches as pedagogical tools for learning, i need to be extremely aware of uneven power dynamics (cummins, 2009). embedded within these dynamics between students and community stakeholders is the potentiality for “service” to be done for communities perceived in be in need of help or “damaged” in some way (koster, baccar, & lemelin, 2012; tuck, 2009). knowing that traditional service-learning is an institutional practice historically connected to engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 66 dominant eurocentric values is an important part of conscious awareness in engaging with communities (leeuw, s. d., cameron, e. s., & greenwood, m. l., 2012). when service-learning projects are not centered in social justice and equity, they become extensions of eurocentric, colonizing practices (mitchell, 2008, 2014). if equity and social justice are not considered in community-engaged work originating in or from the university then “the work” can potentially harm the community stakeholders for whom it was designed. even with pure intention to expose my students to community-engaged work co-constructed with stakeholders, i know these experiences designed for university-level courses may not be enough to disrupt deficit-driven beliefs of parents and families. further, what keeps me up at night is thinking about whether or not working within university course parameters allows for true reciprocity with community stakeholders. is the work i am doing truly beneficial for the parents, families and community partners with whom i collaborate? even when i intentionally institute measures to center stakeholders’ voices in my work, is the work equitable on all levels or do some individuals feel excluded or marginalized? though i embed several opportunities to collect data from stakeholders in my faf studies about how and if they believe they are benefiting from the faf projects, sometimes i wonder if these opportunities reach deep enough to unearth the complexities of their answers. joel while in*source is a 501c3, for many practical purposes we are a business. we have employees, a website and a 1-800 number, operate with contracts and invoices, have hours of operation, company laptops, reimbursement protocols, and so on. while in*source is concerned with efficiency and fiscal sustainability, we do not turn dollars into products or services in order to make a profit. rather, we turn dollars into products and services in order to help families. any mutually beneficial relationship needs to account for that governing purpose. grant and contract stipulations also inform what mutual benefit means to in*source. tellingly grant and contract funded work is often referred to as a “project” and often functions as a mediating expression of all that might be done toward fulfilling in*source’s mission and what there are resources to do. realizing a mutually beneficial partnership may help get to project deliverables more efficiently, which from the “business” aspect of being a nonprofit is, of course, helpful. all the better, however, if a mutually realized benefit can do what you do not have any business or project capacity for yet is fully aligned with mission. while the faf did help with project deliverables, the latter is what faf really represented for in*source. conclusions: what’s next? at the heart of our work is the understanding that families of children with dis/abilities are strong advocates for their children who deserve respect and integrity from educational professionals in decisions impacting their child. we interpret section 300.300(a)(2)(iii) of the individuals with disabilities education and improvement act (ideia) to mean that parents are equal stakeholders and should be given every opportunity to voice their concerns, contribute engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 67 to their child’s specific school-related goals and objectives, be actively and seriously listened to for their unique insights, and have equitable access to power structures that inform their child’s academic and educational trajectory. through our mutually respectful partnership, we are creating innovative pathways for families to participate as leaders and knowledge-makers in special education teacher preparation courses. we understand that in partnership our work with families is enhanced as we consider options that we had not conceived of before or were unable to enact without one another’s support. as we look to the future, we are interested in expanding family as faculty and other programs that center families’ voice in educational spaces. we are committed to opening more doors for historically minoritized families to engage in and influence programs at the local and state level, in the classrooms, and at higher education institutions. in practice, this engagement means listening to families from diverse cultural, linguistic, racial and ethnic backgrounds and collaborating with them to shape future iterations of programs like faf. by doing so we hope to genuinely address areas these families have identified and want to pursue that, ultimately, will benefit their children and others with dis/abilities. further explorations while we describe a successful instance of a mutually respectful universitycommunity partnership, we believe further research and exploration of this topic is warranted within the field of special education and beyond. the underlying values of equity including mutual respect, reciprocity, and sustainability inform this partnership, are relevant to other fields of study, and need to be more fully realized within special education. in figure 7 we provide some concrete examples of how we are thinking about applying these values to our future collaborative work as well as how these values may be considered in others’ community-engaged projects. future inquiries might also interact with the substantial mutual benefit for both partners in that the approach by cristina was iterative but not transactional and focused but not brief. simply, a mutually respectful approach toward a community partner takes time but pays off, and indeed this and other successful university-community partnerships engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 68 undergirded by equity ideas must make pragmatic sense in order to persist. what other insights can be gleaned by examining the intersection of equity and practicality? and how can this examination inform and transform spaces for genuine, sustainable partnerships? students and parents work together to build the tallest, free-standing structure with the materials provided. students and parents are working together on mini-action plans centered on family-driven goals. engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 69 references clandinin, d. j., cave, m. t., & berendonk, c. (2017). narrative inquiry: a relational research methodology for medical education. medical education, 2017(51), 89 – 96. clandinin, d. j. & huber, j. (2010). narrative inquiry. in b. mcgraw, e. baker & p. peterson (eds), international encyclopedia of education third ed.). new york, ny: elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-0448947.01387-7 clandinin, d. j. & rosiek, j. (2007). mapping is a landscape of narrative inquiry. journal of teacher education, 58:1, 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487106296218 cummins, j. (2009). pedagogies of choice: challenging coercive relations of power in classroom and communities. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 12(3), 261 271. davis, l. j. (1995). enforcing normalcy: disability, deafness and the body. london: verso. davis, l. j. (2013). the end of identity politics: on disability as an unstable category. in l.j. davis (ed.), the disability studies reader (pp. 263– 277). new york: routledge. delano-oriaran, o. (2015). an overview of academic community-based learning approaches. in o. delano-oriaran, m. w. penick-parks, & s. fondrie (eds.), foundations of service-learning and civic engagement (pp. 37 – 45). los angeles, ca: sage publications, inc. heller, r., mcklindon, d. (1996). families as "faculty": parents educating caregivers about familycentered care. pediatric nursing, 22(5), 428-431. fals-borda, o. (2006). the north-south convergence: a 30-year first-person assessment of par. action research, 4(3), 351 – 358. fals-borda, o. (1987). the application of participatory action research in latin america. international sociology, 2(4), 329 – 347. forlin, c., & hopewell, t. (2006). inclusion – the heart of the matter: perceptions of a parent’s journey. british journal of special education, 33(2), 55 – 61. freire, p. (1970/2000). pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary edition). new york: bloomsbury. johnson, a. m., yoder, j., & richardson-nassif (2006). using families as faculty in teaching medical students family-centered care: what are students learning? teaching & learning in medicine, 18(3), 222 – 225. koster, r., baccar, k., & lemelin, r. h. (2012). moving from research on, to research with and for indigenous communities: a critical reflection on community-based participatory research. the canadian geographer/le géographe canadien, 56(2), 195-210. engage! / vol.1, issue 1 santamaria-graff/forming a mutually respectful 70 leeuw, s. d., cameron, e. s., & greenwood, m. l. (2012). participatory and community-based research, indigenous geographies, and the spaces of friendship: a critical engagement. the canadian geographer/le géographe canadien, 56(2), 180-194. macy, m., & squires, j. (2009). l’arte d’arrangiarsi: evaluation of an innovative practice in a preservice practicum. journal of early intervention, 31(4), 308 – 325. mitchell, t. d. (2008). traditional vs. critical servicelearning: engaging the literature to differentiate two models. michigan journal of community service learning, 14(2), 50-65. mitchell, t. d. (2014). how service-learning enacts social justice sensemaking. journal of critical thought and praxis, 2(2), available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/jctp/vol2/iss2/6 patterson, k. b., webb, k. w., & krudwig, k. m. (2009). family as faculty parents: influence on teachers’ beliefs about family partnerships. preventing school failure, 54(1), 41 – 50. santamaría graff, c. & vazquez, s. l. (2014). family resistance as a tool in urban school reform. in e. b. kozleski & k. king thorius (eds.), ability, equity, and culture: sustaining inclusive urban education reform. new york: teachers college press santamaría graff, c., mccain, t., & gomez-vilchis, v. (2013). latina resilience in higher education: contributing factors including seasonal farmworker experiences. journal of hispanic higher education, 12(4), 334 – 344. doi 10.1177/1538192713494212 santamaria, c. (2009). mexican origin parents with special needs children: using a critically compassionate intellectualism model to support and foster their participation in u.s. schools through a participatory action research project. dissertation abstracts international, 70(4), 474 tuck, e. (2009). suspending damage: a letter to communities. harvard educational review, 79(3), 409 427. warren-gordon, k., & santamaría graff, c. (2018, nov/dec). critical service-learning as a vehicle for change in higher education courses. changes, 50(60), 20 – 23. doi: 10.1080/00091383.2018.1540817 williams, e. (2012). encouraging discussion between teacher candidates and families with exceptional children. education, 133(2), 239 – 247. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/jctp/vol2/iss2/6 abstract forming a mutually respectful university-community partnership through a “family as faculty” project references iu author richard bray community partnership manager, iupui office of community engagement richard bray community conversations have emerged as a vehicle to invite different voices into addressing the complexities of society and bridge the silos between public and private institutions and the communities. at iupui, the listening and learning with the community conversations are projected to be spaces where local indianapolis communities and iupui faculty, students and staff can come together to discuss ways to strengthen collaborations in areas of common interest. the project originated as an initiative to further develop the excellence of iu community-engaged research and as part of a larger project to celebrate the iu bicentennial to be expanded to other iu campuses. the university has a history of providing breadth and depth of engagement with communities immediately adjacent to the campus. efforts have been made to leverage our collective resources to support the community initiatives. specifically in the martindale-brightwood community, the university received a multi-year multi-million dollar grant to support education initiatives. after the grant ended, the office of community engagement – family, school and neighborhood engagement (oce-fsne) was committed to remaining engaged and supportive of the community. so the first community conversation promoted by oce-fsne occurred on april 17, 2019 at the edna martin christian center, a local organization in the heart of the martindale-brightwood neighborhood located on the east side of indianapolis. holding the first meeting in the neighborhood would increase community involvement and create a sense of joint ownership for the work ahead. edna martin participated as co-convener; and a community resident and university staff member collaborated to create the community conversation agenda and co-facilitated the dialogue. this conveyed a partnership of mutuality and respect. local clergy, congregation members, neighborhood leaders, area residents, elected officials, law enforcement, university staff, faculty, and students attended the conversation. authentic communityuniversity dialogues supporting community change p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 52 we purposely started the conversation capturing the rich history of the neighborhood while centering community voice and residents’ pride in their community. participants actively listened and learned about the neighborhood’s history and voiced their perspectives gained from serving, living, and working in and with the community over the years. following, there was a robust dialogue on the neighborhood’s seven strategic initiatives or mb-7. these initiatives mark the route to long-term change for the neighborhood through the promotion of specific initiatives in the arts, education, entrepreneurship, housing, health and communication. during the conversation, residents expressed appreciation for the continued involvement of the university in supporting neighborhood schools, as well as the recent health initiatives for its senior citizen population. however, they desire a deeper and more comprehensive engagement in all mb-7 areas. the conversation we started in april has confirmed that the community desires that the university remains engaged and supportive with community residents and its organizations. the community is not looking for the university to invest financially but to invest relationally – through faculty, students, and strategic staff persons who can facilitate and foster relationships. there is the desire for the community to co-create knowledge that can be integrated into action for the benefit of the community. one community member said “do not weaponize the data against us. but help us to understand the data and findings so that we can make informed decisions about our future.” this idea of “weaponization” of the data relates to the community sentiment of information being used to achieve purposes that are divorced and sometimes against community interests. this powerful idea also brings us back to the importance of legitimate participation of the community in the decisions that affect their lives and the ethics of university-community engagement. iupui staff members and community members speak during a community conversation in the martindale-brightwood neighborhood. photo credit: john gentry b r a y | d i a l o g u e s 53 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 organizing this first conversation was not without challenges. community organizations have their own processes, projects, plans, timing and interests. while our long-time partnership with the edna martin christian center facilitated the planning of the conversation, on the side of the university, faculty and student involvement was not as expected. we think that the time the conversation was scheduled (5:00 pm), and the university academic calendar (two weeks before finals) were barriers to consider for upcoming conversations. since this initial conversation, key university staff have been participating in community governance and planning meetings and support the neighborhood mb-7. for example, there is a promising initiative to form an internship program that will attract university students from a variety of majors (i.e. social work, business, and education). graduate and undergraduate students participating in this program will have common community engagement experiences that support their individual major as well as ongoing initiatives and programs at the community center. additionally, oce-fsne has also renewed its engagement through continuing support to the martindale brightwood educational zone (mbez) developed to improve the educational development and academic outcomes of children in the neighborhood. as common interests with the community are identified, it is expected that more scholars will show interest. a conversation is not just about an event or a time but part of a larger process that expects to bring about more people involved and ultimately change in the community. projects and programs will evolve and people will change, it is expected that the university and the community continue fostering meaningful and purposeful relationships that remain in time. 37 place community center, located in martindale-brightwood, hosted the community conversation with iupui. photo credit: annie goeller p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 54 authors robin p. newhouse distinguished professor, indiana university dean, indiana university school of nursing deputy chair, university clinical affairs cabinet faith kirkham hawkins assistant vice chancellor for research, uc san diego note: faith kirkham hawkins was iu associate vice president for research development and strategic initiatives 2017-2019. abstract in 2017, significant increases in opioid overdoses and the crippling effect of substance use on the health of hoosiers heightened a sense of urgency to address this major health crisis. indiana university (iu) initiated a grand challenge: responding to the addictions crisis (agc) through a $50 million investment in intramural research and projects to address addictions in indiana in synergy with state and health system partners. the announcement resulted in immediate response from the community via email and calls with request for engagement from the people of indiana, groups, organizations and policy makers. the challenge was: how can a public university partner with communities to advance our understanding of a complex problem like addiction while developing strategies to address that problem? to organize quickly, initial contacts were categorized into an agc community engagement framework with five potential levels of engagement curiosity, interest, advocacy, project partners, and initiative partners. to guide our team’s responsiveness, each level was mapped to specific agc goals, mechanisms of engagement, and engagement owners. the engagement framework developed has high utility for universities and other public institutions who seek to engage the broad community in public health responses. keywords: engagement; health; addictions; community; partnerships indiana university’s community engagement framework for a public health priority responding to the addictions crisis robin p. newhouse and faith kirkham hawkins c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 16 n e w h o u s e | p u b l i c h e a l t h introduction in 2017, indiana reached its highest age-adjusted drug overdose death rate at 29.4 per 100,000 people, significantly higher than the national rate and the 2016 indiana rate. as the opioid epidemic ravaged the nation, the stark reality that americans are more likely to die from accidental opioid overdoses than from car crashes riveted communities (national safety council, 2019). indiana university (iu) responded to this crisis by launching one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive state-based responses to the opioid addiction crisis — and the largest led by a university. as one of iu’s three grand challenges, the response to the addictions crisis is rooted in the university’s commitment to rigorous interdisciplinary research with public impact, an expression of the university’s responsibility to serving the public. president michael a. mcrobbie, announced the grand challenge in october 2017 alongside indiana gov. eric j. holcomb, iu health ceo dennis murphy and lead investigator robin newhouse. the addictions grand challenge (agc) funds projects led by teams of iu faculty, many working alongside community members, business, nonprofit and government partners (indiana university, 2019a). the agc focuses its work on five areas of iu’s greatest capacity: data infrastructure and analysis; training and education; policy and policy analysis; basic, applied and translational research; and community and workforce development. all projects focus on at least one of three goals: reduce deaths from opioid overdose, ease the burden of substance use on hoosier communities and reduce exposure to unplanned substances for babies before birth (including medication-assisted treatment for mothers when indicated) (indiana university, 2019b). a steering committee (sc) chaired by the lead investigator includes research leaders and faculty from each research-intensive campus [bloomington (iub) and indiana university purdue university indianapolis (iupui)]. the sc is responsible for the agc five-year strategy, goal attainment and evaluation. prior to the iu agc commitment, the sc assessed iu’s capacity to respond to the addictions crises, developed a five-year plan to fund proposals aligned with three primary goals, and continue to advise the agc strategy and monitor evaluation outcomes. a scientific leadership team (slt) was appointed. the team included one faculty from each research-intensive campus [bloomington and indiana university purdue university indianapolis (iupui)] and one representative of the five iu regional campuses. they advise on the science and priorities, invited proposals, act as a resource in their area of expertise, conduct scientific review of proposals and recommend proposals to be funded. a socio-ecological model (sem) for responding to addictions was adapted to addictions to inform the agc’s strategy recognizing that f i g u r e 1 : a s o c i o e c o l o g i c a l m o d e l f o r r e s p o n s e t o a d d i c t i o n adapted from mcleroy kr, bibeau d, steckler a, glanz k. (1988). an ecological perspection on health promotion programs. health education quarterly. 15. 351-77 individual biological, genetic, psychological interpersonal family, friends, social networks organizational organizations, social institutions community county, town, neighborhood society and public policy national, state, and local laws and regulations 17 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 change is shaped by multiple levels of influence that must be considered if population level health benefits of agc interventions were to be achieved (figure 1). the ecological perspective introduced by mcleroy, bibeau, steckler and glanz (1988) frames determinates of change or outcomes as intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional, community and public policy. over the past three decades sem models have provided a framework for health improvements (national cancer institute, 2005) and specific diseases alike (pearson, 2011). as a result, agc projects needed to align with interventions and outcomes that affect each level and engage with community members and partners. from the beginning of the planning process, a range of potential partners aligned with research priorities were identified – including governent agencies, nonprofit and community groups, and private sector companies. many of our first project teams funded in january 2018 (phase 1 funding) could initiate studies quickly, as they drew on existing partnerships outside the university to shape their research and intended impacts. phase 2 projects were funded in october 2018, after open addiction related discussion groups, scoping sessions, and the opportunity to participate in an ideas lab1 intended to create proposals and teams able to respond to the request for proposals. an undergirding tenet of phase 2 required engagement with community partners. the basic principle was to create teams that include relationships enhancing and informing the design; methods and outcomes used for the studies; as well as supplementing expertise on research teams. engagement was based on the 1999 kellogg commission on the future of state and land-grant universities characterized by “a commitment to sharing and reciprocity … partnerships, two-way streets defined by mutual respect among the partners for what each brings to the table,” (kellogg commission on the future of state and land-grant universities, 1999). this reciprocal engagement with community partners is both a practical and ethical imperative for initiatives like the addictions grand challenge. in practical terms, university efforts to address critical problems facing society will work only to the degree that they address community priorities, draw on community capacities, and respond to community challenges. any “solution” a university develops to critical social problems like the addictions epidemic must be implemented by those with boots on the ground – often ground that is geographically or culturally distant from universities. the ethical imperative for universities – particularly for public universities like indiana university – is equally critical. universities are members of the larger community, and have an ethical responsibility to contribute directly to community. to be good citizens, universities must expand efforts to focus research toward critical social problems, while continuing to engage in fundamental research focused on expanding the boundaries of knowledge. the kellogg commission identified seven characteristics of an engaged institution (table 1) that resonate with the agc efforts, providing not only important principles, but also an ethical framework and imperative for healthy partnerships to address common public health goals (kellogg in practical terms, university efforts to address critical problems facing society will work only to the degree that they address community priorities, draw on community capacities, and respond to community challenges. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 18 commission on the future of state and landgrant universities, 1999). applying these characteristics to our engagement plan offers a helpful evaluation framework: listening carefully to partners; engaging in dynamic exchange of information; and promoting a shared understanding in order to assess, enhance, and amplify mutual efforts. questions aligned with each characteristic can guide both short and long-term evaluation efforts. announcement and community response in the week after the agc announcement, the team was inundated with emails from more than 100 community members, organizations and business owners asking how they could become involved with the initiative. two facts were clear in the initial response: 1) the agc resonated with hoosiers’ experiences and needs, and 2) the variety of responses required an undergirding commitment to engagement with all levels of influence in our socio-ecological model. the immediate focus was to develop strategies to address the community requests for engagement and partnership. the challenge presented was: how can a public university partner with communities to advance our understanding of a complex problem like addiction while developing strategies to address that problem? the solution was clear. a framework and process were needed to ensure responsiveness to our community and handle inquiries in a way that we can enable partners to come together, collaborate, and focus on multiple attributes of the problem in an integrated manner. approach to developing the agc community engagement framework in reviewing the variety of inquiries received, it was clear that a single form of response would not suffice. to address the interest generated by the announcement effectively, a framework responsiveness: are we listening to communities, and to diverse members of varied communities? respect for partners: do we respect the expertise, experience, and skills that our partners bring to the process of identifying and responding to the addictions crisis? academic neutrality: how can the university ensure that policy and practical recommendations are based firmly in evidence-based research? accessibility: how can we make our work receptive to, and accessible to, all the constituencies within the state? integration: does our framework facilitate the integration of scholarship, teaching, and service? coordination: are we facilitating coordination across units and disciplines within the university, and with varied partners outside the university? resource partnerships: what are the various ways in which we are resourcing our work – both financially and intellectually? adapted from kellogg commission on the future of state and land-grant universities (1999, p.12). to be good citizens, universities must expand efforts to focus research toward critical social problems, while continuing to engage in fundamental research focused on expanding the boundaries of knowledge. ta b l e 1 : k e l lo g g c o m m i s s i o n s e v e n characteristics of an engaged institution n e w h o u s e | p u b l i c h e a l t h 19 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 identifying five distinct levels of engagement was developed, with specific goals for each level and mechanisms for engaging. our priorities were to respond to community queries, link potential project partners to researchers or teams engaged in related work, and dialog with businesses to understand their interest while connecting them to the best-aligned partner either within or outside the university. the five levels of engagement with the iu agc range from curiosity to initiative partners (see table 2). examples of queries from our community are included in table 3. curiosity (e.g. how will this work?) requests information without higher levels of connection, requiring communication through multiple media. interest (how can i connect?) requests a higher level of linkage to resources, requiring various strategies of communication – extending from email to in-person invitations (e.g. public interest sessions such as scoping reviews or discussion groups). with advocacy, (how can i advance this work?) requests went beyond interest toward action to help disseminate, for example, tools or information. project partners actively engaged with research teams to write research proposals or serve as community advisory boards for specific projects. initiative partners (how can we synergize our efforts?) actively enta b l e 2 : a d d i c t i o n s g r a n d c h a l l e n g e c o m m u n i t y e n g ag e m e n t f r a m e wo r k engagement level engagement goals engagement mechanisms engagement outcome engagement responsibility curiosity keep the curious informed about our work earned media, paid media, social media be informed at a basic level communications interest build on interest to create connections, link to resources as above, + newsletter, websites, public interest sessions be informed at a moderate level about the crisis and iu’s response communications advocate use connections to disseminate information, connect with communities as above, + dissemination and education tools, occasional partnerships on outreach be asked for input, assistance in spreading information director of operations project partners enhance our activity through partnership with community members, agencies as above, + link to specific projects and faculty; membership on community stakeholders’ board help develop solutions through partnership with iu, inform, advocate for our work vpr office, sc, slt director of operations corporate relations initiative partners coordinate across multiple levels and stakeholders; maximize impact across sectors as above, + coordinating committee and external advisory board help deliver services and solutions to reduce addiction in indiana vpr, pi notes: vpr: iu vice president of research, pi: agc lead investigator, slt: agc scientific leadership team, sc: agc steering committee | source: authors c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 20 engagement level engagement goals engagement mechanisms engagement outcome engagement responsibility curiosity keep the curious informed about our work earned media, paid media, social media be informed at a basic level communications interest build on interest to create connections, link to resources as above, + newsletter, websites, public interest sessions be informed at a moderate level about the crisis and iu’s response communications advocate use connections to disseminate information, connect with communities as above, + dissemination and education tools, occasional partnerships on outreach be asked for input, assistance in spreading information director of operations project partners enhance our activity through partnership with community members, agencies as above, + link to specific projects and faculty; membership on community stakeholders’ board help develop solutions through partnership with iu, inform, advocate for our work vpr office, sc, slt director of operations corporate relations initiative partners coordinate across multiple levels and stakeholders; maximize impact across sectors as above, + coordinating committee and external advisory board help deliver services and solutions to reduce addiction in indiana vpr, pi gaged with the agc leaders (e.g. agc community advisory board). each level was mapped to the best area of responsibility and person that could respond in a timely manner and have the ability to link the community member to the right investigator, team, leader or organizational affiliate. discussion iu’s agc community engagement framework provided an effective approach responding to our community’s interests. our team was able to reply quickly to each level of query linking the intent of the contact to agc specific goals, potential mechanisms of engagement, and engagement owners. the experience also taught us a number of lessons. first, iu’s agc community engagement framework applied principles of engagement to create a rapid organizational response to a public health crisis. second, the experience of responding to our community enabled priority setting for communication strategies. third, we began to approach our agc scientific phase ii formative efforts differently, incorporating our community into discussion groups, scoping reviews and proposal development events. there were also lessons learned in developing and using iu’s agc community engagement framework for application to communication strategies. for example, the first two levels of engagement indicate curiosity and interest from the public. curiosity and interest informed discussions resulting in planned actions to keep information flowing in response to public interest. the need for information led to a strategic communications plan that includes a website dedicated to the agc, paid media (advertisements in publications and social media) and use of multiple social media strategies. the dedicated agc website provides resources for the community, both looking for opioid/substance use information and seeking a partner on research projects. as engagement with the community grew, there were opportunities to provide resources and information on the topic of the agc and other substance use/addictions related topics via public panels, training and our website. because of lessons learned about the engagement processes and need for information among stakeholders, community members, table 3: examples 2017 communication from community for each level of engagement curiosity “we were curious if there were funding opportunities….” or “how will you involve families who have lost someone to addiction?” how is this going to work? (student group response) interest “would like to….explore possibilities, in using xxx to relieve pain” how can i get involved? (scoping sessions, discussion groups ) advocate “please take the time to investigate the xxx program” how can i help to advance your work? (families who have lost someone to addiction) project partner “…would love to provide any assistance i can as you implement this initiative…. “ “we are implementing a….system-wide project to standardize and improve the care and treatment, of medical patients who also have substance abuse problems…would like your input.” how can i work with you to move xx forward? (project advisory board or participant in ideas lab) initiative partner would like to “discuss options with the addictions work aligned …. noted the number of projects at xx already underway that could be a basis for future work… and goal setting.” how can we synergize our efforts? (agc community advisory board) n e w h o u s e | p u b l i c h e a l t h 21 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 research teams and iu in general, the position of assistant director of research communications was created for the agc. it is important to note, that what we learned from our robust early agc community response experience informed our approach to phase ii efforts. there was an increasing awareness and appreciation for the importance of community engagement needing to extend beyond just responding to inquiries. it became important to implement a processes in which those inside and outside the university could meaningfully contribute to the development of future research efforts. we initiated across campus dialog and innovative partnership building strategies between community members facilitated by knowinnovation (ki), an organization dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary scientific innovation. with the ki team, we first hosted “scoping sessions,” attended by more than 200 university and community individuals. in these scoping sessions, participants were challenged to step outside their typical frames of reference and connect with others whose experience and expertise might offer surprising avenues of inquiry and research. numerous new collaborations resulted, ranging from short-term collaborations that increased the degree to which community expertise and research priorities informed long-term impact-focused research partnerships. and researchers through a research and team development process. after the scoping sessions, a multi-day ideas lab was held bringing university researchers and community partners together to develop fully-formed draft research projects in response to the agc phase ii request for proposals. throughout the past two years more than 130 community partnerships in 27 counties are actively engaged throughout the state. these partnerships have played a vital role in informing our research projects by partnering and providing researchers real-time information around addictions issues throughout the state. the role of engagement in a large university project focused on a major public health crisis is a natural extension in synchronizing many individual efforts into a common goal toward higher impact. conclusion engaging with the community and community partners throughout indiana became the foundation of the agc. creating the agc community engagement framework guided connections between the community and iu faculty and teams to advance our understanding for how best to respond as a public health priority while simultaneously developing strategies to address that problem. mapping engagement levels to specific agc goals, mechanisms of engagement, and engagement owners resulted in a model and process with high utility for universities and other public institutions who seek to engage the broad community in public health responses. the expectation for community and stakeholder engagement in research has emerged quickly over the last decade to promote the conduct of rigorous relevant research informed by communities and people that will use the results of research. the patient centered outcomes research institute (pcori) has led the study and development of methods of patient and stakeholder engagement in all phases of comparative effectiveness research the role of engagement in a large university project focused on a major public health crisis is a natural extension in synchronizing many individual efforts into a common goal toward higher impact. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 22 (sheridan, et al., 2013). effective engagement methods are publicly available in a rubric to guide investigators submitting proposals to pcori, with additional resources on the website (pcori, 2019). other major federal organizations including the u.s. federal drug administration (fda) [fda, 2019] and funders have initiatives underway to promote patient and stakeholder engagement, including the national institutes of health (nih) [nih: national center for advancing translational sciences, 2019], agency for healthcare research and quality (ahrq) [ahrq, 2017], and center for medicare and medicaid services (cms) [cms, 2019]. these efforts are working toward embedding engagement into organizational policies and procedures broadly. iu’s agc community engagement framework sought to organize response to our community rapidly and optimize community member’s expected level of engagement with iu to solve a mutually experienced community and state problem. other universities and institutions of public education could use this model to involve and engage their community in research taking place at their institution and to create long-lasting partnerships that connect the university with those working on the frontline of public issues. we are certain that we could have done better to engage our community as we learned together. we are just as certain that a response to addictions can only be successful if we partner with people, organizations, and the state officials and engage with communities that share common goals. references agency for healthcare research and quality (ahrq). (2017). introduction: guide to improving patient safety in primary care settings by engaging patients and families. retrieved from https://www.ahrq.gov/ patient-safety/reports/engage/ intro.html center for medicare and medicaid services (cms). (2019). stakeholder engagement. retrieved from https:// www.cms.gov/medicare/ quality-initiatives-patient-assessment-instruments/mms/ stakeholder-engagement indiana university (iu). (2019a). iu’s grand challenge: responding to the addictions crisis. retrieved from https:// addictions.iu.edu/responding-to-crisis/grand-challenge. html indiana university (iu). (2019b). addictions: projects. retrieved from https://addictions.iu.edu/responding-to-crisis/projects/index.html kellogg commission on the future of state and land-grant universities. (1999). returning to our roots: the engaged institution, available at: https://www.aplu.org/library/ returning-to-our-roots-the-engaged-institution/file. mcleroy kr, bibeau d, steckler a, glanz k. (1988). an ecological perspective on health promotion programs. health education quarterly, 15, 351–377. national cancer institute. (2005). theory at a glance: a guide for health promotion practice (second edition). national institutes of health, u.s. department of health and human services. nih pub. no. 053896. washington, dc. available at: https://cancercontrol. cancer.gov/brp/research/ theories_project/theory.pdf national institutes of health (nih): national center for advancing translational sciences (ncats). (2019). research: patient/community engagement & health information. retrieved from https://ncats.nih.gov/ engagement national safety council. (2019). make a difference on international overdose awareness day. retrieved from https://www. nsc.org/home-safety/safety-topics/opioids/international-overdose-awareness-day patient centered outcomes research (pcori). (2019). engagement resources. retrieved from https://www.pcori.org/ engagement/engagement-resources. pearson, t.a. (2011). public policy approaches to the prevention of heart disease and stroke. circulation, 124, 25602571. sheridan, s., schrandt, s., forsythe, l., hilliard, t.s. paex, k.a., advisory panel of patient engagement (2013 inaugural panel). (2013). the pcori engagement rubric: promising practices for partnering in research. ann fam med, 15, 165170). doi:10.1370/afm.2042 us food and drug administration (fda). (2019). stakeholder engagement staff: also referred to as: fda stakeholder engagement. retrieved from https:// www.fda.gov/about-fda/office-external-affairs/stakeholder-engagement-staff n e w h o u s e | p u b l i c h e a l t h 23 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 testimonios of (in)justice and communal spaces: four latinas in their first year teaching authors teresa sosa associate professor, elementary education, iu school of education, iupui keywords latina teachers, testimonio, communal spaces, latina womanist epistemology, first year teachers, convivencia abstract in august 2020, four latinas began their first year teaching and entered a school system that continues to emphasize policies, measures, and curriculum that supports racism and social injustice. their first-hand experiences included a pandemic that largely challenged modes of delivery in schools and the lack of access for students of marginalized communities that made existing disparities even more obvious. but they also entered teaching at a time when there was renewed interest in openly pushing issues of race, oppression, and violence to the forefront. this article details how these four latina teachers connected their testimonios to the current sociopolitical realities and to their commitment to social change through monthly zoom chats. their chats became spaces of convivencia, a way to engage, reflect, and support each other that is centered within a latina womanist epistemology. cultural intuition was used to analyze their experiences and to point out key aspects of their testimonios that reflect their ways of knowing and agency. this piece concludes by making a case for how these types of communal spaces are necessary across various institutions and spaces for latinas. introduction in august 2020, four latinas with a recently earned bachelors in elementary education began their first year teaching. they entered a school system that continues to emphasize policies, measures, and curriculum that supports racism and social injustice. their first-hand experiences included a pandemic that largely challenged modes of delivery in schools and the lack of access for students of marginalized communities that made existing disparities even more obvious. but they also entered teaching at a time when there was renewed interest in openly pushing issues of race, oppression, and violence to the forefront. as one of their previous literacy professors and a fellow latina, all four agreed to begin their teaching profession with a commitment to share their experiences with each other and to allow me to document their first year teaching via monthly zoom gatherings. the teachers connected their politically urgent stories—their testimonios— to the current sociopolitical realities and to their commitment to social change through the monthly chats. this work makes a case for how the zoom monthly chats became spaces of convivencia (communalism, coming together)68engage! | c r e at i v e a rts t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e -a way to engage, reflect, learn, and support each other in a way that is deeply centered within a latina womanist epistemology. in this work, i first describe what encompasses latina womanist epistemology and communal mentoring. i then describe our relationship and introduce the four teachers and provide my positionality. cultural intuition and testimonio are then described along with making a case for how communal mentoring is inextricably connected to testimonio and how i analyzed their shared experiences through the standpoint of cultural intuition (bernal, 1998). i then share some key aspects of their testimonios reflective of their ways of knowing and agency from their first year teaching (2020-2021 school year); i end this piece with our work moving toward building a communal approach to solidarity and shared commitments through expanding our communal mentoring and support and making a case for how these types of communal spaces are necessary across various institutions and spaces for latinas. latina womanist epistemology and communal mentoring mentoring for women and minoritized groups does not ascribe to rigidly defined roles of mentor and mentee, rejects similarly defined positions of power (mendez-morse, 2004), and interrupts assumptions of hierarchical knowledge where one individual holds more or more important knowledge than others. thus, mentorship within communal spaces is understood as learning, engagement, and reflection where all members are both mentors and mentees and for latinas, “mentorship includes communal methods of support through testimonios, or testimonies that recognize ‘the power and empowerment of sharing our papelitos guardados [literally, guarded papers] in and out of academia with others’” (duran, 2016, p. 114). in latina mentoring, convivencia or communalism is a central aspect of a racedgendered epistemology that expands traditional notions of teaching, learning, and creation of knowledge (galvan, 2001). latina womanist epistemology is an explicitly critical race-gendered stance grounded in lived realities of latinas (delgado bernal, 2002). this epistemology has pedagogical power that is exercised in the sharing of latinas’ testimonios and histories and serves as “a knowledge base to understand, critique, and challenge systemic oppression and theorize identity, sexuality, the body, resistance, healing, transformation, and empowerment” (huber & cueva, 2012, p. 395). convivencia is about how to be together, the communal and relational, amid systemic racism, oppression and uncertainty (villenas, 2005). convivencia is central to latina mentoring as it emphasizes cultural ways of knowing and giving voice to lived experiences. the term “womanist” is central to this epistemology or way of knowing. womanist, unlike the term feminist, addresses the racial, classed, and gendered intersections of women of color, and in this work, of latinas specifically. a womanist orientation to the world is based on the socio-cultural and historical conditions affecting latinas as race-gendered persons. thus, the term womanist centers latina’s race/culture-gender positionalities, that is, how they make sense of and navigate experiences and how they express and communicate their lived realities. latina womanist epistemology and pedagogies derive from galvan’s (2001) work with mexicana campesinas and extend our understanding of these women’s knowledge “by situating it among groups of people traditionally unheard and spaces continually unexplored” (bernal, 2002, p. 607). latina womanist pedagogies have been central in research, including among a group of latina 69 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e immigrant mothers (delgado-gaitan, 2012), and more recently among chicanas/ latinas at a hispanic serving institution (ek et al., 2010), and among latinas at a predominantly white institution (flores & garcia 2009). this literature emphasizes the pedagogical value of these diverse womanist sites as they provide communal spaces for latinas to gain confidence, provide guidance, and reassert their own power (villenas, 2005). i build on this work by indicating how the four latina first year teachers that are the focus of this work exercised their womanist epistemology via zoom turned communal spaces through sharing their testimonios. revealed through this epistemology are the human relationships and experiences that are not visible from a eurocentric epistemological orientation. related, this standpoint asserts that first year latina teachers both carry the wisdom of our ancestral knowledge (castillo, 1994) and are creators of knowledge (bernal, 2002). positioning teachers as knowledge holders and creators (bernal, 2002) is intentional. such emphasis counters current dominant deficit ideology of teachers that deskills, deprofessionalizes, and deintellectualizes educators. delgado-gaitan (2012) makes a case that transformation is dynamic and collective. convivencia is central to personal and social transformation as latinas share, learn, and account their refusals of dehumanizing relations/ encounters they experience in institutions and the larger society. for these four latinas, the communal space served to cope with issues of the pandemic, their first year teaching, and the ever present oppression and racism in schools—both for them as latinas as well as for their brown and black students. the sharing of their testimonios within a communal womanist space allowed for connections across our latininades and to learn from each other, a convivio (villenas, 2005) that encompasses pain, anger, sorrow, laughter, and love. how i came to know the teachers ms. julia rose raymond, ms. mariana calderon, ms. seci ann gonzales, and ms. ruby sanchez are all recent graduates (2019 and 2020) of the urban elementary education program at a large pwi in the midwest where i teach. we got to know one another through a literacy methods class i was teaching as part of their teacher preparation program. we began to share our experiences with each other and they felt a connection to me and my course as it centers ways to fully engage with students and support their capacity to thrive by attending to meaningful relationships and critical pedagogy. we connected as latinas which is a sense of historical recognition and of shared wisdom and refusal in the face of ongoing oppression. i am one of the very few latina teachers they had in their k-16 trajectory. thus, the ways in which i identify, honor my language of origin, and my stance on how our experiences of being “othered” can help us to refuse such mistreatment of our students allowed us to connect through identity, ideologies, and commitment to service. our relationship developed through shared chats before and after school, texts, meals, phone calls and other support including writing reference letters on their behalf (e.g., scholarships, job applications) and through guidance while facing difficult student-teaching 70engage! | c r e at i v e a rts t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e 1 latinidad describes ‘any person currently living in the us of spanish-speaking heritage from more than 30 caribbean and latin american countries’ (molina guzman and valdivia 2004, 207). latinidades expands beyond ‘nationality and ethnicity’ to include cultural experiences and political commitments’ and acknowledge differences across race, class, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, ‘regional variations’, and mixed cultural heritage (the latina feminist group 2001 as cited in flores & garcia, 2009, p. 170). racist-centered experiences. their consistent support of me included constant comments of appreciation and acknowledging my strengths as a teacher educator and ms. raymond writing a letter on my behalf for a diversity scholar award. thus, in many ways, the testimonios are indicative of our historical and cultural circumstances and experiences as well as our present ongoing convivencia. our relationship as five latina educators developed into communal mentoring and support when they began their first year teaching and all four agreed to document our monthly chats via zoom. now in their second year as teachers, their firm commitment to this work continues as addressing pressing issues of inequality, racism, and oppression—not only for students but also for latina educators like themselves—has become more urgent and as they look to supporting other latina teachers entering the field. las maestras ms. calderon, ms. gonzales, ms. raymond, and ms. sanchez (see table 1) are the four teachers. they identify as female and all are in their 20s. in order to resist the notion of the “essentialized” latina (duran, 2016) and because identity is fluid and heavily contextually based (holland et.al., 2001), i provide various ways and contexts in which teachers self-identify in table 1 below the four teachers began their first year teaching in august, 2020 in different schools. ms. gonzales and ms. sanchez accepted their positions before they graduated and ms. calderón and ms. raymond were offered their current positions days before the school year began. ms. calderón and ms. sanchez teach 3rd grade in the same township and both are part of the dual language (dl) 71 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e table 1: first-year latina teacher's self -identification program at their respective schools. ms. raymond teaches in a different township and teaches reading and social studies to 5th graders. ms. gonzales teaches in a laboratory school associated with a large university in the state’s capitol. she teaches cience to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (see table 1 above). as first-year teachers, they had to learn the practices of their specific schools and navigate the constant changes due to the pandemic. they had to adapt to being physically in the classroom with students, online, back in class, and back online. they had to figure out how to teach those physically in their classroom while engaging those attending class remotely. they had to learn to keep gradebooks, provide tests, and create curriculum and lesson plans all the while concerned about their students, trying to develop relationships with them, and navigating power struggles, microaggressions, and criticism. but they also had opportunities to build strong connections with peers, bond with mentors, feel support, and develop strength and certainty in their positions. each also experienced first-hand what it means to be subjected to unequal distribution of power and privilege, pushback against what matters in teaching (relationships, truly listening to students, enhancing what students know and what matters to them) in favor of pragmatics of teaching, and how aims to counter inequities and racism are sidelined or reappropriated to reinscribe the colonialist project—their testimonios are indicative of this. professor i am mexicana and of nahua descent. i was born in mexico and spanish is my mother tongue. i have identified as mexican-american, hispanic, and latina previously. i am still comfortable with latina (with understandings of how latinidad has been colonized—see urrieta and calderón, 2019) but no longer with hispanic and specifically not with mexican-american as i have come to realize it was a term i tended to use to convince others that i belonged here (multiple contexts) so i no longer use it. as a latina scholar, i have a longstanding commitment to working with, teaching, and providing service to youth from historically underserved and marginalized communities in urban schools. i began this commitment as a high school english teacher for chicago public schools. serving largely mexican and puerto rican communities as a teacher and mentor for eight years provided me with rich experiences that undergird my aim to engage in work that disrupts schooling practices, policies, and structures that fail to support or engage multiply marginalized youth. testimonio in its fullness, testimonio aims to “bring to light a wrong, a point of view, or an urgent call for 72engage! | c r e at i v e a rts t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e each also experienced firsthand what it means to be subjected to unequal distribution of power and privilege, pushback against what matters in teaching (relationships, truly listening to students, enhancing what students know and what matters to them) in favor of pragmatics of teaching, and how aims to counter inequities and racism are sidelined or reappropriated to reinscribe the colonialist project—their testimonios are indicative of this. 2all names are pseudonyms and chosen by the participants. action….the testimonio is intentional and political” (reyes & curry rodriguez, 2012, p. 525). while its origins center testimonio towards speaking on behalf of silenced people and their histories (yúdice, 1991), it has more recently been used as a form of sharing of one’s lived experiences, all the while maintaining the explicit goal of highlighting the voice and agency of people toward building communal struggle for justice (reyes, & curry rodríguez, 2012). testimonio is a pedagogical tool, a politicized discourse that sheds light on the powerful womanist epistemologies and communal spaces that help latinas resist oppression (cervantes-soon, 2012). “testimonio is [also] ‘a pedagogical, methodological, and activist approach to social justice that transgresses traditional paradigms in academia” (delgado bernal et al., 2012, p. 363). as such, testimonio situates the individual within a collective experience and provides new understandings of how latinas, as racialized/ ethnicized women, conviven, come together, to build solidarity and bear witness to each other. testimonios build bridges to latinas’ collective power (prieto & villenas, 2012). the testimonios by the four teachers act as constructions of self and contestation of power indicative in how they navigated their day-to-day experiences in their schools with their students, colleagues, and administration. to hear from their experiences is especially important as the 20202021 school year was a year of a pandemic and concomitant exacerbated disparities along with a demand for social justice advanced by the black lives matter movement. their work is situated in schools as focal places for the racism, oppression, dehumanization that is seen in macro spaces that sustain police brutality, racist policies, poisonings (water, land, air) and at the same time serve as places of potential reckoning to resist subjugation and generate openings of alternate possibilities (moraga & anzaldúa, 2002). as such, their testimonios were meant to “document and inscribe into existence a social witness account reflective of collective experiences, political injustices, and human struggles that are often erased by dominant discourses” (huber & cueva, 2012, p. 393). their testimonio, as a means for agency, is indicative of their profound sense of service and expands on what our elementary teacher education program focuses on—a deep understanding of the need for education that centers social/ racial justice. as such, their tellings of injustice and their response serve as testimonio; testimonio, by its definition, is a collective, political act of resistance (anzaldúa, 1990). to those ends, their testimonios shared in our communal space serve as examples of ways they resisted oppression, created spaces for ingenuity and sabiduria or wisdom (their students’ and their own), and enacted pedagogies that challenge colonizing practices. methodology cultural intuition as methodology as bernal (1998) asserts, “cultural intuition is a complex process that is experiential, intuitive, historical, personal, collective, and dynamic” (pp. 567-568). as such, cultural intuition is both a methodological process and an epistemological standpoint that strategically and purposefully centers these four latinas as knowledge holders and creators in the teaching profession. cultural intuition as a methodology centers all the varied ways we know (including through the body) and what we know as central to analysis. hence, this methodology provides nuanced ways to understand their individual and collective similarities and differences in the lived realities of women from similar political, ethnic, geographical, educational, generational, and professional backgrounds. the testimonios they shared 73 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e demonstrate “some of the ways in which their brown bodies experience the material realities of their context and whose experiences and narratives of survival, healing, and transformation embody consciousness, agency, and theory” (cruz, 2001). similarly, cultural intuition allows me to center who i am, my embodied experiences, and shared history with these teachers as part of the methodological process. cultural intuition also includes participants in the data analysis process (malagon, et al., 2009). this helps reject research/ participant roles and their often resulting hierarchical relationship. this process also provides participants the power to determine how they want to communicate their experiences and tellings. thus, this methodology illuminated patterns of oppressive practices and structures as the teachers recounted their experiences. it also allowed for revealing contestation of such practices and structures through actions indicative of teachers’ varied ways of knowing. i present specific, individual experiences out of many that make up the kinds of experiences, refusals, and wisdom shared by this group. analysis when i realized that all four of my previous students would start teaching in august 2020, i invited them to monthly zoom meetings to share their experiences. our meetings had no specific questions although sometimes i would ask if they had anything in particular they wanted to share. they choose what they wanted to bring up and what to ask of each other. i analyzed their work from a latina epistemology that grounds their life experiences as first year latina teachers. i focused on how and what they chose to share, how they responded to each other and the ways their reactions, responses, and support built convivencia. i drew on sources of cultural intuition, including personal experience, literature on testimonio and latina womanist epistemology, professional experience, and an analytical research process, to better understand the diversity and complexity of their experiences (chang, 2017). testimonios in this section i provide shortened versions of testimonios by each of the teachers. my intention is not to exclude their voices through these retellings but rather provide a telling from each to get at the varied and complex situations that they had to attend to as latina first year teachers. their testimonios are meant to illustrate the necessity of communal mentorship and deep convivencia. in another piece (sosa, in press), i focus more fully on their testimonios and center their voices. administrative moves that maintain inequity as stated previously, ms. calderón and ms. sanchez are both part of the dual language (dl) program in their district. they both are third grade teachers and teach in different schools. the district requires that teachers who are part of the dl program plan their weekly lessons together by grade level. for third grade, there are six teachers in all including ms. calderón, ms. sanchez, and another latina teacher, ms. flores, along with three veteran white teachers. both ms. calderón and ms. sanchez expressed challenges in their current position. for ms. calderón, the challenge has been in working with the three veteran teachers whose lack of input during planning meetings and lack of emphasis on student-centered curriculum may be outcomes of the limiting pervasive ideas some teachers seem to have about students in the dl program. for example, in exchanges with teachers in her school but who are not part of the dl program, 74engage! | c r e at i v e a rts t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e ms. calderón has come to realize these teachers often believe students in the program do not know english and that they are “low performers.” despite efforts by ms. calderón to address the lack of input from the veteran teachers regarding lessons by talking with the school principal, no changes were instituted by administration that would make the planning more equitable for the teachers and relevant to the students. in fact, when ms. calderón, ms. sanchez and ms. flores began planning and enacting their own lessons, the director of the dl program made it clear they could not plan on their own. as opposed to addressing the actual issue indicated in ms. calderón’s comment, “collaboration is difficult. it’s hard to work with people who just want to do the bare minimum;” the focus became the procedure that the novice latina teachers were not following, instead of the focus being on inequitable practices of leaving the planning to the novice teachers, demanding so little of students based on the curriculum developed, and inaction and nonparticipation from the white teachers. when ms. sanchez shared her experience during our november meeting, she began by stating the following: “for me, this past week was kind of tough with the dual language team at my school because for the past few weeks we have felt very unsupported by administration. it all started from one day the second grade [monolingual] teachers complaining to our principal that they were feeling like they were not being invited [by the dl team] to docertain activities—cause the dual language program since it came to my school, they have always gone above and beyond like decorating and doing things for students…. so they complained to our principal and now like the dual language team isn’t allowed to do anything unless they invite the other teachers in our grade level." the history of this ongoing tension, as ms. sanchez tells it, is that the monolingual teachers have always been invited to partake but would push back on certain activities, especially those that required staying after school. so the dl teachers stopped asking and continued to work on activities and decorations that celebrated their students. the directive by the principal to include the other teachers feels like a lack of support for the dl team. what is striking for ms. sanchez is the apparent hypocrisy in the talking up of the dl program, including prominently displaying it on the school district’s site, and the lack of support for the dual language team. giving in to the monolingual teachers’ demands and the lack of support for the dual language teachers helps maintain inequity. the insistence by monolingual teachers that they be included as long as they provide the terms of such inclusion and the administration giving in to the pressure of this group while outwardly gaining recognition and receiving accolades for the strength of the dual language program serves to maintain the inequitable and racist structure that benefits white teachers. the testimonios by ms. calderón and ms. sanchez reveal ingrained ideas about how much time and effort is enough to invest on students who are considered non-english speakers and “low performers.” it is also indicative of schools’ lack of investment in supporting their latina teachers. to only focus on procedures, such as all dl teachers meet to create curriculum, negates the fact that the new latina teachers are already doing most of the work as the others sit in silence or only participate if someone takes the lead. what is also telling is the exploitative dynamic constructed when a school emphasizes the importance and success of its dl program yet fails to support dl teachers in their interests, endeavors, and invites other teachers to join but on their terms, not the terms of the latina 75 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e teachers. for ms. calderón and ms. sanchez, both action and inaction by administration supported inequitable practices that serve to maintain a racist system. silenced voices and taboo topics ms. raymond ms. raymond’s testimonio was related to an experience that happened when she taught a lesson on the second amendment as part of her social studies curriculum. as ms. raymond discussed the second amendment, mary, a white female student, expressed her view that democrats wanted to take everyone’s guns away and that people needed guns in their home for protection. ms. raymond clarified that some people want to see laws passed that would make guns less accessible. her statement was in support of her black and latinx students who felt angry and were concerned about the constant messages that whites need to protect their home and property from criminals—that is, black and latinx youth/ men. as the lesson continued, mary was visibly upset that there was opposition to her insistence on the freedom of owning guns. that same day, mary’s parents reached out to ms. raymond and sent her their concerns via a messaging app the school uses for teachers and parents to communicate. mary’s parents claimed that mary felt ms. raymond was biased against her opinions and prevented her from stating them by not calling on her. rather than asking ms. raymond about what the lesson entailed, they made it clear that they did not like that schools talked about politics or racism but understood that ms. raymond had a job to do. however, they continued, she should allow all students to speak their opinions, even if she doesn’t agree with them, which ms. raymond believes she does. mary’s parents insisted ms. raymond no longer speak to their child individually because she felt “threatened” by ms. raymond. they asked that the homeroom teacher, a white male teacher, be present during any one-on-one interactions with mary moving forward. the principal agreed that the student should be accommodated, framing it as a way to “protect” ms. raymond from getting into a “she said, she said” situation with the student. ms. raymond saw the principal’s decision as a move to undermine her position as a teacher. it also served to uphold the stereotype of latinas as being loud, hot-tempered and volatile, as indicated in the suggestion that she made the student feel “threatened” and therefore the student should be protected by having a white male teacher present. this incident highlights the inability of administration to hear ms. raymond’s side and support her as a knowledgeable and fair teacher, thus sustaining the view of non-white teachers as inferior and affirming the insistence by whites to be kept comfortable. ms. raymond was not only deprofessionalized, but the decision also that she should be supervised by a white male teacher 76engage! | c r e at i v e a rts what is also telling is the exploitative dynamic constructed when a school emphasizes the importance and success of its dl program yet fails to support dl teachers in their interests, endeavors, and invites other teachers to join but on their terms, not the terms of the latina teachers. for ms. calderón and ms. sanchez, both action and inaction by administration supported inequitable practices that serve to maintain a racist system. t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e clearly positioned her as someone who does not know how to behave and interact with white students. ms. gonzales ms. gonzales teaches 6-8th grade science. during one 6th grade science lesson that was fully online due to the pandemic, several black girls began to comment on the hair of a white student, amy, whose hair was braided in small cornrows with beads, seemingly in emulation of a hairstyle typically worn by black girls. while ms. gonzales noticed amy’s hairstyle also and was considering how to address it, one of her black female students asked, “ms. gonzales, do you think amy is culturally appropriating right now?” ms. gonzales wanted time to process the event and to talk with her school team about it so she told her students that these types of conversations are important and that they would address it in the coming days. that day, ms. gonzales spoke with her team and the principal. her team and the principal concluded that it was a conversation that obviously matters to their black female students and that it should be discussed as soon as possible. ms. gonzales also reached out to amy after school. the student explained that she loved her friend’s braids and wanted to style her hair the same way so she had her aunt do her hair. after watching a couple of videos and reading a book with ms. gonzales about black hair, amy came to realize how it could offend some of her black peers. ms. gonzales also spoke with amy’s mother who was supportive and understood why some black students were offended. the following day, ms. gonzales hosted a homeroom zoom meeting with all 6th graders in order to address the situation; amy and her mother were present. the discussion centered on how to call people out when something they say or do is offensive and how to do so with respect and kindness. the class discussed what it means to “pull people in” kindly into these kinds of conversations and not to single people out. ms. gonzales also explained how black women’s hair has been discriminated against historically as well as in contemporary times. she also brought in opinions from black friends and colleagues on how they feel about white people wearing black hairstyles, as well as tik tok videos of people of color explaining whether they see it as cultural appropriation or not. ms. gonzales reflected on this situation: “to be able to have those conversations and to be able to be so confident to have those conversations is huge. i actually got a lot of backlash from having that conversation with my 6 graders, not even from my team, but from other co-workers in my school. and so i had a lot of people saying that what i did was wrong and i don’t agree with that so, that’s hard to be told that what you did was wrong even though you know that what you did is exactly what you needed to do….” as ms. gonzales sees it, these conversations are central to her role as a teacher and to social justice. she also sees how important it is to provide a space for the hurt and offensive feelings that her students of color felt. she emphasized that, “it was important me to because it was important to them.” as these four testimonios indicate, these teachers needed to navigate difficult situations that questioned their ability (ms. raymond), ignored their insistence on designing engaging curriculum that matters to students (ms. calderón), positioned them as less important than their white counterparts (ms. sanchez), and that forced them to deal with backlash when teaching a lesson guide by equity and anti-racism (ms. gonzales). 77 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e in our zoom chats, these teachers found ways to share, support, and strengthen their commitment to social justice as well as validation across such varied experiences. these communal spaces are necessary for latinas across all institutions and contexts. to this i turn next. expanding communal mentorship convivencia emphasizes the collective nature of this group. for this group, the intimate community space they created allowed for openly dialoguing about embodied experiences because it did not require that they explain why they experienced the world in a certain way or worry about how they may be perceived. this led to continuous engagement in self-reflection and communal solidarity; it also led to healing through sharing, expressing, accounting, and relating. due to how this communal space and the process of testimonio allowed the teachers to see a more complete picture of systemic oppression latinas experience in schools, julia rose, mariana, seci ann, and ruby were eager to support other latina teachers who would be entering the field. we held an initial meeting with two latina pre-service teachers in may 2021. in this meeting, they welcomed ana and lupe as kin; provided guidance, insights, and enveloped them in convivencia. their realization of the importance in welcoming other latinas who are first year teachers into a communal space as necessary for their survival must be expanded by and for other latinas as well. communal spaces that support latinas and nurture their womanist stance are instrumental to commitments of equity and social justice as the testimonios shared in these spaces are individual and at the same time collective. forming new communal groups or expanding existing groups is necessary as all institutions must be challenged to end existing damaging policies, practices, and institutional norms and all latinas deserve mentoring, support, and spaces for convivencia. the need to come together and collectively share experiences while establishing convivencia is strongly needed for latinas in the teaching profession at all levels (early childhood, elementary, secondary, higher education) and at all stages of their careers (first year, novice, expert). these communal spaces and sharing of testimonios are rare in institutions and therefore this group can be viewed as one example of how to create such urgent spaces (even via zoom) as well as how to protect and sustain them. thus, this work makes a case not only for expanding existing communal mentoring such as the one described here, but to guide and support other latinas in starting communal mentoring in their own institutions and professions and with other latinas across communities. as sosa-provencio and colleagues assert (2019), testimonios transcend the healing resistance for their authors. “reverberating through their sacred narratives is a regenerative energy mending our collective histories and the fractures of invalidation which we as latina 78engage! | c r e at i v e a rts t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e convivencia emphasizes the collective nature of this group. for this group, the intimate community space they created allowed for openly dialoguing about embodied experiences because it did not require that they explain why they experienced the world in a certain way or worry about how they may be perceived. this led to continuous engagement in self-reflection and communal solidarity; it also led to healing through sharing, expressing, accounting, and relating. scholars and educators live” (p. 223). latinas sharing their personal histories and testimonios in convivencia is transformational (alarcon et al, 2011). latinas must continue to find ways to create intimate community spaces, be it via zoom chats, in person, and other means such as gathering for meals. in the constant sharing of knowledge, approaches, and understandings, we deepen our refusal of the structures of colonization reinforced every day in institutions and in the broader society. and in full convivencia, we are able to draw from the wisdom of our ancestral knowledge (castillo, 1994) to an awareness of the relational, communal, and community history that connects us as latinas (raced/gendered) and to our agentic commitments to change. 79 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 t e r e s a s o s a | t e s t i m o n i o s o f ( i n ) j u s t i c e references alarcón, w., cruz, c., guardia jackson, l., prieto, l., & rodriguez-arroyo, s. (2011). compartiendo nuestras historias. five testimonios of schooling and survival. journal of latinos and education, 10(4), 369–381. anzaldúa, g. (1990). introduction: haciendo caras una entrada. in g. anzaldúa (ed.), making face, making soul (hacienda caras):creative and critical perspectives by women of color (pp. xv–xxvii). san francisco, ca: aunt lute foundation. borrero, n. e., flores, e., & de la cruz, g. (2016). developing and enacting culturally relevant pedagogy: voices of new teachers of color. equity & excellence in education, 49(1), 27-40. bernal, d. d. (1998). using a chicana feminist epistemology in educational research. harvard educational review, 68(4), 555-583. bernal, d. d. (2002). critical race theory, latino critical theory, and critical raced-gendered epistemologies: recognizing students of color as holders and creators of knowledge. qualitative inquiry, 8(1), 105-126. castillo, a. (1994). massacre of the dreamers: essays on xicanisma. new york: plume. cervantes-soon, c. g. (2012). testimonios of life and learning in the borderlands: subaltern juárez girls speak. equity & excellence in education, 45(3), 373-391. chang, a. (2017). un-american: latina high school students’ testimonios of american and white conflation in the middle of nowhere. race ethnicity and education, 20(2), 240-251. cruz, c. (2001). toward an epistemology of a brown body. international journal of qualitative studies in education, 14(5), 657–669. delgado bernal, d. (2002). critical race theory, latino critical theory and critical raced-gendered epistemologies: recognizing students of color as holders and creators of knowledge. international journal of qualitative studies in education, 8(1), 105–126. delgado bernal, d., burciaga, r., and delgado gaitan, c., (2012) culture, literacy, and power in family–community–school–relationships, theory into practice, 51:4, 305-311, doi:10. 1080/00405841.2012.726060 duran, v. (2016). mentorship and women of color in higher education: the stronger our voice, the greater impact we might forge. in betty taylor (ed.), listening to the voices: multi ethnic women in education (pp 111 118). san francisco, ca: university of san francisco. ek, l. d., cerecer, p. d. q., alanís, i., & rodríguez, m. a. (2010). “i don't belong here”: chicanas/latinas at a hispanic serving institution creating community through muxerista mentoring. equity & excellence in education, 43(4), 539-553. flores, j., & garcia, s. (2009). latina testimonios: a reflexive, critical analysis of a ‘latina space’ at a predominantly white campus. race ethnicity and education, 12(2), 155-172. flores carmona, j., (2012). chicanalatina testimonios: methodologies, pedagogies, and political urgency. equity and excellence in education 45 (3): 392–410. galvan r.t., (2001) portraits of mujeres desjuiciadas: womanist pedagogies of the everyday, the mundane and the ordinary, international journal of qualitative studies in education, 14:5, 603-621, doi: 10.1080/09518390110059856 holland, d., lachicotte jr, w., skinner, d., & cain, c. (2001). identity and agency in cultural worlds. harvard university press. huber, l. p., & cueva, b. m. (2012). chicana/latina testimonios on effects and responses to microaggressions. equity & excellence in education, 45(3), 392-410. malagon, m. c., huber, l. p., & velez, v. n. (2009). our experiences, our methods: using grounded theory to inform a critical race theory methodology. seattle j. soc. just., 8, 253. mendez-morse, s. (2004). constructing mentors: latina educational leaders’ role models and mentors. educational administration quarterly, 40, 561–590. doi:10.1177/0013161x04267112 moraga, c., & anzaldúa, g. (2002). this bridge called my back: writings by radical women of color . berkeley, ca. prieto, l., & villenas, s. a. (2012). pedagogies from nepantla: testimonio, chicana/latina feminisms and teacher education classrooms. equity & excellence in education, 45(3), 411-429. reyes, k. b., & curry rodríguez, j. e. (2012). testimonio: origins, terms, and resources. equity & excellence in education, 45(3), 525-538. sosa, t. in press. testimonios of teaching from four latina first-year teachers. race ethnicity & education. sosa-provencio, m. a., sheahan, a., fuentes, r., muñiz, s., & prada vivas, r. e. (2019). reclaiming ourselves through testimonio pedagogy: reflections on a curriculum design lab in teacher education. race ethnicity and education, 22(2), 211-230. urrieta jr, l., & calderón, d. (2019). critical latinx indigeneities: unpacking indigeneity from within and outside of latinized entanglements. association of mexican american educators journal, 13(2), 145-174. http://dx.doi.org/10.24974/ amae.13.2.432 villenas, s. a. (2005). latina literacies in convivencia: communal spaces of teaching and learning. anthropology & education quarterly, 273-277. yúdice, g. (1991). testimonio and postmodernism. latin american perspectives, 18(3), 15-31. o “on exile” or “hope without optimism” we stand on an edge uncertain how we arrived here on one side: denigration, despair, destruction on the other: an abyss. arising from the abyss persistent piercing noise – a cacophony of promises: refuge, a temporary place to rest, a scornful unwelcome, violence disguised as benevolence. and silence that envelopes – not the peaceful kind, the unsettling kind: ambivalent, uncertain, without guarantees. on the edge our choices are only ever risk on the edge there is hope without optimism. author thu sương thịnguyễn, guest editor n g u y ễ n | o n e x i l e tragic hope at the cruel edge: toward an appreciation of the everyday struggles of the displaced2 surrounded by deep dark waters – teetering on an edge in the south china sea in a not-quite-sea-worthy fishing boat – my parents looked back toward a homeland on fire. decades of war preceded that moment. decades of exile followed. that war – long since ended – is still ever present. all those years ago, my parents saw their world set on fire. many might now suggest that the world is on fire. set ablaze by violent conflict, intolerance and hate, shameful inequities, economic polarization and precarity, obscene consumption alongside extreme food insecurity, arrogant disregard and disrespect for the earth. perhaps the kindling was the denuding of our moral resources and political will to gaze directly on the misery and destruction that we have wrought. the office of the united nations high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) estimates that since 2021 more than 100 million individuals have been forced to flee their homes—which is likely a gross underestimate. across the globe, this figure represents 1 in every 78 individuals. of these, more than 40% are children. the professional and scholarly literature focused on refugees, migrants, asylees, stateless and displaced peoples tends to center engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 4 1 i want to acknowledge that i borrow terry eagleton’s book title here and draw from his work on hope without optimism. 2 i want to acknowledge my spouse and colleague, brendan maxcy. our partnership—together feeling out and working the edges, cruel and otherwise—enlivens my intellectual life and fortifies my spirit. tragic hope at the cruel edge: toward an appreciation of the everyday struggles of the displaced n g u y ễ n | o n e x i l e psycho-social conditions of those who suffer displacement and multiple dislocations. it asks: whether and how they are able to integrate into new “host communities;” whether return to their countries of origin is possible; what are the social, psychological, and health implications of protracted refugee status; etc. far less attention is given to the ways these individuals and communities are treated as objects of containment within a human management project designed to administer global movement. dr. mamadou sy’s allusion to the politically expedient treatment of those who experience the same conditions of displacement as alternately “refugee” and “migrant” (sy interview, this issue) illustrates one way the human management project categorizes and contains “human objects” in order to efficiently manage flows of people and allocate meager resources. as dr. sy points out, certain aspects of this technical management of human flows typically receives bipartisan support. moreover, media headlines suggest that even in the face of anti-sanctuary and anti-immigration efforts, individuals, communities, philanthropic and faith-based organizations, will pull together to welcome and assist refugees. what is obscured by such bipartisan support and popular human interest stories are the political and moral conditions that make it possible for us to look past the ways we’ve produced, multiplied, and populated the cruel edges of our social and material worlds. in 2021, of the 90 million individuals who experienced forced displacement, 27.1 million were given the label “refugee” (unhcr). some 15,000 were resettled in the united states. the articles included in this issue of engage! provide windows into particular moments of exile. the pieces focus our attention on those who were allowed to resettle. they encourage us to move beyond technical knowledge and demand that we rehabilitate our atrophied empathy. they remind us of the persistent, severe, and compromised health conditions of those who have suffered protracted displacement, physical violence, oppression, exclusion, dislocation, and alienation. they point to social, historical, cultural, and political complexities that are often ignored in our rush to provide well-intended palliatives. they illuminate how our conventional and over-generalized framing of “problems” may interfere with the “intentional engagement” (morse, this issue) of the diverse communities we hope to serve (kameniar, et al, 2010). tu’s personal essay highlights the complexities, contradictions, and unsettling conditions shaped by a legacy of imperialism and exile. these reverberate across generations and oceans and between a mother and daughter. her essay demands that we read and sense the fragmentation of experience and anxious meaning-making born of divergent and haunted desires. in what may be viewed as a superficial endeavor – pageantry – tu’s account points to how pregnant with meaning are the practices and attendant labor for her, her mother, their communities. it provides a needed window on and a call for empathy after the immediate threat of violence and expulsion. the condition of displacement is increasingly common. it will no doubt touch all of our lives as the global temperature and sea levels rise and as shores recede, as the strength and frequency of natural disasters increases, as violence continues unabated. of what he called a “generalized condition of homelessness,” salman rushdie wrote: the effect of mass migration has been the cre ation of radically new types of human being: people who root themselves in ideas rather than place, in memories as much as in material things; people who have been obliged to define them selves – because they are so defined by others – by their otherness; people in whose deepest selves strange fusions occur, unprecedented 5 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 3 data collected by unhcr are obtained through a few organizations that use movement tracking systems. these systems are not fully capable of handling the massive population flows we have seen in modern times. thus, system capacity can be overwhelmed. such tracking systems are also limited in their access to routes and locations in unstable areas. individuals are many times disinclined to provide information for a variety of reasons (e.g., safety of self, loved ones, etc.). agency reporting of human movement is subject to political pressures to suppress accurate information. unions between what they were and where they find themselves. if rushdie is right, if radically new types of human being are created in the wake of mass displacement, then perhaps in this moment we will find the courage to look directly upon the world ablaze in deprivation and despair. perhaps in doing so we would recognize that the tens of millions of individuals currently “living” on the run, in temporary shelters, those who have spent years and even decades in organized refugee camps – even as they resist tyranny and oppression (alwan, this issue) – are victims of a slow genocide. how do we engage this world on fire? perhaps, we will finally discard impotent (and sometimes dangerous) optimism in favor of “tragic hope” (eagleton, 2015). as eagleton argues, the former is grounded in cheery irrational belief while the latter demands reflection and strenuous commitment in the wake of defeat and the recognition that there are still battles to be fought. perhaps we have suffered enough tragedy to finally awaken from the fantasy that things will improve because it cannot be otherwise. as i ponder where to go from here, my parents occupy my thoughts. the weight of innumerable defeats experienced over and again as exiles and forever foreigners must have been near unbearable for them. my and my siblings’ younger selves – our inabilities to empathize, to fully resist incomplete and unkind narratives about our parents, to squelch our own petty desires – no doubt compounded their pain and littered the edge they traversed with thoughtless shards of glass. memories of their dignified struggle and their struggle for dignity on behalf of their family—families—are suggestive of what constitutes tragic hope. their daughter’s desires for their grandsons – tâm bình and tâm minh, my sunrise (bình minh) – to honor a legacy of living with dignity even as others who by dint of malice or benevolence would undermine that dignity, too illuminates the political clarity and cultural humility (horton & freire, 1990) required to recognize and engage the cruel edges. for those working in and with communities that have long embodied and operated from spaces of tragic hope, i want to center different questions. who constitutes “our” communities? under what conditions might our notions of community expand or contract? how do we understand our responsibilities to those who are forcibly displaced? in what ways might we have mistaken infantilization for responsibility? is it possible to shake our captivation with the horrors of the strife and its casualties that occludes the “dignified,” quotidian, and necessary struggles that follow? in what ways does the allure of the spectacle shape our treatment of others? might we engage differently if we understood those at the edge as operating with agency, humanity, and dignity rather than as an enfeebled mass pushed to and over the edge? eagleton, t. (2015). hope without optimism. new haven, ct: yale university press. horton, m. & freire, p. (1990). we make the road by walking: conversations on education and social change. philadelphia, pa: temple university press. kameniar, b. m., imtoual, a., & bradley, d. (2010). “mullin’ the yarndi” and other wicked problems at a multiracial early childhood education site in regional australia. educational policy, 24(1), 9-27. designer nick asbell iupui office of community engagement staff liz m. terry iupui a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s 6 online journal development ted polley iupui associate editors william b. crow lehigh university carolyn gentle-genitty indiana university jim grim iupui rita hodges university of pennsylvania natasha howard morehouse college terri jett butler university brendan maxcy iupui mary price forum on education abroad carol rogers iupui javiette vashan samuel univeristy of tennessee, knoxville sarah stanlick worcester polytechnic institute ellen szarleta iu, northwest laura weaver community-engaged alliance editors khaula murtada iupui andrea copeland iupui references r a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s welcome dr. khaula murtadha, editor reflected throughout this celebratory, iu bicentennial issue of engage! is the principle of democratizing knowledge, knowledges that are ever developing, as is the notion of a democracy itself. the issue is a tribute to indiana university and its commitment to place. captured here are descriptions of community conversations that occurred across the states’ urban and rural regions as well as iu campus-community research partnerships. community-engaged research (cenr) is an approach to scholarship in which reciprocal relationships between scholars and communities generate knowledge relevant to concerns of the public alongside disciplinary discovery. toward this goal, community engaged research methods are selected because they can further knowledge for the mutual benefit of all committed to social change. dr. ellen szarletta, director of the center for urban and regional excellent (cure) at indiana university northwest notes in her article, “community-university relationships must be both fluid and ever-evolving.” so this issue captures the dynamism of building and sustaining decolonizing relationships--from a solo faculty member working with a single partner to the dean of the iu school of nursing, dr. robin newhouse’s description of a highly complex collaborative effort of community-based agencies working with university faculty, staff and graduate students in response to the opioid crisis. the ultimate purpose of community engaged research, according to strand, k., et al (2003) is to change society “. . . to empower those in need, expand opportunities and resources to the disadvantaged, and mitigate structured inequities” (p.184). this is a challenge to researchers who are communityuniversity-based. can they alter aspects of economic, social or political institutional operations or cultural contexts? will their co-developed research provoke or effect the status quo? for example, iu south bend professor john gallagher and a research team are evaluating drug courts and disseminating their research findings throughout the community, via local news stories, podcasts, and public lectures. iu student success and scholarship are the backbone of everything we do! kayla nunnally and directors of service and learning centers around the state found ways of bringing together and immersing our iu students into a labor of love, the tutoring and mentoring of 6th -12th grade youth. the program, “indiana kids-iu tutoring, mentoring college and career readiness” engages our students in experiences that make a lasting impression on both mentee and mentor. through professional development, iu science, liberal arts, engineering, education undergraduate and masters students are challenged as to their beliefs about socio-economic status, about people with differing language, religious and cultural backgrounds, while they develop skills for tutoring. iu school of education, urban education studies doctoral students, latosha rowley and susan kigamwa stress, in “speaking up, speaking out” the importance of shared space for dialogue. for them, as they translate theory into practice, spaces become places for building trust and hearing multiple sides of critical, community based issues. they are becoming thought leaders determined to make a positive impact through research. big ships, it is often said, turn slowly but with 80% of indiana’s residents living within an hour’s drive of an iu campus we are persistently making a difference via engagement—democratizing researching, teaching and creative activity, collaboratively meeting the desires and needs of the many diverse communities we serve. engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 4 l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a vo l . 4 , i s s u e 117 learning informally: a case for arts in vocational education and training in uganda authors maxwell openjuru ladaah research associate gulu university, george ladaah openjuru vice chancellor and professor of education, gulu university, kathy sanford professor, language & literacy, university of victoria bruno de oliveira jayme assistant professor curriculum, teaching and learning, university of manitoba david monk senior lecturer, education and humanities, gulu university keywords arts education, vocational training, indigenous education, informal learning, arts employment abstract this paper advocates for the inclusion of the arts in vocational learning programs in uganda as an integrated form of holistic learning oriented towards empowerment and entrepreneurship. using community-based research in the context of vocational education and training, our data emerged from open-ended interviews, focus groups and youth-led radio talk shows with stakeholders from public and private sectors, instructors, artists, and non-governmental organisations (ngos). three significant themes arose from the data collected. first, pathways available to learners to become artists are limited by increasing neoliberal orientations towards education. second, there is a thriving informal youth-led arts community in northern uganda empowering young artists to pursue the arts as a livelihood. third, the arts are socially delegitimated. that is, without ways for learners to generate income from the arts, they are not able to devote their time to learning through the arts, and their artistic endeavors are not recognized as important skills in their communities or in society. although different, these three themes demonstrate that there is a vibrant space in the informal sector of arts to inform professional practices, that if supported by vocational education and training, have the potential to become important and much needed professional careers in uganda. introduction gulu, the site in northern uganda where this case study is located, is a vibrant and chaotic city in a period of transition and transformation following 30 years of civil war. as you enter the city you are immediately engulfed in the hustle of market vendors selling everything from fresh fruit to second hand shoes. you find tailors set up with their sewing machines on the side of the streets, artists displaying their painting and crafts for tourists, food vendors selling chapati and chicken, a myriad of small shops selling and repairing electronics. welders, wood workers, and mechanic shops all line the streets, and there are several larger markets selling agricultural produce and household goods. there is a vast informal engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 18 l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a economy, with everyone hustling to find money for school fees -the major expense for all households, and one of the reasons, though not the only one, why there is such a large number of early school leavers making their way into vocational programs (openjuru, 2010). the result is a vast social skills ecosystem (wedekind et. al, 2021) interweaving learning and living in informality. the ugandan government is encouraging the majority youth population (world bank, 2021 data places 46% of the population under 14 years of age) to seek out self-employment and vocational learning because there is simply very little formal employment available (national planning authority, 2013). ironically, as the government, ngos and private skilling programs promote critical thinking, creativity, innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset, they are also promoting a technicist training which takes the creativity out of learning by using a banking model of education. this model is teacher centered and leaves little room for adaptation or student involvement in their learning (freire, 1970). the banking approach also streamlines technical skills in an effort for efficiency, and neglects developing people and their needs. yet, in spite of the austere attitude towards learning, if you enter a little deeper into the aspirations and inspirations of youth in gulu, you find a flourishing community of aspiring dj’s, break dancers, musicians of all kinds, movie makers, painters, fashion designers and theatre performers learning and living informally, some as a side dish, others struggling to make a living. the potential of this community, and the opportunity to support, learn from, and build up this community forms the departure point of this research which is based on a 3-year research study examining viable decent living opportunities through vocational learning in uganda and south africa. this article focuses on gulu and highlights the value and need for arts in vocational learning and arts as vocational learning. we recognize that arts are missing in many learning programs in uganda (openjuru, 2010), however, our focus here is guided by our research in vocational learning. education in uganda uganda is one of the five east african countries. like many other colonized nations, uganda continues to use the formal education system introduced by christian missionaries (haitch & miller, 2006). the colonial system of education is a patriarchal system (coetzee & du toit, 2018), intending to maintain hierarchies and produce workers for the elite. it denigrates their cultural values, and removes them from educational experiences that matter personally to them and to the world at large. mosweunyane (2013) explains that before the introduction of the eurocentric colonial system of education, africans educated their children differently, in what is labelled as an indigenous system of education. this indigenous system of education promotes local and holistic ways of knowing which is consistent with the lived realities of the learners and the environment in which they are living (hoppers, 2002; openjuru, 2017). in african indigenous education, learning was integrated into everyday life and the well-being of the community. the learning system integrated arts and practice in a holistic pedagogical approach that did not separate culture and practical experience from knowledge and community well-being, both for the present and the future. the christian missionary system, in an effort to create and maintain social hierarchies, enforced categories and levels of learning that were valued differently, differentiating between disciplines and between formal, informal and non-formal learning. l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a vo l . 4 , i s s u e 119 formal, informal and nonformal education ngaka et. al (2012) suggest that informal community-engaged learning should be foundational to the development of a formal school curriculum, because such informal learning indicates what is immediately relevant to the lived realities of the communities that should be served by these education systems. informal learning is needs-driven, based on the interests and values of the community, and its development should naturally support non-formal and formal education (blaak, openjuru & zeelen, 2013). for education to support individuals and communities in meaningful ways, there must be a natural connection between indigenous ways of knowing and living in the world and formal school curricula. in this way, art, which tends to exist as a cultural practice of the community, will find authoritative recognition in the formal school system including vocational education. for example, achebe & msiska (2008) note that the performance of traditional wrestling was revered among the igbo people of nigeria and the best wrestler was a respected figure. yet such traditional entertainment is not recognized under the formal school system and therefore it has no educational value within the formal school system. however, practitioners of this traditional wrestling would still go on to learn and become wrestlers through the informal indigenous education system which is still being used to transfer cultural and traditional practices with community, important values for the next generations in africa. in uganda, monk et al. (2020) worked with young informal artists in the community who had left school because it was not meeting their needs. a component of the research was to host an art-based intervention with schools, family and community to communicate why the arts and arts pathways are needed in primary and secondary schools. the intervention was an attempt to merge indigenous learning approaches in the arts into formal curricula. need for valuing vocational education and training (vet) for individuals and community wellbeing vet africa 4.0 research collective (veta4, 2021; vet africa 4.0, forthcoming; mcgrath et. al 2020) calls for a transformative approach to education that tackles the negative effects that have arisen from the mass production model of schooling while re-insisting that education is simultaneously a human right and a means towards personal and societal development. the government of uganda has placed considerable emphasis in their vision 2040 (national planning authority, 2013) on vocational education and training (vet) as a means to address the high unemployment rate and high early school leaving rate. there is an emphasis on the need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and critical thinking because the economy does not have enough formal employment opportunities. muhangi, monk, and adrupio (2022) argue that the ongoing environmental crisis and consequent for education to support individuals and communities in meaningful ways, there must be a natural connection between indigenous ways of knowing and living in the world and formal school curricula. in this way, art, which tends to exist as a cultural practice of the community, will find authoritative recognition in the formal school system including vocational education. 20engage! | c r e at i v e a rts climate changes add urgency to the need for innovative, adaptive and creative thinkers. vet africa 4.0 collective (forthcoming) describe in detail the dynamic nature of informal learning which is taking place in gulu and eastern cape (south africa) as youth develop networks to seek out the learning they need to meet their livelihood aspirations, in spite of antiquated formal systems that are largely not equipped nor flexible enough to meet their needs. one of the dynamic components of informal learning that we uncovered in our research, which was glaringly absent from formal vet, is the presence of arts both as potential career pathways and as a means for learning and sharing knowledge. in this paper, we argue that including arts in education is integral to the transformed approach to learning and livelihoods needed for dynamic communities capable of adapting and flourishing. based on the premise of developing entrepreneurs and critical/creative thinkers, we argue that arts are essential even from the pragmatic, neoliberal and technical perspectives of economic development. following from this, we argue that by not including arts in programming, formal and non-formal (vocational) education is a process which provides inadequate education and then conveniently blames youth for not succeeding, despite being “trained.” this is especially obvious for traditional trades such as carpentry, welding, and fashion design. indigenous ways of learning and teaching in uganda integrate dancing, storytelling and problem-solving skills. indeed, storytelling, and riddles were a fundamental skill aspired to and valued as wisdom in leaders and elders. if the ugandan government is serious about transforming livelihoods through vet, then it must return to learning approaches like indigenous pedagogies that include the arts in learning processes in order to engage and develop communities. the second component that we argue is missing in vet programs is art as a potential career pathway. the independent, a newspaper in uganda (2021), recognized that the “government of uganda isn’t known for taking art seriously let alone appreciating its role in the economic, social and spiritual development of its people.” our research demonstrated that pre-colonization craftsmanship such as metallurgy, carpentry, weaving, and pottery for developing tools and household items, as well as tattoos, bead making, make up, and music for aesthetics and entertainment was an integral career in society (okelo, 2020). craftspeople created important innovations that supported flourishing and healthy communities, which are no longer legitimized by formal education or training, but are much needed in educational offerings for ugandan youth. learning the arts and the art of learning community development in uganda, art training is an area of knowledge operated mainly by informal practices, in which novice artists learn from a more experienced artist or from self-discovery and explorations of their own talents and networks (the independent, 2021). most artists learn either through indigenous communities and/or from their parents craftspeople created important innovations that supported flourishing and healthy communities, which are no longer legitimized by formal education or training, but are much needed in educational offerings for ugandan youth." l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a vo l . 4 i s s u e 121 l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a and just by existing in their communities as well as their participation in theater or music groups for dancing, singing and acting. artists often struggle on their own supporting their private exhibition or self-promotion on the streets. although some universities in uganda provide formal education in fine arts, music, dance and drama (beddie & halliday-wynes, 2010), such types of formal programs are still very limited and are not available in gulu. for instance, makerere university's school of liberal arts is the only school in uganda with an academic program offering a diploma in music, dance, and drama. it provides such professional opportunities whereas african indigenous education often unfolds around campfire, storytelling, riddle solving, poetry singing and dancing in the homestead – engaging community to retain their culture and develop for the future. methodology: vocational education training (vet) africa 4.0 (gulu case) we broadly describe in our methodology section the larger three-year research project with four case studies, two in south africa and two in uganda, funded by the british academy and seeking to examine the potential of vocational learning in leading to decent life opportunities. in this article, however, we rely only on the gulu case for this article, where we worked closely with core stakeholders in an iterative process of community based participatory action research (monk et al., 2021). tandon et. al. (2016) explain that community-based research is messy because it values the life experiences and knowledge of the participants. working closely with the community requires living in the chaos and complexity of everyday life and negotiating the research path as it emerges. the gulu case was particularly complex because of the large degree of informality in learning and working and living in gulu. we therefore pursued several different research areas with different stakeholders, as issues were identified by different stakeholders. lotz-sisitka (2004) has written about this chaos in her work with community learning networks in south africa. the participatory process entangles data collection with data analysis because of the attempts to engage in and offer solutions to the pressing issues identified by community and with community. the research is based in ongoing relationships of action and reflection, and blurs the traditional lines of researcher as academic and participant as nonacademic. the goal is to have an interested community of practice come together and solve community issues as they emerge, which we describe in the following sections. in gulu, a core aim of our research was to bring together networks of people and organizations interested in vocational learning for decent work. we first engaged in a stakeholder mapping process, which brought together a broad range of stakeholders in a day-long forum to discuss issues in vocational education and training and identified who we should speak with. data was then collected using open ended interviews, focus groups and youth-led community dialogues, and radio talk shows. stakeholders from various fields, including local government, university, ngos, union for people with disabilities, instructors, and the private sector, formed an advisory committee to guide the research. as researchers we also engaged with many of the stakeholders in their programs in teaching and advisory roles. much of the research we did resulted in further research. for example, speaking with youth involved in agriculture, we learned of a rich informal set of learning networks using social media, so we engaged in a mini case study with them and the rise of backyard farming during covid-19. this in turn led us to speak with (vulnerable) food vendors selling their agricultural 22engage! | c r e at i v e a rts produce on the streets and in the multitude of outdoor markets where most people are buying their food. speaking with farmers brought out an issue of having to face notorious middlemen who purchase their produce at low prices and resell it. middlemen felt that farmers were missing quality in their programs. so we brought together middlemen, farmers, extension officers (tasked with agriculture outreach), and university lecturers in agriculture in a forum to discuss the issue of quality produce and fair prices. we give this example to help understand the iterative process and many dimensions of the research. this forum was an intervention and analysis of the current data, together with the related stakeholders. it was also a forum for us to collect more data, and lead us spiraling into speaking with other government officials and a herbal medicine program based in preserving biodiversity and encouraging environmentally friendly agriculture practices. another dynamic of the research was engaging in two pilot projects with related stakeholders to try out the potential of virtual reality and environmental incubation centers. in each of these we brought together stakeholders repeatedly to design and test and carry out the pilot. the process was therefore data collection because we were documenting it. however, it could also be conceived of as analysis because it involved the ongoing collective analysis of the pilot team. or it could be conceived of as dissemination because the pilots themselves were an outcome in that we were acting on the previous learning. the pilots came at the very end of the research funding and actually extended beyond the funding. as we started to make connections and form a picture of the vast learning ecosystem, we also began to trace pathways of learning by youth as they followed their aspirations. to do this, we developed a “lifegrid” chart, which we used to plot transitions, choices (and the related causes) made by youth. one of the areas that emerged for us, and which we pursued as a pathway, was the broad category of arts and decent work. decent work is an elusive and subjective termand one of the core questions of the research. this was because we noticed that a) many youth were pursuing art careers as a side pathway, and b) there was a large movement of creative ways to recycle waste in tailoring for making earrings, bags, couch coverings, which extended to a whole network of youth in the arts. to generalize loosely here, the youth (who led a community intervention as a component of this research specifically on this topic) felt decent work was a livelihood that offered economic security so that they could feed their families and send their children to school, personal safety, something they valued and which was valued by society. interviews we recorded a total of 55 general interviews (17 women, 38 men), 26 additional interviews accompanied by a lifegrid which focused on pathways in arts, tailoring, and farming (19 women, 7 men) and 13 focus group discussions with a total of 28 females and 46 males. we asked participants to share their stories, probed deeper around different aspects of vet, and asked them what needed to be done to improve vet from their perspective, and how we could use this research process as an intervention to improve vet. radio talk shows in addition, we asked youth to lead community radio shows as a method of collecting data during covid-19. we invited two or three different youth involved in vet in various capacities to host 9 radio shows on a weekly basis (12 women, and 11 men). we brought together youth involved in vocational education and training, all from the informal and non-formal sphere. the radio l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a vo l . 4 , i s s u e 123 l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a program host was himself a youth and dj learning informally the art of radio. the youth shared their experiences related to vet and decent work on air to inspire youth, to provide ideas and knowledge about available programs and opportunities and about the intersections of living and learning. the show became oriented towards the arts and community development through the direction of the youth. for example, three youth who we invited to speak about informal agriculture in one of the early weeks discovered that one of them was an aspiring musician (off air), the other two then thought the topic of the radio program was arts, and proceeded to share their own experiences working in the arts. future programs were designed explicitly to discuss the potential of art and the potential of decent work. the radio shows were recorded and shared with us by the radio station. the two or three youth who shared their experiences each week signed consent forms and participated in short recorded reflection sessions about the show. the public who called into the show were informed that the show was contributing towards research – however, most of them did not reveal their identity. the data collection was also a process of analysis in that the discussants and people calling in were engaged in a reflexive analysis of the arts. the reflections following the radio shows added another layer to the analysis process. finally, after covid-19 lockdown restrictions were eased, participants were asked to participate (a number of them were organizers and panelists) in a day workshop about youth livelihoods and decent work. based on their participation in the research they both decided to orient the workshop towards opportunities in arts, and used arts-based methods of facilitation to engage in reflexive discourse and analysis about decent work. findings it was this community engaged approach to the research that enabled a deeper understanding of the dynamic informal social skills learning ecosystem, and in particular the potentiality of flourishing livelihoods of the vibrant arts community. the process entangles the oftenisolated components and participants of traditional research processes as it engages in ongoing cycles of learning and action. as we have discussed above, the data collection, analysis, and dissemination are all interconnected and form the basis for the next questions and interventions. this journal article is but one way that we are sharing the discussion, it is also part of the research and hopefully it will also inspire new reflections, iterations and relationships. in the following section we document the emergent challenges and potentials identified by youth in arts in gulu. pathways to artists developing their skills and talents despite many artists creating spaces to exhibit their work, uganda society and policy does not tend to support artists or see their work as ‘legitimate’ employment, as evidenced in the lack of support for the arts (the independent, 2021). thus artists of all kinds remain largely working in the informal sector, hustling to get by. a musician, for example, will create a space to sell their music but they will also have to sell other artifacts such as clothing. we saw this as the case with most artists we spoke with: they are often pursuing arts as either a part time job, or they are pursuing multiple arts-based endeavors without a great deal of sustainability or security. most saw it as pursuing their passion, and were looking to develop potential career pathways. 24engage! | c r e at i v e a rts learning of the arts in non-formal spaces follows diverse pathways, with the potential artists identifying an interest or talent and then learning from mentors, community members and practice. upcoming artists become inspired when they join spaces where the arts are being created; they desire to join artistic communities and belong to the community. as one artist who aspired to filmmaking commented, “a certain group of filmmakers originated from kenya but in uganda their member was [name]. they came to our school and briefed us about film as an art and i picked interest in it.” the learning processes for these artists follow different routes, mainly through community spaces where a professional or an employer has a makeshift school or they learn from someone already doing the art. despite the many informal spaces of learning the arts, professional spaces that train some of these arts with basic skill and offer credentialing are limited; this requires the budding artist to search for more learning or for employers to create spaces that upskill creativity not taught in the formal settings or vocational spaces. as one fashion design employer commented, “i think what inspired me, like i said i have two branches, i have a factory and i have a school. what inspired me to open the school was me coming to the realization that the tailoring schools that were around gulu were not giving the key or relevant information to the people they were training. i know they were doing their best but at the end of the day when you look at the quality of the education the girls were getting, to me it wasn’t something sufficient enough because when you look at building a career in tailoring, you are probably thinking that this is what i am going to do for the rest of my life and you need quality education to do that. so what inspired me most to start a school is being able to provide the right type of skills and knowledge to the people pursuing their careers in this field.” for this type of arts learning, the learning is usually done through training from a friend or a person within the community that is doing that art in particular, a type of informal apprenticeship where there is a lack of learning spaces for particular types of arts learning in formal spaces. a craft creator noted, "i just saw it and i got interested in learning it. she was a neighbor of mine. so i just went to see her in the next door. then i found her doing the things so i asked her to show me how to do it then i just did it." despite the perception that most art is based on talent, many fine arts are trainable and they can be improved through a setting that encourages the learners’ growth in a variety of ways. however, often fledgling artists are pressured or pushed into formal education and to view their arts practices as merely a hobby or entertainment. one artist shared "i would say my own solo music career began this year but i've been a songwriter for quite a while. i feel that while i was in school i couldn't balance the two, that is to say [if] i leave school and focus on my musical career that is like shooting two birds with one stone so i feel like i should first concentrate in my school. so now that despite the perception that most art is based on talent, many fine arts are trainable and they can be improved through a setting that encourages the learners’ growth in a variety of ways. however, often fledgling artists are pressured or pushed into formal education and to view their arts practices as merely a hobby or entertainment. l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a vo l . 4 , i s s u e 125 l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a i finished high school successfully and especially during my vacation i began my musical career as well." the lack of societal valuing of diverse forms of artistic work causes individuals to put their artistic learning on the back burner while they pursue formal education or to eschew formal education and hope that the informal route for learning arts will eventually lead to employment in their chosen field. unfortunately, that happens all too infrequently. unemployment and informal training in the arts one of the major constraining factors in the arts is that it is not considered legitimate employment. many of the artists interviewed complained that they did not get support from their families and social communities as they attempted to develop their arts skills, despite their passion, desire, and talent. often these artists depend on tourism to sell their work, as one responded explained, “fine art thing is really not something that is stable especially right now during covid corona thing like the shop is closed at the moment and we do not have a market because most of our customers always come from outside the country.”, however, this is not highly lucrative as it is not promoted by the local communities and is often unnoticed. additionally, copyright laws in uganda are loosely written, implemented and enforced, so artists are not protected when their work is infringed upon. unemployment is one of the reasons that individuals enter informal training in the arts pathway. getting into the arts was something participants expressed as a part-time position that would end as soon they got a ‘real job.’ but as soon as the benefits in the arts were noticed most decided that was what they wanted to do full time, despite being discouraged by their families and the communities at large. there is considerably more government support for science-based learning so the arts are ignored and underfunded, and there is no clear pathway to formal higher learning (okello, 2016; monk et. al. 2020). some of these young artists maintain their passion and quietly but defiantly continue to pursue their arts learning, despite low or nonexistent income and limited options for future employment in these areas. as one young artist who had been compelled to attend university by his family rather than pursue his passion for singing said, “okay from my family they don't know quite a lot yet since i am an upcoming artist. i would say my ideas that i have produced i've only come out this year and from home mostly, they do not know that i'm a musician. they just hear those rumors from other people. when they ask me i tell them i don't know i am fine with everything that i’m doing. we will see if i'm a serious artist or not and if i am not i will stop.” income generation the hopeful defiance described above is not possible for every artist. some learn the arts as a way to earn an income as a job; formal (white collar) jobs are highly sought after but not often attained. academic credentialing for the arts is, however, very difficult to realize in uganda. a some of these young artists maintain their passion and quietly but defiantly continue to pursue their arts learning, despite low or non-existent income and limited options for future employment in these areas. 26engage! | c r e at i v e a rts parent who was interviewed in the youth-led radio show commented: “for the youths and those that failed to study, if possible, they have to find a way. and as i speak i am so proud that i have children who have graduated from the gulu university who found hardship in obtaining a job, but now have come to volunteer and learn handwork. that is talking about that’s why i am proud now. because some youth have dropped out of school they feel the only way they could support themselves is by learning an art skill informally for sustainability. this usually happens in the limited vocational education spaces or in makeshift schools that are created in the community by those that wish to train others in a particular skill. for example, one participant shared, “i didn’t complete my education. i want to sustain life. used to make my own dresses and so not wasting money on having to buy dresses. mother suggested fashion design. mother paid fees.” there are little or no formal qualification requirements needed to do training in the arts; the most important thing that most areas of training require is your ability to read and write. as one fashion designer stated:” the qualification requirement for the school is that you will just have to know how to read and write. and we have two programs, there are fashion and design entrepreneurship programs that takes place daily during the week.” literacy is required because most training centers have an element of entrepreneurship training that requires such skills to enable them to make an income in the art form, however this is for those art forms that are trained in the informal or formal spaces like fashion and design: “i lead the fashion house, making clothes with tailors who have come to train. some of them had trained with different schools but have come to continue learning while having the job experience, and also taking other people who want to do apprenticeship with us or people who have already trained with other schools but would like to get more guidance on how to start earning from tailoring.” some people working in the arts see an opportunity to do recycling and environmental waste management by turning waste into art and making an income out of it. their creativity enables them to see the possibility of training others and also measuring environmental protection. an environmental artist noted, “we have seen, so if we keep on converting waste to become something good which makes something you would have thrown becomes something good. because if i make i can sell at 30,000 shillings from the t-shirt that you would have thrown, so i get many out of it. i also make earrings from kitenge that are in small pieces so i change them to earrings and those pieces of kitenge and other cloths i can convert them into flowers and sell them. and if they take long and get old i think of something else to make out of that is good.” these ideas can be a source of earning or income generation. another entrepreneurial artist saw the opportunity from unwanted cloth: “my cousins at home would still undermine [my ideas], saying ‘tailor tomorrow you should sew my cloth. so i would just laugh at them and sometimes they would bring me their pillow cases to make so it was not easy for me because also my fellow youths from my former school would gossip about me that i have nothing just doing tailoring. but i didn’t give up. so when my sister saw that she bought me materials and from there i started making clothes and putting them on display.” l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a 27 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a despite the ability to earn an income, some in the arts don't find it enough to sustain their livelihood and usually need something like a second job or a career of sorts to fund or walk side in side with their art, as one filmmaker described, “first of all, it got me where i am at the moment. right now i'm working with [the restaurant] elephante and it's helping me put food on my table. so the only thing is just if i get maybe other sources then i need to expand and do other things in support of what i am doing.” the artists are often faced with the challenge of having a product that people most don’t want to purchase, or purchase at a price they demand without consideration of the hard work input by the artist. particularly during the pandemic people are not interested in purchasing works of art and, as one artist commented, they are struggling to support themselves with basic needs: “fine art is really not something that is stable, especially right now during covid, corona. things like the shop is closed at the moment and we do not have a market because most of our customers always come from outside the country. and even when you are to do it right now nobody will buy you things and you'll end up selling your things cheaply or giving your things as a free gift.” in the above findings, youth have told us that with greater integration of the arts, and greater support in developing career trajectories and professional arts as a sector, there is enormous potential for livelihoods. integrating arts formally as a sector in the economy and strengthening arts for the development of better craftsmanship, innovation and generally more cohesive and healthy communities is vital. the recognition and development of the power of the arts in vocational education training naturally supports both non-formal and formal education in local communities, regionally and nationally. discussion based on the stories collected during the research, we suggest that if multiple arts pathways to vocational education training are to be recognized, there needs to be diverse ways to provide evidence of skill, capacity, and talent. rather than only relying on formal qualifications (i.e., certificates) as evidence of skill and talent, employers need to recognize the demonstration and application of skills and talents. as the participants noted, it is their skill and demonstrable capabilities that enables them to succeed, not necessarily formal education. access into post-secondary institutions, as well as recognition that formal learning is not as meaningful as non-formal learning and apprenticeship, reveals the need for changing perceptions and values of diverse ways of gaining expertise. there are many opportunities for the arts to flourish in vocational learning programs. we have documented here some of the challenges, mostly related to absence of formal art programs and in relation to negative perceptions of the arts. in our broader research data examining vocational education and training in gulu, we found that many stakeholders and employers felt that quality workers in vocational fields were not there, and we found an associated stigma and resulting poor working conditions for the vocational field (vet africa 4.0 collective, forthcoming). here we would like to posit that inclusion of arts in formal vet programs could bring an element of pride and professionalism and quality craftsmanship to vocational programs and to the labor market recognizing, for example, the difference between tailoring programs and fashion design programs. also, integrating arts learning into vet programs can lead to environmental practices and niche markets for vocations. we see in the informal spaces a large recycling movement with artists engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 28 both saving money on materials, and finding new uses for the materials. this would be practical for welders or carpenters as well, both from an economic perspective and from a much-needed environmental perspective. similarly, finding solutions to the environmental crisis provides a burgeoning business opportunity which could be led by vocational learning programs. beyond creativity, integrating arts also emerged as an important coping and flourishing mechanism. promoting self-expression is seen as a form of self-empowerment and coping with trauma. this is particularly relevant for northern uganda, which is recovering from 30 years of civil war, and has high dropout rates from school, and low levels of employment. finally, and more directly discussed in this article, we demonstrate that there is a vibrant space in the informal sector of arts that, if supported, could become translated into important and much needed sectors in society. pathways for digital arts such as marketing, website design, movies and entertainment industry, music, and dance, tourism and crafts are all important potential sectors that could be built and invested in more formal and professional learning programs and pathways. conclusion the arts were traditionally included in the holistic precolonial learning programs. dance and storytelling were important forms of learning, and design thinking was promoted in experiential programs where craftsmanship such as pottery and blacksmithing and jewelry-making were highly valued. unfortunately, along with these vibrant learning programs, the arts have been sidelined in industrial and neoliberal marketbased education. bringing the arts back into learning programs, both as a pathway and as a method of instruction, will be an essential component of dealing with unemployment and the significant additional life challenges caused by the environmental crisis. while this is true of broader learning programs, we highlight the arts here in the vocational sector and point out the very practical applications and opportunities. as the government increasingly invests in vocational learning and self-employment, we see the cost of not including arts as being too high to ignore. l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a 29 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 l a d a a h e t. a l . | c a s e f o r a r t s i n u g a n d a references achebe, c., & msiska, m. (2008). things fall apart. heinemann international incorporated. beddie, francesca, and s. halliday-wynes. “informal and non-formal learning in vocational education and training.” international encyclopedia of education, edited by penelope peterson, et al., third ed., elsevier science, 2010, pp. 240-246. blaak, m., openjuru, g. l., & zeelen, j. (2013). non-formal vocational education in uganda: practical empowerment through a workable alternative. international journal of educational development, 33(1), 88-97. coetzee, a., & du toit, l. (2018). facing the sexual demon of colonial power: decolonising sexual violence in south africa. european journal of women's studies, 25(2), 214-227. freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. (b. ramos, trans.). new york: continuum. haitch, r., & miller, d. (2006). storytelling as a means of peacemaking: a case study of christian education in africa. religious education, 101(3), 390-401. hoppers, c. a. o. (2002). indigenous knowledge and the integration of knowledge systems: towards a philosophy of articulation. new africa books. lotz-sisitka, h. 2004. curriculum deliberation amongst adult learners in south african community contexts at rhodes university. in higher education and the challenge of sustainability (pp. 319-333). springer, dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-30648515-x_25 mcgrath, s., powell, l., alla-mensah, j., hilal, r., & suart, r. (2020). new vet theories for new times: the critical capabilities approach to vocational education and training and its potential for theorising a transformed and transformational vet. journal of vocational education & training, 1-22. mosweunyane, d. (2013). the african educational evolution: from traditional training to formal education. higher education studies, 3(4), 50-59. monk, d., ongom, s. & openjuru, g. (2020). when the guns fell silent: poets 4 change and research for a sustainable future. gateways international journal of community research and engagement, 12(2). monk, d., metelerkamp, l., mcgrath, s. (september, 2021). vet africa 4.0: reimaging research praxis for community development. ukfiet, oxford university. mosweunyane, d. (2013, july 18). the african educational evolution: from traditional training to formal education. higher education studies, vol. 3(no. 4), 50-59. 10.5539/hes.v3n4p50 muhangi, s., monk, d., adrupio., (forthcoming). tvet discourse in uganda: policy and literature. network for international policies and cooperation in education and training (norrag) (in press). national planning authority. (2013). the uganda vision 2040. government of uganda. available here: https://www.gou.go.ug/content/uganda-vision-2040 ngaka, w., openjuru, g., & mazur, r. e. (2012). exploring formal and non-formal education practices for integrated and diverse learning environments in uganda. the international journal of diversity in organizations, communities and nations, 11(6), 109-121. okelo, m.l. (2020). acoli ma con. luzira, ug: penwall media ltd. okello, m. (2016). a comparative analysis of performance of science and arts subjects in uganda secondary schools [dissertation, makerere university]. http:// dissertations.mak.ac.ug/handle/20.500.12281/5802 openjuru, g. l. (2017). indigenous knowledge: informal learning and food security practices among the acholi people of northern uganda. in food leadership: leadership and adult learning for global food systems transformation (pp. 17–35). sense publisher. openjuru, g. l., & achen, s. (2014). shack video halls in uganda as youth community/literacy learning and cultural interaction sites. in cultural studies and transdisciplinarity in education (vol. 1, pp. 143–158). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-981-4451-031_10 openjuru, g. l. (2010). government education policies and the problem of early school leaving: the case of uganda. in the burden of educational exclusion (pp. 1533). brill. tandon, r., hall, b., lepore, w. & singh, w. (2016). training the next generation. in tandon et al (eds.) knowledge and engagement: building capacity for the next generation of community based researchers. (pp. 7-39). university of victoria and pria. available: http://unescochair-cbrsr.org/pdf/ final_training_the_next_generation_2016.pdf the independent. (february, 2021). arts crafts industry struggling to survive covid 19 impact. the independent newspaper. available: https://www.independent.co.ug/arts-crafts-industrystruggling-to-survive-covid-19impact/ veta4. (2021). vet africa 4.0 research. https://www.vetafrica4-0.com/ vet africa 4.0 collective (2022) transitioning vocational education in africa. bristol university press, bristol, forthcoming. wedekind, v., russon, j. a., ramsarup, p., monk, d., metelerkamp, l., & mcgrath, s. (2021). conceptualising regional skills ecosystems: reflections on four african cases. international journal of training and development, 25(4), 347-362. world bank. (2022). uganda population. available: https:// data.worldbank.org/indicator/ sp.pop.0014.to.zs?contextual=population-by-age&locations=ug w letter from the editor tim nation, guest editor we are pleased to present you with this issue of engage! focused on peace in the midst of turmoil. we begin by asking: what is peace and how do we increase it? for me, peace is the ability to stay calm and focused amid conflict, to work for collaboration between people creating win-win situations instead of competition that creates winners and losers. peace is to build community where everyone feels safe, valued, and loved. peace requires work and does not magically appear. throughout our lives, we must realize a lack of peace hurts us all. the united states of america’s terrible homicide epidemic takes around 20,000 lives each year while even more tragically, 48,000 end their own lives annually, demonstrating conflict within ourselves is even a larger problem than conflict with others. peacemaking involves working for peace through peaceful means. this includes forming stable legitimate governments, equitable practices for all, a transparent free flow of information, acceptance and appreciation of others, social and emotional skills, and social justice. to help people build peace in our community and world, this issue of engage! focuses on three main educational components of peacemaking: equity, social emotional learning, and restorative practices. equity education includes antiracism, implicit bias, and equity literacy. achievement gaps between students are actually opportunity gaps. problems that persist in low income communities are not because of individual deficits, rather they are the result of injustice. racism is the worst problem facing our culture and all of us must learn and confront our own biases, a root cause of current tragedies. equity education is important to learning why we need change in our current educational systems. too many students do not connect with the curriculum as presented and too often achievement scores are directly linked to family income and privilege. when people of color are two to even six times more likely to be suspended, expelled, have their children taken away by child protective services, imprisoned, and denied health care, we recognize our systems fail them and need to be fundamentally changed. “enacting truth and reconciliation through community-university partnerships: a grassroots approach” in this edition of engage! explores the use of a grassroots model for engaging truth and reconciliation (t&r) for racial terror lynching. it examines two lynchings that occurred in oxford, oh, demonstrating a model for racial reconciliation. acknowlegments editors dr. silvia garcia dr. khaula murtadha associate editors dr. tyan parker domingues dr. carolyn gentlegenitty dr. terri jett dr. brendan maxcy dr. breanca merritt dr. thu suong nguyen dr. javiette samuel dr. sarah stanlick engage! 4 vol. 1, issue 3 online journal development ann nicole goeller ted polley office of community engagement doctoral student assistants richard bray winterbourne harrisonjones nicole oglesby restorative practices offer a more equitable way to change our systems of discipline, criminal justice, and even trauma. restorative practices, the model, is based on the concept that when someone harms another or experiences trauma, existing relationships are damaged and these relationships need to be “restored.” if a student gets in a fight, instead of giving them a three-day xbox vacation called a “suspension,” the student needs to be part of a formal conference that brings together a restorative practices leader, school staff, parents, and other youth involved. the person doing the harm needs to hear from others how the relationships were damaged and how the harm can be addressed. an action plan is created that holds the person accountable and lets them stay engaged in school. the article “using circles to cope with the eruption of volcan de fuego en guatemala,” presents an innovative way to use restorative circles to help victims of natural disasters process and address trauma caused by the tragedy. it also presents insightful research outlining how verbalizing and listening with others brings light to dark situations helping to start the healing process. social emotional learning is the third component that builds peace. this include self-awareness, self-regulation, the ability to maintain positive relationships, conflict resolution and problem-solving skills. we must all learn ways to deal with our emotions and work for peace in our lives. “creating a complete learning community: a new chapter for the peace learning center and the tribes learning community” presents a series of informative and inspirational stories that demonstrate how civically engaged, democratic classrooms empower students to take control of their learning by building peace with their classmates and succeeding in personal and academic development. we hope you gain a deeper appreciation and base of knowledge about peace through this issue of engage! from people who have devoted their lives to making our world a better place. know that it only takes one person to begin the peacemaking process. you do not have to wait for a peacemaker. become a peacemaker, creating a better world for everyone. acknowlegments letter from the editor engage! 5 vol. 1, issue 3 73 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 f o r d | a c t i v i s m e n g a g e s e g m e n t activism engage segment author paul ford ii butler university when we learn to embrace our humanity, we inherently combat the forces that work to dehumanize us? when we learn to inhabit the fullness of who we are, we resist what our oppression tries to make us. when we learn to recognize our own strength, we challenge the forces that work to suppress that strength. when we learn to utilize our collective strengths, we strategically disempower the systems that strategically disempower us. when we learn to unify ourselves with our oppressed neighbors, we rebuild the bridges that bigotry destroyed. when we root ourselves in our community and our collective liberation, we uproot the hate that extends into our homes how did this get to be ok in the u.s. of a.? c o p e l a n d | h o w d i d t h i s g e t t o b e o k i n t h e u . s . o f a 7 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 author andrea copeland, co-editor engage! it seems every day there is another headline about immigration or the refugee crisis. some leaders in the republican party have managed to turn a global humanitarian crisis into a political football here at home. humans moving around the globe are in desperate situations trying to find food and safe harbor for their families. they are not wanting to harm others; they are wanting only to move themselves away from harm. sadly, the cultural wars in the united states are keeping political leaders from truly addressing issues that need to be studied and understood as if people’s lives depended on it, because they do. mostly, we have narratives promoting political agendas rather than an understanding of the economic, environmental, and cultural systems that are at work to create this period, a period in which we have more displaced persons than ever before. the united nations high commission for refugees (2022) estimated that persecution, conflict, and human rights violations displaced 89.3 million persons in 2021. how did a nation of immigrants become so divided on the issue of immigration? in 2015, presidential candidate donald j. trump said this on the campaign trail: “when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best … they're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. they're bringing drugs. they're bringing crime. they're rapists. and some, i assume, are good people” (ye hee lee, 2015). he was elected thanks to the outdated electoral college, not the majority of voters. the fact that he could be elected by any means is deeply disturbing to me and numerous others. trump did not start the division, but rather tapped into existing xenophobia and racism already firmly rooted in our soil (perea, 2020). the inhumanity continues, in step with the 2022 midterm election cycle. in april 2022, the governor of texas, greg abbott, started busing migrants from texas to d.c. and nyc. in september 2022, governor of florida ron desantis used taxpayer dollars meant to support human beings during a time of need (the pandemic) to fly 48 migrants to martha’s vineyard. all for the optics of owning the libs. (note: desantis is currently under investigation by the us treasury for misuse of federal funds for his stunt.) what does “owning the libs” mean, and why is it so important? it means ridiculing or frustrating others that do not agree with a far-right conservative agenda that often includes white supremacy as a point of pride. it’s a making fun of, a bullying, a tearing down, in such a way as to quash serious conversation or debate by turning any disagreement into an opportunity to reduce or devalue another human being’s perspective. it’s so important because it’s easier to tap into people’s fear of difference than it is to do the hard work of finding solutions that make a difference in people’s lives. who benefits from the cultural wars? it’s a question we should be asking of ourselves and our politicians. it’s certainly not the quickly advancing non-white majority in this country. you might be inclined to think white 8 c o p e l a n d | h o w d i d t h i s g e t t o b e o k i n t h e u . s . o f a engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry nationalism is only a fringe element until you see that voting rights are being suppressed and gerrymandered into the hands of the white electorate (li & rudensky, 2022; olumhense, 2022). more asians (28%) than hispanics (25%) have migrated to the u.s. since 2009 (budiman, 2020). yet what are we hearing about every day? the southern border. the top 5 countries from which people are migrating to the us are overwhelming non-white. why did trump attack people from mexico instead of india? what’s happening here? why does a country of immigrants embrace such political grandstanding? as of this writing, desantis is ahead of his rival in the polls for re-election this november by almost 10 points. how did this get to be ok in the u.s. of a.? did immigration become more concerning to americans as the ethnicities changed from european (my ancestors) to south and central american, caribbean, arab and asian? with this issue of engage!, we are asking people to pause and think about those human beings in pursuit of a better a life, no matter the path they’ve taken to find it. in addition to research articles, we’ve included some other features that we hope will help you engage critically with the issue of immigration. an interview with dr. mamadou sy from lutheran social services of the national capital area (lssnca) discusses how important it is to work with local communities to create welcoming spaces for immigrants to thrive. organizations like lssnca provide vital infrastructures of support for persons arriving in the us from just about every life circumstance one can imagine: real people dealing with real life. additionally, we have two features that are designed to counter, or at least balance, the narrative that migrants are unwelcome and threatening: notes of compassion and annotated bibliography. immediately following this editorial is notes of compassion. these are headlines that were not promoted as breaking news or subjects of federal investigations. these headlines link to stories about communities embracing their new neighbors and welcoming the good these individuals can bring to the further development of the us. i invite you to click through them. next, there is annotated bibliography, which is a sampling of the types of thoughtful exploration that exists regarding the forced movement of humans around the globe. the bibliography includes works for adults as well as younger readers. these lengthier works provide readers with the opportunity to delve more deeply into the worlds of displaced individuals and the challenges they face. graduate student in library and information science jad rea curated both items. librarians, as professionals, are committed to promoting access to a diversity of viewpoints and encouraging the development of multiple literacies, including media literacy. media literacy is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication. in its simplest terms, media literacy builds upon the foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. media literacy empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators, and active citizens.” (united states media literacy week, 2022). public and school librarians, along with k-12 educators, have been under attack lately for promoting access to diverse viewpoints and encouraging critical thinking about issues in the media like racial justice, climate change, immigration, abortion and reproductive rights, gender identity, and sexual orientation (corsillo, 2022). there is a growing demand to ban books in our schools, and these demands are increasingly at the organization level tied to either proposed or enacted legislation. those seeking bans rely heavily on social media to vo l . 4 , i s s u e 29 amplify their voices. not surprisingly, most of the bans involve characters or issues related to lgbtq+ individuals and persons of color (friedman & johnson, 2022). why is knowledge so dangerous? how did differences become so threatening? how did questioning those in power become so dangerous? under whose authority did this get to be ok in the u.s. of a.? in early october 2022, the right to read act was introduced by u.s. senator jack reed (d-ri) and u.s. representative raúl grijalva (d-az-03). this act, if passed, would address equity of access issues related to school libraries and librarians. additionally, it would reaffirm that first amendment rights apply to school libraries. a right to read act, in the 21st century, in the country that refers to itself as the leader of the free world? clearly, there’s work to be done. let’s do it learning together through listening to and caring for each other, as fellow humans. these words and the opinions they present are mine alone and do not speak from my position of employment at indiana university. c o p e l a n d | h o w d i d t h i s g e t t o b e o k i n t h e u . s . o f a budiman, a. (2020, august 20). key findings about u.s. immigrants. pew research center. https:// www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/ corsillo, g. (2022, august 14). when they came for the librarians: my profession is under attack — what happens now? salon. https://www. salon.com/2022/08/14/ when-they-came-for-thelibrarians-my-profession-isunder--what-happens-now/ friedman, j., & johnson, f. n. (2022, september 19). banned in the usa: the growing movement to censor books in schools. pen america 100. https://pen.org/ report/banned-usa-growingmovement-to-censor-booksin-schools/ li, m., & rudensky, y. (2022, september 29). how the supreme court’s new gerrymandering case threatens the voting rights act. https:// www.brennancenter.org/ our-work/research-reports/ how-supreme-courts-newgerrymandering-case-threatens-voting-rights-act olumhense, e. (2022, october 28). new us state voting laws present most intense voter suppression threat in decades. the guardian. https://www.theguardian. com/us-news/2022/oct/28/ state-voting-rights-electionlaws-police-suppression perea, j. f. (2020). immigration policy as a defense of white nationhood. georgetown journal of law and modern. critical race perspectives., 12, 1. https:// www.law.georgetown.edu/ mcrp-journal/wp-content/ uploads/sites/22/2020/07/ gt-gcrp200001.pdf united nations high commission for refugees. (2022). figures at a glance. https:// www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html united states media literacy week. (2022) media literacy basics. https://medialiteracyweek.us/resources/media-literacy-basics/ ye hee lee, m. (2015, july 8). donald trump’s false comments connecting mexican immigrants and crime. the washington post. https:// www.washingtonpost. com/news/fact-checker/ wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/ references using art to undermine epistemic injustice in dbt research engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 38 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e authors elizabeth baily college of education, wayne state university monica w. tracey college of education, wayne state university keywords: dialectical behavior therapy, activity theory, art, epistemic injustice abstract through participatory arts-based research, constructed within the theoretical basis of the activity system, participants engaged with dialectical behavior therapy (dbt) program content to develop a cohesive and meaningful project structure and aesthetic. the body of literature that explores dbt skills training produces epistemic injustice by elevating practitioner/researcher perceptions of individual progress over participants’ interpretations of their own collective experiences. research that relies on practitioners to report on patient experiences creates a self-perpetuating cycle where individual practitioners do not have the tools to regard patients as credible, allowing the field to render patients unintelligible. dbt is a skills-based psychotherapeutic approach that prepares individuals to address problems in living that result from the development of mental disorders in environments that persistently signal that an individual is an unreliable informant of their own experience. arts-based research can be employed to disrupt the harmful parallels between the development of the disorders dbt is intended to treat and the dominant paradigm of dbt research. this publication centers on the experiences of individuals completing dbt, interrupts cycles of harm, and uplifts social knowledge construction that emanates from dbt skills training communities. epistemic injustice epistemic injustice is the practice of favoring one group’s voice over another in a way that replicates and proliferates social, economic, political, and structural injustice (fricker, 2013). two types of epistemic injustice are identified, testimonial and hermeneutical. testimonial injustice occurs when a speaker’s voice is dismissed based on aspects of the speaker’s identity, causing them to be deemed uncredible. hermeneutical injustice occurs when a group is excluded from activities like scholarship and journalism that shape the ideas that people use to make sense of their lives. when an individual’s experiences are vastly different from these ideas, the individual is dismissed as unintelligible because the listener lacks a framework to understand their experiences (fricker, 2013). the opposite of epistemic injustice is epistemic justice. epistemic justice requires virtuous hearing, where listeners become aware of the impact of power imbalances on how they evaluate communication and make compensation vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 39 for those imbalances (fricker, 2007). virtuous hearing requires time and the development of a micro-climate in which listeners are able to move past prejudicial notions of credibility and intelligibility (bourgault, 2020). dialectical behavioral therapy dialectical behavior therapy (dbt) is a skillsbased therapy that is recommended for individuals who experience severe problems in living that develop in an environment that persistently invalidates the individual’s interpretation of their own experience (linehan, 2015). this persistent invalidation results in skill deficits in the domains of interpersonal interactions, self-regulation of emotions and behaviors, toleration of distress, and connecting with the present moment. in its standard format, dbt includes a group skills training component. skills training groups participate in collaborative learning activities including role play, discussions, and cooperative problem solving (linehan, 2015). epistemic injustice in dbt research despite the active, collective, and communal nature of dbt group skills training, the body of literature that explores dbt skills training most often reports on individual measures of success that are selected, administered, interpreted, and reported by practitioners to the exclusion of participant voices. this has the effect of elevating the perspectives of practitioners over participants, developing a paradigm where practitioners are upheld as superior informants on program outcomes and participant experiences. the second edition of the dbt skills training manual employs a summary of 30 randomized control trials (rct) and seven non-randomized control trials (linehan, 2015, p. 17-18, 2021). these trials report patient outcomes at the individual level using standardized measurements administered and interpreted by the treating practitioners to assert the effectiveness of dbt. this pattern extends to case study literature. in a meta-analysis of 48 published english language case studies that incorporated dbt skills training, practitioner perspectives were the most consistently reported metrics of change. 37 case studies incorporated practitioner notes on patient changes as they were perceived by the practitioner. 31 case studies included practitioner-selected psychometrics as indicators of change, 18 included behavioral metrics, and 4 included physiometrics – such as changes in patient weight. 22 case studies published practitioner interpretations of patients’ responses to practitioner-generated follow-up interview questions. three notable exceptions to the pattern of privileging practitioner perspectives are lustig and colleagues (2000), who referenced a piece of narrative fiction authored by the participant; heckwolf and colleagues (2014), who described patient-generated visual artwork; and mcnair and colleagues (2016), who assessed participantgenerated repertory grids. despite these few exceptions, this preference towards practitioner insights defines a body of literature that holds practitioners as more trustworthy and their perspectives as more valuable than patients’. this pattern is uniquely damaging because the disorders that dbt is designed to treat often develop in environments that reject the individual as a reliable informant of their own experience (linehan, 2015). research that relies on practitioners to report on patient experiences creates a self-perpetuating cycle where individual practitioners do not have the tools to regard patients as credible, allowing the field to render engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 40 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e patients unintelligible (vosinkel et al., 2021). by situating the patient as the primary source of knowledge, the inquiry for this publication interrupts cycles of injustice by creating a channel for social knowledge that emanates from dbt skills training communities to flow into academic discourse and literature. foundation for participatory research the activity system social knowledge construction is an actively constructive process that occurs when groups of individuals generate, negotiate, and respond to unique configurations of shared understanding (duffy & cunningham, 1996). activity theorists expand the role of context in social knowledge construction to describe learning as a shared social endeavor (engeström, 1987; leont’ev, 1978; vygotsky, 1978b), which is mediated by tools and situated within a broader community of practice (barab et al., 2004). figure 1 illustrates the relationship between the interactive components of the activity system described by activity theory (engeström, 1987, p. 14). the research undertaken for this inquiry applies activity theory to structure relevant aspects of a micro-climate that facilitates virtuous listening on the part of the researcher. in this activity system, dbt skills training group participants are organized around a shared objective of representing the impact of dbt skill use in a collaborative art piece. participants (subjects) work as part of a dbt skills training group (community) organized around producing an artwork (object). this process is mediated by art supplies and the concepts shared through dbt skills training (tools and symbols). the dbt skills training manual provides the rules within the social environment that are further defined by an emergent division of labor. arts-based research arts-based research (abr) is a constructive process in which knowledge is created and physicalized through the collaborative construction of work and the roles that participants embody (greenwood, 2019). by providing a medium for participants to intentionally self-construct and self-edit (greenwood, 2019), abr democratizes research participation and reporting (bartlett, 2015; boydell, 2011). abr expands opportunities for participants and audiences to engage with research by presenting findings in mediums beyond academic discourse (bartlett, 2015; boydell, 2011; nilssen & klemp,2020). participatory research demonstrates the promising potential to interrupt epistemic injustice (boni & walker, 2020). the research undertaken for this publication is structured in accordance with mitchell and colleagues’ participatory visual research methodologies (pvrm, 2011). pvrm promotes community engagement in arts-based research by creating a structure of relationship-building between researcher and participants alongside interpretation that figure 1. activity system schematic, developed by engreström, 1987 p. 14 41 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e engages all stakeholders. pvrm recommends five characteristics of research design: a reassuring invitation to draw, choice of drawing tools, leisurely pace, shared analysis, and civic dissemination. collaborative investigation with the dbt skills training community guiding questions this inquiry applies the theoretical framework of activity theory (leont’ev, 1978) while using best practices for arts-based research (mitchell et al., 2011). the guiding questions focus on exploring the ways in which dbt skills training participants organize themselves around creating a collaborative art piece: q1: how are tools and symbols used by participants to mediate shared expression of knowledge constructed in dbt skills training? q2: how do participants negotiate shared expression of public knowledge constructed in dbt skills training? q3: how does a division of labor emerge to organize participant actions around creating a shared expression of knowledge construction in dbt skills training? q4: in what ways are the expectations provided by the dbt skills training manual applied by participants in creating a shared expression of knowledge constructed in dbt skills training? each guiding question is designed around a unique triad of activity system nodes that includes the subject node, the object node, and one additional node. these triads are: q1 subject, object, tools; q2 subject, object, rules; q3 subject, object, division of labor; q4 subject, object, community. while these questions are not explicitly answered by this publication, they serve as a basis for the approach to inquiry and interpretation of outcomes. participants and context the participants in this inquiry were active in an outpatient dbt skills training program that is offered through the counseling center at an urban research university in the midwestern region of the united states. this treatment program is offered at a sliding scale cost to students and community members. two dbt skills training program participants agreed to be part of the research. the identities of the participants have been anonymized for confidentiality reasons. approach to collaborative inquiry participant introductions occurred virtually following a regularly scheduled skills training session. individuals who expressed interest in participating were provided an informed consent form, and individuals who completed the form were sent an electronic survey that asked about art supplies that were familiar and of interest to them. this survey offered a “choice of drawing tools” (mitchell et al., 2011), which were then purchased and provided to the participants at no cost. these supplies included a mounted canvas measuring three feet by four feet; acrylic paints, brushes, and pallets; and collaging materials including magazines, construction paper, and adhesive. next, participants attended a virtual planning meeting that lasted approximately 30 minutes. this meeting provided a "reassuring invitation to draw" where participants were assured that "the focus is on the content of their drawing, and not on the quality of it as a drawing" (mitchell et al., 2011 p. 23). participants were shown the materials available and discussed their approach to the project. at the end of the first meeting, participants determined the need for a second discussion. the second virtual meeting lasted approximately 20 engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 42 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e minutes and allowed participants to set a leisurely pace (mitchell et al., 2011) that fostered creative engagement with the project. both meetings were audio-recorded to produce a conversation transcript which was reviewed using conversation analysis (charmaz, 2014). after receiving the partially completed piece from participant 1, participant 2 experienced several life-interrupting events that derailed piece completion. as a result of these disruptions, the final stage of the project had not yet been reached at time of publication; the piece had not been completed, participants had not created a shared description of the final piece, and the piece had not been put on display. findings participant quotations from the two planning meetings are employed in reporting the results of this collaborative project. italicized words indicate descriptive choices employed by the participants throughout the meetings. by including participant quotations in their entirety, using participant utterances as the primary organizational structure, and by using descriptive choices made by participants, this work uplifts participant experiences as the primary source of knowledge in this inquiry. program, project, and constraints: the idea of balance “and just the idea of balance. because balance was something that definitely came to me really fast, just in terms of how we’re associating it to the skills and everything that we talk about” (participant 1, meeting 1). participants constructed knowledge when they discussed structures for the project alongside logistical constraints, a process that determined the structure of the piece. participants considered two possibilities for structure. they explored the possibility of having the first participant create a rough version of the piece that covered the entire canvas and then having the second participant overlay their work onto the existing piece. the second possibility the participants explored was to split the canvas into a half-half structure with a side-to-side horizontal orientation of the canvas, and each participant would create their portion of the piece on half of the canvas. participants found the half-half structure was more clearly defined while the overlay structure was less clear, and participants recognized there would be more negotiation involved in the overlay approach. as participants engaged with their proposed half-half structure, they explored the ways in which dbt engages with duality. the participants reflected on the idea of existing along dialectics – the idea that two apparently opposing things can be true simultaneously – which is foundational to dbt. participants also discussed balance and the ways in which messages surrounding balance are threaded throughout dbt skills training. “emotions that you’re dealing with can be put in as far as how distress tolerance and emotion regulation help balance these emotions. but the emotions can be present via color or words” (participant 2, meeting 1). aesthetic choices: brightness and darkness “that brightness and darkness. and its correlation to how we identify with these things, especially with our own feelings and emotions” (participant 1, meeting 1). the consideration of the dualities explored by dbt supported the participants’ decision to engage with the half-half structure. this decision led to further discussion on aesthetic choices. participants agreed that participant 1 would make aesthetic choices 43 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e that could be easily continued by participant 2, referring to a color spectrum that could be terminated in a line that would fade into a solid color allowing the participants to merge from color to color providing a unified look to the piece. participants also discussed the ways in which emotion regulation and distress tolerance allowed them to manage emotions characterized by brightness and darkness, and ways the artwork could externally express this internal experience. as the project developed, participants began to discuss more concrete options for the visual and aesthetic representation of the temporal aspect of dbt skills training. they considered the ways that skills practice may translate into a mindset over a span of time. “i was thinking about things going from in focus to out of focus or vice versa. words are kind of smudgy and it’s become more bold” (participant 1, meeting 2). communication of knowledge constructed: a glimpse of artistically what it means “people who might not even know what dbt is could at least get a glimpse of artistically what it means” (participant 2, meeting 2). participants constructed connections between the content of their program, the ideas that underly their program, and the impact of dbt skills on their lives outside of the program. the participants then considered the ways in which these different aspects can be expressed visually. this process included considerations of project content that segued into discussing metaphoric options for visual expression. as the structure, content, and aesthetic choices became more concrete for the participants, they began to consider their intended audience’s perceptions of the piece. participants began to view their piece as a negotiation of meaning between themselves alongside their audience as they worked to navigate the tension of trying to visually translate the impact of a large program on a finite canvas in a way that would provide a meaningful experience to the audience. “what has stood out to me and what parts of each module stick out to me. and it’s kind of a challenge to do that. to put that in display” (participant 2, meeting 2). implications epistemic justice requires virtuous hearing (fricker, 2013), and virtuous hearing requires a micro-ecosystem and time (bourgault, 2020). this publication presents a discussion of the artsbased activity system as a micro-ecosystem that can contribute to epistemic justice in dbt skills training research, with further exploration of the role of time in future research. the micro-ecosystem empowered participants to determine their own expression priorities – a structure that stands in stark contrast to researcher/practitioner-driven case studies and trials. by minimizing researcher/practitioner voices, this research created space for dbt skills training participants to serve as active agents of knowledge construction and experts in their own experience. within this space, participants demonstrated profound insight and creativity as they planned and executed their shared project. while practitioners have deep knowledge of the therapeutic and training processes, only participants can truly be experts on the impact that skills have on them. participant voices can – and should – provide insights that guide the future of dbt skills training research. while the findings revealed in this study are likely already present in engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 44 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e practice for many dbt practitioners, they are left unexamined in literature, preventing these lessons from being broadcast across the wider community of dbt skills trainers and therapists. the data collected for this study demonstrate the types of insights and knowledge that can be gained when participants’ voices are centered. the data not collected for this study contain equally valuable implications for working alongside vulnerated communities. individuals completing dbt skills training are part of a community that experiences an increased likelihood of encountering life interrupting events. to collaboratively create knowledge surrounding their experiences, that community’s relationship to – and experience of – time must drive project timelines and pacing. centering participant voices requires intentional effort to elevate the participants’ experience with time over the researcher’s preferences for expediency, or any sponsoring institution’s timebound requirements for results. researchers/ practitioners should work with participants to create and communicate fluid expectations for completion that fit the changing circumstances of participants’ lives. while practitioners have deep knowledge of the therapeutic and training processes, only participants can truly be experts on the impact that skills have on them. 45 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 b a i l e y & t r a c e y | u n d e r m i n i n g e p i s t e m i c i n j u s t i c e references 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(2001). researching psychic practitioners: conversation analysis. in m. wetherell, s. taylor, & s. j. yates (eds.) discourse as data: a guide for analysis (pp. 49–92). sage publications, inc. 7 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 a future worth investing in jordan brown, butler university h a g a n | o n e g i a n t l e a p authors carrie hagan clinical associate professor of law, indiana university robert h. mckinney school of law director, civil practice clinic and interdisciplinary law and social work civil practice clinic kyle lanham vice president of community engagement and chief advancement officer, goodwill of central & southern indiana carrie hagan and kyle lanham one giant leap for all developing and implementing a community non-profit and legal partnership to overcome barriers to re-entry abstract a criminal record is an anchor that stays with you even after you have paid your debt to society for the crime you committed. that record can make it nearly impossible to meet basic needs, especially housing, employment, and education. to assist in meeting these needs, goodwill of central and southern indiana and the civil practice clinic of the indiana university robert h. mckinney school of law partnered to create the legal expungement advice program to give qualifying individuals a second chance. this article examines the intersection of these two indianapolis-area programs providing resources for employment and expungement that help persons previously charged with or convicted of crimes get back on their feet -and stay that way. once you have a criminal record for any reason, serve your time, and pay your restitution, you are discharged back into society, often without the skills or support network that you need, and now with a criminal history. this criminal history stays with you; it stays with you because society worries that you will offend again and wants to make sure that you are punished for certain patterns of behavior and suffer the consequences of your actions. your criminal history also stays with you to put employers on notice of your prior acts, so they can protect themselves from liability for your future bad actions and protect others that may come into contact with you should you be hired as one of their employees. this article explores a community partnership intended to overcome a significant barrier to reentry in five sections: the problem, the partners, the population being served, the partnership and project, and the reach. the article will look at how specific employment practices, programs, and legal partnerships create avenues that go beyond helping someone get basic employment. 7 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 civil practice clinic students and carrie hagan hold leap expungement clinic at the goodwill corporate offices. photo credit: david h jaynes 1 for this paper, the authors are choosing to refer to the population that they assist as “persons with a criminal record”(pcr) instead of referring to them generally as “ex-offenders,” as many of the individuals impacted by this community partnership may not have actual convictions on their record, and instead only charges that didn’t lead to a conviction. the problem research by the national employment law project (nelp) has shown that there are an astounding number of americans, around 70 million, who have a prior arrest or conviction record (2018). this amounts to nearly one in three adults in the u.s. these persons with a criminal record 1 (pcr) – that criminal record possibly containing both arrests not leading to charges being filed and charges resulting in convictions – are often unemployed or underemployed because their criminal record does not allow them to get past the job application stage. the question “have you ever been convicted of a crime?” seems harmless when one has never committed a crime, but for individuals who do have a criminal record, this disclosure closes many doors before they can truly be opened (rodriguez & emsellem, 2011). as a result, one’s criminal record usually precludes any offer of employment, unless he or she is able to find work at a company with a focus on hiring and assisting persons who have formerly been incarcerated. in 2013, indiana signed the second chance c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s 2 all a, b, c, and d felonies were recategorized as f1-f6 felonies in 2014 (2014 ind. hea 1006). 3 hoosiers is a colloquial term for indiana residents. law, which allows for pcr to have their criminal records expunged. expungement, or “expungement of record,” is generally defined as “the removal of a conviction ([especially] for a first offense) from a person’s criminal record,” (garner & black, 2014). expungements are often said to “seal” one’s criminal history records, and sealing means that no one has access to those records nor can pull them in any records search for a background check (justia, 2018). expungement in indiana under this law does not mean that the records are destroyed but rather that access to these records is limited to only certain state agencies. depending on the type of crime that was expunged, crimes may still appear on one’s record as “marked as expunged.” with the advent of the second chance law, pcr had a legal opportunity to clear their past, and should they be successful, move into better employment and educational options. in marion county, indiana, since july 2013, near 11,500 expungement petitions have been filed and reviewed by the marion county prosecutor’s office, and 60 percent of those petitions involved convictions (blinder, 2018). indiana’s law is broad given the scope of what may be expunged and how often. other states’ laws are more restrictive as to what and how records may be expunged. with regards to federal crimes, there is currently no statute allowing federal convictions to be expunged. additionally, there is varying ability by jurisdiction to access expunged records once they have been expunged (ccrc staff, 2016). in indiana for example, even after one has their criminal conviction records expunged, should they be charged later in time with a crime similar to the one(s) previously expunged, the prosecutor can seek to admit prior history as evidence in the pending case (ind. code § 35-38-9-6(d)). this sort of situation leads to questioning the value of getting an expungement, especially when expunged records can later be reopened and used against them. however, this request to reopen expunged case material is not extensively used, if at all, at the current time (fogle, 2018). in indiana, one may expunge five “categories” of crimes from one’s criminal record: arrests/ dismissed charges; misdemeanors; d felonies; a, b, c, and d felonies without serious bodily injury; and a, b, c, and d felonies with serious bodily injury2 (digest for court staff and clerks, 2017). each category of crime has its own requirements and restrictions about how and when one may file to have a record expunged (ind. code §§ 35-38-9-1 — 35-38-9-11). hoosiers3 seeking to expunge their records may seek to have arrests and dismissed cases expunged as many times as needed during their lifetime under the current law, but may only seek to have their records of convictions expunged once in their lifetime (ind. code § 35-38-9-9(i)). in addition to various restrictions and hurdles one must satisfy in order to expunge, there are once you have a criminal record for any reason, serve your time, and pay your restitution, you are discharged back into society, often without the skills or support network that you need, and now with a criminal history. h a g a n | o n e g i a n t l e a p several crimes that are completely precluded from the possibility of expungement, such as murder, trafficking, sex offense crimes, and crimes involving child molestation (ind. code § 35-38-9-3(b)). as one might expect, for eligible convictions, the more serious the crime one is seeking to expunge, the more hurdles there are to cross, and the more risk is involved (at least in indiana) that your request may not be granted. once records are expunged, the next question is how that person should answer questions on a job application pertaining to criminal history and convictions. questions on job applications such as “have you ever been convicted of a crime?” seem harmless when someone has no criminal history. the same scenario is trickier when it is from the perspective of one who has both been convicted of a crime and had it expunged. if one checks “yes,” even though records of said convictions no longer appear in public record, one may lose any chance at that job because they checked “yes.” should they check “no” and somehow the prospective employer learn that they have such a past, even though the records have been expunged, they run the risk of not getting the position for alleged dishonesty. given all of the above, multiple questions thus arise when looking at expungement for pcr: how may i obtain expungement? am i eligible for expungement? if not, why not? if yes, how do i go about obtaining expungement? and if i successfully obtain expungement, what does that mean for the future? the partners goodwill of central and southern indiana is working to answer these questions with the help of the indiana university robert h. mckinney school of law’s civil practice clinic (cpc). goodwill of central and southern indiana is one of 161 notfor-profit, independent goodwill organizations throughout north america that exists to address quality of life and family self-sufficiency issues. founded in 1930, goodwill’s mission is to change lives every day by empowering people to increase their independence and reach their potential through education, health, and employment. this mission is funded in great part through the generosity of hundreds of thousands of hoosiers who make financial gifts, donate their clothing and household goods, and shop at its retail stores. goodwill executes its mission through an integrated network of direct employment, charter schools, and numerous supportive programs that create opportunities for self-sufficiency. goodwill operates 78 retail stores, outlets, and distribution centers throughout central and southern indiana. these facilities employ more than 3,200 people, 59 percent of whom self-report a disability, lack of a high school diploma, and/or a prior felony conviction. goodwill tracks these three barriers to employment, which often impede those attempting to improve their employment opportunities. the civil practice clinic (cpc) is an experiential clinical course offered for students of the indiana university robert h. mckinney school of law. the cpc provides legal representation, brief advice, and service to low-income clients on a variety of general civil matters, focusing mostly on criminal expungement. students in the cpc serve as certified legal interns (cli), meaning that they may “interview, advise, negotiate for, and represent parties in any judicial or administrative proceeding”4 under the supervision of an attorney. as part of their cpc experience, students attend weekly classes, complete weekly coursework and 4 indiana rules for admission to the bar and the discipline of attorneys rules 2.1 c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 10 represent clients in legal proceedings throughout the semester. cpc students work for their clients and the overarching systemic issues on both macro and micro levels by providing free legal representation for individuals, and also by researching and filing briefs as amicus curae on indiana supreme court and indiana court of appeals cases interpreting the laws most impacting their clients. the corporate office of goodwill of central and southern indiana is located near downtown indianapolis in the hawthorne neighborhood, a mix of private residences and retail/industrial businesses. within the corporate office space are two charter high schools, the excel center (tec) and indianapolis metropolitan high school (imet), both run by goodwill. tec serves adults, and imet serves high school age students. just one mile away is the iu mckinney school of law, where the cpc is located. as the two partners are closely located, classes are held both at the law school and at goodwill’s corporate offices, with space and staff supporting the work of the cpc students for goodwill’s clientele. the population being served goodwill employees, students, and program participants — all considered goodwill family members — have the opportunity to work with a goodwill guide, someone best described as a life coach. guides, who are full-time employees, are assigned to specific areas within goodwill (i.e., retail stores, imet, the excel center, etc.). they work one-on-one with goodwill employees, students, and program participants to identify strengths as well as challenges while helping them develop paths to success that involve setting career and financial goals. guides connect members with programs and services within goodwill, such as the nurse family partnership, and other resources. they also advocate for and connect members to services outside goodwill, such as temporary emergency assistance, housing, childcare, and transportation. through continued mentoring on skills, including writing a resume and interviewing for a job, guides also prepare them to pursue career paths with higher earning potential, both inside and outside of goodwill. according to internal goodwill data, guides have provided job services to nearly 2,000 people since 2014. nearly 1,000 goodwill family members have received a job or promotion while working with guides since 2013. guides and other goodwill staff have long been aware of how a prior criminal conviction or arrest can be a barrier in the process of empowering people as they make efforts to increase their independence and reach their highest potential. one’s criminal history can limit employment and housing opportunities, and in some cases opportunities for higher education. a recent careerbuilder study conducted by harris poll revealed that 72 percent of employers conduct background checks, and 82 percent are specifically checking to learn if the candidate has a criminal history (careerbuilder, 2016). many goodwill family members describe the the question “have you ever been convicted of a crime?” seems harmless when one has never committed a crime, but for individuals who do have a criminal record, this disclosure closes many doors before they can truly be opened. -rodriguez & emsellem, 2011 the question “have you ever been convicted of a crime?” seems harmless when one has never committed a crime, but for individuals who do have a criminal record, this disclosure closes many doors before they can truly be opened. -rodriguez & emsellem, 2011 h a g a n | o n e g i a n t l e a p 11 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 difficulty of obtaining housing, social services, and employment due to having a criminal record. many say that with a criminal record and limited education and work experience, goodwill was their only employment option. nine percent of goodwill employees, approximately 361 people, self-report a felony conviction. goodwill leadership estimates the number of employees with a misdemeanor conviction is even greater. it is reasonable to assume that a similar portion of goodwill students and program participants have been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor. accordingly, as many as 2,000 goodwill family members may have a criminal record. given the above, guides and goodwill leadership asked how members might fare if, having repaid their debt to society years ago, information about their past could be publicly restricted. this led to the partnership with the cpc. the partnership and project in order to file for expungement in indiana, one must draft several legal documents, including a petition and a proposed order. both of these documents must list all of the crimes a person is seeking to expunge and provide proof that they meet all legal requirements to file. litigants are able to expunge all of their convictions only once in their lifetime, and each case must meet all of the requirements to file at the time they petition for expungement. for each case one is seeking to expunge, the required amount of time specified by law must have passed, and all fines and fees owed on each case must have been paid. while the law is fairly clear on these requirements, the process of drafting and filing the paperwork can be a daunting task, depending on how many cases one has and whether those cases are in one or multiple counties. given the scope of the legal work involved and the educational and other needs of the goodwill populations, the partnership, created in 2015 between goodwill and the cpc, addresses the legal needs involved with expungement. the partnership was initially envisioned as a situation wherein goodwill could refer anyone the guides had identified as wanting expungement. it became clear that the majority of those referred were ineligible because not enough time had passed on the cases they were seeking to expunge; they owed fines or fees on the cases they were seeking to expunge; or both. working together, goodwill and the cpc decided that, to better serve these needs, a screening project should be offered first, and anyone who was eligible for expungement as identified by that project would be offered representation by the cpc. this project, titled the legal expungement advice program (leap), works directly with and for goodwill referrals and screens individuals for their eligibility for expungement on a bi-weekly basis during the academic year. leap was first launched in the fall of 2016 and is offered every semester, including summers. to qualify for leap, participants are referred by their goodwill guides, and identifying information (name, date of birth, etc.) is shared with the cpc so that all criminal records may be located for each referral. once records are located, each case is screened for its compliance with the expungement criteria, and any red flags (owing fines or fees, not being time eligible, etc.) are noted. participants are then signed up for a leap interview time slot, which is a half hour of brief, one-on-one advice and service by a licensed attorney and certified legal intern (cli) law student of the cpc.5 at that interview, all of the cases found for that participant are 5 interviews were initially scheduled for an hour, but the cpc and goodwill found that as staff both at goodwill and the cpc became better and more adept at screening, the interview times could be shortened to a half hour. thus more participants are able to be seen during leap interview days c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 12 discussed, and any new or unknown cases are identified and screened. by the time they leave, each participant knows whether they do or do not qualify for expungement. two to four weeks following that interview, each participant receives a comprehensive summary letter of everything discussed in that interview. goodwill guides, with permission of the goodwill participants, also receive a copy of the summary letter to assist with any identified needs. in those letters, in addition to an analysis of all cases discussed, leap participants receive guidance on how to pay fines and fees; how to find information unavailable online regarding their cases; and have questions about the expungement process answered. not only does leap provide a valuable service for its goodwill participants, but the cli law students at mckinney are able to work with them in a real attorney-client capacity by providing this brief advice and service. at the same time, they fulfill their graduation requirement for experiential learning. clis pull all of the criminal records for each referral from the online databases, prescreen each case for eligibility, conduct the leap interviews, and draft all follow-up summary letters. any leap participant who is ineligible for expungement is told why they are ineligible and given direction on how to clear the identified legal hurdles to be able to file in the future. for any leap participant who is found eligible for expungement, cli’s have the opportunity to take them on as clients for expungement representation, draft all of the paperwork needed to file for expungement, and represent them at any scheduled hearings. clis who have worked with leap and its participants over the years have self-reported that leap has been one of the “most rewarding experiences of [their] law school career”6 and have appreciated the opportunity to work with and within an organization like goodwill. from a pedagogical perspective, cli students are able to experience crucial lawyering highs and lows by working with leap, as they are able to give good news when one qualifies for expungement and must also deliver bad news when letting someone know that they don’t qualify, and more often than not, also owe hundreds of dollars in unpaid court costs and fees. delivering bad news as an attorney is not an easy task but a necessary one, as not every client will hear what they want to hear. the reach since the inception of the project, cpc students have devoted nearly 4,000 hours to leap and the resulting client work, and goodwill has devoted countless hours as well, dedicating two staff to leap to collect data, and provide screening, support and referrals. according to goodwill’s internal data collection processes, as of october 2018, 175 goodwill participants have been seen by leap, with 56 of those participants being eligible for expungement and offered representation. to receive representation, participants must call through university-community partnerships such as the one formed by the civil practice clinic (cpc) and goodwill, resources can be provided to the individuals who need them the most, and both benefit from working together. 6 this comment was taken from a student evaluation of the civil practice clinic experience. students in the cpc also fill out weekly time sheets, and on the reflection piece of those timesheets, students consistently report highly favorable opinions of working with leap and working with goodwill participants. h a g a n | o n e g i a n t l e a p 13 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 the cpc after receiving their summary letter and then retain the cpc as their attorney. the remaining 119 participants who attended leap were ineligible for expungement. forty-four of those 119 owed fines and fees; 19 people were ineligible to file due to time restrictions; and 35 participants were precluded by both fees and time. twenty-one participants were ineligible for other reasons. out of the 56 participants who were eligible and received representation, some are waiting for their cases to be filed or for a hearing, and some never called for representation. nineteen have already been successful in having their records expunged. to increase community awareness about the barriers involving expungement and to get the local bar of attorneys involved, in the summer of 2017, goodwill and the cpc partnered with the professionalism committee of the indianapolis bar foundation. through this partnership, leap is staffed six times every summer by volunteer and pro bono attorney members of indybar. these attorney volunteers receive training on general expungement laws and leap protocols, staff the leap summer participant interviews, and are responsible for writing the follow-up summary letters. all efforts by indybar are supported by the cpc. just like the cli self-reports, indybar attorneys expressed that working with leap is a highly rewarding experience from a volunteer perspective. volunteer attorneys are eager to repeat the experience for following summer sessions and have also offered to take on eligible participant cases pro bono. in addition to the above, and after working with goodwill in identifying that unpaid fines and fees were the most common barrier for leap participants, goodwill applied for an internal grant sponsored by the goodwill young leader’s board in 2018 for $10,000, and leap was awarded the full $10,000. all of the money awarded went towards paying off fines and fees of expungement eligible leap participants, and in order to receive those funds, leap participants would apply for the funding via a process instituted by goodwill and the young leader’s board. participants would apply, and agree to personally pay 25 percent of the fine, fees, or penalties they owed, with the grant monies paying the remaining 75 percent. since the grant award, 24 individuals have applied for funding, and 20 out of the 24 were awarded funding. all grant recipients were then assigned to the cpc for immediate representation, and as of this publication’s date, six of the grant recipients have obtained expungement, with the remaining clients in the early stages of filing or awaiting orders for expungement. conclusion by their very status of having a criminal record, persons with a criminal record (pcr) face numerous barriers once they re-enter society. not only does society judge them based upon their past conduct, but as a result of that judgment, employment is more difficult to obtain. moreover, access to housing, education, and restoration of civil rights, such as voting, access to guns, and qualifying for public benefits like the supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap) are also limited. with the passage of laws such as indiana’s second chance law, the state of indiana is recognizing that these barriers exist and providing legal avenues for these individuals to start over. through university-community partnerships such as the one formed by the civil practice clinic (cpc) and goodwill, resources can be provided to the individuals who need them the most, and both benefit from working together. poverty may be a parent of crime, as aristotle once said, but ingenuity and a passion for helping others through partnerships like leap parent new beginnings for persons with a criminal record. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e s e a r c h a r t i c l e s engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 14 references 2014 ind. hea 1006. blinder, a. (2018). convicts seeking to clear their records find more prosecutors willing to help. the new york times. retrieved from https:// www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/us/expungement-criminal-justice.html. careerbuilder. (2016). more than 1 in 4 employers do not conduct background checks of all new employees, according to careerbuilder survey. retrieved from https://www.careerbuilder. com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?ed=12/31/2016&id=pr975&sd=11/17/2016. ccrc staff. (2016). 50-state guide to expungement and sealing laws. collateral consequences resource center. retrieved from http:// ccresourcecenter.org/2016/01/13/expungement-and-sealing-laws/. digest for court staff and clerks. (2017). retrieved from https://www.in.gov/judiciary/iocs/ files/courtmgmt-expungement-digest-for-courtstaffandclerks.pdf. fogle, a. (2018). expungement 6.0 cle. [powerpoint presentation]. garner, b. a., & black, h. c. (2014). black’s law dictionary. 10th ed. st. paul, mn: west. ind. code §§ 35-38-9-1 — 35-38-9-11). ind. code § 35-38-9-3(b). ind. code § 35-38-9-6(d). ind. code § 35-38-9-9(i). indiana rules for admission to the bar and the disciple of attorneys. rule 2.1 retrieved from https://www.in.gov/judiciary/rules/ad_dis/index.html#_toc25321527. justia. (2018). expungement and record sealing overview. retrieved from https://www.justia. com/criminal/expungement-record-sealing/. national employment law project (nelp). (2018). ensuring people with convictions have a fair chance to work. retrieved from http://www. nelp.org/campaign/ensuring-fair-chance-towork/. rodriguez, m. & emsellem, m. (2011). 65 million need not apply. national employment law project. retrieved from www.nelp.org/content/ uploads/2015/03/65_million_need_not_apply. pdf. h a g a n | o n e g i a n t l e a p 15 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 vol. 1, issue 1 vol. 1, issue 1 engage! 2019 vol. 1 no. 1 https://doi.org/10.18060/22812 copyright © 2019 author(s). this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license. three journeys: one project olivia mcgee-lockhart, kisha tandy, and andrea copeland abstract the bethel project is about the history of indianapolis’ oldest black church, archival records, preservation technologies, virtual experiences, and collaboration and co-creation among many different departments, heritage institutions and community members. this paper provides three perspectives on this project from individuals who’ve worked closely together over the past four years. this may seem like a long while to work on one project but for those whose research is community-based it seems about right. three unique voices will be presented with each telling their own narrative of what she thought when the project started and how her thinking has changed until now. andrea copeland is an associate professor in the school of informatics and computing whose research focuses specifically on public libraries, community collections, and engagement. kisha tandy is the associate curator of social history at the indiana state museum who researches african american history and culture. at the center of the project is olivia mcgeelockhart: bethel ame church of indianapolis’ keeper of history, indianapolis native, and an indianapolis public schools educator for nearly four decades. working on this project produced many questions and was a learning experience. who were the people who made up the congregation? what did they accomplish? why is the physical structure important? why fight to preserve the building? why preserve the paper collection? what do these records tell us about the neighborhood and the african american community in downtown indianapolis? what led the congregation to the point of selling? how do you move forward? everyone associated with this project will have various views, journeys if you will in response to the aforementioned questions but we can write with some assurance that we all learned new dates, new names, new circumstances as a result of this journey that had an impact on what we now believe. photo 1. the altar in the bethel ame church olivia mcgee-lockhart lockhart is a remarkable woman in so many ways. in over three-quarters of a century, she has witnessed much positive social progress but also in that time endured some discrimination and denial of equitable access to opportunities solely because of the color of her skin. one day i asked her, “do you ever feel anger regarding what your life could have been like if https://doi.org/10.18060/22812 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 35 our social systems were just?” she replied, “no, i’ve always felt like i was right where i needed to be, doing what was needed to be done.” that has certainly been the case with the bethel project. until this project, she had not been in the news. over the past four years, she’s been interviewed by amos brown on his radio show, the indy star, the indianapolis monthly, fox 59, and wish tv. (see the reference section at the end of the article for publications and media related to this project.) her love of the bethel congregation, history, and this city inspired her to connect with new partners and allies outside of the church community to share bethel’s amazing story of strength and accomplishment. given the historically significant african american community and landscape that existed before the iupiu campus, olivia is asked on occasion, “are you sure it’s okay to join with iupui to share our story?” she tells them that she believes intentions have changed and she senses a sincere desire on the part of iupui and indianapolis’ heritage institution partners to respect, remember and reflect on the contributions made by african americans that occurred long before the campus arrived. an interview with lockhart conducted by copeland will provide her perspectives on this project and how she came to a place where she could make that statement with confidence. given the power and importance of her voice in this project, you are encouraged to view a short video of her talking with a reporter from the indy star (lewis, 2016). the excerpts provided below are from the interview with copeland on august 24, 2018 at the lincoln square diner in indianapolis, indiana. getting to know you andrea: what did you think when you first met me? olivia: don't make me laugh! andrea: you can be honest. olivia: well, the fact that we just got through saying, it's been four years. i'm trying to remember. tell me, where were we? when we met? andrea: we were in spade park library, public librodney freeman. we met at rodney's. he had his project-back-up group. olivia: oh yeah. andrea: you brought in those amazing photos. olivia: okay. right. andrea: that was the first time i met you. the photos of women who were dressed as nurses, who were members of the nurses corps of bethel. olivia: i was on the sidelines. i was watching, listening to all these people talk. it was an easy kind of thing, but i was not thinking about you individually, but i'm thinking, "i'm sitting here with all these librarians … it was interesting, but i wasn't ready to jump into a whole lot of work at that time. so i backed off. it was like, "okay, you're just one of the other librarians,” … to know what we'd be doing right now: that never crossed my mind. olivia: miss frances used to say to me, "now, be careful about who you allow to see our papers and stuff like that." she said, engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 36 "you know, we’ve got to be careful some folk can't tell our story like we tell it. some folks take our stuff and they run with it and get all the credit." andrea: she's not wrong. she speaks the truth. olivia: i was holding back, you know, just trying to see -what was going on! andrea: i could tell. olivia: what else were you trying to do here. and it wasn't so much, it wasn't against you as an individual or anything like that. it was just the caution that black folks have had to take all of their lives. and i said, "so, you have to" ... they talk so much about this at church, "having discernment about people." after a while, you can just about figure that out. of course, if you ever get crossed by anybody, then you say, "okay, you close shop all together, you won't share a thing except among persons that you really know and trust.” you have been a good girl. you've been fantastic. because after you sat down when you came here to the lincoln square diner, i said, "oh, shoot." i wrote a little poem about you. andrea: you did? oh my gosh! i gotta see this poem. shared cultural identity andrea: i have said that had there not been an african american archivist and an african american curator, i sincerely doubt that olivia would have felt as comfortable in trusting the church's history and their archive. i think having african americans in those positions helps to establish trust in these institutions where there had been a lack of trust. olivia: yes, right. andrea: since the team members were african american, did that help you in terms of opening up this archive to the greater community? olivia: oh, yes. not even realizing that rodney was moving on in a different direction, or at least no longer be present, enough happened with him and through him to venture out. rodney freeman was a direct link for considering any efforts toward sharing our treasure. rodney, too, is a young, gifted african american -a true guardian. andrea: agreed. olivia: with what belongs to us. olivia: and then making an acquaintance, in addition to that, with genuine people, based on his recommendations … it does make a difference. it really does. you know, it pulls so many commonalities together, when that happens. andrea: was having wilma moore, a black woman, and somebody with amazing archives credentials related to black history. did that help inspire trust? is that what helped you trust an institution to represent the heritage and history of the church? did that give you confidence? https://iu.app.box.com/s/d0i7zd470nc4mkpptr5kh4jje7vv47s2 engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 37 olivia: yes. absolutely. she was saying, "now olivia. i can't tell you what to do, but ... you know this might be the best option to make sure the history of the church never gets lost.” i said, "yeah, i know, i know." she said, "well, just think about it." just talking about this now, i'm thinking about the difference between wilma's age and mine. andrea: not much. olivia: no, it's not much. but it was enough for me to say, "well, if we moved it back into history, when i was graduating from high school, wilma was in whatever elementary grade somewhere along the line." i said, "now, here it is in reverse, where she says, 'okay, now, you have to get involved … come on. let's get this done.'" andrea: yeah. olivia: wilma being of the same sex, of the same ethnic group, of the same everything, and then for me to having taught her youngest daughter just me our working relationship more binding. andrea: yes. olivia: yes, see, that was a triangle thing: a triangular sisterhood connect. andrea: oh yeah, yeah. olivia: you know? andrea: it took a lot. olivia: yeah. right. andrea: it took a lot. olivia: and when, what was it, kisha had said, "one of my favorite photos is of you, wilma, and i, looking at that journal," you know, that kind of thing. photo 2. kisha tandy, wilma l. moore, olivia mcgee-lockhart in the fellowship hall of the bethel ame church in the spring of 2016. andrea: i love that photo. olivia: wilma and i were sitting in the fellowship hall of the church. a couple boxes around and she's looking through them. we sat down and talked a little bit more. she said, "now, you think about it." and i said, "well ... " now right now? i can't remember if i took a minute to think about it or a day, but i engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 38 said, "okay." i said, "now what do i have to do now?" prior to that day, kisha and one of her interns had already started outlining, or at least listing all of the items in various boxes. wilma said, "okay, i'll make arrangements for these items to be picked up." this project took place during a period of great transitions for the bethel congregants. given the repairs needed to the building, the displacement of african americans from the neighborhoods surrounding the church, and a resulting dwindling and elderly congregation, the church building and property needed to be sold for the congregation to survive. this reality was not an easy one for the then-pastor louis parham, who during all of this was fighting cancer. we had many conversations about this over lunch. even though the survival of a building paled in comparison to the survival a congregation, he understood deeply that this was a painful loss to the african american historical and cultural landscape. olivia was faced with making the decision to give (lose) the archive to the indiana historical society during a time of when she and others were already experience a great sense of loss regarding their church building. who keeps what? where? olivia: it may have been, paul, who came along with wilma to pick up boxes from the church. it was in the sense somewhat of a relief. but at the same time, i said, "hm. i'm not giving everything." so i said, "keep some of this stuff for the church, because we need to have something here, hands on, and visually, for persons who come to church." they'll come to the church, first, before they visit the historical society. so i said, "if they think i'm releasing everything, they have another thing coming." andrea: they don't call you the keeper of history for nothing. olivia: that's right. those things that i kept are in three-ring binders that says, "kept for us." i gave it that title. it is, as of right now, good that i held some things back. since we're now in the new church, some of those photos have been framed. i went to goodwill and got my frames, you know? andrea: yeah. olivia: when folks step into the archive room, “ooh, ahh, oh! there's so and so. oh! i remember that!" so those are the kind of conversations they're having. and so many of what i have are duplicates that are at the historical society ... then there's some that they don't quite have, yet, so i've to figure out how to get some of those things to them. “i said, ‘hm. i'm not giving everything.’ so i said, ‘keep some of this stuff for the church, because we need to have something here, hands on, and visually, for persons who come to church.’” engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 39 andrea: well, there's always time. olivia: oh, yes. there's plenty of time. andrea: it's a living community, a living archive. i don't think archivists are used to dealing with living, breathing organisms. they receive things when people are dead. andrea: we had this kind of intense conversation around where does this archive really belong? does it really belong at the church itself, the ame headquarters or at a local institution like the indiana historical society? andrea: you were torn, because you could see all sides. olivia: mm-hmm (affirmative). andrea: now, given that olivia: where am i now on that? no, no, no. we've moved past that. ihs, the collection and the virtual experience. all become part of the local vernacular; we've been on the local news. none of that would have happened had we gone the ame route. but we, bethel are still obligated to share with the connectional ame officer. andrea: do you think there will be greater impact on the african american narrative, on our understanding of our own history, since the collection stayed in indianapolis and became a resource to this community? olivia: yes. bethel as always been a vital part of indianapolis history. andrea: so we made the right decision? olivia: yes. i've grown a little bit in the past five years. our decision was the best action taken. we, bethel, once again, serve as a model for others. bethel is in the position to encourage and support other african american landmarks and community histories. the teacher becomes the student andrea: so what's your biggest take away from working with me and kisha? olivia: have i learned anything from you guys? andrea: yes, have you learned anything from us? olivia: well yeah, because all the technology and stuff. i had no idea about all this stuff. well, yes, hearing about it, because i'm just not familiar with how it works and all this. but i don't mind sitting back and listening and learning. i don't necessarily have to know how to do it. but i can appreciate the fact that the technology does and has put things in a different perspective and makes it easy to have access to so much. but out of everything, there's some good in it. just to matriculate with young blood keeps, you young, too, at the same time. you and kisha, you could have been one of my students. andrea: we could have been. yes. andrea: easily. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 40 olivia: for now, it's not role playing, it's just, right now, that's the only thing i can say, role reversal. that's it. that's what it is. i became the student and my students becomes the teacher. that's cool! kisha tandy in 1999, i had the opportunity to visit a recently renovated church building on the canal. the interior shined with new paint and upholstery. the building was bethel african methodist episcopal church. my bethel journey first began in earnest when i met mrs. olivia mcgee-lockhart around 2002. i had visited the building as part of my new duties as a curator at the indiana state museum and working to collect artifacts, photographs and stories for the exhibits that would open in 2002. in 2012, rodney freeman, a fellow librarian and alum of indiana librarians leading in diversity fellows, contacted me about a project to scan materials, in particular photographs, from bethel congregants. a simple request in the grand scheme of things. mr. freeman also contacted dr. andrea copeland, iupui school of library and information sciences (now school of informatics and computing) and other librarians along the way. mr. freeman left the city in pursuit of professional opportunity shortly after the project began but dr. copeland and i continued to discuss the bethel project and preserving the archives. in one meeting, the pastor, the late louis parham, shared a dated structural report. an architect reviewed the structure and found parts of the building to be deteriorating but stable. however, this report and financial hardship quickly changed the conversation from preserving documents to saving a treasured building. it is important to note how we, copeland, lockhart and tandy (there are many names that will not be mentioned in this essay), arrived to digitizing a collection. i was born and raised in indianapolis, indiana. this is home. this place has meaning and significance. bethel is part of what makes history important to me, a building built by african americans in the years following the end of slavery, that could stand for over one hundred and fifty years. through the discussions and efforts to save the building, one thing remained constant preserving what we could. the historical record of the congregation went beyond the members and served as a chronological record of a community and the annals of the african american community in indianapolis. its potential value to researchers both academic and general was significant. this worth as a resource to document the residents of indianapolis and in particular the black community in the near westside of downtown indianapolis is what led my desire to work with the bethel project. with the support of the chief curator & research officer and interpretation department as well as the then-ceo of the museum and most importantly the congregation, i worked in earnest to collect and deposit into repository an appreciated history. i along with jamillah gabriel, a this place has meaning and significance. bethel is part of what makes history important to me, a building built by african americans in the years following the end of slavery, that could stand for over one hundred and fifty years. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 41 museum studies intern from iupui and then librarian at the purdue black cultural center, began processing what would become the bethel a.m.e. church (indianapolis, ind.) records 1922-2015 collection (moore, blair, & tandy, 2017). ms. frances connecticut stout, an english and spanish teacher at indianapolis crispus attucks high school, served as the archivist and historian for bethel ame before she died in 2004 at the age of 97. ms. stout passed on the archives, memories and a dedication to the history of bethel to educator, olivia lockhart. due to their painstaking efforts, documents dating from the 1800’s are now available to interested scholars. when jamillah and i arrived to review the collection, the documents were organized and boxed for easier access. we visited the church every tuesday afternoon for a few hours. one of my favorite memories was the handwritten notes with phrases like “history to be filed and displayed” “do not disturb!” “thank you!” and “treasures from bethel.” photo 3. boxes from the church archive photo 4. manuscripts and church publications in the church archive. photo 4. boxes ready to be shipped the indiana historical society archive from the wedding announcements to the pupil progress record to the listing for black businesses in indianapolis, these records shed light on the community. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 42 by the time that the archives went to the historical society in may 2016 to be completely processed and organized into folders for public use by archivist wilma l. moore and lyndsey blair, ms. gabriel had reviewed at least nine boxes of manuscripts, binders, bags, loose items, scrapbooks, packages, and photographs. the contents included substantial evidence of the events of the congregation, however, as a researcher; it was the individual, family and neighborhood records that caught my attention. from the wedding announcements to the pupil progress record to the listing for black businesses in indianapolis, these records shed light on the community. the bethel archives are a community chronicle and for me the project was always about the institutions physical location as one of the last african american presences on the canal and role as a beacon of progress in the city as opposed to religion. we lost two important people along this journey. mrs. wilma l. gibbs moore, longtime archivist at the indiana historical society, community historian and mentor to many passed away on april 18, 2018. the bethel collection was one of the last collections that she processed. it was her goal to complete before leaving the society; she reached that goal. louis sidney parham, rev., the pastor at bethel during the transition from downtown to its current location on zionsville road, passed away on june 6. both were committed to ensuring bethel’s place in indianapolis, indiana and national history. andrea copeland from the start of this project, i was unsure of how best to serve and to research at the same time. this project provided me the opportunity to explore, on the ground, the connections and disconnections among communities, their archives and heritage institutions. specifically looking for a framework that connects communities with the resources needed to preserve and make more accessible their histories and, in the process, create a more inclusive historical record for us all. the amazing history of bethel inspired changes to and motivated risk-taking in my research agenda. when this project started, i did not have tenure and my research was focused in a somewhat different direction, born-digital community archives rather than ones that exist in tangible formats. further, community-based research projects are time intensive and i was aware that my clock was ticking, i needed to secure grant funding, to produce and to publish to satisfy institutional requirements for keeping my job. additionally, i had to be quite careful that my publications were about the process of these connects and disconnects not the bethel history, even though it was the motivating factor in my research direction. i’m not qualified in any way to tell or interpret it – either by disciplinary background or by lived experience. writing about the history of bethel would not establish the scholarly record needed in my discipline for a successful tenure dossier. being mindful of my positionality throughout these public, scholarly and personal experiences, i believe was a critical component of the success of this project. by being intentional about my positionality, i was able to facilitate rather than hinder the development of co-creation and the building of equitable partnerships with community members. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 43 as a white woman from the east coast, my positionality on this project has always been an issue for me and quite possibly for the others, although no one has ever shared concerns. personally, i was inspired by the bethel story and i wanted to share it widely in whatever way the congregants felt comfortable. however, i did not want my enthusiasm and passion for having the bethel voice heard to become the voice of this project. as the saying goes, “how can someone tell her own story, when you are standing on her throat.” there were several occasions where i spoke with the media over the course of the past four years and again i was faced with how to position myself in this project. being mindful of my positionality throughout these public, scholarly and personal experiences, i believe was a critical component of the success of this project. by being intentional about my positionality, i was able to facilitate rather than hinder the development of cocreation and the building of equitable partnerships with community members. intellectually, i began this project with a desire to gain a better understanding about how to build a more inclusive infrastructure to support the access and preservation of diverse histories. i focused early on the technical and institutional affordances and constraints. but as time progressed and with reflection, i’ve learned that while technology and institutional resources are important, any infrastructure of support has to be built on a diverse profession. without diversifying the profession, our local and national histories will remain exclusive. if wilma moore and kisha tandy where not there to serve in their capacity as archival and museum professionals, none of this work would have been possible. therefore, before we can address the technical and organizational structures that support access to diverse archival collections, we need to build professions that reflect the great diversity of human experiences. this journey has been full of emotions. at the start, i was in awe of the archive and olivia. the archive evidenced a powerful history of human strength and triumph: the bethel ame church, built in the shadow of slavery, housed congregants who contributed the economic and civic development of our city as they actively worked to improve the quality of life for the city’s african american citizens. olivia mcgee-lockhart, while she wrote a poem about me, i’m not sure i have the words to describe her justly. she is wisdom, strength, and compassion she is funny and loving. she is my friend. photo 6. olivia mcgee-lockart opening the door to the church’s bell tower at 414 w vermont street engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 44 with the realization of the impending sale of the church building, i became angry that the city didn’t seem to want to save this national treasure. where was this respect for those who had gone before us? access to one’s cultural heritage is a human right and the african american footprint from downtown was and is being steadily erased. this anger turned to sadness when the church was to be sold to become a hotel and would not be transformed into something for the community like an african american heritage center. real tears and letters to oprah. not answered. capitalism won. hotels generate significant taxes for cash starved cities with mounting physical and social infrastructure needs. fortunately, the building will be preserved (with thanks to indiana landmarks) and repurposed. with the forthcoming renovation of the church, a virtual sanctuary was built on a 3d imaging scan of the sanctuary. this work was done in partnership with my colleagues zeb wood and albert william in media arts and science. virtual bethel is a completely born-digital archive of the church building and with that i’ve come full circle to my initial interest in digital community archives. my re/search for a framework that connects communities to heritage institutions to build a more inclusive history has fundamentally changed because of this project. i now view diversification of the profession as the most critical element. kisha tandy and i are working with others in our community to increase the representation of persons of color in libraries and archives. the successes gained through the bethel project towards the goal of creating a more inclusive history has created momentum towards future projects. our first step was to create an endowed scholarship in honor of wilma l. moore. the purpose of this scholarship is to remove economic barriers from those individuals from underrepresented backgrounds that would otherwise want to join the heritage professions. we are just getting started and welcome your engagement with us. photo 7. bethel ame church, located in downtown indianapolis. the archive evidenced a powerful history of human strength and triumph: the bethel ame church, built in the shadow of slavery, housed congregants who contributed the economic and civic development of our city as they actively worked to improve the quality of life for the city’s african american citizens. engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 45 references amos podcast. (2015, august 20). is indy’s oldest black church in danger? https://praiseindy.com/2066304/amospodcastaug-20-is-indys-oldest-black-churchin-danger-in-peril-2-black-lawmakers-pushingfor-police-bodycams-dashcams/ donnelly, b. (2018, january 29). get an exclusive look inside bethel ame church as developers plan hotel. https://www.wishtv.com/news/localnews/get-an-exclusive-look-inside-bethel-amechurch-as-developers-plan-hotel/1096655821 donnelly, b. (2018, february 22). preserving the legacy of indy’s bethel ame church. https://www.wishtv.com/news/indiananews/bethel-ame-church-indianapolislegacy/1096554021 donnelly, b. (2018, february 22). hidden history: bethel ame church. https://www.wishtv.com/news/hidden-historybethel-ame-church/1095915036 copeland, a. (2017). the bethel ame church archive: partners and participants. in participatory heritage. london: facet, pp. 15-24. https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/han dle/1805/12030/copeland-2017-bethelame.pdf copeland, a., wood, z., spotts, l., & yoon, a. (2018). learning through virtual reality: virtual bethel case study. iconference 2018 proceedings. sheffield, england. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/100230 fox 59 news. (2015, september 9). developers looking to purchase historic indianapolis church, community fighting to save it. https://fox59.com/2015/09/09/developerslooking-to-purchase-historic-indianapolischurch-community-fighting-to-save-it/ heckert, a. (2016, may 3). the changing face of indiana avenue. indianapolis monthly. http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/newsopinion/changing-face-indiana-avenue/ lewis, o., (2016, april 8). indy’s oldest africanamerican church sold for hotel space. indy star. retrieved from https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/04/ 08/indys-oldest-african-american-church-soldhotel-space/82765744/ lewis, o. (2015, august 22). bethel ame fights to keep legacy alive. indy star. retrieved from https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/08 /22/bethel-ame-fights-keep-legacyalive/32209385/ mcgill, n. (2017, february 23). indy’s oldest black church get “digital restoration.” fox 59 news. https://fox59.com/2017/02/23/indys-oldestblack-church-gets-digital-restoration/ moore, w., blair, l., & tandy, k. (2017, january). bethel a.m.e. church (indianapolis, ind.) records 1922-2015. retrieved from https://indianahistory.org/wpcontent/uploads/bethel-ame-church-recordsindianapolis-indiana.pdf mullins, p. (2016, april 15). african-american heritage in the post-renewal city. archaeology and material culture (blog). https://paulmullins.wordpress.com/2016/04/15 /african-american-heritage-in-the-postrenewal-city/ murillo, a. p., spotts, l., copeland, a., yoon, a., and wood, z. (february 2018). complexities of https://praiseindy.com/2066304/amos-podcastaug-20-is-indys-oldest-black-church-in-danger-in-peril-2-black-lawmakers-pushing-for-police-bodycams-dashcams/ https://praiseindy.com/2066304/amos-podcastaug-20-is-indys-oldest-black-church-in-danger-in-peril-2-black-lawmakers-pushing-for-police-bodycams-dashcams/ https://praiseindy.com/2066304/amos-podcastaug-20-is-indys-oldest-black-church-in-danger-in-peril-2-black-lawmakers-pushing-for-police-bodycams-dashcams/ https://praiseindy.com/2066304/amos-podcastaug-20-is-indys-oldest-black-church-in-danger-in-peril-2-black-lawmakers-pushing-for-police-bodycams-dashcams/ https://www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/get-an-exclusive-look-inside-bethel-ame-church-as-developers-plan-hotel/1096655821 https://www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/get-an-exclusive-look-inside-bethel-ame-church-as-developers-plan-hotel/1096655821 https://www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/get-an-exclusive-look-inside-bethel-ame-church-as-developers-plan-hotel/1096655821 https://www.wishtv.com/news/indiana-news/bethel-ame-church-indianapolis-legacy/1096554021 https://www.wishtv.com/news/indiana-news/bethel-ame-church-indianapolis-legacy/1096554021 https://www.wishtv.com/news/indiana-news/bethel-ame-church-indianapolis-legacy/1096554021 https://www.wishtv.com/news/hidden-history-bethel-ame-church/1095915036 https://www.wishtv.com/news/hidden-history-bethel-ame-church/1095915036 https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/1805/12030/copeland-2017-bethelame.pdf https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/1805/12030/copeland-2017-bethelame.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2142/100230 https://fox59.com/2015/09/09/developers-looking-to-purchase-historic-indianapolis-church-community-fighting-to-save-it/ https://fox59.com/2015/09/09/developers-looking-to-purchase-historic-indianapolis-church-community-fighting-to-save-it/ https://fox59.com/2015/09/09/developers-looking-to-purchase-historic-indianapolis-church-community-fighting-to-save-it/ http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/news-opinion/changing-face-indiana-avenue/ http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/news-opinion/changing-face-indiana-avenue/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/04/08/indys-oldest-african-american-church-sold-hotel-space/82765744/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/04/08/indys-oldest-african-american-church-sold-hotel-space/82765744/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/04/08/indys-oldest-african-american-church-sold-hotel-space/82765744/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/08/22/bethel-ame-fights-keep-legacy-alive/32209385/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/08/22/bethel-ame-fights-keep-legacy-alive/32209385/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/08/22/bethel-ame-fights-keep-legacy-alive/32209385/ https://fox59.com/2017/02/23/indys-oldest-black-church-gets-digital-restoration/ https://fox59.com/2017/02/23/indys-oldest-black-church-gets-digital-restoration/ https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/bethel-ame-church-records-indianapolis-indiana.pdf https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/bethel-ame-church-records-indianapolis-indiana.pdf https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/bethel-ame-church-records-indianapolis-indiana.pdf https://paulmullins.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/african-american-heritage-in-the-post-renewal-city/ https://paulmullins.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/african-american-heritage-in-the-post-renewal-city/ https://paulmullins.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/african-american-heritage-in-the-post-renewal-city/ engage! / vol. 1, issue 1 copeland/three journeys 46 digital preservation in a virtual reality environment, the case of virtual bethel. in international journal of digital curation: international digital curation conference 2018 proceedings. barcelona, spain. reed-woodard, m. (2018, august 16). scholarship named after local historian wilma moore. indianapolis recorder. http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/educati on/article_17d3c294-a16e-11e8-b5e993c2c2506af1.html virtual bethel project. https://comet.soic.iupui.edu/bethel/ http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/education/article_17d3c294-a16e-11e8-b5e9-93c2c2506af1.html http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/education/article_17d3c294-a16e-11e8-b5e9-93c2c2506af1.html http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/education/article_17d3c294-a16e-11e8-b5e9-93c2c2506af1.html https://comet.soic.iupui.edu/bethel/ abstract olivia mcgee-lockhart kisha tandy andrea copeland references everyone is worthy of the same education sydney hayworth, butler university 58engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p an emerging university school-community partnership: a story in two acts authors seungho moon jon schmidt anna press dave ensminger mitch hendrickson keywords: partnership, narrative research, community engagement abstract this paper shares narratives regarding an institutional effort to build a sustainable partnership with schools and communities. loyola university chicago has developed and strengthened partnerships with eight community schools in chicago public schools (cps) district over the past decades to promote equity and social justice in the urban context. the sustainability of partnerships is an ongoing issue in universityassisted community schools. guided by poststructuralist versions of narrative research, the five authors write and share memories about their engagement in university partnerships with communities and schools. this paper explores the “how” of partnerships rather than reiterating strategies of “what works” in partnerships. the authors articulate the complexity of community partnerships and crucial elements to consider for advancing partnerships. as examples, the authors explore the creation of a field-based teacher education program (teaching, learning, and leading with schools and communities; tllsc) as well as a community-centered, justice-oriented graduate program (curriculum, culture, and communities; 3cs). these degree programs focus on educating students as research practitioners in the ongoing sustainable support and collaboration among schools, universities, and communities. an asset-based frame is employed across narratives in developing and implementing degree programs and offering core courses. the subjectivities of each author enrich the conversations on ongoing efforts to build sustainable, trust-based partnerships. drawing from our narratives, the authors hope pk-20 educators, university leaders, and community leaders collaboratively and critically reflect on their practices in partnership and utilize some of our narratives and themes as starting points of an ongoing conversation. overall, this paper contributes to extending the approach to community partnership and equityoriented education, highlighting the value of university-community partnerships for local schools and institutional efforts. introduction we live in a world of stories – stories of lived experience in a context-dependent on cultural and political discourses. we also live in a world of complexities – a space of imagining different 59 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p approaches to education, drawing upon “open, dynamic, relational, creative” possibilities (doll, 2012, p. 10). the five authors of this paper, with different roles and responsibilities in uacs (university assisted community schools) projects in a university, examine the complex, dynamic nature of mutual benefits among partners and sustainable partnerships using our lived experiences and associated narratives. this paper uses these researchers’ vignettes to explore an institutional effort to create sustainable partnerships with local community schools. the partnership framework loyola university chicago (luc) developed and implemented has been discussed in other publications (schmidt et al., 2020; schmidt et al., 2021). these publications describe how luc has collaborated to create partnerships with local public schools and organizations in a metropolitan area. major issues in community-university partnerships are discussed, including centering relationships, sustainability efforts, interdisciplinary collaboration, and mutual benefit (schmidt et al., 2020; schmidt et al., 2021).). during our research meetings for this specific study, the authors discussed the value of telling stories about our experiences throughout these partnerships and the institutional effort to make them sustainable. extant literature on community partnerships addresses what works well in creating and implementing school and community partnerships and how to replicate promising models in other public schools (jentleson, 2011; soska & butterfield, 2010; yamamura & koth, 2018). for example, the professional development schools (pds) model emerged in the 1990s, asking universities to reform teacher education practices to more effectively meet the needs of urban students, their teachers, and teacher candidates by providing pedagogy in authentic school settings (hunzicker, 2018; wong & glass, 2005). successful pathways to the development of uacs include collaborative leadership, mutuality, and whole community development, as well as acknowledging uacs’ benefits and challenges (clark-louque et al., 2020). in addition to this frame of “what” works, this paper explores the “how” of community engagement. it emphasizes the “process” and lived experiences of developing and implementing partnerships. methodologically, the authors adopt poststructuralist narrative research versions to explore relationships across schools, communities, and university units. memory writing is applied as a major data source and data-gathering process (richardson, 2000). in her memory writing, miller (2010) emphasizes political, discursive, and conflicted memories in portraying her professional experiences in curriculum theorizing. poststructuralist versions of narrative research “disrupt and contest any grand narrative” and highlight “impossibilities of interpreting, representing, narrating any one ‘history” (miller, 2010, p. 9). according to miller (2010), memory writing and remembrances of the past are never “full” or “accurate,” yet, historical meanings are discursively and politically constructed and represented through memory writing. during research meetings from the fall of 2021 and spring of 2023, the five authors shared their experiences with university-community-school partnerships. they interrogated discursively, culturally, and socio-politically constructed meanings of mutual benefits, relationships, and partnerships in community engagement. during the data collection and analysis processes, the leading author of this paper underscored that the acts of “remembering” is political, partial, and impossible to represent the realities. rather, our memory writing is an effort to interpret the discursively constructed historical, political, and cultural “meanings” of our lived experiences with partnership and community 60engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p engagement. the selected memories in this paper are the results of the authors’ scholarly, professional endeavors to explore multiple layers of community partnership practices. thus, the authors create a space to conduct community partnership research differently to share the chaos and complexities involved in university-schoolcommunity partnerships. a prelude and two acts with two scenes are the frames the authors employ to illustrate and theorize our lived experiences. this paper illustrates vignettes to explore an institutional effort to create sustainable partnerships with local schools and communities. during the research meetings, the authors have reflected on the memories and stories we share and how they represent our experience collaborating with schools and communities. guiding reflective questions include (a) what lived experiences are involved in community-university-school partnerships and how meanings are interpreted discursively, (b) what memories the authors share in the process of building sustainable partnerships via institutional efforts, such as developing degree programs, and (c) what we learn, relearn, or unlearn via such efforts to create partnerships from our lived experiences and subjectivities. for example, we were interested in “paradoxical thinking” (strier, 2014) that cannot be essentialized with a predictable, linear version of partnership, such as effectiveness vs. relationships. we work in a “non-profit” organization, yet “profit” is inevitably required to run and manage this tuition-driven private, urban higher educational institution. we work in an environment where staff turnover has been a reality at university, and local school levels and partnership efforts may therefore shift with new leadership. yet, we seek to sustain the core principles of partnership. disorder and chaos may be present within a partnership as it evolves, yet the foundation of the partnership, its emerging and sustained multilayered relationships, remain constant. these stories are woven to represent how relationships are embedded in our work and the institutional efforts that have been made to support this work through field-based teacher education programs and communitycentered graduate programs. we present our story as a drama in one prelude and two acts. the prelude offers the context of loyola university chicago’s efforts to reframe community-centered teacher education. the two acts with multiple characters share stories to deliver diverse perspectives on partnership. these stories include the ideation, development, and delivery of university-assisted community school and academic degree programs. the prelude of this paper illustrates the development of a teacher preparation program, entitled teaching, learning, and leading with schools and communities (tllsc). this paper shares a nonlinear, indirect communication between an instructor and a graduate student in a transformed doctoral program, entitled curriculum, culture, and communities (3cs). in between, we incorporate stories from the community and school partnership work. these stories and vignettes will invite readers to participate differently in these complex dimensions of partnership. ultimately, this paper is a critical space for co-creating scholarship based on lived experiences and their complexities of them in universities and communities while simultaneously articulating the dilemmas and conflicts associated with uacs. it provides discursively and politically constructed experiences and realities of faculty members and graduate students who have interacted with students, families, community members, partnership leaders, and other university faculty and researchers. the key to this shift toward community and student-centered research in practice, as well as its continued evolution, is the reflection of data as lived experiences among those involved in the work of uacs. a larger project 61 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p examines different stakeholder perspectives to provide stories and insight into a sustainable partnership model. many diverse voices of teachers, community organization leaders, and school leaders are represented and theorized. the university-side narratives are the main focus of this paper. cast of characters moon. faculty/co-director of the new doctoral program (3cs program) schmidt. faculty/instructor of the new doctoral program (3cs program) press. doctoral student in schmidt’s class (3cs program) ensminger. faculty/co-director of the new doctoral program (3cs program)/ previous chair of teacher preparation program (tllsc) hendrickson. director of uacs initiative prologue: centering partnership in education: wherein loyola university chicago launches an apprenticeship-based teacher education program (tllsc) teacher education faculty, including ensminger, determined that we needed to work closely with school partners to determine the necessary skills, knowledge, and dispositions that a graduating teacher candidate would need upon entering the classroom. in the 1990s, the professional school development model emerged (hunzicker, 2018), providing the impetus for teacher preparation programs' transformation. in 2010 professional organizations in the u.s. (i.e., aacte 2010, ncate 2010) messaged the need for teacher preparation programs to prioritize clinical experiences and effectively partner with local pk-12 schools and community organizations when preparing future teachers. these set the stage for the dean of luc’s school of education (soe) to challenge teacher education faculty to “throw away” the traditional approach to teacher education with its disconnected and segmented courses and limited clinical experiences. the dean challenged luc’s faculty to change how teacher preparation occurred to prepare teachers to teach all students. to guide this restructuring process, luc’s teacher educators developed a set of enduring understandings (eus) that represented the practice and profession of teaching across all certifications (e.g., elementary, secondary, special education, etc.). next, we envisioned the clinical experiences that would address these eus. clinical experiences served as the principal component of teacher training; content would be centered and delivered in authentic learning and teaching spaces (ryan et al., 2014). situating clinical experiences at the core of training meant the delivery and discussion of supporting content materials would occur in schools. tllsc’s redesign resembled clinical training in medical professions, with candidates developing professional knowledge and skills through interactions with university faculty, pk12 professionals, and pk-12 students in school buildings. we engaged partner schools in this redesign. pk-12 educators helped identify and refine the nature of clinical experiences and develop the projects and activities that reflected the work of professional teachers. one particularly memorable event involved student dispositions. luc faculty had developed a set of critical dispositions for candidates to develop during the program. some faculty questioned the inclusion of a self-care disposition (e.g., maintaining one’s intellectual, emotional, and 62engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p physical well-being to fulfill one’s professional responsibilities effectively). faculty discussed dropping this disposition, but when presented at a working session, school partners took an ardent stance on including a self-care disposition arguing that in-service teachers need to develop ways to cultivate their well-being. faculty were surprised by how strongly teachers and administrators felt about this. we might have removed it had we not dialogued with partners and listened to their perspectives. instead, we kept the disposition and worked on how to address it meaningfully in program design. without our partners’ active participation, luc’s teacher educators may have made some short-sighted decisions around the needs of our candidates, which could have impacted their growth and development as future teachers. this experience validated the work we were doing together and helped us develop a better program and ensure that our partners’ future colleagues (luc teacher candidates) would be better prepared to take on their roles as teachers in chicago public schools (cps). it also was an essential experience in our partnership work and signaled that all of us were prepared to discuss, sometimes debate, and ultimately arrive at key decisions together. teachers in our partner schools play an essential role in preparing future teachers; they guide the development of future colleagues. they begin to facilitate candidates’ development from the first semester as candidates ask them about their experiences, and later in the program, they cocreate lessons and co-teach during internships. in addition, teachers often advocate for hiring our graduates or provide guidance in their job searches. ensminger reflected: “what is exciting is we now have graduates teaching in partner schools whose classrooms are the setting for our candidates’ field experiences. i think this only strengthens the partnerships and experiences of our candidates.” this is the type of sustainability we continue to strive for. through the process, faculty laid the groundwork for tllsc and its implementation in partnership with schools in our community. although luc’s soe had partner schools from the get-go, teacher candidates had not fully engaged them in developing clinical experiences or identifying what they could do while in schools. the main goal of tllsc is to prepare future teachers in diverse urban settings. spending time in partner schools develops a commitment to working in urban schools. they enter their careers with realistic perceptions of working in this context and serving diverse student populations. one graduate remarked: “although my first year was hard and i worked long hours, i never felt surprised or felt i was not prepared to work with my students and their families.” administrators in our partner schools are familiar with the apprenticeship-based experiences of candidates in the program. one local school partner administrator said: “i want to fill my school with luc graduates. they get it; they understand what it takes to work in my school.” spending time in partner schools develops a commitment to working in urban schools. they enter their careers with realistic perceptions of working in this context and serving diverse student populations. one graduate remarked: “although my first year was hard and i worked long hours, i never felt surprised or felt i was not prepared to work with my students and their families.” vo l . 5, i s s u e 163 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p act 1: evolving and sustaining partnerships: wherein loyola university chicago establishes and grows multiple community school partnership initiatives scene 1: reimagining schools as centers of community hendrickson. director of uacs initiative several years into luc’s education partnership with public schools, faculty discussed deepening relationships and connections to local neighborhood public schools. the relationships established through tllsc were thriving but not comprehensive in intent. luc’s flagship full-school partnership with senn high school generated dozens of in and out-of-school projects and demonstrated the opportunity to extend this fullschool model to other partner schools. funding through the university's five-year strategic plan provided institutional/management support and enabled the soe to apply for community school initiative funding. the soe, on behalf of the university, entered into full-school partnerships with seven additional schools in the community. the community schools model encourages schools to connect with diverse community partners to support students, teachers, and families. with investment, proper coordination, and strategic partnership development, schools become support centers that meet students’ physical, psychological, academic, social, and emotional needs. community school efforts subsequently generated more than 100 out-of-school (ost) programs, including academic support, athletics, book clubs, digital media, poetry, anime and manga, arts and music, and student leadership. more than 1500 students enrolled in programs during the 2019-2020 school year alone, and more than 500 parents participated in adult programming (e.g., tax preparation, esl, cooking and nutrition, fitness, and gardening workshops). seven full-time resource coordinators (rc) coordinate site-based work while luc engages more than 420 faculty and students who volunteer in programs. campus-based learning programs also emerged: civic leadership, post-secondary exposure, science internships, stem projects, and a local news reporting bureau. one principal noted: “our partnership with luc has a powerful impact on the kairos (pseudonym) community. the collaboration benefits every student in this building; it reaches the whole child and encourages social, emotional, physical, and academic growth. our partnership with luc helps us connect home, school, and community in a way that makes student success possible at kairos.” this positive feedback illustrates that luc’s implementation of the community schools model as a strategy for supporting area public schools has successfully prioritized the needs of students attending partner public schools. universities have multiple, sometimes contradictory, roles, one of which is as agents of positive social change. this is particularly true for the potential for universities to influence local public schools positively. most partners are excited by the prospect of working with the university, this work uncovers more and more potential for sustained collaborative action. relationship-building and mutuality in those relationships must remain a central component of the partnerships' planning, implementation, and evaluation. 64engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p engaging university resources, and exploring community-based research opportunities focused on neighborhood schools. for example, chicago public schools is eager to build more school-based partnerships and thriving community school models in collaboration with loyola university chicago. this work uncovers more and more potential for sustained collaborative action. relationship-building and mutuality in those relationships must remain a central component of the partnerships' planning, implementation, and evaluation. scene 2: emerging hubs of support as described by moon, a professor in 3cs program loyola university chicago and partner schools value family interests, their needs, and available resources to create and/or develop ongoing youth and parent programs. these programs move beyond the idea of schools as academic centers to consider more holistic approaches to children’s development and relevant family support. even before the pandemic hit in 2020, socioemotional learning (sel) has been a core thread that runs through uacs programs. educators and community leaders emphasize the core components of sel, such as self-awareness and building and sustaining relationships (weissberg et al., 2015). developing hubs of support that prioritize children’s well-being means that sel needs to be equity-centered, which includes the centrality of identities, including race and ethnicity (humphries & mckay-jackson, 2022). at one of the dozens of diverse programs that span luc’s community school partnerships, author a exchanged ideas with a fourth-grade girl about her experience in a program that teaches circus skills and provides mentoring, and emotional and academic support. delphia (pseudonym): before, i didn't like to wear my natural hair out. moon: i love your hair! i really love it. delphia: thank you. and now, when i take out my hair, i could wear it to school and didn't care. moon: so, would you mind telling me more of your natural hair? because i really love it. what made you have a different idea about your hair? delphia: my natural hair is really short, like her hair, and but like more curly. and before, i didn't think i could wear it out because i used to be so insecure about myself. and now, when i look in the mirror, i have more confidence in myself. delphia, a young black student, said she now feels more confident wearing her hair naturally. she credited the program’s instructors, who helped her become prouder of herself and her identity. the authors in this paper argue that uacs can be a framework to interrogate existing metrics for student success, particularly in historically and politically underresourced communities. creating supportive partnerships can help bolster uacs centers education and family support in the context of local neighborhoods so that students and families have adequate support for their academic, intellectual, and socio-emotional growth. simultaneously, the university, as part of the community, becomes another hub to provide resources to support students and community members. 65 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p learning contexts that promote healthy, culturally responsive socio-emotional learning. uacs centers education and family support in the context of local neighborhoods so that students and families have adequate support for their academic, intellectual, and socio-emotional growth. simultaneously, the university, as part of the community, becomes another hub to provide resources to support students and community members. the web of hubs aims to provide resources and educational support, acknowledging and building upon all community members' different roles and responsibilities. act 2: institutionalizing partnership philosophy and practices: wherein loyola university chicago seeks to teach collaborative partnership strategies to professionals in the field scene 1: a new graduate program emerges by moon, schmidt, and ensminger “so, where shall we start?” i, moon, started the ed.d. in curriculum & instruction (c&i) program review task force meeting with this open-ended question to prepare for faculty response to the urgent call to evaluate the current c&i graduate programs: the [c&i] program has experienced a recent reduction in applications and admission. there are also questions related to consistency of procedures for students across their experience within the program. the program faculty believes that the clarification of the purpose and procedures of the program would enhance marketability and the overall quality of the program. the message was clear. the new goal was to run a graduate program based on market values, including high enrollment rates. “hmmm…” i sighed in front of my colleagues in the task force comprised of several teaching and learning (t&l) affinity group faculty members, including ensminger and schmidt. i could not ignore the neoliberal influence in higher education. profitdriven market values have become the prerequisite to maintaining a graduate program. it was the first time i became acquainted with the term “rte” (revenue to expense) to make “both ends meet” (or increasing the revenue more than expenses). upper administrators kept using talking points such as “no money, no mission.” the relationship between the two words starting with “m” for mission and money is, of course, complicated. an institution cannot pursue money (a.k.a. profit) exclusively, as it’s supposed to be dedicated to social change with the pursuit of the public good. i felt the pressure to navigate this conflict. “unfortunately, the program is suspended for one year, although our current ed.d. in c&i program has a few admitted students.” i had to share with colleagues the sad news of the suspension of c&i program for the 2018-2019 academic year. one colleague initiated our conversation based on existing assets: “we are in a great city at a university with a social justice mission. faculty are working on community-embedded research with local schools and communities.” another colleague named our unique, rigorous, fieldbased, apprenticeship-based teacher education program (tllsc). “we could consider changing our program name to highlight a curriculum that is community-embedded and social justiceoriented.” i felt positive energy, like something new would emerge from this collaboration with dear colleagues. we were all aligned in our views of asset-based education and our vision of higher education partnering with communities. engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 66 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p in a draft proposal for 3cs program, faculty articulated a shared vision, emphasizing the mission of luc and the strengths/assets disposition that guides the school of education (soe). thus, the school creates a graduate program that prepares master’s and doctoral students to focus on working in settings that promote university-school partnership and/or teacher preparation/pd in field-based settings. this vision builds on two major strengths of luc’s t&l affinity group: (a) university-schoolcommunity partnerships and (b) field-based teacher education preparation. in working on new graduate programs, faculty found value in the university’s social justice mission enacted via in-depth, ongoing partnerships with local communities. we made conscious efforts to develop a new graduate program that could embody luc’s mission and commitment to advocating social justice. 3cs program faculty underscored this mission-driven purpose and ensured that the value of the new graduate program was well aligned with community schools’ emphasis on sustainable partnerships. 3cs program was created at the intersection of a partnership philosophy and a commitment to generating ongoing, sustainable support. notably, the notion of “education” is not limited to pk12 schooling but also schools, universities, and communities. i sensed the need to educate curriculum specialists as experts in developing and implementing socially-just curriculum and programs to advance equity in organizations and communities. in 2021, the t&l affinity group launched a new graduate program emphasizing curriculum, partnerships, research, and practice. although the upper administrators pushed the program redesign due to budgetary concerns, we built it focusing on the assets of luc and principles of community engagement and effective partnership practices. paradoxically, 3cs program enrolled a cohort of 30+ students for the first year of implementation. we emphasized mission over money, and the return on investment followed. scene 2: a reflective dialogue between schmidt “faculty/instructor of the new doctoral program – 3cs program) and press (doctoral student in schmidt’s class) stage notes: press’s narrative is in italics; schmidt’s narrative is in regular font “spring” semester was full of snow, not rain. it felt dreary, but hopeful. i was acclimatizing to luc, learning about its programs and people. this was my second semester of the 3cs program as a doctoral student, and i was enrolled in a course about teaching and learning in urban communities. the pandemic was still raging so class was virtual, of course. the professor was explaining an assignment and i immediately felt a sense of confusion. “we have to do what?” i asked a classmate in a private chat. “i think we need to find a school and figure out how to help them help themselves.” something about this felt wrong to me. why would the school need an outsider to step in and “help”? wouldn’t this play into deficit-based thinking? this critical and healthy tension is ever-present in our collaborative work with community organizations and schools. luc’s soe uses a placebased engagement strategy (yamamura & koth, 2018). a deep commitment to relationships with and among our partners is at the heart of the placebased strategy. this means being present with organizations in the work. likewise, community school strategies enable us to be present in the struggles and celebrations and, we think, engage in work that generates new learning opportunities 67 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p for students and opens new collaborative ventures with existing partners. we intentionally seek to partner with local organizations and institutions to reflect our mission and values. as a result, local partnerships are, we believe, more likely to be sustainable, accountable, mutually beneficial, and less likely to reflect one-off, transactional projects. i’m sitting in an online class about teaching and learning in urban contexts, being asked to partner with a local community school that i’ve never visited to develop an asset map. i don’t know any of the schools and lack direction on asset mapping too. i feel lost. cognitive dissonance is an important component of transformative learning (mezirow, 2015). too much dissonance may lead to panic and flight from learning and prevent the student from achieving new insights and, ultimately, a new sense of equilibrium. navigating these spaces is challenging for both students and educators. i have always believed that the most powerful learning is when students can work through the discomfort and puzzle the solutions out on their own or, more ideally, in collaboration with their peers. this wasn’t the only assignment that provoked discomfort. many times, over the course of the semester i had to grapple with my own positionality in context. as someone who’s new to this city, what is my role in trying to “help”? what does it mean to insert myself into a school or community and then just as quickly leave? how can i do meaningful contextualized place-based work without ever having visited these places? ohito (2016) critiques the ability of preservice education programs to prepare white teachers for engagement with marginalized racial identities adequately. her article was one of the first we read in our redesigned teaching and learning in urban communities course offering. her critique provides a way to acknowledge the elephant in the room. the course intended to offer a lens through which to examine the realities of urban learning spaces that have long been influenced, if not characterized, by historical, institutional, systemic, and cultural racism. our journey began introspectively by examining our social identities and how we have been socialized into implicit and unconscious biases. we moved to an examination of how our organizations and institutions have been similarly marked by racism. this preparation enabled us to consider schools and school systems as well as classrooms both imprinted by racism but as places where we can intentionally conduct anti-racist work. i asked students to engage in asset mapping to support the school’s work to be present in its community, which is often neglected due to the unrelenting asks placed on schools. though short-term and confined to a single semester, the resulting map, i felt, could be a resource for schools to enact new partnerships and/or energize existing ones. asset mapping turns deficit thinking on its head. instead of believing that schools must do all the work, it communicates that community partners stand ready. instead of viewing students and families as problems to be fixed, it communicates that families bring experiences, resources, and insights that can enrich school communities. thankfully, the instructor welcomed this discourse and emphasized that the steps we were taking as students in this course connecting with university-assisted community schools were part of a larger journey. starting with the theoretical underpinnings of community schooling, we built our way up to conducting group projects. my partner and i met with our school’s administration and counseling teams multiple 68engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p times. our discussions changed our direction, and i appreciated the opportunity to glean insight into their many successes but was also cognizant of the ongoing traumas. the asset mapping project wasn’t about stepping into a school community to solve problems, it was about considering the resources that already exist within and outside those school walls in collaboration with school staff. one of my first opportunities upon moving to this in january of 1991 was to join a research team at the abcd institute (asset based community development) of a prestigious private research university. the institute has moved to another private university (abcd institute | depaul university, chicago). the philosophy of assetbased development has deep implications for communities and their schools. at loyola university chicago, abcd addresses how we might approach our work with communities and how teachers might approach their work with students. asset-based community development informs our soe approach by addressing the question of how we might work with communities and how teachers might work with students. do we address the perceived problems we see, or do we seek to develop communities, classrooms, and students based on the skills, interests, and talents our students and citizens offer? the asset-mapping project becomes an opportunity for students to develop this disposition and this skill set. it often helps them to uncover the hidden and engage in generative discussions that lead to productive relationships and positive outcomes. after the semester ended, we were invited to attend a staff meeting to discuss the asset mapping project. asset mapping wasn’t about choosing a school at random and “helping them help themselves” it was about reciprocal learning and sharing. this asset-mapping experience in partnership with a local school generated important perspectives, but there’s still work to be done to figure out how best to nurture these relationships catalyzed by coursework into mutual, sustaining bonds. from tllsc’s advent to 3cs program's construction, we are moving toward in-depth collaboration with community organizations and schools. we hope to develop professionals with a disposition to seek partners, collaborators, and “co-conspirators” (smith, 2020) beyond the walls of their institutions. the haranguing notion that “i” should be able to do this on my own, we hope, begins to dissipate as we move closer to fuller, more sustainable expressions of partnership in our work. the community school work that loyola university chicago has engaged in over the past five years provides us with the concrete opportunity to live out the vision we put forward in our academic programs. conclusion as educators, we seek to advance an understanding of schools as deeply rooted in, shaped by, and responsive to their communities. we seek to the philosophy of asset-based development has deep implications for communities and their schools. at loyola university chicago, abcd addresses how we might approach our work with communities and how teachers might approach their work with students. asset-based community development informs our soe approach by addressing the question of how we might work with communities and how teachers might work with students. 69 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p build learning opportunities at our university that engage our students in schools and communities throughout their learning experiences, including apprenticeships in schools, internships with our school and community partnership, and academic projects with practical relevance that engage and support schools and communities. we continue to build on-campus partnerships across the university to help us all strive toward the university's vision and mission. in 2011, luc set out to transform teacher preparation by developing an apprenticeship, site-based model. supported by extant literature, we quickly realized that school and community partners would need to support the university to generate and sustain this model (daniel, quartz, & oakes, 2019). participation in our program redesign process was an enormous benefit to us but also a benefit to our partner schools, organizations, and cultural institutions. they would gain welltrained professionals, have access to eager students seeking to provide support in classrooms and community spaces during their four years of university education and be able to share and advance the importance of their work among developing teachers. teachers learning in authentic teaching spaces was the mantra. indeed, our student graduates are sought after, highly thought of, and make significant contributions not just to the individual classrooms but also to their schools and communities. the field-based model is paying dividends. this work is ever-evolving. we see a beginning point of this journey – our work to revise and revitalize our teacher preparation program, a second leg of the journey – our work to expand and deepen our work with partner schools through community school partnership, and a concluding (at least for now) stage of the journey during which we have built 3cs program, the doctoral program. they cannot remain as static programs representative of a “completed” approach to university school engagement work and education within our institution. instead, they represent a deep engagement with our communities and community partners to change the face of education for our students and communities. multiple approaches and strategies are required to advance equity through community engagement and university-community-school partnerships. this paper has articulated how institutions developed degree programs (e.g., tllsc and 3cs program) for advancing partnerships as an evolving process, continuously collaborating with faculty, staff, community leaders, and school personnel. this process is complex and complicated, as articulated in the narratives presented in the paper about mutual benefits in partnerships and relational trust to create and sustain new degree programs. the authors anticipate that these snapshot versions of narratives inspire other educators and community leaders to revisit their practices in partnerships and offer another approach to community engagement supported by university resources and mission. they cannot remain as static programs representative of a “completed” approach to university school engagement work and education within our institution. instead, they represent a deep engagement with our communities and community partners to change the face of education for our students and communities. multiple approaches and strategies are required to advance equity through community engagement and university-community-school partnerships. 70engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p the curtain does not fall on this enterprise. the stage does not now go dark. the actors do not retire to their homes and then choose a new opportunity for performance. the story continues through our commitments to emerging forms of teaching and learning, community partnerships, and full community engagement. one of the roles of the university in community engagement work, we believe, is to generate collaboratively, share, and hold the vision of deep community engagement that is premised on authentic, trusting, and powerful relationships among our organizations and institutions. holding a vision is a sacred act. it requires patience, commitment, and wisdom: patience to know that we are not yet there; commitment to know that we are moving ever closer if we stay the course; and wisdom to know we will never truly arrive. the work continues. 71 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 m o o n e t. a l . | e m e r g i n g u n i v e r s i t y p a r t n e r s h i p references american 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(2018). teacher leadership in professional development schools: a definition, brief history, and call for further study. in hunzicker, j. (ed.). teacher leadership in professional development schools (pp.19-37). howard house. jentleson, b. c. (2011). better together: a model university-community partnership for urban youth. teachers college press. miller, j. l. (2010). nostalgia for the future: imagining histories of jct and the bergamo conferences. journal of curriculum theorizing, 26(2), 7-23. mezirow, j. (1997). transformative learning: theory to practice. new directions for adult and continuing education, 74, 5-12. national council for accreditation of teacher education. (2010). transforming teacher education through clinical practice: a national strategy to prepare effective teachers. (report of the blue ribbon panel on clinical preparation and partnerships for improved student learning). https:// files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed512807. pdf ohito, e. 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(2021). sustainable, mutually beneficial and placed-based: building and maintaining a dynamic school-university partnership. in chandler, p. t., & barron, l. (eds). rethinking school-university partnerships: a new way forward (pp. 209-228). information age publishing. smith, k. (2020, july 14). to all the white allies seeking to become co-conspirators, here are things to think about. philly’s 7th ward. https://phillys7thward.org/2020/07/ to-all-the-white-allies-seeking-tobecome-co-conspirators-here-arethings-to-think-about soska, t. m. & johnson butterfield, a. k. (2010). university-community partnerships: universities in civic engagement. routledge. strier, r. (2014). fields of paradox: university-community partnerships. higher education, 68, 155-165. weissberg, r. p., durlak, j. a., domitrovich, c. e., & gullotta, t. p. (eds.). (2015). social and emotional learning: past, present, and future. in j. a. durlak, c. e. domitrovich, r. p. weissberg, & t. p. gullotta (eds.), handbook of social and emotional learning: research and practice (pp. 3–19). the guilford press. wong, p. & glass, r. (2005). assessing a professional development school approach to preparing teachers for urban schools serving low-income, culturally and linguistically diverse communities. teacher education quarterly, 32(3), 63-77. yamamura, e. & koth, k. (2018). place-based community engagement in higher education: a strategy to transform universities and communities. stylus publishing. 74engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s d e e m l o u r e i r o | i f n o t y o u , t h e n w h o ? if not you, then who? author justin deem-loureiro butler university the power to lead is within anyone, especially you all you need is a passion and purpose to pursue can’t you see see see people don't need a title or fancy degree to step up up up to use your voice to be loud and erupt find an issue that matters to you because if not you, then who? seize the opportunity to make change in your community join an organization or start your own own own just remember you’re never alone together we are in this fight to make a difference in this world is not light but its work we must do because remember, if not you, then who? 33 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 r e f u g e e r e s e t t l e m e n t i n t e r v i e w community engagement community engagement is one of the key things that we do because there is no resettlement without community engagement. often people see integration as a one-way street: refugees have to integrate. well, that's not how it works. i think it has to be a dual path where refugees have to make progress toward integration, [and] all communities have to be open to that integration. another initiative that lssnca, our organization, is also launching is what we call refugee gives back, and that is: let’s go back to refugees that have been here for a few years and see how we can get them involved with the communities that helped them when they needed it the most. and that will be [able to] create a, what could be similar to a refugee corps, where, if there are needs in the community for volunteers, we can have refugees be part of it, so that people can see refugees not just as people that need help, but also people that are involved in the communities that resettled them. that is, i think, one way that we can make them active members of their new communities. because what we noticed in the refugee resettlement world is that every time we have [a] new family, we go to the community and say, we need volunteers. and people come out to help. well, those same refugees have skills that the community can benefit from. why don’t we have them volunteer to teach someone dari, pashto, or lingala? why can’t we have them, for those that are in it, why can’t we have them at the libraries helping people with navigating the internet or helping them with homework? access to opportunities one of the major hurdles to people being resettled in the united states is not the lack of opportunities, [it] is access to those opportunities. and what we do through all what we provide is really helping remove all of those hurdles, to resettlement, to self-sufficiency, as well as hurdles to long-term refugee integration. because after all, that's the goal. mamadou’s story i was myself a former refugee. so i was resettled in the united states as a refugee from mauritania in west africa. in 1989, my family became refugees. so we went from having all to lacking all, and we landed at senegal, where i lived in refugee camp for 11 years, and pursued my vocation there than i was resettled in the united states, and was given basically a second chance. the way i put it is always that i have seen the worst of humanity and the best of humanity: the worst in humanity in being a refugee and being deported from your own country by authorities, and then the best of humanity by being welcomed in a completely foreign land by new communities, and be given the opportunity to rebuild that shattered life. so i felt the need to give back to the communities that welcomed me when i needed it the most. refugee resettlement interview an interview with mamadou sy, coo of the lutheran social services of the national capital area engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 34 r e f u g e e r e s e t t l e m e n t i n t e r v i e w resettlement centers what that one-stop-shop did is create one roof under which refugees can access all the services that they need. it really helped address some of the hurdles to accessing services, and that is transportation. so now, the resettlement agencies, english as second language providers, the medical providers, the department of social services, were under the same roof and providing a gamut of services that refugees needed to access. employment a lot of people have been unemployed for many years when they are in those refugee camps. so it's really restored that hope, but also it's really that self-esteem that many of them have lost through not getting the opportunity to use their skills. because when you are a refugee in another land, in many of these countries, you cannot work. unemployment becomes basically your life. imagine you are you have someone who had held a job, deported or fled their country, crossed international borders, went to another country to be just told, “well, welcome to this country, but guess what: you cannot work, so you have to try to live as you can.” and when they arrive in the united states, and we help them find a job, what we’ve given them is something that many of them have not had for many, many years. so it's really reconnected them with humanity once again. i see employment as a pipeline. if you clog the beginning of that pipeline, with both highly skilled and low-skilled, then you have less opportunity for the lowskilled, and then you also [are] preventing those that are highly skilled from moving up the ladder. and the ones that suffer ultimately [are] not just the families of those refugees or the refugees themselves, it's really the communities where they live. tailoring resettlement now, with the afghans, what we have seen is for many of these folks, their world collapsed in a matter of days. whereas in other refugee populations, it took years for the individual to experience war, to go through it, to flee their country, go to a first country of asylum, and stay there for years before they were settled. with the afghans, [it] all happened in a matter of days. so many of these folks went to the office, and by midday are basically forced to leave their country. there was no time to plan for taking off all of those degrees that you have hanging on the wall, there was no time to reach out to your college and get your transcript, there was not even time to get your family to join you at the airport. it was a hasty exit. and because of that reason, many of them had some challenges, some trauma that also needs to be addressed. i think the best approach to resettlement would be to acknowledge that all of them have gone through hardships, but also that the needs and the services have to be tailored to the individual for it to be a successful experience. congregations as you know, the history of resettlement in the united states cannot be understood without the contribution of congregations. congregations have played—all denominations, all faiths—have played a major role. [t]he good neighbor program … is an initiative that we created a few years ago, and we said, “you know what, we need to get people from the community involved in the resettlement so that refugees are not seen as refugees of the agencies, but refugees of the communities.” and for that to happen, let's go through the good neighbor program, and recruit, vet and train congregations to be part of resettlement. so, it really shows that the resettlement is really a tripod, where you need the federal government involvement through funding, you need resettlement agencies [for] their expertise. but also you need the community involvement. and congregations have always been 35 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 r e f u g e e r e s e t t l e m e n t i n t e r v i e w the backbone of resettlement, even when there [was] no great involvement from the federal government, congregations have always stood up to be the one to help. and we leverage those. our mission is really to bring people from all walks of life and to help work with those refugees as they make progress toward rebuilding their lives. and through that family, what i saw is really the resilience of refugees and their determination to be part of the fabric of this nation for not just now, but for generations to come. transportation one of the hindrances to employment is not just the language, but also is the transportation. because we know that when you are limited in transportation, you are limited in opportunities. by giving them access to a reliable means of transportation, we have just increased the sphere of opportunity for that family. so now they can take their kids to the park, they can use their car to go shopping, and that dictates how much food they can carry and bring home versus if they were riding on public transport. education [h]ow can we make sure that these thousands of highly qualified folks are able to find a way back to their field of expertise? … if you look at what we traditionally see, we have systems that were built for what i call nonimmigrant populations, and now, rather than changing the frame, what we want to do is often force people into prebuilt frames that don't work. well, if someone is [a] refugee, what it means is that they have fled their country for a reason. … for instance, if you look at the most recent case of afghans that left a couple-after the fall of kabul in august of last year, how can we expect that those people can reach out to the taliban and ask them to express mail or fedex them their degrees? that does not make sense. so we need to find in the united states ways that we can that evaluate the credentials without requiring that those come from the same countries or the same governments that forced them to flee the first place. i think [education for refugees] has to be a public/private partnership, one that would require the involvement of academic institutions, the state, with the federal government, so that there [are] some pathways for these folks to get access to education. and this is not just for what i call the most recent wave of refugees, but also even those that have been here for much longer. … [w]hen someone arrives in this country, the first few months, are not focused on education. it's really how can i get a place to call home? i need a first job so i can take care of my family. and then it is really, maybe after that first year, [when] you see now that they have settled, they are looking at expanding that sphere of opportunities. “from harm to home” i left home in 1989—so 30-some years ago—and i have not set foot [back in mauritania] yet, and the likelihood of that happening soon is slim to none. many of the people that experienced the same plight with me back then are still in the united states or somewhere else in europe and cannot go back to their country. they have rebuilt their lives, they have moved on, and that’s what i call, from harm to home, and home is where you’re at. we are many in terms of our stories, our cultures, and our experiences, but one in being refugees and the desire to be successful in the united states. what i see often through those stories is really not just the desire for the person to share their own experience, but also a desire to help decision makers and the rest of the world see how what they do can impact lives in a very sometimes traumatic way. many refugees will tell you that their path to getting to the united states was not very easy, so many of them have lived in a refugee camp for ten years, twenty years before they are resettled in the united states. and once they are on this end and have gone from harm to home, and that home happened to be engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 36 r e f u g e e r e s e t t l e m e n t i n t e r v i e w traumatic way. many refugees will tell you that their path to getting to the united states was not very easy, so many of them have lived in a refugee camp for ten years, twenty years before they are resettled in the united states. and once they are on this end and have gone from harm to home, and that home happened to be the united states, then they really want to share, want to advocate. we know that advocacy would help, both in terms of educating people that those refugees will be joining, but also in helping, hopefully, people to impact some of the policies that often have also led to people being forced to flee their own countries. but my hope … is that we will, as a nation, remember that people do not choose to become refugees. it’s actions or inactions of other people that force them to flee their country, to uproot themselves from everything they have known, and then go for the unknown with the hope of being able to rebuild their lives. if we get to a point where we know from all faith that we were all refugees, all of us, it’s just a matter of when and how we arrived in this country—if we fall to that position, we will see refugee resettlement as a continuation of what we’ve been doing, and that is to welcome the most vulnerable among us and give them an opportunity to rebuild their lives. hold their hand, assist them as they struggle. struggle with them. support them. and when they are successful it is us, as a nation, that becomes successful. the u.s. history is really a history of people fleeing harm and seeking to better their lives. it’s just a matter of when and how people are arriving in this country, but we are all migrants. if we use that as our common denominator, then the question is, how can we make sure that the folks that are arriving now are welcomed just as the people that arrived before them. how can we make sure that the same opportunities that we have, we’re extending those opportunities to the people that are arriving now—people that have not chosen to leave home, but that were forced into exile, forced to become refugees, forced to go to a foreign land and to start anew. how can we welcome them? role of politics i have seen a lot of refugees in my life, and i have yet to come across one that went to bed planning to become a refugee the next day. it is often the actions of other people or the lack thereof that force people to not pack anything and leave. refugee resettlement in the united states has historically been shielded from the political divide, and it has benefited from support from both ends— republicans, as well as the democrats. and that is the way it’s supposed to be. i know that not everybody supports refugees [and] refugee resettlement, that’s known; but on the hill, what we have seen is really bipartisan support to the program. now, if you look at the folks that are crossing the southern border to the united states, in any other part of the world we would have called them refugees. why? because [firstly,] they have well-founded fear of persecution; second, they crossed an international border. that’s what the geneva convention defined as refugees. we never call them refugees, we call them “migrants,” we called them...whatever. i think it’s definitely some different labels that being applied to people that are experiencing the same plight and the same sufferings, but applied differently based on who’s applying that label. 37 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 r e f u g e e r e s e t t l e m e n t i n t e r v i e w related readings bloom, m. (2019, february 7). ‘just an outsider’: refugee doctors, nurses face widespread underemployment. kunc. https://www. kunc.org/news/2019-02-07/ just-an-outsider-refugee-doctors-nurses-face-widespread-underemployment bridekirk, j., hynie, m., & syria.lth. (2021). the impact of education and employment on self-rated mental health among syrian refugees in canada. journal of immigrant and minority health 23, 290-297. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-011080 disney, l. r. (2021, march). ‘we know more than that’: the underemployment experiences of college-educated iraqi refugees living in the us. journal of refugee studies 34(1), 1168-1184. https://doi.org/10.1093/ jrs/feaa128 newman, a., bimrose, j., nielsen, i., & zacher, h. (2018, april). vocational behavior of refugees: how do refugees seek employment, overcome work-related challenges, and navigate their careers. journal of vocational behavior 105, 1-5. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.01.007 sy, m. i. (2019) erlit: a refugee's story. 55 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 s w a l i s | m y p e r s p e c t i v e & v o i c e i s u n l i k e a n y o t h e r i have grown up in a post-september 11 world. i have grown up being hyper surveilled. i have grown up in the biggest recession since the great depression. i have grown up in a world where i am alerted to every tragedy that takes place across the globe, and i have grown up in a world where suicide rates are higher than they have ever been. i have lived through a global pandemic. social media is everywhere, and everyone is trying to create an image of themselves that does not reflect their true identity. i have seen social movements come and go. i have seen people achieve justice in unprecedented ways like in the case of the united states gymnastics team members who so bravely came forward with accusations of sexual assault against larry nassar. however, i also saw justice fail as ian manuel served 26 years in prison, 18 of which in solitary confinement, for a crime he did not commit. i have seen it all. no one making the political decisions right now has seen what i have seen. according to the library of congress, the average age of the u.s. senators in 2021 was over 64 years old. none of them grew up in the world that i grew up in. none of them even live in the same world as i do. my generation has grown up in unprecedented times on multiple fronts and for multiple reasons, yet politicians and older generations refuse to acknowledge or accept our input on issues that only we have experienced. young perspectives and young solutions are constantly ignored, and society is reaping the consequences. young people have been advocating for an increase in teaching black history in schools, mental health professionals to be a part of mental health crisis calls with the police, and a new culture around sexual assault that empowers women and victims instead of villainizing and doubting them. somehow, though, society still is uneducated on an accurate history of the united states, suicide rates are at an all-time high, and society shames victims and defends powerful men against accusations. my generation has witnessed the unfolding of these issues like no other age group of people have. our perspective is unlike any other. my perspective is unlike any other. i have seen riots, protests, and hate– hate that is perpetuated by our political leaders. hate that takes away from individuality. the hate we are facing in today’s world was created by the political leaders who have been in power for decades. the ingraining and solidifying of the two-party system in the united states has ruined my generation and i blame politicians, on both sides, whose ideas should have been left behind a century ago and who have used hate to push personal agendas. i am not going to claim that our country is the most polarized it has ever been; we once saw so much hate the only escape was a civil war, but i will claim this era of polarization is the most dehumanizing. people cannot have their own opinions; they cannot have their individuality. i struggle with the polarization of politics my perspective and voice is unlike any other author rylie swalis, butler university engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 56 s w a l i s | m y p e r s p e c t i v e & v o i c e i s u n l i k e a n y o t h e r in the united states. a person cannot have opinions or views that span the political spectrum. they have to be left or right, democrat or republican, blue or red. if a person aligns with the republican party on one issue they are labeled as a republican, but they could have opinions and beliefs that span the political spectrum. none of this individuality of thought is accounted for; every person must be placed in one of two boxes. switching is not allowed, and being allowed in the middle is becoming more and more rare. people cannot be free thinking, independent-minded individuals with their own values, priorities, and passions. by not voting people out of power for decades, in a country that was founded on the principles of ensuring one person never holds too much power or for too long, we have abandoned the very ideals our country was founded on. politicians in power have moved from an open-minded, willing to cross the aisle for the betterment of society, to a vote directly down party lines system–without the consent or knowledge of the governed. members of congress are elected to represent the ideals of their constituents yet vote only by their political party. young people need to speak up; no one in power has seen the issues from our perspective or as fully as we have. when a politician has thought about something the same way since they took their first oath of office in the 1970s, it is hard to change their mind, and there is an issue there that needs to be addressed. my generation has new ideas. my generation has the power to dismantle the two-party system and address the issues that need to be addressed instead of letting old feuds or outdated ways of thinking stop us from improving the nation our futures lie in. 59 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y storytelling to preserve a community’s history authors desmond l. kemp doctoral student, american studies, iu school of liberal arts, iupui, latosha rowley doctoral student, urban education studies, iu school of education, iupui , stacia murphy doctoral student, american studies, iu school of liberal arts, iupui keywords community based participatory research, storytelling, community, gentrification abstract community based participatory research (cbpr) can inform researchers of the latest trends, policy issues, and business practices that impact community members' everyday lives. the center for research on inclusion and social policy (crisp) at indiana university purdue university—indianapolis (iupui) invited five graduate students from different disciplines at iupui to participate in a collaborative, community-based participatory project with the harrison center for the arts, a community-based art gallery, near the martindale brightwood community. the art center strives to preserve the culture of the neighborhood, in the face of gentrification, by allowing its members to act as storytellers through community arts. through discovery, the crisp researchers found that storytelling is essential not only for preserving history but also for addressing inequalities from a community-centered perspective. introduction storytelling has the power to send a message, preserve culture, history, and influence change. in the 2019-2020 school year, the center for research on inclusion and social policy (crisp) at indiana university purdue university— indianapolis (iupui) invited five graduate students from different iupui disciplines to participate in a collaborative, community-based participatory project with the harrison center for the arts (harrison center), a community-based art gallery, in indianapolis’ martindale brightwood community. as crisp fellows, it was our goal to hear and make sense of the stories about residents’ perceptions regarding the pre-enact indy program as well as understand the impact of changes that were happening in their martindale-brightwood neighborhood. we visited long-term and new residents to capture their stories, memories, and reflections about the neighborhood history and the recent changes and trends that have impacted martindale brightwood. the overall focus of our research was how the community engaged in preenact indy, a harrison center program that was instrumental in bringing martindale brightwood's history to life for its residents in an interactive, festive environment. the pre-enact indy event was created to empower neighborhood residents by allowing space for them to share their hopes and dreams for the neighborhood and future generations. the primary purpose of the event was to create a new reality for future generations that illuminated the cultural and historical heritage through the arts, music, theatre, dance, paintings, and cultural drumming ceremonies. even though the long-term neighbors 60engage! | c r e at i v e a rts did not have enough economic wealth to stop the gentrification of their neighborhood, they wanted to make sure they still had ownership in preserving the cultural history of their community. this opportunity was a breath of fresh air for graduate students because we rarely have the space to hear the true stories of the people in the communities that surround our academic institution. though we may participate in local community events and affairs, vote, and visit local coffee shops and diners, the true history and stories of local neighborhoods may be undisclosed to us as outsiders coming in to take from the neighborhood without participating with the neighbors. crisp fellowship experience in our crisp fellowship experience, as doctoral students, we had the fortunate opportunity to gather data from interviews, then collaborate with the neighbors to verify the information so that we could analyze, interpret, and organize the information for dissemination through crisp. this community relevant research was important to the community and the university because it centered the voices of residents and presented some social disparities, inequities, and information to address complex policy issues that crisp worked on in their office. this project had an indirect focus on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status as the residents shared their perspectives on the gentrification that was happening in the neighborhood. the project also provided an opportunity for us to understand the intersections of race, class, and gender as the long-term residents were mostly african american, the newer residents were mostly white, and the developers in the area were mostly companies headed by white males. exploring these different identities helped us understand the effects on the well-being of some residents. the iu public policy institute launched the center for research on inclusion and social policy with dr. breanca merritt serving as the founding director in 2019. the mission of this center is to evaluate solutions by supporting local organizations in understanding their programs that address social policy issues that affect indiana residents. the crisp clinic fellowship provides service-minded students with hands-on experience working alongside policy analysts and community organizations to develop data-driven solutions while also leveraging classroom skills. our crisp experience in community engagement research provided us with a rich learning opportunity. ten students from various programs across iupui’s campus were selected for the inaugural cohort which began in the 2020 spring semester. the group was split to work on two projects that focused on housing issues and the arts. our team was designated to study the impact of arts programming in a local community. as members of this cohort, we contributed to the project as black doctoral students, experienced teachers, activists, and business associates. we find it important to mention the project was moved to the zoom platform in accordance with state, local, and university shutdown orders for maintaining health during the covid-19 pandemic. we had to shift to online visitations between march and june 2020 until later in the summer months when we met face-to-face as outdoor activities were permitted. as early career researchers, this transference helped us understand the nature and the uncertainty of community-based participatory research (cbpr) when working with and in the community. in our academic process as community-based participatory researchers, we learned the procedures of research as we transcribed taperecorded interviews of the residents' stories. we k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y 61 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y verified the information with the participants for accuracy to make sure we captured their words. after we transcribed the transcripts, we organized the data and interpreted and analyzed it using thematic coding (braun & clarke, 2006). the crisp staff worked closely with us to support our understanding and interpretation of the data to help us grow as researchers. they provided us with information on how to analyze and interpret data during our crisp workshops and seminars. these seminars and workshops were valuable because they enhanced our knowledge and research skills. we were able to identify themes that emerged from the data: feelings about neighborhood changes, the art and history of the neighborhood, and building a sense of community between long-term residents and newer residents. each theme falls under the research area of social inclusion in indianapolis. the african american communities in indianapolis have been overwhelmingly marginalized since the 1960s (pierce, 2005). as crisp fellows, we engaged in research for ten months that illuminated the perspectives of the martindale brightwood residents. in our community-based participation, we spent time visiting and chatting with up to thirty neighborhood residents, local business owners, and community leaders. specifically, we interviewed the twenty-year veteran executive director of the harrison center, joanna beatty taft. we were also introduced to the organization’s “greatriarchs” which we will discuss later in this report. through our cbpr project, we learned that martindale brightwood is a complex community and many of the residents in martindale brightwood valued the community as a familycentered, historic space. but we also learned that other people who resided inside and outside the community may have only seen the space as a blank slate that could be molded and shaped into a different cultural landscape mainly for economic purposes as the new homes being built in the community would increase taxes and cause a displacement of some current residents who experienced low wealth. inside the harrison center on one chilly friday afternoon in late january 2020, with our researchers’ hats, we traveled to the harrison center for the arts to meet with joanna taft for our first interview. since the year 2000, this organization has served as an advocate for community arts, education, and programming that is equitable in its approach to cultural development. for the martindale-brightwood community, this is a neutral space for local residents to meet. as we walked into the ornamental space, joanna and her team cleared spaces for us to meet in the lounge area of the art center. we immediately recognized this art center was a space for healing and a place where community members came to connect for well-being and rejuvenation. according to sobonfu somé (1997) community is the spirit. to our surprise and excitement, we met one of the community’s elders as she was leaving the art center. as she departed from the center, she gave joanna a hug and mentioned that she would see her on the porch. since meeting on the porch sounded unusual, joanna informed our research team that the community members met at weekend porch parties. porch parties were a creative space to bring community members together to fellowship and bond over food and drinks while sharing stories. this opportunity for neighbors to swap stories created first friday's events at the harrison center. first friday provides space for community artists to come together and tell stories through printmaking and oral histories of the greatriarchs. their oral histories play a vital 62engage! | c r e at i v e a rts role in teaching the new community members as well as the youth about the rich history of their neighborhood. the greatriarchs are long-term residents of the martindale-brightwood neighborhood. they are leaders, nurturers, mentors, and friends of the old and new residents of their neighborhood. collectively, our interest grew as we engaged in participation with community members to hear their stories because the media from the event did not capitalize on the spirit of martindale brightwood. our research efforts were facilitated. she helped us coordinate meetings and engagements with mrs. taft and community members to hear their perspectives on the harrison center for the arts and the pre-enact indy program. as a team, we initially developed 50 questions for our interview with joanna but with the allotted hour to meet with her, we knew that we had to revise our interview questions to ten so that we could navigate the interview session successfully and obtain valuable information about the art center’s history. the most significant question for us to pursue in this research study was to gain an understanding of how the community felt about the pre-enact indy event. the martindale brightwood community the origin of this neighborhood is quite unique. originally, it was two separate neighborhoods, martindale and brightwood, that were located near the railroad and merged in 1992 to form one neighborhood, which is the oldest in indianapolis. according to fuller, the residents of martindalebrightwood have faced displacement and the emergence of industrial pollution (2016, p. 204). the development of interstates 65 and 70 cut through and divided the neighborhood displaced residents. since many residents could not get loan approvals for home repairs, they moved out to relocate on the east side of indianapolis to more affordable homes that unfortunately increased vacant homes in the area. this change has brought about gentrification which according to the polis center is the cultural and racial displacement due to a shift in increased housing costs and income levels. with this change, many of the homes in martindale-brightwood were no longer passed down from generation to generation. martindale-brightwood is a predominantly black neighborhood located in the near northeast side of indianapolis bounded by 30th street, 21st street, massachusetts avenue, and sherman drive. based on savi data, the martindale brightwood community has a population of 5,666 residents and the median household income is $25,972. the majority of the homes in this neighborhood were built before the 1970s. the original martindale brightwood community had children playing in the streets and had neighborhood cookouts, porches filled with neighbors who participated in games and dances, there was also attendance and support at the local church and school events by the martindale brightwood neighbors. now the neighborhood suffers from isolation because the new neighbors who have moved into the area fence themselves and their property in which demonstrates a lack of care for neighbors, and it eliminates a sense of friendly community by stripping away a spirit of place and a legacy of history. the martindale brightwood community in indianapolis has a rich history. fortunately, many members of the community have lived there for over 50 years. the longevity keeps the neighborhood’s memories alive with the help and support of the harrison center. this center provides opportunities for the martindale brightwood residents to keep the spirit of k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y 63 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y community in the hearts and minds of residents through the art of storytelling. the harrison center provides new residents with care packages filled with artifacts and a calendar about their community and its members. using stories to build community stories help us understand and learn from other people’s perspectives about their experiences, challenges, and the impact of transformations in their communities. storytelling connects humans by giving us a sense of who we are as people, cultural groups, or a nation (del negro & kimball, 2021). transformations such as where there once stood a multitude of oak trees, now stand modern buildings taller than those trees. but the question is, how many oak trees can we find when there is a new car parking garage on the east end of the neighborhood block where children once played? most people, especially those who are new to an area will only notice a space as it appears in the present day. but for the long-term dwellers that grew up in the neighborhood, they still see the park where they kissed their first love or met up with friends to play kickball. according to richie (2014), oral history is an active process in which interviewers seek out, record, and preserve such memories. oral history collects memories (the core of oral history), and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded interviews (p.1). although a critique on oral histories offers a challenge about memory recall, serie mcdougal iii (2017) states people may be more prone to make mistakes or make up information when asked to recall information that occurred in the distant past. in community-based research, the life experience of people is beneficial and can be used as raw material to provide a new dimension to history (thompson, 2017). as we engaged in dialogue with the residents, the interview provided a means of discovering written documents and photographs which may not have otherwise been traced (p. 5). as well, interviews bring together people from different social classes and age groups who would more than likely rarely meet or get to know each other closely (p. 10). as community-engaged researchers, we were able to hear the stories about the shifting and changing neighborhood between 16th and 25th streets as we attended one of the porch parties with the greatriarchs. they said the changes became figure 1. greatriarchs of the martindale-brightwood community 64engage! | c r e at i v e a rts apparent to residents as people moved in and out on a regular basis. one resident stated, “the neighborhood began to decline when the money moved out. it was not just a white flight. it was also black people who had the means to move.” another long-term resident of 33 years mentioned that the names of the streets have changed as things have evolved into a different neighborhood space. another long-term resident commented, “our neighborhood has been emptied and outsiders are moving in, buying up homes, and taking over with new homes that are $200,000 or more that only white residents can afford so they are closer to downtown. many of the original neighborhood residents have moved away or have passed away and the homes have been left to younger family members.” another resident added, “it’s sad that they have been irresponsible by selling the homes that have been in the families for decades.” the long-term residents advised that the developers are renovating homes but not repairing streets and sidewalks in certain parts of the neighborhood. even though, as a crisp research team, we were supposed to find out about the pre-enact indy program, we heard the stories from the residents’ perceptions that pre-enact indy was a nice community event, but the real impact was the changes and trends that were happening in the martindale brightwood neighborhood was the bigger concern to the long-term residents. it was our research assignment to be the resource for the harrison center in the community to find out what the residents felt about engaging in pre-enact indy and what changes needed to be made to the program. as with any community-based research project, when engaging with community residents, a new focus could emerge with new research questions that the community members wanted to pursue projects that would meet the real needs of the community. the long-term residents we spoke with were not as interested in the pre-enact indy festival but were more concerned with what they could do to save their home, their legacies, and their children’s future in that neighborhood. they felt like they were in a constant battle with the impact of gentrification in their neighborhood. they felt their neighborhood identity had become a memory with the new development and gentrification that was happening which was causing a loss of art and the original history of martindale brightwood. these emotions and feelings of the neighbors are significant to the community members’ needs and concerns regarding their neighborhood. it was assumed that the pre-enact indy program would be an anti-gentrification intervention to empower the current residents, but to many of the residents the program was a nice experience but did not fully address the needs and concerns of the neighborhood. with all the reconstruction in the martindale brightwood community, some of the residents felt their identity was erased with all the changes. a few of the long-term residents advised how oral history is important to maintaining historical truth about an area. therefore, they made sure that we understood how the businesses in the area have another long-term resident commented, 'our neighborhood has been emptied and outsiders are moving in, buying up homes, and taking over with new homes that are $200,000 or more that only white residents can afford so they are closer to downtown. many of the original neighborhood residents have moved away or have passed away and the homes have been left to younger family members.' k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y 65 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y also changed and were not really meeting the needs of the long-term residents any longer. “we used to walk down the street to buy shoes, clothes, and groceries, but not anymore. we have to travel far to get those things now. when you don’t have a car, it’s hard to get around,” they said. this change in the neighborhood has brought attention to the need for economic recovery and is seeing more local businesses open. a resident mentioned “we need grocery stores, like aldi, where things are affordable, and we can walk to.” the residents all agreed there should be more local, affordable restaurants for families to gather to enjoy good home-cooked meals as a place to foster community well-being, and social cohesion. they advised how these spaces will also develop healthy relationships for residents as well as support economic resilience for long-term and newer residents during the neighborhood changes. at the conclusion of the project, the residents recommended that the community liaisons working with the university host more community meetings and events to improve community engagement. these meetings would include all relevant community stakeholders such as community leaders, community developers, government officials, university leaders, long-term and new residents, school leaders, and the youth. once the community roundtable is formed there could be an equitable discussion about: 1. affordable housing to increase homeownership for black residents. 2. a quality education for all students, especially students of color. 3. provide opportunities for more local businesses to operate in the neighborhood, especially for black entrepreneurs. 4. support upward mobility and access to start businesses. 5. engage youth with more history-themed programming including archives and artifacts, so they can learn the historical story of the neighborhood. this community-based research project helped us, as graduate students, to see the power of the existence of the arts in communities. for members of martindale brightwood’s community, their artistic expression is storytelling. as we see, storytelling empowers community residents to craft their own stories with opportunities to share their voices, opinions, memories, and reflections. therefore, stories provide multiple ways to communicate histories that give a keen sense of place and identity such as this story about the vibrant martindale brightwood neighborhood. community engaged work and the arts introduced us to innovative ideas and illustrated a community’s culture that can be instrumental in community research, and this was a valuable influence in our graduate research work. we found this research opportunity to be fulfilling, especially as we had to deal with the sudden shift in our learning environment due to covid-19. our vulnerability during that disrupted time allowed us to find creative ways to connect with the neighbors of martindale brightwood such as the “porch parties” where we attended an informal gathering with the long-term residence to hear their stories. if given the opportunity, we recommend the cbpr research approach because it can teach graduate it was assumed that the pre-enact indy program would be an anti-gentrification intervention to empower the current residents, but to many of the residents the program was a nice experience but did not fully address the needs and concerns of the neighborhood. 66engage! | c r e at i v e a rts students about real world situations and gives them opportunities to see where policy decisions may need to be made to create community changes for the betterment and well-being of some residents. cbpr is a research approach that seems more sustainable for the community and the university because it creates academic research that is impactful and beneficial while maintaining a community’s culture. community engaged work and the arts introduced us to innovative ideas and illustrated a community’s culture that can be instrumental in community research, and this was a valuable influence in our graduate research work. figure 2. items from the harrison center’s care package for new residents k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y 67 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y references braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi. org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa braun v., & clarke v. (2013). successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. london: sage. deloria, p. & olson, a. (2017). american studies: a user's guide. oakland, california: university of california press. center, h. (2020, july 27). harrison center greatriarchs. harrison center. https://www.harrisoncenter.org/ greatriarchs fuller, t. k. (2016). mapping environmental justice: a framework for understanding sustainability at the neighborhood scale in indianapolis. in urban sustainability: policy and praxis (pp. 201-215). springer, cham. patterson, & nancy hoalst-pullen, urban sustainability: policy and praxis (pp. 201-216). springer. martindale brightwoodcommunity profiles. (2022). retrieved 11 april 2022, from https://profiles.savi.org/ sharabledashboard.html?boundaryid=4028230 mcdougal, s. (2017). research methods in africana studies. new york: peter lang. pierce, r. (2005). polite protest: the political economy of race in indianapolis, 1920-1970. bloomington: indiana university press proctor, c. (2021, august 5). martindale-brightwood loses its sense of self as gentrification moves in, residents say. indianapolis star, the (in). ritchie, d. a. (2014). doing oral history. new york, ny: oxford university press. some, s. (1999). the spirit of intimacy: ancient teachings in the ways of relationships. new york: w. morrow. thompson, p. (2017). the voice of the past: oral history. fourth edition. oxford university press. summary homelessness services require appropriate funding, access to necessary resources, and experienced staff to effectively connect individuals with housing and services through a housing first lens. this policy brief examines part of the solution to the third requirement: trained and experienced staff. public problem finding experienced social workers to act as caseworkers for a population with increasingly complex needs is a challenge. staff turnover remains high due to low wages and significant burnout. the national alliance to end homelessness estimates pay for permanent supportive housing staff is approximately $42,912 annually; for emergency shelter staff, it is $27,830 (dubois & oliva, 2023). with an average cost of living marked around $49,255 to afford a onebedroom apartment (national low income housing coalition, 2023), these wages are not competitive, nor do they attract new staff to fill the gaps of an aging workforce. in addition to salary, high burnout rates result from working with individuals in desperate situations and having limited resources to solve increasingly complex problems (fleetwood, 2010; waegemakers schiff & lane, 2019). this brief will look at means to expand workforce licensure through appropriately applying requirements to ensure the workforce is accessible to and reflective of service users. currently, social work licensure requires, in most cases, a bachelor’s or master’s degree and passage of a costly licensure exam that has produced racially biased outcomes (apgar & nienow, 2023; mina, 2022; nienow et al., 2023). with increased access to licensure, homelessness services could have a clear path for professional development, increased access to funding streams for salary increases and additional benefits, and a more diverse cohort of caseworkers that reflects the population of individuals experiencing homelessness. trends in recent years, there has been a shortage of social workers in homelessness services. it has notably impacted program capacity in several large continuums of care (coc) 1, including recently in washington, d.c. the washington post reported in february 2023 that hiring one licensed supervisor in a homelessness outreach organization would increase the program's caseload by 125 clients. this number means that 125 people experiencing homelessness would have quicker access to resources, housing, and case management to connect them with appropriate services (swenson & lang, 2023). the profession needs to dramatically improve access to licensure to ensure that these gaps are filled promptly, programs can utilize all the available resources, and people experiencing homelessness can efficiently connect to housing. social work licensure as a form of professional expanding social work licensure to strengthen the homelessness service workforce author caitlin mello 12engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y m e l l o | e x p a n d i n g s o c i a l w o r k l i c e n s u r e 1 a coc is the governing structure designed to coordinate homelessness response by directing community-wide planning and effective utilization of resources. development and increased access to funding is not accessible to all and often does not reflect the populations experiencing and most at risk of homelessness. homelessness is disproportionately experienced by black, indigenous, and native hawaiian or other pacific islander communities within the united states, according to the 2022 united states point in time data (de sousa et al., 2022; national alliance to end homelessness, 2023). culturally competent and specific care would call for providers that reflect those statistics. while graduating social workers are becoming more reflective of the populations served, white women remain approximately 80 percent of the workforce (salsberg et al., 2020). exam requirements for licensure disproportionately favor white test takers, with the most recent data showing roughly a 90 percent pass rate, as opposed to a 40 percent pass rate for black test takers (association of social work boards, 2022). further disparity could be found for individuals who spoke english as a second language. included below is a table outlining the demographics of exam passage in 2022. beyond testing, black social workers carry more significant debt burdens upon leaving msw programs, according to recent data (salsberg et al., 2020; saunders et al., 2016). to have a workforce reflective of community needs, testing and expensive higher education should not remain the only way to access professional social work as a career. policy considerations elimination of exam requirements following the release of data on the pass rates of the association of social work boards (aswb) vo l . 5, i s s u e 213 m e l l o | e x p a n d i n g s o c i a l w o r k l i c e n s u r e note: percentages are pulled from the aswb exam pass rate analysis and includes data from 2018-2021. table 1: homelessness is disproportionately experienced by black, indigenous, and native hawaiian or other pacific islander communities within the united states, according to the 2022 united states point in time data (de sousa et al., 2022; national alliance to end homelessness, 2023). culturally competent and specific care would call for providers that reflect those statistics. exam concerning racial disparities, many state legislatures reconsidered the use of a licensure exam to reflect competency. illinois sb1632 removed exam requirements and resulted in approximately 2,500 additional social workers receiving licensure within six months compared to the prior year (national association of social workers, 2022). washington, d.c., has proposed the social work license modernization amendment act of 2023, which would eliminate the use of the aswb exam and convene a task force to create new recommendations for competency evaluations (2023). utah h.b. 250 removed the examination requirement for licensure (2023). maryland senate bill 145 passed in may of 2023 to provide temporary examination waivers for social work licensure until a new process for determining competency can be established. states should continue removing examination requirements for determining social work competency. this step requires reviewing current licensure regulations and adopting appropriate edits to remove examination requirements. this language may vary from state to state. adoption of licensed social work associate requirements massachusetts is the only state that allows access to licensure with four years of human services experience, documented supervision by a licensed social worker, and a high school diploma. other states can replicate this model to expand access to social work professionalization beyond those who can access four-, five-, or six-year degree programs or have accessibility challenges within the current education model. the model language to create this pathway can be found in massachusetts 258 cmr 9.06: licensure requirements for a licensed social work associate (2017). this policy requires 1,000 hours of education in social work theory and methods in courses or programs provided by field supervision, approved by the massachusetts licensure board. current programs in this context can mean working under the supervision of a licensed social worker providing community-based services for four years. this pathway expands opportunities for individuals living in poverty, parents or caretakers, and people with disabilities that prohibit them from accessing higher education. if implemented, this could create a workforce more reflective of the populations served as access expands. implications in implementing these two policy recommendations, state licensure boards can combat years of systemic racism and inaccessibility within the social work profession. to ensure the workforce reflects those experiencing homelessness, bipoc social workers and social workers who speak english as a second language must have increased access to licensure. licensure opens doors to supervisory roles that continue to be held predominantly by white social workers with advanced degrees. it can also create a larger pool for hiring during a significant social worker shortage across the country. by removing the exam requirement that disproportionately fails bipoc social workers and opening licensure to people without completed degree requirements, the social work profession can take a step closer to equity. homelessness services can increasingly bill medicaid for casework and other benefits when the provider has a license in social work. if more individuals can access licensure through lived experience, work experience, and mentorship, services can access increased funding through medicaid reimbursement. this increased funding can be directed towards caseworker salaries and providing additional resources to individuals experiencing homelessness. the need for increased wages within the homeless services workforce is clear, and accessible funding streams can start to close that gap. social work licensure as a means to professionalize has resulted in a predominantly white workforce with advanced degrees (salsberg et al., 2020). it has diminished access to a helping professional career path for bipoc and low-income communities. for this reason, social workers should dedicate resources to question the current education and regulatory systems and consider significant shifts in the field with justice 14engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y m e l l o | e x p a n d i n g s o c i a l w o r k l i c e n s u r e vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 in mind. in the immediate future, the solutions outlined here can increase access to professional development, funding, and decision-making power for bipoc providers and those with lived expertise to practice community care in homelessness services. recommendations local leaders can begin addressing the historical inequality of the social work licensure process by first eliminating an exam requirement. the test outcomes disproportionately harm black, latino/hispanic, and indigenous social workers and the communities that greatly benefit from providers that share identity and culture. elected officials can eliminate the exam requirement through the legislative process following models developed in illinois sb1632. local advocates can contact their legislators for the adoption of similar measures in their states. social workers should connect directly with state licensure boards to request alternative licensing models that do not include exams. state leaders should consider expanding access to licensure beyond those with a degree in social work. state licensure boards and elected officials can expand their licensure to include a high school diploma and relevant experience by recommending the adoption of language similar to massachusetts 258 cmr 9.06: licensure requirements for a licensed social work associate (2017). it creates a new pathway to social work that can ensure a diverse workforce reflective of the people served. advocates and social workers can request these measures from state elected officials. in particular, homelessness service providers have a role in advocacy at the state level, as the potential for an increased licensed workforce pool will create more effective and responsive services. 15 m e l l o | e x p a n d i n g s o c i a l w o r k l i c e n s u r e if more individuals can access licensure through lived experience, work experience, and mentorship, services can access increased funding through medicaid reimbursement. this increased funding can be directed towards caseworker salaries and providing additional resources to individuals experiencing homelessness. references apgar, d., & nienow, m. (2023). newly released data on examination pass rates supports need for widespread reform. research on social work practice, 33(1), 5-7. https://doi. org/10.1177/10497315221124137 aswb first-time pass results released: this is not ok. national association of social workers illinois. (2022, august 8). https:// www.naswil.org/amp/aswb-firsttime-pass-results-released-thisis-not-ok fleetwood, m. (2010). homeless services in the us: looking back, looking forward: an open letter to policymakers, advocates, and providers. the open health services and policy journal, 3(1). https:// benthamopen.com/contents/ pdf/tohspj/tohspj-3-101.pdf de sousa, t., andrichik, a., cuellar, m., marson, j., prestera, e., and rush, k. (2022). the 2022 annual homelessness assessment report (ahar) to congress. the u.s. department of housing and urban development; office of community planning and development. https://www.huduser. gov/portal/sites/default/files/ pdf/2022-ahar-part-1.pdf dubois, n., and oliva, a. (2023, september 5). new estimates suggest that $4.8 billion is needed to bring homeless services salaries into the modern era. national alliance to end homelessness. https://endhomelessness.org/ wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ workforcesalaryneeds-9-5-2023. pdf licensure requirements and procedures, massachusetts 258 cmr 9.06 (2017). https://www.mass. gov/doc/258-cmr-9-licensure-requirements-and-procedures/ download mina, f. (2022, september 20). results in social worker exams reveal stark racial disparities. the imprint. https://imprintnews. org/top-stories/results-in-social-worker-exams-reveal-racial-disparities/173406#:~:text=the%20largest%20 disparity%20is%20between,just%2045%25%20of%20 the%20time nienow, m., sogabe, e., & husain, a. (2023). racial disparity in social work licensure exam pass rates. research on social work practice, 33(1), 76-83. https://doi. org/10.1177/10497315221125885 national low income housing coalition. (2023). out of reach: the high cost of housing. https:// nlihc.org/oor salsberg, e., quigley, l., richwine, c., sliwa, s., acquaviva, k., & wyche, k. (2020). the social work profession: findings from three years of surveys of new social workers. fitzhugh mullan institute for health workforce equity, the george washington university. saunders, k. m., williams, k. l., &amp; smith, c. l. (2016). fewer resources more debt: loan debtburdens students at historically black colleges &amp; universities. uncf frederick d. patterson research institute. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ed573646.pdf social work license modernization amendment act of 2023, district of columbia b259 (2023). https://trackbill.com/bill/districtof-columbia-bill-259-social-worklicense-modernization-amendment-act-of-2023/2423136/ social worker licensing amendments, utah h.b. 250 (2023). https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/ static/hb0250.html state board of social work examiners conditional licenses to practice social work, maryland sb 0145 (2023).https://mgaleg. maryland.gov/mgawebsite/ legislation/details/sb0145#:~:text=authorizing%20the%20 state%20board%20of,if%20 the%20required%20examination%20was national alliance to end homelessness. (2023, may 23). state of homelessness: 2023 edition. https://endhomelessness. org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/ state-of-homelessness/ swenson, k., &amp; lang, m. j. (2023, february 10). cities like d.c. have funds to house the homeless. they need staff. washington post. https://www. washingtonpost.com/dc-mdva/2023/02/10/dc-homeless-case-manager-shortage-housing-assistance/ waegemakers schiff, j., &amp; lane, a.m. (2019) ptsd symptoms, vicarious traumatization, and burnout in front line workers in the homeless sector. community ment health j 55, 454–462. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597018-00364-7 association of social work boards. (2022). 2022 aswb exam pass rate anaylsis. https:// www.aswb.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-aswb-exam-pass-rate-analysis.pdf engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 16 m e l l o | e x p a n d i n g s o c i a l w o r k l i c e n s u r e 49 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y why cultural diplomacy is more relevant—and more challenging—than ever authors william harvey founder, cultures in harmony and concertmaster and national symphony orchestra, mexico, fernanda villalvazo founder, péepem art association and concert violinist keywords: cultural diplomacy, indigenous culture, violin, pandemic art abstract the authors, both violinists and founders of cultural diplomacy organizations, relate the challenges of conducting meaningful cultural diplomacy during a pandemic. their work included video collaborations bringing together musicians from north america, europe, africa, and asia; in-person work in the remote sierra tarahumara mountains of northern mexico; and a unique project to promote the sustained livelihood and increased access of freedom and security of 326 afghan musicians. introduction two of the events of the 21st century that had the greatest impact on world history were the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001 (boston university, 2021) and the current pandemic. although very different, these two events re-ordered how societies interact with each other, had profound impacts on how people and societies protect themselves (whether from terrorism or disease), and exacerbated the deterioration of global trust, hardening the cultural, religious, national, and ethnic (hswen et al., 2021) barriers we created for ourselves. the authors of this paper both founded cultural diplomacy organizations in which music soars effortlessly over those barriers, affirming our common humanity. during the pandemic, they frequently worked together, despite the differences in their organizations’ history, in order to answer a seemingly impossible question: how can cultural diplomacy continue to forge connections between people, when most contact between people remains risky to their health due to the highly communicable nature of covid-19? cultures in harmony william had just started studying violin at the juilliard school in new york in 2001 when al qaeda terrorists hijacked planes, crashing them into the world trade center. five days later, he played the violin for soldiers returning from a long day of clean-up work at the world trade center site, often referred to as “ground zero.” seeing how meaningful music was at that difficult time changed his life, but also led him to speculate regarding factors that could explain the tragedy of september 11, arriving at the hypothesis that the pace of globalization has surpassed our ability to grow in empathy. cultural exchange can help us connect with people on the other side of the world, people very different from ourselves. so, william started studying the field of cultural diplomacy, which has a long and rich history. 50engage! | c r e at i v e a rts in the twentieth century, many countries saw a need to underwrite exchanges based on the arts, culture and education to celebrate both our differences and what we share. the united kingdom founded the british council (n.d.) in 1940 to create in a country overseas a basis of friendly knowledge and understanding of the people of this country, of their philosophy and way of life, which will lead to a sympathetic appreciation of british foreign policy, whatever for the moment that policy may be and from whatever political conviction it may spring (n.d., para. 6). the united states entered the game by founding the united states information agency in 1953, eventually folding it into the state department in 1999 (arndt, 2005). france has the alliance française, spain has the instituto cervantes, germany has the goethe-institut, and china has the confucius institute, among others. private cultural diplomacy organization, focusing on people-to-people exchanges across cultural and national barriers, also exist: the institute for cultural diplomacy defines the pursuit for which it exists as a course of actions, which are based on and utilize the exchange of ideas, values, traditions and other aspects of culture or identity, whether to strengthen relationships, enhance sociocultural cooperation, promote national interests and beyond. cultural diplomacy can be practiced by either the public sector, private sector or civil society (n.d., para. 4). in november 2001, just after the taliban lost control of afghanistan, a 16-year-old named ajmal from jalalabad told the new york times: “we are searching for any kind of music. it’s been six years since i heard music. there are no words to explain the happiness i think i will feel when i hear it (weiner, 2001, para. 14).” his words caused william to wonder what the impact on ajmal’s perception of the usa would be if an american were to be the first person to play music for him. accordingly, he attempted to get the state department interested in sending him there but was rebuffed. he would have to design and implement such cultural diplomacy projects on his own, not knowing at the time that his dream of going to afghanistan would be fulfilled nine years later. in 2005, william founded cultures in harmony (cih) to promote cultural understanding through music. since then, the organization has carried out more than 40 projects in sixteen countries, from pakistan to cameroon. the organization has taught young musicians in tunisia, collaborated with folk musicians in turkey, and taught composition to the yoro tribe in the middle of the jungle in papua new guinea. their first project in mexico in 2007 saw them give master classes to members of the youth orchestras of mexico city and at the escuela superior de música, where the authors of this article first met. to more completely incorporate cultural diplomacy into his career, william applied to teach music at the afghanistan national institute of music (anim) (n.d.), founded by dr. ahmad sarmast. in 2010, he became the first foreign teacher at anim, a project funded by the world bank (2012). every day teaching afghan girls and boys the violin was an opportunity for william to connect across a seemingly vast cultural chasm while fighting the anti-music principles of the taliban. during their first period in power, from 1996 to 2001, the taliban prohibited the study and performance of music, even outlawing the act of listening to recorded music, famously stringing cassette tapes from trees (armangue, 2021; wroe, 2001). dr. sarmast asked william to found the afghan youth orchestra, the first in afghanistan's history where boys and girls would play side by side (rubin & wakin, 2013). after four years in h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y 51 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y afghanistan, william moved to latin america. cultures in harmony continued its work connecting muslim and non-muslim populations until 2018, the most recent year when they sent a group of teachers to tunisia. the motivation remained the same: to bridge the divisions etched into the world's consciousness on a brilliant september morning, seventeen years earlier, in that first event that defined the present century. péepem art association fernanda left mexico for europe to study violin performance, violin pedagogy, and choir and ensemble conducting: first in italy in 2008, then in austria in 2010 at the universität mozarteum salzburg. after many years of living abroad and having experienced firsthand how music and art in the context of intercultural exchange allow communication and social evolution, she founded péepem art association in 2018 to promote intercultural exchange through music and art. its first major project, called artisteach, brought eight mexican music students to europe for three weeks in january 2019, first for a week in northern italy, then two weeks in salzburg, where they took master classes, lessons, instrumental pedagogy workshops, and played in chamber music concerts and a string orchestra. in the process, they got to know austrian culture and interacted with host families (péepem art, 2022). in november of the same year, péepem art, supported by foro cultural de austria en méxico, (clases maestras, n.d.) the mexican embassy in austria, and the music faculty of the autonomous national university (unam), sent three austrians—one teacher and two students— from the mozarteum university to mexico. the teacher gave master classes and joined the two students to interact with mexican musicians as soloists, in chamber music ensembles, and in a string orchestra formed specifically for the project (villalvazo, 2021). like many projects planned for 2020, further collaborations were stalled. virtual cultural diplomacy in the pandemic in 2020, the authors, now both living in mexico, shared a concern regarding how to conduct cultural diplomacy in a pandemic. many arts organizations around the world released videos in which each artist separately recorded their role. as concertmaster of mexico’s national symphony orchestra, william participated in such a video (instituto naclanal de bellas artes y literatura, 2020). the juilliard school’s version of bolero (2020) is a particularly noteworthy example. however, as soon as health authorities permit, arts organizations rooted in a particular city seek to continue to create art in person, their rosters 1 for more information: www.culturesinharmony.org. cultures in harmony has maintained 501(c)(3) status in the usa since december 16, 2008. figure 1. william harvey conducts the afghan youth orchestra in a sold-out concert at new york's carnegie hall on february 12, 2013 52engage! | c r e at i v e a rts united on a single stage in front of their loyal audiences. a few arts organizations realized the potential of this newly popular video genre to embody cultural diplomacy at its best. in nico muhly’s throughline (barone, 2020), commissioned and performed by the san francisco symphony, that orchestra’s music director esa-pekka salonen appears to cause a harp to sound in california from the comfort of his home thousands of miles away in finland, his gentle striking of rocks and trees coinciding with the harp notes(san francisco symphony, 2020). famed sitar player, anoushka shankar (2000), released a multicultural collaboration, “those words,” in which the presence of solitary musicians in their homes heightened the impact of the song’s wistful nature, suggesting that we are each isolated only if we choose to be. the gold standard of the genre may be the world economic forum’s (2021) video “see me,” which brought together renowned cellist yo-yo ma, the chamber orchestra of anim, and musicians from south africa, brazil, china, and more. cultures in harmony chose to launch a platform that would eventually feature many of these kinds of videos: “connecting cultures through counterpoint” (cultures in harmony, n.d.). in 2020, the platform paid musicians in congo, zimbabwe, india and mexico to share aspects of their culture. but that did not allow us to encourage the kind of dialogue that cultural diplomacy can achieve at its best. so, in 2021, cih launched #connect4 videos that bring musicians from four different countries together to play the same piece of music. for the first video, pakistani sitar player nafees ahmad, director of the music department at karachi’s national academy of performing arts and frequent cih collaborator since 2009, sent the founder of cih one of his compositions called “musica senza confini,” or music without borders. william arranged two violin parts for fernanda villalvazo (coauthor of this article) and keamogetswe magau, a violinist he met while serving as guest concertmaster of the kwazulu natal philharmonic orchestra in durban, south africa, in 2017. percussionist stephen solook, a frequent cih project participant, improvised a percussion part. (cultures in harmony, 2021a) the video made a strong positive impact, receiving many comments on social media: one user on youtube wrote, “it's beautiful to see how the music makes [this] possible…very different countries and cultures playing together in spite of distance.” the version on facebook received over 20,000 views (cultures in harmony, 2021b). as part of its virtual activities during the pandemic, péepem art association initiated a virtual christmas concert in 2020 that allowed people from around the world to experience a holiday musical event that could not easily be duplicated in person. musicians from the usa, mexico, austria, germany, thailand, greece, bulgaria, wales, and sweden each played and explained to the virtual public a holiday-related musical piece from their culture. (péepem art, 2020) however, no cultural diplomacy video can substitute for in-person projects. 2 it is incorporated as an association under austrian law. for more information: https://www.facebook.com/p%c3%a9epemart-195130021401739 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y 53 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y socially distanced cultural diplomacy—where the violin is happiness, and the mountains go up instead of down in 2021, the authors looked for a way to unite their separate organizations through a faceto-face project in which it would be possible to connect cultures through music, but without excessive risk of contracting or transmitting covid-19. they thought of going to the remote sierra tarahumara mountain range in northern mexico, where the indigenous rarámuri people live amidst spectacular scenery without many public services, stores, paved roads, transportation, or access to service or construction professionals, as a result of which rarámuri must perform for themselves tasks such as potable water extraction, building construction, animal husbandry, farming, manufacture of clothing, and more. the violin plays an exceptionally important role in their culture, so much so that in some small communities, about one in ten people have some familiarity with playing the violin: rarámuri ceremonies, from foot races to parties, often feature the violin. as it happens, the authors of this article were not the first classical musicians to travel there. when the american pianist romayne wheeler graduated from the vienna conservatory of music in 1972, his professors suggested that he document the music of native americans. an unusual series of circumstances (rodríguez, 2016) led him to first visit the sierra tarahumara in 1980, when he started to visit annually. from 1992, he began to live there full time, dedicating all the proceeds from his international concert career to helping the rarámuri with education, health, and food security. with the support of the united states consulate in ciudad juarez, the authors went to chihuahua to give medicine and musical supplies to the rarámuri, supporting romayne’s decades-long mission (cultures in harmony, 2021c; u.s. mission to mexico, 2021). the vastness of the landscape and a lifestyle rooted in the outdoors certainly permitted the authors to maintain social distancing. the authors went to the sierra tarahumara to help musicians preserve their culture and traditions, but they ended up being the ones who felt helped and welcomed. visiting a place that remains almost pristine, connected to its traditional culture, and where the value of a person is measured by how much he or she contributes to others, reconnected the authors with our own deepest values. during the project fernanda and william managed to get rid of their preconceived notions and strict classical training to meld their music and their souls with the purity of the landscape and the hearts of the people who inhabit it. in-depth conversations with many rarámuri about topics ranging from music’s role in society to the noteworthy affinity many have for long-distance running (lieberman et al., 2020) expanded their own paradigms, positively impacting their professional lives as musicians in the megalopolis of mexico city. for their own part, they were able to offer many rarámuri violinists instruments, cases, bows, strings, rosin, and other supplies they need to maintain the importance of the violin in their culture. rarámuri communities live in the most remote parts of chihuahua state, allowing them to preserve the essence of their culture. in most of these communities, all the food and materials that exist have been produced there or are transported on the backs of the people who live there (cultures in harmony, 2021c). it would be difficult for rarámuri to buy items at a music store unless they hitch a ride or walk several hundred kilometers to the nearest city. there are some local violin makers, who can craft the instruments using wood, engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 54 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y but to get the materials to make items like strings is impossible for them. as their society works mostly on a barter basis, earning money inside the sierra tarahumara becomes very difficult. apart from visitors paying them for some assistance or a few programs offered by the federal government, like sembrando vida (secretaria de bienestar, 2020), rarámuri must go to a bigger town or city outside their mountain range in order to earn money. all of these factors motivated the intention of the authors to support their colleagues in the sierra tarahumara. porfirio cubesare, who helped the authors as a friend, guide, and implementation partner in their work there, told them about his concern regarding changes in the amount of rain the sierra tarahumara receives: global warming is affecting their crops and the way they produce food (argomedo, 2020; guajardo, 2009), but he believes that these changes are because god wants the rarámuri to better preserve their traditions and retain their fundamental values. the irony in these words stems from the rarámuri culture’s inherently austere and climate-friendly lifestyle. romayne wheeler has incorporated himself into the rarámuri lifestyle more thoroughly than any outsider probably could. like the rarámuri, he uses the traditional huarache instead of shoes. he wears traditional clothing and lives a simple life with few luxuries. he has adopted many aspects of their philosophy as his own, writing one of the key anthropological texts about their beliefs (wheeler, 2000). he continues to write new books about them, books which have inspired many people around the world. one of the most important books is life through the eyes of a tarahumara: contains stories, reflections and poems that transport the reader to a simple life, full of beauty, commitment to nature, yet with many difficulties, a deep-rooted spirituality, and unique perspectives. in this book, which also contains expressive photographs, the author transports the reader to the heart of life, the rites and the customs of the rarámuri people in an entertaining, simple and realistic way. the race starts early in the morning and lasts all night because they want to run at least thirty laps around the circuit. the course is 150 kilometers. but this is not just a race; the men have to move a ball made of lightweight arbutus wood about the size of a baseball while running. they throw the ball in front of them with their feet, the ball may not be touched by anything other than a foot, or a the authors went to the sierra tarahumara to help musicians preserve their culture and traditions, but they ended up being the ones who felt helped and welcomed. visiting a place that remains almost pristine, connected to its traditional culture, and where the value of a person is measured by how much he or she contributes to others, reconnected the authors with our own deepest values. figure 2. the authors with rarámuri violinists herculano and porfirio cubesare, sierra tarahumara, northern mexico, april 2021. 55 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y stick and runners may not finish the race without a ball...they run at the speed of a fast-trotting horse. they are often accompanied by friends to encourage them and not lose their bets. you must keep in mind that they maintain this rhythm day and night, up, down, through the bushes, forests, rivers and throwing a ball! it should not be assumed that at the end the runners are exhausted and that they arrive out of breath, only a few sweat and quicken their breathing. there are doctors who have proven that their pulse does not vary when they climbs two thousand meters from the ravine to the summit. one of my friends, patrocinio lópez, once carried my luggage up a steep hill while playing a happy tune on the violin he made. reaching the top, he pointed his finger towards a distant mountain range, saying that if i had not accompanied him, he would have already reached there (ibid, pp. 128–129). however, advancing age and the pandemic compromise romayne wheeler’s continued ability to help the rarámuri as he has since 1980: by leaving the sierra tarahumara in order to give fundraising concerts around the world. in order to best assist his work converting musical concerts into tangible assistance for the rarámuri, the authors realized that it might be helpful for the fundraising concerts to come to him, rather than him going to the concerts. the authors formulated an idea that can be implemented even during a pandemic: the festival of the sierra tarahumara (cultures in harmony, n.d.). this event will connect festival guests and members of the rarámuri community. it brings the public to the mountains, providing attendees with an unforgettable experience that is very difficult to replicate in any other context or place. those attending the festival will have the opportunity to know impressive and pure landscapes, live with the indigenous community of retosachi, take walks to the neighboring communities guided by members of the community, experience a traditional rarámuri party, and at the end of each day, listen to a concert of classical music with internationally renowned soloists while they enjoy the sun setting in the batopilas canyon. likewise, festival guests will enjoy the opportunity to meet romayne wheeler—composer, pianist, writer and humanitarian, whose life is dedicated to music, reflection and altruism. they will be able to listen to his music and poetry full of wisdom, the result of years of introspection and contact with indigenous communities. in 2021, the authors held the festival for a local and livestream audience, but in 2022, guests will have the opportunity to experience this for themselves. even as the pandemic renders most in-person cultural diplomacy impossible, the unique cultural and geographical conditions in the sierra tarahumara facilitate mutually beneficial exchange. an unsought exchange: the exodus of afghan musicians after returning from retosachi in april, a project cultures in harmony that never would have sought, came to its attention. kabul fell under the control of the taliban on august 15, for the first time in nearly twenty years (zucchino, 2021). anim founder dr. sarmast, then in australia for medical treatment, and william harvey, then in mexico city, were inundated with dozens of messages from afghan musicians seeking to flee the taliban, who banned music during their first time in power from 1996 to 2001. dr. sarmast focused on the evacuation of the anim community, which he eventually achieved, relocating hundreds of students, teachers, and their family members to portugal (reuters, 2021). cih focused on musicians who dr. sarmast 56engage! | c r e at i v e a rts h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y could not include in his plans. currently, william manages a whatsapp group responsible for 326 musicians. cultures in harmony has raised over $30,000 to assist them. to date, cih has assisted many afghans with survival-related expenses such as food and fuel, urgently needed due to the taliban’s inability to manage an economy (goldbaum, 2021). cih helped two afghan musicians get accepted to and assisted their travel to universities in the usa—indiana university jacobs school of music and nyack college. another musician is now in canada thanks in part to their efforts. in mexico, cih partners with proyecto habesha (n.d.), an organization with seven years of experience in resettling syrian refugees in this country. together, they will bring seven afghan musicians to mexico in late april 2022; those musicians will be on track to become mexican citizens. they will spend one year in aguascalientes learning spanish before taking a one-year music course at the universidad panamericana in mexico city. the role that the anti-music principles of the taliban played in inspiring the founding of cultures in harmony underscored the importance of assisting afghan musicians in their hour of greatest need. a global network of contacts needed to be mobilized instantly. the pandemic imposed a perverse advantage: many people needed to help afghans now had more time to do so. for the afghan musicians, suddenly their membership in a global community of musicians became more salient than their identity as afghans in a country whose new government now rejected the morality of music, a prohibition that for afghan musicians transcends the merely professional and touches the core of their identity. the first afghan musician to arrive in the usa thanks to cih posed at the airport with the cello teacher at new york’s nyack college who helped her get accepted. seldom have the connections facilitated by music appeared as poignant as in an image of two women rendered similar in appearance by winter weather, pandemic-imposed face masks, and the afghan arriving without her guitar, since it would have been a risk for her to approach the airport in kabul with it, given the likelihood that the taliban would destroy the instrument, prevent her from leaving, and/or incarcerate her. conclusion cultural diplomacy is more relevant than ever because the world is both more connected and more divided than ever before. on the one hand, a globalized economy, the internet, and social media connect us in ways almost impossible for our ancestors to imagine. on the other hand, the maintenance of vestiges of political and economic imperialism, plus terrorism motivated by economics, politics, or religion, have exacerbated all forms of hatred, whether based on religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender identity, or sexual orientation. the attacks of september 11, 2001, made it impossible for the citizens of the country with the world’s largest economy and military—the united states of america—to continue to ignore these problems. the covid-19 pandemic has only made these problems worse: suspicions caused by the virus’ likely origin in china have deepened political divisions between the china and the rest of the world while increasing acts of hatred directed against people of chinese background (or people perceived to be of chinese background) in many countries. even inside the same culture, barriers appear when we discuss our approach to the virus and in many parts of the world violent attacks to doctors and nurses were registered (semple, 2020). no single discipline can claim to solve these problems, but cultural diplomacy does attempt to alleviate them by affirming the connections that 57 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y reminds us all of our membership in one human family. cultural diplomacy as practiced by both cultures in harmony and péepem art association had to evolve due to the strictures imposed by the pandemic. since cultural diplomacy normally depends on in-person interaction—indeed, it has previously been impossible to imagine cultural diplomacy without people in a room, exchanging ideas from each other’s cultures or appreciating the art another culture created—cultural diplomacy became more challenging than ever before at precisely the historical moment when we desperately need reminders of our common humanity. cultures in harmony and péepem art association worked together to create a virtual collaborative video that brought together musicians from pakistan, south africa, mexico, and the united states to play the same piece of music. these organizations collaborated on an in-person project in the sierra tarahumara in northern mexico, an isolated area where people live much of their lives outdoors, thereby obviating the need to constantly think about social distancing. cultures in harmony rose to the challenge of helping afghan musicians in spite of the pandemic, and here an obvious through-line can be drawn. the usa ignored the reactionary ideology of the afghan mujahideen they empowered in the 1980s in order to weaken the soviet union. many of those mujahideen would go on to found the taliban, under whose totalitarian rule music was illegal. the usa continued to ignore them until the attacks of september 11, 2001, made that course of action impossible. for nearly twenty years, an americanbacked order in afghanistan enabled music to be legal, as it is in every other country in the world, but the usa ignored lessons from other nationbuilding efforts throughout history and the taliban reconquered the country, once again banning music, creating an exodus of afghans (particularly including musicians) during a pandemic that also might have been avoided or mitigated had we paid greater attention to the interconnected nature of modern human society and its impact on our global natural environment. what other consequences might result if we forget our common humanity? what wars, acts of terrorism, and pandemics can we avert if we remember it? no single tool can guide humanity on a wiser or more peaceful path, but at minimum, cultural diplomacy provides a small corrective. the american audiences who witnessed the us tour by the afghan youth orchestra in february 2013 undoubtedly felt more convinced of the importance of us support of afghanistan. a small project that cultures in harmony implemented in china in 2018 created a positive image of american culture in the minds of the dozens of people who experienced it, but massive cultural diplomacy by china in the usa before the pandemic might have reduced the incidents of tragic anti-asian racism that increased since early 2020. that the government of the islamic republic of afghanistan 3while the pandemic prevented romayne wheeler from giving as many concerts as he would like, some were able to proceed, including the one described here: https://www.fundaciongrupomexico.org/diavoluntario/paginas/concausa.aspx what other consequences might result if we forget our common humanity? what wars, acts of terrorism, and pandemics can we avert if we remember it? no single tool can guide humanity on a wiser or more peaceful path, but at minimum, cultural diplomacy provides a small corrective. 58engage! | c r e at i v e a rts h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y fell, that those tragic incidents of racism did happen, should not be taken as a failure of cultural diplomacy, but rather, as motivation to work harder. cultural diplomacy, which can be defined as building peace through understanding between peoples, is more challenging than ever at precisely the moment when it is more necessary than ever. practitioners within and beyond academia will need to continue acts of cultural diplomacy in order to inspire all eight billion residents of this planet to see 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(2021, august 17). kabul’s sudden fall to taliban ends u.s. era in afghanistan. new york times. https://www.nytimes. com/2021/08/15/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-kabul-surrender. html 51 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 t u | v i s a g e o f a m o t h e r ' s s u c c e s s the visage of a mother’s success author alissa tu, department of literature, university of california san diego keywords: vietnamese americans, vietnamese women, beauty pageants, vietnamese diaspora, cultural identity abstract this inquiry is a personal essay about vietnamese american youth participating in a beauty pageant and how notions of western and eastern beauty collide between vietnamese american youth and their mothers. what does the beauty pageant represent for those who have been exiled from their homeland? how do ideal versions of success influence the participant’s identity or sense of self? who is the ideal vietnamese american beauty queen? by hypothesizing and understanding entry points that affect a mother’s perspective, vietnamese american youth, specifically daughters, must navigate different ideals to find a sense of belonging. while being excluded from parts of american society, vietnamese american youth are faced with trauma, values and ethics, racism and sexism while also being the personification of a mother’s success. daughters who participate in a beauty pageant enforce a sense of community and are a symbol of hope to assimilate in america for those who have been exiled, and a participant’s success is a product of this navigation and a mother’s vicarious desires. in other words, the ideal beauty pageant queen must not only be able to uphold cultural values embedded in the beauty pageant but also their values entangled through familial relationships as well. as such, the ideal beauty pageant queen can balance both the daughter’s (western) and the mother’s (eastern) definition of success. introduction question of the day: what does my mother believe is the ideal vietnamese beauty queen? nhi t. lieu (2011) discusses in “pageantry and nostalgia: beauty contests and the gendered homeland,” that “vietnamese americans have organized their own beauty pageants to provide alternative spaces which ‘ethnic vietnamese’ women have the opportunity to participate and reign as beauty queens for their ethnic community” (p. 59). beauty pageants within the vietnamese community is the subject of much small talk. for most vietnamese american youth, they learn about culture through their parents so if an ethnic beauty pageant is a way for young women to connect with their culture to participate, and they learn about culture through their parents, what is the relationship between parents and a beauty queen identity? possible answer: this pageant is for my mother, and she’s reclaiming a homeland that doesn’t exist anymore through my participation. by entering the pageant, i am tangible evidence that she is safe in america. the beauty pageant also affirms my mother has assimilated as lieu (2011) notes, “vietnamese ao dai beauty pageants are one of the most visible examples of vietnamese immigrants trying to negotiate the process of assimilating into bourgeois american culture while remaining ethnically vietnamese” (p. 61). by valuing my mother’s definition of success and checking off each criterion, participating in the beauty pageant means her values are validated, and that she, vicariously, can also participate in the bourgeois american culture. 52engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry i call home. some days, my mother talks a lot. some days, my father hangs up after a few seconds because he’s playing uno with my brother. other days, my mother says little. no matter what, i must be on-guard because my mother might ramble that she is miserable, scared for my father, or suffering. there is only so much i can listen to until my body becomes too weary. i like to think i won’t carry my mother’s sadness, but i realize i often do. thao thanh mai’s dissertation, dilemmas or choice: family, love, and status in the lives of young vietnamese-american women (2006), discusses the female vietnamese american identity, and how family affects their idea of success and identity by interviewing five different vietnamese american women. because their mothers sacrificed everything to move to the states, daughters feel familial obligations to succeed in ways their mothers want them to, and that success can be measured often through wealth and material status. in other words, there’s a debt to pay to parents, and it becomes a major factor in how daughters proceed in life. mai (2006) explores this guilt when she interviews with kim who became a pharmacist because of her parents. “the ‘intense guilt’ [kim] felt signified her obligation and responsibility to fix what she felt was an unjust situation for her parents” (p. 143). kim justified that this decision was because her parents wouldn’t have the chance to succeed in attaining wealth or material status. there’s a weight to each action. each decision affects how a vietnamese daughter must fix, become, and do what their parents desire because their parents never had the opportunity. not explicitly discussed is how daughters are held to higher expectations than sons because the expectations of domesticity and physical appearance aren’t discussed. sons don’t have to know how to take care of the house or make sure they look presentable at any given moment. this definition of success leaves out beauty even though it’s a necessary tool to succeed in life. there’s an unspoken rule that beauty is also included in a parent’s definition of a successful daughter. when my mother is lucid or delirious, she whispers her confessions about the vietnam war. her voice titters like a hummingbird. it always feels like she knocks the wind out of me. some days, she speaks about indonesian beaches. other days, she confesses what they did to her. most of the time, she repeats the same phrase. during a zoom pageant practice, a contestant and i are in a breakout room. she tells me how her mother doesn’t approve of her participating in a pageant because she isn’t feminine enough. i don’t have an answer most of the time because the reality is there’s no fix-it answer. this is a common theme. a mother pushing her ideals onto her daughter. the amount of love a daughter receives is equal to how close she is to her mother’s idea of success. in life kit’s “how to squash negative self-talk,” (kutes, 2021) dr. joy harden bradford discusses how the negative self-talk stems from early childhood as well as many of the -isms that exist in the world—racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc. so not only do i have a traumatic childhood, but i also have a lot of -isms attacking me. dismantling those -isms will take constant challenging, which feels a lot like suffering. how does one accept the trauma that is mother inflicted? this trauma is guided in the ideals of success, perfection, and beauty. not only does that trauma have to be felt, but how does one categorize thoughts as valid or unrealistic? that’s not the only abstract concept running through my brain. how do i challenge the asian american woman stereotype? how do i show i’m not submissive, t u | v i s a g e o f a m o t h e r ' s s u c c e s s 53 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 t u | v i s a g e o f a m o t h e r ' s s u c c e s s obedient, and partaking in respectability politics? am i a bad asian woman if i acknowledge these perceptions but also use them to my own advantage? every challenge comes with consequences, and every consequence includes suffering. the suffering is either incongruent with eastern or western ideals. if i succeed in one challenge, i am failing to uphold at least one set of ideals by doing so. there is no ending where i go unharmed. it is an absolute. the degree of suffering varies. transferring suffering, the idea that burdens from parents are passed onto daughters, is prominent in mai’s interviews (2006). some women fully accept choosing a financially stable and high social standing career to lessen their parents’ burdens. if they can give back sacrificing a self-interested yet unstable career because their parents sacrificed everything, they would. others have negotiated with these ideas, but how much can be given away? my mother used to say she was happy if her children had a good job and did well in life. whenever she did, goosebumps crawled onto my skin. it was sickeningly full of guilt because the kindness and care in her words never translated into her actions. i was always missing something, and she reminded me constantly. i was a bad daughter so whenever she told me she just wanted me to be comfortable in life, i felt chills. her actions said she wanted to pulverize me with her kind of perfection. the altruistic desire was never there. when my mother learns i have a significant other, she is excited because that means i can rely on a family to support me. it’s odd because i have no intentions of starting a family, and i don’t know why a significant other signifies i am getting married. in her eyes, i am fulfilling her desires. to have a husband means i’ll be financially supported and live comfortably. will i succumb to my mother’s desires? my aunt is the one who sees the pageant flyer first. she’s the first to notify me about the mistaken accents on my last name. my last name is written as tú and not as từ. it feels like motherly figures like to take control for their “daughters” in hopes to live vicariously through them. the daughters don’t necessarily want to pursue whatever their mothers have advised. however, the mothers push their perspectives onto them. the daughters feel the guilt or pressure to follow through with these ideas. throughout these interviews, mai (2006) asked the vietnamese mothers how they’d define success. more often, it would be about financial stability, a good steady career, and a significant other who is just as or more educated than their daughter. those desires are pushed onto daughters, and they try to negotiate between their mothers’ hopes and their own identity. every interview complicates these two extremes. no one seems completely satisfied with who they are. my mother texts saying my father hopes all my siblings and i have partners and get married. she tells me it’ll make him happy. another chill down my spine. i don’t believe he’d bring up this idea on his own. it isn’t like him. in my experience, he never had such a definitive opinion about my life. when i casually revealed i was throughout these interviews, mai (2006) asked the vietnamese mothers how they’d define success. more often, it would be about financial stability, a good steady career, and a significant other who is just as or more educated than their daughter. those desires are pushed onto daughters, and they try to negotiate between their mothers’ hopes and their own identity. every interview complicates these two extremes. no one seems completely satisfied with who they are. engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 54 t u | v i s a g e o f a m o t h e r ' s s u c c e s s interested in girls, he didn’t blink an eye. when i was in the hospital, he didn’t say a word. it is unlike him to have such a strong opinion and voice them. my mother texts saying my father hopes all my siblings and i have partners and get married. she tells me it’ll make him happy. another chill down my spine. i don’t believe he’d bring up this idea on his own. it isn’t like him. in my experience, he never had such a definitive opinion about my life. when i casually revealed i was interested in girls, he didn’t blink an eye. when i was in the hospital, he didn’t say a word. it is unlike him to have such a strong opinion and voice them. it’s like my mother spoon-fed him the answers. she asked pointed questions so his answers aligned with her ideas. on my car rides with contestant #12, she tells me about her winter break, and immediately concludes with she can’t wait until this pageant is over. her mother has reinforced her ideals and standards of beauty onto her. when she tells me that her mother says she needs to diet, that the áo dài’s she tried on didn’t fit well, or that it needed to be prettier, i swallow my sadness for her. her mother is forcing her to win, which isn’t the point. she is doing something for herself and is doing something outside of her comfort zone. there’s no set standard to beauty. prettiness isn’t defined by a body shape. it isn’t defined by the perfect curls that the vietnamese girls i’ve grown up with seem to have. it isn’t shaped by makeup. it isn’t an ideal personality. there’s no such thing as an ideal beauty. it’s all subjective so why is it that beauty is some marker of success? i share contestant #12’s introduction post on instagram because she doesn’t have social media, and my only campaign is to encourage her especially after what was discussed in the car before practice. growing up, my mother told me that i needed to get my hair permed. waves weren’t that pretty. and growing up in traditional vietnamese dancing, an environment where girls were constantly being compared and praised when they performed to the choreographer’s liking, it was easy to feel alienated even more when all the girls had the same straight and thin hair. when they heatironed their hair into curls, the results were always beautiful. on me, it added more volume to my thick hair. on me, i felt out of place and in another world. on those days, i used to think that my mother was right, that i needed to do something about this hair to be beautiful. after several years of straightening my hair in high school, burning strands so they were as straight as my mother’s and hoping to burn away the thickness, i gave up on straightening. it was too much work, and i got more compliments with my wavy hair, much to my mother’s dismay. i felt like an outsider because of the waves. my hair didn’t curl like the other girls. i was constantly getting told i looked bù xù from my mother. this hair i was born with wasn’t close to what my mother wanted, and because of my natural, thick, coarse, hair, i didn’t appeal to my mother’s idea of success. i buy lashes and eyeliners for the pageant. mostly because i want to practice having stage makeup for the pageant. i realize that a month isn’t enough time to perfect a skill. instead, i get invisalign two days before our second photoshoot and am self-conscious because the attachments are on my front teeth. the attachments look like tooth tumors. my speech sputters because of an artificial lisp. i tell contestant #6 about my invisalign, and she understands the torture. we bond for the first time, and i am suddenly much more comfortable with pieces of plastic on my teeth. for the rest of the photoshoot, i’m joking and laughing with the female photographer, who 55 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 t u | v i s a g e o f a m o t h e r ' s s u c c e s s enjoys the company. making fun of choreography and laughing like a scream. when i visit for a school break, my mother tells me i’m prettier with makeup. i think she wants me to look closer to her success. contestant #12 initially joins the pageant because it’s outside of her comfort zone, but she also tells me it’s because her friend pushed her to join the pageant. at some point, she tells everyone that she hopes to practice her vietnamese for the pageant since she doesn’t use vietnamese often in her immediate family. because the pageant doesn’t equip the contestants with any kind of vietnamese help though, it is impossible for her to practice her vietnamese. in other words, her goal is unattainable because there are no resources or support for vietnamese. as a personal anecdote, mai (2006) discusses how her socialization is partially due to her entangled relationship with her parents. she defines, “by entangled family relationship, i mean that my family is an interconnected part of my identity and consciousness” (p. 89). her identity, values, and morals are affected by her parents. this entanglement plays a strong part in how vietnamese women in her interviews negotiate not only the notions of “success,” but how these aspects are negotiated and expressed in their individualism. discussed explicitly in the conclusion, mai (2006) relates her work to theorists of narrative and identity who discuss how reflecting on the past is an identity construction. to reflect, understand, and find coherence from the past mistakes, wrongs, and experiences can inform how a person can create the future self. my mother teaches me how to fold eggroll wrappers with shrimp. at twenty-five, i start to learn how to cook from my mother. it’s almost 11, i can feel my mind start to lose focus as i keep making the same mistakes. unlike the times before, i’m not reminded of my mother’s complaints or moments that i can’t do it right which leads to you never being able to get a grasp at it. i place the filling in the middle of the paper, i break the shrimp tails, and i roll diagonally until i have to fold in the edges, and seal with egg. i screw up on the folding most of the time, but my mother continues to undo my wrapping, and shows me where i went wrong. i keep trying until my eyelids get too heavy. she tells me that she’ll show me how to make it next time i visit, and that it was a good try. her tenderness is rare. oftentimes, that tenderness is under a mask of guilt or shame, and for her to be tender means there is a mistake on the horizon. it’s like waiting for a critique because i “should” know how to do this. instead, her kindness is authentic and nourishing. she notices the effort in the exhaustion, and patiently shows me how to fold. these moments are rare, and i cherish it even if she’ll critique me tomorrow. “you have more of an aggressive posing.” “what does that mean?” “never mind. i won’t say it.” “tell me!” “i’m going to stop talking. it’s a good thing.” the other photographer that day is a man, and i end up just flirting with the camera afterwards, teeth tumors and all. my mother used to tell me that i should do things to my body to look prettier. she laughed about my tiny boobs and joked about getting plastic surgery to have them enhanced. she wasn’t joking most of the time. when i finally tell my mother that i am in a pageant, she asks if the other contestants are pretty. according to lieu (2011), “ao dai beauty pageants are significant not only because they bridge symbols of the past with bodies that represent the future, but also because they work ideologically to evoke an “imagined community” that authenticates the persistence of vietnamese ethnicity…” (p. 61). i wonder what the imagined community my mother wants if i am her symbol of success. does she live vicariously through me to be a part of a community that she can’t fully access? jennifer, a high school interviewee for mai’s (2006) dissertation, discusses how she didn’t fit in with other asian girls, and pointed out that asians should assimilate and be “normal.” according to her, her mother is “unassimilated” to america, and jennifer dichotomizes her life into asian or american. she attacks vietnamese beauty pageants by saying “i think it’s a play on being exotic. and then you invite all the white people and the council members, people like that, and you try to make up publicity and fund raise. i think it’s selling our exoticism…you know, this is why we’re always seeming different and foreign” (p. 125). not a lot of white people show up to my pageant. the pageant is selling something, but it is not for white folks. it’s a dream for vietnamese people. mothers live vicariously through their daughters. the vietnamese community dream of pageant girls because they symbolize the american bourgeoise, and that representation shows that they can also, one day, acculturate into that class. though, i have to give it to jennifer. selling exoticism is just another way to say fetishization, and it’s a game i play into until i win all i need. the consequences are always worse than the winnings. a contestant’s mother calls on the last day of practice and demands to speak to the “boss” to ensure her daughter is at practice and not somewhere else. i’ve seen this scene play out in different situations: church, community college, and during classes. there’s always an inkling of paranoia. i see the mother’s concern as crossing boundaries. an overbearing and overprotective vietnamese mother is like a modern-day villain, given too much of a backstory and complicated. rooting for the villain is a kind of harm that i wish people would stop projecting. pain is still pain even if the trauma is the origin. before i knew my flight out of seattle was canceled and i was staying in olympia longer, my family and i played bingo. my mother laughed and called numbers like she was a child who was enjoying games. it was a small spark of joy. she put cash in red envelopes. she told me about her unlucky nickname. snow blanketed the outside world. our christmas tree was still up. my mother’s laughter. her joy. i treasure the moment. i treasure this happiness in her. i choose to fulfill my duties as first princess, the runner up to the queen because if i am not completely and utterly the dripping image of success according to my mother which is a beautiful catholic vietnamese woman who is financially stable, my mother can still brag that her daughter is a princess. because even if i fail at being beautiful, even if i fail at being catholic, even if i fail at being the daughter she wanted, she can still be proud of me. mai (2006) finds and concludes in her dissertation that “the discourse of success as it is in articulated in my socialization and within the vietnamese community involves one’s whole way of being and that involves not a lot of white people show up to my pageant. the pageant is selling something, but it is not for white folks. it’s a dream for vietnamese people. mothers live vicariously through their daughters. the vietnamese community dream of pageant girls because they symbolize the american bourgeoise, and that representation shows that they can also, one day, acculturate into that class. 56engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry t u | v i s a g e o f a m o t h e r ' s s u c c e s s 57 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 t u | v i s a g e o f a m o t h e r ' s s u c c e s s how one carries oneself, who one associates with, the decisions one makes and the moral implications attached to them, how one represents oneself and one’s family, and much more” (p. 170). success is defined in vietnamese women as their whole being and life. how others see these women in all aspects of her life is synonymous to her success. my mother wants to live vicariously through her idealized version of me. her daughter who has straight thin hair, who follows every catholic rule to the period, who has bigger boobs and prettier makeup. she wants to live through her subjective successful daughter. all i want is for my mother to love me. i want to be able to have conversations with her. one of my goals includes perfecting vietnamese so i could write a love letter to her. i want to be able to make her feel loved because maybe then she would stop telling me i am useless. that i’m, good enough. that i’m someone she is proud of because i am me. instead, the only times i make her happy are when i’m doing the chores that relieve her of time, when i go to church without her reminders, and when i pretend that i believe in the same things as her. i realized a long time ago, that it isn’t possible to be what she wants, and her approval will never come. but it’s complicated. as much as i know i won’t ever receive that approval, i still crave my mother’s happiness. whenever she praises me for washing the dishes without her asking, whenever she calls me a “good girl” for attending a holy day of obligation, whenever she finds harmony in teaching me to roll eggrolls, and whenever i can see the joy on her face as she tells me stories during bingo, it feels like intimacy is being fulfilled. if i can continue to hide the parts she doesn’t enjoy, will i continue to receive that joy? can acceptance be partial? do i need her to love all of me? and do i need to love all of her? the voice in my head that constantly suffocates me is my mother’s. her voice haunts me in vietnamese, but her implications consume in english. though, i’m unsure what to make of it because things have changed. i don’t live in the same house. i can convey ideas in vietnamese to her on a basic level. i have given up on my mother’s ideas of beauty. i have given up on her desires of who i should be. i have given up on being a proper catholic vietnamese daughter. yet her voice still tramples my thoughts. they still hum in the background like a lullaby. dutes, k. (host). (2021, december 16). how to squash negative self-talk [audio podcast episode]. in life kit. npr. https://www.npr.org/2021/12/09/1062746913/ how-to-stop-being-self-critical-and-silence-negativeself-talk lieu, n.t. (2011). “pageantry and nostalgia: beauty contests and the gendered homeland.” the american dream in vietnamese (pp. 59-77). university of minnesota press. mai, t. t. (2006). dilemmas or choices: family, love, and status in the lives of young vietnamese-american women. [unpublished doctoral dissertation]. university of california, davis. references vo l . 5, i s s u e 125 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s keywords: community-engaged research, stem education, anthropological methods, contexts, identities abstract community engagement in stem learning and teaching largely focuses on citizen science projects, serving the needs and goals of the largely white and maledominated stem fields with only cursory attention to the lived experiences and narratives of the learners who engage in these experiences (mahmoudi et al., 2022; rautio et al., 2022). this article explores how researchers can work with students to uncover how they experience learning environments and pathways for change according to their community memberships, aspirations, and goals. participants in this research are high school biology students in a diverse midsuburban city. to understand their perspectives, students participated in activity structures grounded in anthropological methods, including ethnographic interviews (emerson et al., 1995; spradley, 1979), illustrations (haney et al., 2004), and pile sorts (boster, 1994; ryan & bernard, 2003). moving between consensus and individuals, this research demonstrates how students’ critical and meaningful experiences and aspirations can be understood and heard. introduction those representing marginalized identities and communities—particularly race, ethnicity, home language, and dis/ability—are underrepresented in all stem areas and often unable to leverage the opportunities, tools, and practices that a rigorous and well-rounded stem education affords. this is true even in community-engaged stem learning and teaching research, which largely focuses on citizen science projects. while citizen science projects have the potential to provide “authentic stem experiences” (lewenstein, 2022), they typically serve the needs and goals of the largely white and largely male-dominated stem fields (mahmoudi et al., 2022; rautio et al., 2022) with only cursory attention to the lived experiences and narratives of the learners who engage in these experiences. citizen science initiatives also occasionally serve as public relations strategies that intentionally discount the experiences and goals of the communities they should be serving (blacker et al., 2021). the fact that pathways through stem education are described as a “pipeline” and the failure of diverse students to “successfully” gain entry into stem careers is described as a “leaky pipe” is concerning. the stem pipeline is not neutral, even though understanding stem from students’ perspectives: exploring students’ lived communities and the learning communities they wish to create author jeremey price, assistant professor, urban teacher education, iu school of education, iupui the metaphor makes it appear this way. the stem “pipeline” contains numerous systemic and structural barriers for marginalized and underrepresented individuals and communities with limited entry points, pathways through, and exit points, resulting in more of a maze or labyrinth than a pipeline. the concept of epistemological, cultural, and linguistic barriers is primarily overlooked within stem education and the stem “pipeline” specifically (cannady et al., 2014), as are the deep wells of cultural, social, cognitive, navigational, linguistic, aspirational, and resistant capital and wealth of marginalized and underrepresented communities (yosso, 2005). these omissions perpetuate and sustain the largely racial, social, and gendered monoculture of stem learning and community engagement. because science is integrally intertwined with society, science disciplines require a scientifically informed public, not just cohorts of diverse, well-prepared, and well-trained scientists. rather than operating at cross-purposes, these goals are mutually compatible and can support each other. this can only be accomplished by listening to and understanding the experiences and perspectives of diverse communities and the students who represent them. the classroom is a site where different communities intersect through the interaction of its members (seiler & elmesky, 2007). as human agents with diverse cultural, linguistic, racial, class, and experiential backgrounds, students and teachers are all representatives of intersectional identities (crenshaw, 2017; hernández-saca et al., 2018; tan & calabrese barton, 2018). carrying these intersectional community memberships with them, historical and cultural factors are not “checked at the door” when entering the classroom (holland & lave, 2001). this influx of meanings around stem learning is further influenced by various structural factors, such as racism and white supremacy, classism, ableism, politics, and notions of global competitiveness (fensham, 2009; fraser-abder et al., 2006; tan & calabrese barton, 2018). this research seeks to understand how students understand stem learning activities within sociohistorical ecological contexts (bronfenbrenner, 1986; stern et al., 2021), allowing us to understand more fully the experiences, goals, and cultural capital and wealth (yosso, 2005) that students bring through their whole selves. this approach understands that this means not only providing “authentic scientific experiences” (narrowly defined as the epistemological and practical work of scientists in their field) but also understanding the science that students do outside the classroom in the worlds which occupy much of their time and thought (polman & miller, 2010; tan & barton, 2016; tan & calabrese barton, 2018) and bring those worlds together in stem learning. these experiences, which value and connect the sociohistorical contexts of the learner would science, would be authentic—and not alienating— for students. this research seeks to understand what these experiences could look like from the student's perspectives. contexts and research methods cotstead high school and the c-block biology class i worked with a “middle-track” high school biology classroom comprised of students with prior achievement, home languages and cultures, and socioeconomic class. the district is located in cotstead1, an inner suburb of a large new england city. cotstead hosts a large number of technology and biotechnology companies in expansive office parks along a stretch of an interstate highway. however, residents of the city are greatly diverse, with a large number of immigrant and blue-collar families compared to its more affluent neighboring towns and cities. a school of about 1,400 students, approximately 12% of students at cotstead high are black/african-american, 26engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s vo l . 5, i s s u e 127 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s 25% latinx, 5% asian, and 0.4% native american, while the remaining students are white. ms. stoneham is a second-career veteran teacher who previously worked as a histologist in a hospital in the larger new england city. this previous career is significant as it provided ms. stoneham with lived experiences in a non-teaching stem career. her c-block biology class (see table 1) represented a range of economic backgrounds, and about half the class spoke spanish at home (with families largely originally from guatemala and puerto rico). some students spoke brazilian portuguese and armenian at home. as a “middle-track” science class, there was an emphasis on study skills for academic success as well as the content of biology. however, tracking students at the subject level masked some of the diversity of achievement and the expectations they held for themselves. most students held college attendance as an important goal, and several were in honors-level classes at the highest achievement levels in other subject areas. data collection and analysis i used four different data collection and analysis practices: pile sorts, participant illustrations, ethnographic observations, and ethnographic interviews. the protocols for this study can be found at https://osf. io/y4vzp/. pile sort activities provide visualizations of the relationships between different aspects of stem. students were asked to place different stories or vignettes describing people doing science-related activities into any number of related piles (boster, 1994). i then interviewed each student individually and asked them why they placed each vignette into the particular piles. an aggregate proximity matrix was calculated, and a non-metric multidimensional scaling (mds) analysis was conducted on two dimensions (ryan & bernard, 2003) using rstudio (gebeyaw, 2017; rstudio team, 2022). table 1 research participants and disclosed identities 28engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s students were asked to draw a picture of what it looks like to “do science” at two different times. these illustrations were collected and analyzed using recursive and comparative qualitative content analysis (qca; mayring, 2000). qca provides a holistic approach to understanding the meanings expressed in participantgenerated illustrations. a holistic approach involves going back and forth between taking notice of the details and the “whole picture” to understand the illustration (haney et al., 2004). i considered lowto mid-inference features, that is, only those elements clearly exhibited in the drawings themselves (freeman & mathison, 2008). these features were examined within the context of the individual drawing and then compared with identified features across the entire set of drawings to generate a list of themes based on similarities and differences. next, each student was interviewed and asked to describe their illustration, and the students’ explanations were compared with the generated list of themes. the explanations were used to refine the list of themes and generate written vignettes (van maanen, 2011) for individual student illustrations. all observations and interviews were recorded with an audio recorder, and i took field notes and wrote daily research memos. the observational and interview data analysis process was through a vignette analysis approach (van maanen, 2011), aimed at “…present[ing] the reader with the stories identified throughout the analytical process, the salient themes, recurring language, and patterns of belief linking people and settings together” (anfara et al., 2002, p. 31). collected artifacts, observational data, and research memos and field notes were coded using the atlas.ti qualitative data analysis software over several rounds. i drew upon established constructs for adhering to standards of quality and rigor (anfara et al., 2002; howe & eisenhart, 1990). findings this section is divided into three parts, first, an exploration of the role of the teacher, and then two parts based on a methodology to understand the students’ perspectives: a pile and a prompted drawing activity. the exploration of the role of the teacher provides a grounding into the operations and approaches promoted in the class as a whole. at the same time, the methodology-based parts demonstrate different perspectives on approaches to stem learning that intersect with students’ sociohistorical and cultural contexts. setting the (teacher) stage: science-as-gaining-knowledge it is essential to understand the classroom context in which formal stem learning occurs to fully interpret from where some of the ideas being conveyed by the students arise. during one of the early ethnographic observations of the class, ms. stoneham initiated a discussion with her students on the meaning of science: ms. stoneham: what does the word science mean? eduardo: this class. ms. stoneham: does anyone remember way, way, way at the beginning of class? does anyone remember what science is? we cleaned out our binders, so this is going to be a tough one. science, the word, means to gain knowledge. remember? gain knowledge. yep [pointing to margarid]. margarid: yeah, but you gain knowledge in every class. gabriel: the science of... ms. stoneham: yup, the science of what? the science of history. yup, everything is kind of like a science. right? 29 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s margarid: but why is this class specifically called science? in this class? ms. stoneham: ok, what are specifically studying in this class? multiple students: bi-ol-o-gy. ms. stoneham: which is what? gabriel: the study of life! ms. stoneham: the study of life. alright! and how does that apply to you? gabriel: we’re life. amanda: we’re... ms. stoneham: we’re... we’re... amanda: living things. ms. stoneham: right! living things! gabriel: we’re life. ms. stoneham: so we’re trying to make sense of... multiple students: ourselves. ms. stoneham: exactly. and how we fit into what. rosa: the world. ms. stoneham: and other living organisms. ok? and as a scientist, as in the room, here, with me, we are gaining knowledge, right? yes? eduardo: yeah. ms. stoneham: yay. we’re all so happy to have all this knowledge. what are we looking for when we are scientists? what’s the goal of a scientist? henry: information. ms. stoneham positioned science for her students as a process to “gain knowledge.” she further positioned gaining knowledge as independent of a particular discipline, a universally-applicable mode of gaining knowledge. during an interview, the teacher reiterated her definition of science, stating that “...the word ‘science’ is an umbrella for gaining knowledge on everything… for me, [science is] a learning process, the art of gaining knowledge.” as an “umbrella” and as an “art,” science as a concept is decoupled from the specificities of science as a practice, involving a general methodology, approach, and set of questions to be explored (grinnell, 2009). while she generally discussed science in a universalistic manner, the teacher also worked to make this “art of gaining knowledge” accessible and authentic to students; biology—which could be treated as an abstract study of living organisms—was turned into an exploration of the students as living things themselves. these turns of language were intentionally deployed to help her students “gain knowledge,” as ms. stoneham expressed her process of helping her students engage in the “in other words, i have to understand how people learn to get them to, what actions do they need to take, to get that content knowledge. and that's kind of ever-evolving because it takes you a while to figure out how each of your students learn.” engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 30 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s students represented and resisted how ms. stoneham described science during the pile sorting and drawing activities. to fully recognize how youth understand a concept like science and how they wish to engage with and learn science, it is necessary to understand the influences on the meanings they assign to science. teachers and educators generally exert a great deal of influence in american society, so we see in the following sections how the students worked to show that they’ve learned from their teacher but also that they often go beyond what is discussed in the classroom. understanding the contours of science-in-action by examining the diagram generated through the mds analysis (figure 1) and comparing the diagram with the interviews, i could interpret the scales of the two dimensions represented in the diagram. the x-axis (left-right/horizontal) exhibits a continuum identified by the students between “people” on the left and “things” on the right. the y-axis (up-down/vertical) exhibits a continuum between “contributing to a greater community or enterprise” along the top and “individual enjoyment” along the bottom. consensus categories of science the mds diagram (figure 1) represents a composite view of how the class categorized different aspects of “doing science” based on the provided vignettes. every student was also interviewed to provide an overview of their sorting, outlined in table 1. each cluster will be examined in turn. in other words, i have to understand how people learn to get them to, what actions do they need to take, to get that content knowledge. and that's kind of ever-evolving because it takes you a while to figure out how each of your students learn. figure 1 multidimensional scaling (mds) of student pile sorting activity 31 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s the first group, “typical” science, is what the students considered “normal” science activities. students tended to relate items in this cluster regarding contributions to the scientific community or the scientific enterprise. the next group, “making things” science, represents a sense of making or improving things rather than just contributing to science or engaging in an investigation. students typically used words such as “invent” and “experiment” to describe these activities. a common thread that ran through these descriptions identified the goals of these activities as the things themselves rather than contributing to a larger community or enterprise. the science, people, and communities cluster represents activities centered around helping people and contributing to (non-scientific) communities. there was a relatively strong consensus among the students as to this group. some of the activities, such as taking a walk, were accounted for by positioning the social community as part of the larger natural community. the vignette which described the activity of teaching biology is situated within its cluster, teaching science. students did not consistently place the act of teaching biology in a particular pile so that it could fit into another cluster. some students placed teaching biology as a core science activity, while others positioned teaching on the periphery. this lack of consensus accounts for teaching biology as a cluster in and of itself. when viewed against the dimensional scales, students viewed teaching as an activity contributing to a broader community and enterprise. table 2 identified clusters with vignettes and example quotes engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 32 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s individual categories of science: leah’s science identities not all students took an activity-centric approach to the pile sort. rather than sorting according to activitiesin-process, leah, for example, focused primarily on identities and what their activities said about them. in describing her reasoning behind her sort procedure, she constructed identities and tacit narratives of being in the world for each person featured in the vignettes (figure 2). the narratives and identities she discussed served as an interesting counterpoint to the consensus-oriented mds analysis above. leah divided the vignettes into three separate groups. the first group, normal people/everyday activities, “...is just like what normal people can do.” glossing over the expertise, skill, craft, and talent necessary for some of these activities, leah described them as “...what normal people do in their normal day lives.” leah pulled these activities away from the purview of scientists and described them as “normal leah’s second group, normal people/scientific activities, included “...advanced people, who like you know, like had an education, do like scientific stuff. like that’s their field.” according to leah’s classification, these three people are educated in science but are not defined by science. part of her classification is that she sees their work in a direct way benefitting people. commenting on the improving stick notes vignette, she related that such work “...might contribute to helping us, in some sort of awkward way.” leah’s final group, scientific people/scientific activities, according to leah, “...have to do with the world,” rather than with people: “it’s more like outside of like, nothing that has to do with humans.” these are people defined by science. she further says, “it’s just like, what scientists would, what scientists do in their spare time.” these are activities that scientists—people defined by their activities in science—engage in when there is nothing else of importance that needs to be done. seeing science in practice as noted above, the analysis of the first activity revealed the core five categories of drawings: gaining knowledge, science as collection, science as activity, science as nature, and scientists helping and improving communities and the world. these categories will be presented in turn, and then move on to looking closely at debra’s illustrations. drawings included in the gaining knowledge category (figure 3) directly interpreted how ms. stoneham described science as “gaining knowledge.” while ms. stoneham described gaining knowledge as an active process, the students interpreted the process as passive. elements were drawn around heads or brains with arrows indicating that they were being put inside. the things which represented “knowledge” tended to involve a “typical” sense of science content (illustrations of viruses, cells, dna strands, etc.), although at figure 2 leah’s categories of science vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s 33 times included a broader and more general sense of “knowledge” to include other subject areas as well. one student drew a picture that depicted the earth floating in space, connected with arrows to a disembodied brain also floating in space. the second group, science as collection (figure 4), represented doing science as collections of ideas, concepts, and paraphernalia. these collections did not tend to be tied to a particular place, nor did they typically involve human activity (with one exception, in the drawing on the right with a person holding what appears to be a light or microscope). one student drew science as a book to depict knowledge across various subject areas collected in one place. the knowledge collected in this book included biology and other school sciences topics (e.g., math, english, and business) and even childcare. this student’s representation is a different interpretation of ms. stoneham’s general description of science as representing all subject areas. other students drew other objects and ideas, such as plants, test tubes, dna strands, and the recycling symbol. it is also interesting to note that the lab bench depicted in the middle drawing—with a black top and a brown wooden bottom— directly reflects the form of the lab benches in the classroom. drawings of science as activity (figure 5) were typically tied to particular places and included people in these places. although the middle picture in figure 3 was not tied to a specific place, it was included in this category because of the strong presence of the person in the drawing. the places were either outdoors in nature or a laboratory setting (or both, as in the drawing on the left). the laboratory-like settings reflected the classroom’s lab area, including the black-and-brown lab benches. the people in the drawings were usually doing things such as investigating and examining or working with test tubes. the drawings in this category were active rather than passive. any paraphernalia or props were tied together and oriented to doing a particular task, unlike the drawings in the science as collection category. the drawings in the science as nature category (figure 6) ranged from general to specific. these drawings depicted “doing science” as nature, with scenes of grass, trees, animals, water, and suns. they also brought in specific content from the curricular unit being studied. these drawings tended to reflect the notion that doing science is connected to nature and that “science is figure 3 representative drawings in the gaining knowledge category figure 4 representative drawings in the science as collection category figure 5 representative drawings in the science as activity category engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 34 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s everywhere,” a theme often invoked in interviews and classroom discourse. rosa’s and juana’s drawings in figure 7 fell into their category, depicting the idea that science can improve society and make for a better life (scientists helping and improving communities and the world). rosa labeled her drawing, “scientists will help their community so the world will improve!!” juana referenced specific social issues that have roots for understanding—and potential solutions—in stem, energy conservation, and the life of people with disabilities. in doing so, she brings in a political dimension as well. these illustrations indicated that these two students expanded their sense of what science is and what it can be used for. debra’s drawings: being centered in science-in-action debra was a student who expressed a high degree of intrinsic motivation to engage and participate in science class. as a temporary resident of the united states from brazil, she found her english language skills to be an important mediating factor in her learning process. while she indicated visits to her grandmother’s farm exposed her to nature and the environment, debra brought up another experience that reinforced her interest in science. she recalled being present through her stepmother’s pregnancy and stepsister’s birth: she [stepmother] had a baby, so i followed her pregnancy, and i got to watch the, like, the labor. and it was really amazing…. i want to be a midwife, so it was like a great experience. it was like, oh, that gives me an idea of how it’s going to be like. and i got to help them too. it was really cool! with this background in mind, debra drew two illustrations (figure 8). her first illustration (on the left) was an example of the gaining knowledge category, with bubbles of science content and concepts entering a person’s head through inward-facing arrows. her second drawing (on the right) was more complex. illustrated through the conventional comic strip thought bubbles, debra indicated that the main figure was herself, and she is thinking about five different aspects of science. the first aspect is the concept of evolution, which she described as one of the main organizing principles of biology. the second aspect is a laboratory investigation, replete with different colored substances figure 6 representative drawings in the science as nature category figure 7 representative drawings in the scientists helping and improving communities and the world category rosa labeled her drawing, “scientists will help their community so the world will improve!!” juana referenced specific social issues that have roots for understanding—and potential solutions—in stem, energy conservation, and the life of people with disabilities. in doing so, she brings in a political dimension as well. 35 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s in beakers and containers. the third aspect is two people experiencing nature. there is a bucket or container with a handle, which may indicate that the people are collecting something from the outdoors. the fourth aspect is a depiction of a pile of books. lastly, debra drew a person in a bed being attended to by a healthcare worker, as well as a range of medical paraphernalia. she also drew a red cross and a caduceus, symbolic of the medical profession. while at first glance, debra’s second drawing could be considered science as collections, her illustration demonstrated a range of scientific activities. it highlighted several functions of science, including understanding the natural world, serving as a repository of these understandings, sharing these understandings publicly, and using these understandings to improve human life. she included a medical scene to not only connect her career goal of becoming a midwife; it also represented science in a way many people can connect and identify. similarly, her depiction of the books and the laptop showcased not only the specific scientific content knowledge canonized in the books but also the publiclyaccessible and public-oriented animal planet and discovery television channels. in an interview, debra pointed to a role model from television who influenced her engagement in the classroom, richard rasmussen, on the brazilian nature program selvagem ao extremo (“wildness to the extreme”). there was another way that debra aspired to be like him, in terms of how richard rasmussen talked and expressed himself, noting that richard rasmussen was able to “talk about science and pronounce the words... without a problem.” debra also described her idea of a “successful career,” framing markers of success in terms of helping people and the environment. discussion and conclusions moving deliberately back and forth between consensus and individual—while recognizing and understanding the identities, communities, and sociohistorical ecologies students represent—provided a deep understanding of how students understood stem education and how stem learning experiences can be structured in a community-engaged setting to honor the experiences, cultural wealth, and overarching goals of students. this research helps to highlight the need to make learning not only authentic but meaningful and valuable in the sense that their learning connects with and expands their understandings of their personal histories, their sense of their life’s trajectories, and their circumstances and relationships. through these research activities, students were able to find chinks in the armor of the textbook “public science” (holton in girod, 2001), the overly logical and wellordered side of science, in which universal laws and discrete facts trump the emotional and exciting process of science in the making. there were clear indications that companion meanings of science (roberts & östman, 1998), meanings passed on uncritically from curriculum or teacher to students, were evident in the students’ representations. students picked up the idea of science as “gaining knowledge” across disciplines and fields and even took the act of “gaining” to be a passive, rather than active, process. yet there was also evidence that students not only built upon but contradicted some of the prevailing meanings of science in the classroom by extending figure 8 debra’s drawings of science in action science not in content but in applicability. while they may not become scientists themselves, they were able to experiment with meanings and identities, which included the consideration of scientific understandings in a variety of contexts. some students, such as rosa, juana, and debra, saw the “usefulness” of science and scientific knowledge grow and expand. they saw the broader scientific endeavor as potentially having a place for them in a stem career (debra) or as a way to use stem to accomplish inclusive and just goals (rosa and juana). for students like leah, it would be important to understand ways to decouple the doing of science from a science identity, even though a plethora of research— based on the pipeline metaphor—advances just that approach (lyon et al., 2012). beyond the movement from consensus to individuals, the methods themselves proved to be an effective way of understanding how students saw stem and what they hoped to gain from it. this drawing activity provided unique and essential insights into how meanings are negotiated within a larger context. especially with rosa, juana, and debra, a field change occurred regarding how the students represented the actions and activities in science. each of these students represented science so that they could relate to it and engage with it. asking students to draw pictures rather than write provided a holistic perspective experience into students’ worldviews and meanings around science and science learning. similarly, the pile sorting activity provided an understanding of how students organize their thinking about stem and provided insight into their motivations as to why they would consider engaging in communityengaged stem learning. as we continue to encounter issues that are deeply embedded in understanding stem, such as global climate change and local climate crises, health outcomes, and material inequalities, it is critical to understand how students, as members of communities and representatives of communities, see stem, how they see themselves connected to it, and their goals. without these insights, we will continue to push the same people through the stem pipeline, serving to maintain the destructive and unjust status quo. engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 36 p r i c e | u n d e r s t a n d i n g s t e m f r o m s t u d e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e s this research helps to highlight the need to make learning not only authentic but meaningful and valuable in the sense that their learning connects with and expands their understandings of their personal histories, their sense of their life’s trajectories, and their circumstances and relationships. each of these students represented science so that they could relate to it and engage with it. asking students to draw pictures rather than write provided a holistic perspective experience into students’ worldviews and meanings around science and science learning. vo l . 5, 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(2005). whose culture has capital? a critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. race ethnicity and education, 8(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361 332052000341006 authors heather tanana assistant professor university of utah water is life clean water for native american tribes heather tanana for academic minute water is life. every household in america needs and is entitled to clean and safe water access. yet, the magnitude of lack of clean water access in indian country is significant and startling. our report uncovers the four main factors that have exacerbated gaps in tribal drinking water access, and in turn hurt public health and economic growth: first, lack of piped water services—native american households are more likely to lack piped water services than any other racial group. navajo residents, in particular, are 67 times more likely than other americans to live without access to running water. hauling water is not only more expensive than piped water, but also increased the risk of exposure to covid-19 during the pandemic. the second component is inadequate water quality—poor quality is pervasive in indian country. the hopi tribe, which has struggled with arsenic contamination since the 1960s, estimates that approximately 75 percent of people living on hopi land are drinking contaminated water. third, deteriorating or inadequate water infrastructure contributes to water insecurity —infrastructure investments haven’t kept up with need, resulting in interruptions in service and potential contamination of supplies. some tribes have water systems dating back to the late 1800s. native americans are one of the youngest and fastest growing populations. yet, because of deteriorating infrastructure, tribes are struggling to support their growing communities. finally, many tribes are encountering challenges in supporting operation and maintenance costs putting existing water systems are at risk. additional resources and tribal capacity are necessary to avoid future disruptions to water service in the community. now's the time for the federal government to keep its promises to indian country and ensure that all americans have access to clean, safe, and reliable drinking water. originally published: academic minute | clean water for native american tribes (insidehighered.com) e n v i r o n m e n t a l p o l i c y engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 56 originally published: academic minute | clean water for native american tribes (insidehighered.com) t a n a n a | w a t e r i s l i f e 57 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 r e s e a r c h g r o u p authors community engaged research group an iupui multidisciplinary community engaged research group (cerg) was developed through collaborative efforts of the office of community engagement and the office of the vice chancellor for research to develop, support, and sustain community-engaged research; community-based participatory research; and creative activity at iupui. community-engaged research is a collaborative process between researcher and community partner resulting in the creation and dissemination of knowledge, contributing both to the well-being of a community and a university discipline. increasing the awareness and importance of engaged research, the office of community engagement, the office of the vice chancellor for research and iupui’s community engaged research group (cerg) hosted iu’s first community engaged research conference. in november 2019, local community representatives joined in discussions about engaged research with students, staff, faculty, and administrators from iu’s northwest, east, bloomington, columbus and iupui campuses. attendees from other universities included ball state and the university of michigan. after welcoming remarks by dr. jeff zaleski, iu interim vice provost for research, and dr. mary price, the director of faculty development in the center for service and learning, dr. karen amstutz, iu health vice president of community health, shared her thoughts about a systematic approach to furthering health access and adverse childhood experiences (ace) as determinants for health. the luncheon keynote speaker was carolyn saxton, legacy foundation president, who sparked table conversations about funding community engagement. a panel of community leaders prompted dialogue and active participation. patrice duckett, executive director of the fay biccard glick neighborhood center, and sibeko jywanza, director of food justice at flanner house, underscored the importance of partnership with the university and contrasted a relationship approach with communities rather than being viewed as a “project.” indiana university’s first community-engaged research conference community engaged research group 73 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 their perspectives highlighted the need to put a community’s concerns at the forefront. patrice and sibeko both emphasized the importance of forming partnerships with the community: “feel like you have a connection before you ever have an ask.” for sibeko, “relationship building takes time, but authenticity is key in true community engagement.” patrice emphasized the importance of time investments too, “if you haven’t taken the time to look at ‘how do i build this relationship before i get this research done,’ you’re coming in with an agenda. and people can smell agendas from a mile away when they’ve been oppressed for so long!” their points suggest the scheduling of an engaged research project may change. as sibeko stated, “… in order to truly impact a community, ongoing work that is strategically planned out to connect teaching, research and other projects and not just a one-day activity, is necessary.” they closed with stressing: “a one-day project won’t impact generations of poverty, but building upon the work being done in the community, hearing people’s stories, and understanding their perspective can.” in four “ignite” sessions, iu faculty members described models of their community-engaged work, moderated by dr. silvia bigatti, professor in the fairbanks school of public health, and dr. brendan maxcy, associate dean for research in the school of education. director of the iu southeast applied research and education center dr. melissa fry’s session sparked discussions about using local partnerships to inform decision-making, advocacy and change. and dr. armando soto, director of community engagement for the iu school of dentistry, in his session kindled ideas and ways to increase community participation in a school-based program while focusing on the issue of informed consent. in her session about how community non-profit, legal and enforcement partnerships reduce recidivism, carrie hagan, director of the civil practice clinic at the iu robert h. mckinney school of law, raised a number of critical points. and ph.d. student lauren wendling shared her research about the social circles of individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities. two presenters, wendling and hagan, are featured in this issue of engage! one of the most encouraging and dynamic segments of the conference was facilitated by kelsie stringham-marquis, research coordinator at staff, faculty and students from multiple iu campuses presented their projects in poster presentations. photo credit: teresa francis patrice duckett, executive director of the fay biccard glick neighborhood center, and sibeko jywanza, director of food justice at flanner house, spoke during a panel discussion facilitated by richard bray, iupui office of community engagement community partnerships manager. photo credit: annie goeller r e s e a r c h c o n f e r e n c e engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 74 the center for research on inclusion and social policy. two doctoral students from the school of education urban education studies program, kevin hillman and latosha rowley, served on a panel with stacia murphy, a doctoral student in american studies, and weston jones, a political science and philosophy undergraduate student. they engaged the audience in a lively dialogue addressing issues of preparation, challenges, and experiences with community-engaged research, the types of research and scholarship they would like to be involved in through their future careers. the students talked about the importance of community-based participatory research in their professional preparation. they also suggested ways the university could better incorporate community engagement into their studies. weston recognized the value of community-based participatory research and the more holistic view it gives to a project, but also noted that finding social science research opportunities as a student in the school of liberal arts was difficult. stacia suggested the university develop a student panel discussion was led facilitated by kelsie stringham-marquis, research coordinator at the center for research on inclusion and social policy. the panel included school of education urban education studies program doctoral student kevin hillman; stacia murphy, a doctoral student in american studies; school of education urban education studies program doctoral student latosha rowley; and weston jones, a political science and philosophy undergraduate student. photo credit: annie goeller if you haven’t taken the time to look at ‘how do i build this relationship before i get this research done,’ you’re coming in with an agenda. and people can smell agendas from a mile away when they’ve been oppressed for so long! — patrice duckett curriculum around the idea of building relationships with communities as part of student preparation for engaged research. kevin noted that collaborating with the community should be a key focus of the university, as it relates to student interests. while latosha shared her experience in a community center, where she quickly learned how important relationship building is particularly as a representative of the university. she also noted “how tough navigating those relationships can be.” conference attendees also were able to hear about specific community-engaged projects being done by iu staff and faculty through poster presentations, and strongly recommended hosting the conference again, and perhaps even lengthening it to more days. this conference and its intriguing discussions launched what we anticipate will continue — and further develop—iu’s commitment to community-engaged and community-based participatory research. those who attended the conference identified other issues they would like to cover in the future, including capacity building, inclusion and equity, identifying funding and working through challenges. with this positive and constructive feedback, we are planning our next conference, and look forward to growing this unique opportunity to include more members of the university and the community. r e s e a r c h g r o u p 75 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 conference attendees worked together in group discussions centered on community engagement. photo credit: annie goeller r e s e a r c h c o n f e r e n c e engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 76 58engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry a l w a n | s p e a k i n g u p a n d s p e a k i n g o u t speaking up and speaking out author duaa h. alwan, department of american studies, iupui author's disclaimer: i omit the names of countries and cities in this piece to focus on the familiarity of shared experiences, and therefore, understand them in the context of community. my borders are not straight lines growing up in exile is a badge i wear with pride, launching me into uncharted pathways that shaped my personal and professional life. while i continue to not have access to my parents’ hometown, one of the largest and oldest cities in the mediterranean region, my community-in-exile became expansive. i was five years old when i woke up one day in a different country, then crossed continents and moved through two more countries that same year. with a brutal regime installed by a western power to dispose of a people, safety became a rare commodity that was more urgent than food or water. one of the earliest skills i had to master was learning to discriminate, and to be swift to judge. after all, discerning which strangers are the “good guys” and which are the “bad guys” can mean the difference between life and death. what i admired about my parents the most is that despite moving through five countries in three years, losing many family members and friends, and being financially ruined, they were adamant about our confidence knowing that we belong to millions of people around the world and throughout history who resisted tyranny and oppression. we were not alone and we were not special. we are as strong as the community we belong to. for the exiled, community took the place of a hometown, grandparents, a neighborhood park, a school cafeteria, and a classroom. my early reading practice was using literature of resistance, our games were reallife scenarios of injustices set in different countries, and our bedtime stories were about dignity, agency, and accountability. the accumulated knowledge that i carried into my first official classroom got me into a lot of trouble. i was a nine-year-old who was placed arbitrarily into fifth grade in a small but intensely diverse town. children in my class were from ten or more different countries stretching from thailand to mauritania. this only confirmed my parents' claim that we belonged to a global and historic community of those who were displaced and those who resisted. consequently, i never felt like a minority even when i was minoritized and bluntly marginalized. from my vantage point, being in-community transcended labels and check-boxes; i could do in-community what was not feasible to achieve alone. fast forward to my senior year of high school, it had been the longest i lived in any one city. however, due to our legal, yet illegitimate status, we were not allowed to attend college nor obtain a work permit. one by one i would witness people i knew leave, not anywhere familiar, but to any country that would allow them to work and/or study. for many, every move meant rebuilding life again, and for that reason, learning to find community made the journey meaningful. i moved to the u.s. at the age of seventeen and started my own journey learning english at an east-coast state 59 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 a l w a n | s p e a k i n g u p a n d s p e a k i n g o u t university. it was the first time in my life that i heard my experience described as “complicated.” i was only “complicated” to those who wanted my borders straight and my boxes neatly checked. community-in-exile did not teach me to dissect myself into ethnicity, race, culture, religion, place of birth, and place of residence in order to be understood. i was whole. however, only those who dared to engage with me knew that, especially considering that it is impossible to grasp such knowledge from a textbook or an observation. there is so much lost by relying on someone to tell you about people they do not know. as we moved countries, we moved systems. the political climate in each country dictated what students must learn in order to uphold what is of value to the state. hence, much of social studies under dictatorships was propaganda, asserting power and maintaining the status quo. i recall my parents and older siblings regularly going through my social studies content, sifting through disinformation. while many locals are socialized to not question schools and curriculum, my community-in-exile did not accept propaganda for knowledge. keep in mind that dictatorships make no claim for freedom, liberty, dignity, or individual rights. therefore, when i started my own family in the u.s., worrying about unreliable and biased education was the last thing on my mind. if the constitution and the bill of rights are what distinguished america around the world, it can be reasonable to expect that every child graduating after twelve years of schooling will know precisely what it means to be an american and belong to a democratic society. engaging with the public school system started with one request from a world history teacher asking my husband and i to present “ourselves” to tenth graders who were studying the chapter on islam. at the time, i was working in media post-production preparing to continue my graduate studies in film. as more requests began to flow in, it became apparent that there was high demand with limited supply. i started inviting teachers to meet with me one-on-one so that i could learn from them how to be better equipped to meet their needs. based on students' questions in the classroom, i also inquired about the content of textbooks being used and the teachers' previous knowledge about my faith-based community. meanwhile, i connected with a few other professionals who had also been taking requests from various school districts. we compared notes and agreed that we needed to share resources for a more effective engagement with teachers, given that their requests exceeded our free-time capacity. while it was not our goal to be the representatives of our entire faith group locally or worldwide, we wanted to create a communitybased network with one goal in mind: to never turn away a teacher. it serves education well to connect teachers who are seeking information and support to the plurality of stories within our community. their requests were diverse as well, some wanted their students to meet a young muslim student their age, others wanted their students to hear a refugee tell their own story, some asked for video or book recommendations, and some requested help with creating class activities and worksheets. teachers often cited that their primary reason for engaging with our community was to enrich their students’ learning by providing them the opportunity to interact with those who differ in their beliefs, worldview, and life journey. we developed a model to train community members to meet teachers' demands, keeping in mind the risk teachers take by bringing outsiders into their classrooms. accordingly, we developed a 7-step certification that honored the teachers’ trust in our team and allowed for a more meaningful, yet systemic community engagement. over the course of two years, our team expanded to twentytwo certified individuals and four advisors/scholars who would review content and evaluate applicants. after i joined the human relations and equity commission 60engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry a l w a n | s p e a k i n g u p a n d s p e a k i n g o u t of one of the largest school districts in the nation as a community liaison, the lead officer noted to the rest of the team that the district should use such a certification process for all guest speakers visiting schools in the district. while this testimony was flattering, it was a confirmation that we can do in-community what we cannot do alone. my experience through this community-based nonprofit created new uncharted pathways to consult for a couple of textbook publishers, conduct teachers' training for several districts, and work with a few local teacher education departments. listening to social studies teachers was critical for the success of our engagement since teachers did not only explain what they were looking for but also generously evaluated what we offered and provided thoughtful feedback. today, as a doctoral student, i build on such engagement. i seek to ground my work in evidence-based scholarship to create a more comprehensive approach to support social studies teachers. my research aims to fill a gap between what social studies teachers are expected to impart to their students and what they gained in their own education and training. communities, as co-producers of knowledge, offer teachers an authentic curriculum that centers dialogue and values differences to provide their students with education fit for the twenty-first century. 39 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 b r o w n | b e c o m i n g y o u n g a d u l t s i first knew i was living in unprecedented times in 2008 when i was 5 years old, sitting in my living room watching the first black man be elected president. i do not remember the moment very well, but my family was thrilled, and i knew that something monumental had just taken place. i didn't think i would spend another 14 years living through unprecedented times, none of which were positive. racial injustice, climate change, gun violence, the covid-19 pandemic, recessions, gender inequality, a failing education system, inequitable healthcare, and immigration are just a few of the unprecedented times that have shaped my life. navigating young adulthood during these times has been more challenging than i would like to admit. i always envisioned my young adult years being full of self-discovery and exploration—and they have been. still, i must admit that i heavily think about our world as it stands now and how i can navigate it to live the best life possible. it does not feel good existing in a system designed for me to fail or being unsure when the following infectious disease will force daily life to come to a screeching halt. i do not want to turn on the television and see another community reeling from the effects of gun violence. furthermore, graduating from college during a recession is not ideal. and experiencing the effects of climate change in realtime and watching world leaders refuse to commit to saving the planet is something i will never understand. these have been the conditions that have shaped my perspectives and my decision-making. i smile and nod when older generations say that my generation "will change the world" or that they have "faith in my generation." it is a career goal of mine, and many that i know, to change and improve systems like education, healthcare, gun control, and the criminal justice system. we were taught to leave things better than we found them, and that is what we intend to do; however, we cannot change the world on our own. it requires a collective effort from older and future generations. it requires those with old ways of thinking to open their minds or step aside. my generation has been granted the invaluable power of knowing better, and we plan to do better. still, we cannot push against the brick wall that is backward thinking by people who refuse to turn over positions of power to the next generation. we have been asked to adapt and evolve throughout our lives. we adjusted to the pandemic and went to school under the threat of gun violence. we have adjusted to floods and fires destroying our communities. we have inherited a world full of flaws, and i do not want to spend my life fixing problems i did not create. i want to notice and feel the positive changes in our society. this does not mean the world will be rid of all its problems, but we can stop fighting for fundamental human rights like education, healthcare, and safety. it means that everyone has a fair opportunity to live a life they can be proud of and turn that opportunity into a reality. becoming a young adult during unprecedented times author jordan brown, butler university b r o w n | b e c o m i n g y o u n g a d u l t s 40 an essential characteristic of my generation is that we are not hopeless. these are issues that will not be fixed overnight, maybe not even in our lifetimes, but that doesn't mean we will not work to create a better world. one of the biggest lessons i was taught growing up, which i still carry with me, is that life will continue with or without you. why waste time idly standing by when we could grab on and steer the world in the direction we want it to go in? engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s keywords: health literacy, refugee health, curriculum, accessibility, english as a new language (enl), intervention abstract newly resettled refugees have poorly managed acute and chronic health conditions as a result of their migration experience. to add to an already complex experience, poor health literacy complicates effective utilization of healthcare among these communities (wångdahl et al., 2014). health literacy has been described in the literature as one of the key determinants of and potential barriers to optimal health (kickbusch, 2001). anecdotally, health literacy curricula have been implemented in other low-literacy communities with success. yet there are very few known structured curricula built into the resettlement experience in the united states (u.s.), and even fewer have been described in the literature. in collaboration with closing the health gap and refuge collaborative, a six-week health literacy curriculum was developed and disseminated in adult syrian refugee populations within the greater cincinnati area. using a pre-post intervention design, i aimed to assess the baseline health literacy of newly resettled adult refugees in the greater cincinnati area and evaluate the effectiveness of the health literacy curriculum in improving the functional health literacy of these communities. this pilot study informed the development of a health literacy curriculum aimed at high school refugee students enrolled in cincinnati public schools. establishing the effectiveness of such a curriculum has the potential to have far-reaching impacts on other refugee communities undergoing the resettlement experience. other communities experiencing low health literacy, such as african americans, may also benefit from a similar curriculum. most importantly, improved health literacy can indirectly translate into more effective health care utilization and lead to overall better health outcomes for disadvantaged communities. background there are over 25 million refugees registered worldwide, over half are under the age of 18 (unhcr, 2019). by the end of 2017, there was approximately 287,000 refugees living in the u.s. (unhcr, 2019). ohio is the third most frequent resettlement site in the u.s. (hong et al., 2017). due to the disruption caused by the sociopolitical forces and events that led to migration, many refugees suffer from poorly managed acute and chronic health conditions, as well as lack of access to consistent education and employment that can help empower them to be self-sufficient in their new communities. as a result, refugees struggle to attain optimal health outcomes and effectively access health care services even after resettlement. assessing functional and comprehensive health literacy in a syrian refugee community author mentalla ismail, founder & executive director | refuge collaborative, cincinnati, ohio 24engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y assessing this populations’ health needs greatly differs depending on their country of origin. having lived in polluted refugee camps for years, migrants present with weak immune systems, hepatitis b, tuberculosis, and other issues that have compromised their health (wångdahl et al., 2014). upon resettlement into the u.s., public health departments treat these infectious diseases during a “domestic health assessment.” however, little to no attention is paid to treating chronic and mental health issues (refugee processing center, 2014-2019). while speaking with participants for this study, many of them expressed the inhumane conditions of the camps they lived in. one participant’s family of seven shared a small tent, having to sleep on tarp covering the soil terrain. another shared the stories of discrimination she faced due to her hijab, a visible symbol of her religious beliefs. poor mental health is cited as a persisting determinant in refugee health (hong et al., 2017). the world health organization (who) and the united nations high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) share responsibility for refugee health (hong et al., 2017). however, due to the scarcity of services and inability to coordinate national efforts, this population remains vulnerable to persistent mental health issues. this can be accredited to a combination of the burden of migration, socio-economic factors, lived experiences, and the uncertainty of resettlement. prolonged mental health issues are also attributed to the duration of the time seeking asylum takes (unhcr, 2019). throughout the duration of the study, one family’s story has persisted as a reminder of the devastation caused by a lack of mental health services for those seeking asylum. a family of four fled from syria to turkey to escape the war in 2011. the only way out of syria for them was through smugglers who promised an escape to turkey. the oldest of the family’s two daughters was paralyzed from the waist down since birth and could not endure the journey. choosing between war or survival the family decided to split, with the youngest daughter and father fleeing while the mother and older daughter stayed behind. recent studies attribute refugee mental health issues to post-migration conditions. due to the high influx of migrants, addressing the responsibilities of the receiving countries to provide health services has resulted in anti-migrant and anti-refugee sentiment. many feel that refugees are taking advantage of the welfare services in their receiving countries, and do not necessarily believe that countries have to accommodate these migrants (nutbeam, 2008). the american public has had a long history of not welcoming refugees (ng et al., 2010) as shown by the data in figure 3. this consensus amongst american voters created an opposition in reception of responsibility for the well-being of asylum-seekers. this opposition breeds a hostile environment, which in turn contributes to the mental health distress of these individuals. this study was conducted in 2019 when donald trump was residing in office. participants did not feel safe or welcome within their communities. it was extremely difficult to champion mental well-being through health literacy with syrian refugees at a mosque when so much anti-muslim and anti-refugee rhetoric was on display constantly. health literacy has been identified in the literature as a key determinant and potential barrier to health (nutbeam, 2008). there are two forms of health literacy described in the literature (sorensen et al, 2012). functional health literacy (fhl) is defined as an individual’s ability to read information about health that is necessary to function effectively as a patient in that health care system. comprehensive health literacy (chl) is defined as an individual’s knowledge and competency “to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information in order to make judgments and decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life during the life course” (sorensen et al., 2012, para. 17). refugees and migrants have been vo l . 4 , i s s u e 225 i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y 26engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry shown to have relatively poor health literacy due to a combination of factors such as communication/language barriers and different cultural perspectives of health (wångdahl et al., 2014). one study focusing on the relationship between health literacy of migrant parents and their utilization of pediatric emergency departments reports that one in every three parents misuse emergency services due to low health literacy (wångdahl et al., 2014). refugees are not the only demographic effected by low-literacy rates. in 2003 it was reported that 36% of adults in the u.s. have limited health literacy. with lower literacy rates being higher for minority populations as well as individuals living in poverty (american institutes for research, 2003). the national assessment of adult literacy observed that 58% of african americans had limited or inadequate health literacy in comparison to 28% of whites (american institutes for research, 2003). methods implementation of this intervention occurred at the islamic center of greater cincinnati in the fall of 2019. the participants were a group of 17 syrian female adult refugees enrolled in an english second language (esl) course offered through the islamic center. the participants’ primary language is arabic. while the curriculum was created in english, it was translated in arabic as needed for their understanding and facilitation of discussion. the preand post-surveys were also translated and anticipated to be administered in arabic. the curriculum consisted of six modules which were disseminated weekly over a period of six weeks. each session was one hour in length. the modules created covered various basic but essential components of health literacy, including how to access health services, various types of health care, and where to find them, health insurance, patient rights, medication and refill attainment, and the importance of preventive care (i.e., primary care) in maintaining overall health. module descriptions can be found in table 2. participants were expected to complete preand postintervention surveys aimed at assessing their functional and comprehensive health literacy. the functional health literacy scale (fhls, appendix a) is comprised of five questions with five semistructured response categories: never, seldom, sometimes, often, and always. the comprehensive health literacy scale (chls, appendix b) is comprised of five semistructured response categories: very easy, easy, difficult, very difficult, and don’t know. however, due to the covid pandemic the weekly sessions were halted after week 4 and a post-intervention survey was not administered. measurement of functional and comprehensive health literacy was done using two validated scales, which were adopted from a health literacy study in sweden. dr. josefin wångdahl allowed permission of use of her validated health literacy scales. both scales were translated in arabic. the swedish functional health literacy scale (s-fhl), appendix a, attributes response categories of “never” or “seldom” to having sufficient health literacy, while responses of “often” or “always” lead to inadequate health literacy. a participant’s response of “sometimes” to at least one question coupled with no response of “often” or “always” is attributed to having problematic health literacy. the arabic s-fhl is referenced in appendix c. the european health literacy questionnaire (hlseu-q16) was used to assess comprehensive health literacy. the 16 questions in this survey, seen in appendix b, focus on the following four health literacy dimensions: ability to access/obtain health information, understand health information, ability to process/ appraise health information and ability to apply/use health information. the hls-eu-q16 index scale is as follows: responses of “fairly easy” and “very easy” result in a score of 1. responses of “fairly difficult” and “very difficult” result in a score of 0. responses of i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y 27 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y “don’t know” result in a score of missing. the arabic hls-eu-q16 is referenced in appendix d. these participants also served as part of a focus group informing the development of a remote adolescent refugee health literacy curriculum. using the adult refugee health literacy curriculum as a framework a seven-module curriculum aimed at high school refugee students was created. “lifestyle” and “mental health” modules were added in order to better address common health topics for this demographic. these modules were created to be taught remotely in order to accommodate distance learning due to the covid pandemic. module descriptions can be found in table 3. results the pre-intervention survey results concluded that the majority of the syrian adult refugees surveyed had inadequate levels of fhl and chl. table 1 shows that 64.7% of participants had inadequate functional health literacy while 82.4% had inadequate comprehensive health literacy. none of the participants had sufficient functional or comprehensive health literacy. 52.9% of participants were between the age range of 25-44. the adult syrian refugee curriculum was comprised of six modules. table 2 shows the health topics covered and their descriptions. these modules were informed by healthcare professionals and refugee medical students. this curriculum covers the following health topics: introduction to health, health care resources, prescriptions, health insurance, preventative care, and ethics. based on the discussions and field notes recorded during the intervention at the islamic center it was observed that a majority of female syrian refugees rely on their children to navigate the healthcare system for them. this informed the development of an adolescent refugee health literacy curriculum. table 3 lays out the curriculum for this demographic which is comprised of seven modules. these modules cover the following health topics: introduction to health, lifestyle, prescription, mental health, health insurance, preventative care, and ethics. figure 1: students working with their refuge-uc mentor to brainstorm ideas to promote covid-19 vaccinations within their community as part of refuge collaborative's health promotion initiative table 1: pre-survey functional & comprehensive health literacy results engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 28 discussion navigating the american healthcare system is a daunting experience for many refugee families. language barriers, cultural differences and limited understanding of resources and systems are a few of the contributing factors to poor health outcomes. during the four sessions with participants, our discussions were centered around understanding basic health terms and how to access resources without insurance, which alluded to a gap in fhl as seen by the pre-survey results (in table 1). concepts which seemed straightforward, such as visiting a primary care physician, proved to be a challenge due to a cultural understanding of health. it is important to note that the perspective of health care amongst syrian refugees greatly differs from the countries they are resettling in. this gap in perspective can further exacerbate the health issues this population experiences. western countries view health and health care from a scientific perspective that takes medical and psychological approaches into account (wångdahl et al., 2014), while the cultural backgrounds of refugees have conditioned their perspective to come from a blame culture, taking spiritual or political approaches. for instance, in western culture many attribute being ill to environmental factors that breed infectious disease. due to the vast cultures and traditional backgrounds of refugees that same illness would be attributed to a punishment or sign from a higher being. they may also view the illness as a government ploy due to the distrust in leadership. i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y table 2: adult refugee health literacy curriculum table 3. adolescent refugee health literacy curriculum it is important to note that the perspective of health care amongst syrian refugees greatly differs from the countries they are resettling in. this gap in perspective can further exacerbate the health issues this population experiences. western countries view health and health care from a scientific perspective that takes medical and psychological approaches into account (wångdahl et al., 2014), while the cultural backgrounds of refugees have conditioned their perspective to come from a blame culture, taking spiritual or political approaches. 29 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y this intervention was aimed at improving the adult refugee’s understanding of the u.s. health care system and the participant’s capacity to effectively access services to prevent and treat acute and chronic medical conditions. however, the process identified the need for a robust health literacy curriculum aimed at refugee adolescents. through discussions surrounding the varying health topics within the six-week curriculum it was evident that most of the syrian refugee families relied on their children to navigate the healthcare system on their behalf. whether it was translating medical documents, ordering medical prescriptions, or accompanying their parents to the physician’s office – teenage refugees were at the forefront of navigating the american healthcare system. keeping this information in mind, i then created a seven-week health literacy curriculum targeted to high school refugee students. working with experts including family and adolescent medicine physicians, the pediatric refugee health collaborative, and the center for closing the health gap, we’ve created a health literacy curriculum to address this need. as a tillery fellow through the center for closing the health gap, i’ve been able to further understand how health literacy influences disparities. my focus throughout this intervention has been to serve a community whose health is disproportionately affected due to their linguistic and cultural barriers. lower literacy levels greatly impact african american populations in the united states. this disproportionately low health literacy rate can be attributed to a multifaceted system of barriers of which being historically unjust power structures (muvuka et al., 2020). working with the center for closing the health gap as a tillery fellow has been essential in my understanding of how health literacy influences disparities. my focus throughout this intervention has been to serve a community whose health is disproportionately affected due to their citizenship status, native language, and culture. while the implementation of this particular intervention was incomplete, it uncovered the dire need for health literacy in underserved populations. effective use of health care services can, by extension, directly and indirectly lead to improved health outcomes. knowledge of appropriate use of health care services and improvement in health status also directly and indirectly promote effective assimilation into a new community. conclusion the focus of public health is on the social and environmental determinants of health of a specified population. yet, there has been a significant gap in addressing the well-being of the refugee population. throughout the development of both curriculums and the implementation of the adult health literacy intervention i’ve been able to apply the various program and concentration core competencies. promoting health equity in populations and communities has been the foundation of this work. the design, implementation, and evaluation of the adult refugee health literacy curriculum ensures that a group of nonenglish speakers are able to access health information. further, analyzing the global issues that impact gender inequities aided me in delivering this health service to a group of female refugee participants. developing the adolescent refugee health literacy curriculum will lead to delivery of a sustainable intervention which addresses health conditions of a marginalized group. the approaches and methodology used in implementation of this initiative were founded on the basis of inclusivity to address a diverse population. working with refugees requires ongoing advocacy in order to effectively address the inequities shaped by social and racial determinants of health. further research is needed in order to properly address refugee barriers to care. however, there does not seem to be one method that would adequately address the various health disparities this population faces. each case is unique to its own cultural background. additional data is needed in support of the claim that access to healthcare for refugees in their host countries is restricted despite their urgent need for medical attention. with short-term transition systems in place, refugees transition into a system that is not designed to sustain them. the systems in place at a national level do not take the cultural traumas these individuals have survived into account, nor do they present an arrangement for prolonged treatment. implementation of health literacy programs could prove significant in promoting the understanding and practice of preventative care amongst the refugee population. we offer these people no real source of stabilization. refugees contribute to the richness in diversity, races, and ethnicities. it is vital to understand the priorities of the countries they migrate from in order to understand how their health behaviors are influenced. once they have survived a few years in detention centers awaiting resettlement, they are met with more obstacles while they come to terms with rebuilding their lives. refugees are a resilient people reminding us of the universality of the human experience. figure 2: students from the first adolescent refugee health literacy cohort with refuge collaborative director, mentalla ismail engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 30 i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 31 citation: wångdahl, j. m., & mårtensson, l. i. (2015). measuring health literacy—the swedish functional health literacy scale. scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 29(1), 165–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/ scs.12125 modified version of the hls-eu-q16 developed by j.wångdahl and l. mårtensson based on the original version, hls-eu consortium (2012) engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 32 i s m a i l | s y r i a n r e f u g e e h e a l t h l i t e r a c y references american institutes for research. (2003). national assessment of adult literacy.https:// www.air.org/project/national-assessment-adult-literacy hong, m.k., varghese, r.e., jindal, c., & efird, j.t. (2017). refugee policy implications of u.s. immigration medical screenings: a new era of inadmissibility on health-related grounds. international journal of environmental research and public health, 14(10), 1107. doi:10.3390/ ijerph14101107 kickbusch, i.s. (2001). health literacy: addressing the health and education divide. health promotion international, 16(3), 28997. https://doi.org/10.1093/ heapro/16.3.289 muvuka, b., combs, r.m., ayangeakaa, s.d., ali, n.m., wendel, m.l., & jackson, t. (2020) health literacy in african-american communities: barriers and strategies. health literacy research and practice, 4(3), e138-e143. doi:10.3928/2474830720200617-01 ng, e., walter, d., kasugu, o. (2010). health literacy and immigrants in canada: determinants and effects on health outcomes. the canadian council of learning. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7f7d/78e6f2f0e183a02adee41ce1989a3fc2c714.pdf nutbeam, d. (2008). the evolving concept of health literacy. social science & medicine, 67(12), 2072-8. refugee processing center, 2014-2019. sorensen, k., broucke, s.v., fullam, j., doyle, g., pelikan, j., slonska, z., brand, h. & (hlseu) consortium health literacy project european. (2012). health literacy and public health: a systematic review and integration of definitions and models. bmc public health, 12(1), 80. https://doi.org/10.1186/14712458-12-80 unhcr population statistics database, 2019. wångdahl, j., lytsy, p., mårtensson, l., & westerling, r. (2014). health literacy among refugees in sweden—a cross-sectional study. bmc public health, 14, 1030. https://doi. org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1030 wångdahl, j. m., & mårtensson, l. i. (2015). measuring health literacy—the swedish functional health literacy scale. scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 29(1), 165–172. https://doi. org/10.1111/scs.12125 10engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry r e a | n o t e s o f c o m p a s s i o n vo l . 4 , i s s u e 211 r e a | n o t e s o f c o m p a s s i o n 12 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 references (2022, june 15). randolph reads: literacy initiative focuses on immigrant stories. journal sun (randolph, ma). https://www.wickedlocal.com/ story/journal-sun/2022/06/15/ randolph-reads-literacy-initiative-focuses-immigrant-stories/7635251001/ (2022, june 16). english at large celebrates achievements of local immigrants. lexington minuteman (randolph, ma). https:// www.wickedlocal.com/story/lexington-minuteman/2022/06/16/ english-large-celebrates-achievements-local-immigrants/7645622001/ alvarez, a. a. (2022, august 21). afghan evacuees are being crushed by grief. a philly agency is trying to help. the philadelphia inquirer. https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/ afghanistan-evacuation-mental-health-philadelphia-20220821. html benchaabane, n. (2022, august 30). st. louis pushes us to send more refugees here. ‘we are ready.’ st. louis post-dispatch. https://www.stltoday.com/ business/local/st-louis-pushesus-to-send-more-refugees-herewe-are-ready/article_d2c40e3b5fd3-548f-b78d-893ad9739727. html bolan, m. (2022, april 18). local rotary clubs raise nearly $20k for ukranian refugees. the keene sentinel (keene, nh). https:// www.sentinelsource.com/news/ local/local-rotary-clubs-raisenearly-20k-for-ukrainian-refugees/article_55b86964-6b285da7-9f14-4cb21f87067b.html bunch, j. (2022, august 21). one year after taliban’s resurgence, pittsburgh’s afghan refugees settle cautiously into stable living. pittsburgh post-gazette. https://www.post-gazette. com/local/city/2022/08/21/ pittsburgh-afghan-refugees-adjustment-life-in-us-status-one-year-anniversary-taliban-afghanistan/ stories/202208180122 creason, n. (2022, june 29). 5 questions: afghan refugees marry in carlisle after wedding plans interrupted in taliban takeover. the sentinel (carlisle, pa). https://cumberlink. com/news/local/communities/ carlisle/5-questions-afghan-refugees-marry-in-carlisle-after-wedding-plans-interrupted-in-taliban-takeover/ article_9408ba34-db5a-11ec807d-9f2b629a7a3a.html curtis, a. (2022, august 4). how a belfast teacher helped a ukranian counterpart escape war. bangor daily news (bangor, me). https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/08/04/ news/midcoast/belfast-teacher-helps-ukrainian-counterpartjoam40zk0w/ de rugy, v. (2022, september 22). most americans value immigration. most politicians don’t. the orange county register (orange county, ca). https://www. ocregister.com/2022/09/22/ most-americans-value-immigration-most-politicians-dont/ fawcett, e. (2022, march 2). hartford immigration rally calls for change, with chants of ‘down with deportation.’ hartford courant. https://www. courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-immigration-rally-hartford-20220303-qgineql6anb33k7odavced4suy-story. html gagosz, a. (2022, august 4). new city program to help low-income providence residents navigate immigration system. boston globe. https://www.bostonglobe. com/2022/08/04/metro/ new-city-program-help-low-income-providence-residents-navigate-immigration-system/?p1=bgsearch_overlay_results gammage, j. (2022, september 30). parents are trying to raise money to get local ukranian children to philly school. the philadelphia inquirer. https://www. inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/ ukraine-school-bus-northeastphilly-20220930.html green, r. (2022, april 19). anti-sanctuary city bill draws opposition from church, aclu. the keene sentinel (keene, nh). https://www.sentinelsource. com/news/local/anti-sanctuarycity-bill-draws-opposition-fromchurch-aclu/article_da5830fe1527-5548-9f93-bd169c46946e. html griffin, j. (2022, august 15). on the one-year anniversary, state department thanks philly for welcoming afghan evacuees. the philadelphia inquirer. https:// www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/afghanistan-evacuation-philadelphia-refugees-resettlement-20220815.html hanz, j. (2022, october 12). shady side academy junior honored for his volunteer work supporting area refugees. carnegie signal item (tarentum, pa). https://triblive.com/ local/valley-news-dispatch/ shady-side-academy-junior-honored-for-his-volunteer-work-supporting-area-refugees/ hochsprung, g. (2022, june 12). ukranian refugees find sanctuary at silver bay ymca. the post-star (glens falls, ny). https://poststar. com/news/local/ukrainianrefugees-find-sanctuary-at-silver-bay-ymca/article_0ed6a12engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry r e a | n o t e s o f c o m p a s s i o n what they see designer nick asbell iupui office of community engagement staff liz m. terry iupui f u l l e r m c d a d e | w h a t t h e y s e e 6 online journal development ted polley iupui associate editors william b. crow lehigh university carolyn gentle-genitty indiana university jim grim iupui rita hodges university of pennsylvania natasha howard morehouse college terri jett butler university brendan maxcy iupui carol mullen virginia tech mary price forum on education abroad carol rogers iupui javiette vashan samuel univeristy of tennessee, knoxville sarah stanlick worcester polytechnic institute ellen szarleta iu, northwest laura weaver community-engaged alliance editors khaula murtadha iupui andrea copeland iupui author kamarie fuller-mcdade when they look at us what do they see? a person? no a soul? no a being trying to flourish? no they only see our brown skin they see the stereotypes that they created they see the struggles that they caused they see misinformation about us they see only what their mind lets them see just because they see they think they know but they don’t know that we’re more than what they imagine we’re strong we’re black we’re smart and we’re beautiful when i see us i see courage i see bravery i see wisdom i see our ancestors i see our history and i see our blackness and it’s the most beautiful 57 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 h a r v e y & v i l l a l v a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y break free from mass incarceration the system was designed to incarceratate the uneducated and the underprivileged yet the system creates the uneducated and the underprivileged break free from incarceration rylie swalis, butler university engage! vol. 5, no. 3 guest guest editorial 5 the purpose behind this special edition of engage! was to capture perspective, understanding, and seminal work that was illuminated at the iu statewide community engagement unconference – better together – that was facilitated at iu indianapolis by faculty, staff, and students from all iu campuses on march 22, 2024. although a broad aspect of community engaged scholarship is presented, i think it is all contained under the larger picture of—we are better together. the power of relationships, trust, and transformative partnerships facilitate creativity, innovation, cultural humility, civic engagement, and impactful work. articles within this special edition are expansive and range from models and best practices to the importance of community engagement as well as civic engagement to other articles that are reflective in nature. these are important and each piece, a fabric if you will, are woven into a beautiful tapestry of mosaics and gradations showing the intricacies, patience, and collectiveness of an underlying unified vision of community engagement encompassing research, creative activity, service, and teaching. for some, community engagement is a calling. for others, maybe, it’s an expectation. either way, it’s deeply rooted in collaboration, trust, authenticity, and wanting to serve something larger than oneself. in one of the articles in this special edition, rafael alamilla reflects on a statement by his undergraduate research mentor, dr jason ng, who once stated “people who work at universities are servants to their communities.” this statement epitomizes, but also grounds, our cohort of community engaged faculty, staff, and students. our work is about collectiveness: the sharing of expertise and resources with the goal of reducing obstacles and increasing opportunities for indiana residents across the state. hopefully, iu—across its campuses and hierarchy—realizes that who we are and what we do contributes to the social, political, economic, and cultural larger footprint of serving the state and its people. this work is not transactiona; but is rooted in the concept of collaboration, and iu has increasingly embraced this role. over the past few years, i have seen continual growth and a groundswell of interest regarding engagement work with communities across indiana. there is a deep commitment and passion regarding community engagement. community engagement takes many forms, from research to creative activity, to teaching, to scholarship, to service. tenure and non-tenure track faculty, professional staff, and undergrad and graduate students constitute the coalition of the willing—the community engaged cohort—who are impassioned about working with our communities whether they are urban, suburban, or rural. our focus and interest as a coalition of community engaged practitioners aligns and overlays across all three pillars of the iu 2030 strategic plan: student success, transformative research, and service to the state (https://strategicplan.iu.edu/index.html). letter from the guest editor todd burkhardt director of campus partnerships for indiana university’s center for rural engagement (cre) indiana university bloomington 6 todd burkhardt | guest editorial based on the strategic plan, iu faculty and staff should institute and facilitate “immersive student experiences that elevate students among their peers in the workplace and beyond,” have “a commitment to the pursuit of discovery, creativity, and innovation that improves communities and changes lives,” and develop and enable “a commitment to engagement, partnership, and collaboration that strengthens the vitality of indiana, the nation, and the world” (https://strategicplan.iu.edu/outcomes/index.html). our iu community engaged cohort of faculty, staff, and students work diligently across and within all three pillars of iu’s 2030 plan. we create experiential learning opportunities and activities for students. we leverage networks and interdisciplinary collaboration. and we facilitate meaningful and impactful community-centric projects and initiatives as part of a campus-community collaborative partnership. we increase the vitality of indiana and indiana university through our work. as a center of rural engagement (iu bloomington) staff member, i along with many others see the importance of further facilitating and hopefully even enhancing already established efforts by various schools and units across the university system by creating and facilitating opportunities for this community engaged cohort to grow and expand. we did this through the orchestration of building networks, reducing silos, sharing best practices and initiatives, and reducing obstacles and barriers among the cohort that does community engagement work. there was an intentionality to unite our nine campuses around the importance of community engaged work in order to share lessons learned, highlight student immersive experiences, show impact and the importance of translation, as well as to highlight the lack of recognition and support for this important work by some faculty and administrators. this is further highlighted in an article penned by annalise janke who purports that the unconference not only assuaged the geographical distances between campuses, but also reduced silos and barriers between faculty and staff on the same campus. this community engagement coalition has met through various mediums: monthly zoom calls (cross campus connections), poster sessions, meet and greets, celebrations, colloquiums, an urban research conference, rural conferences, a research and dissemination webinar, unconferences, and the engage! journal. the unconference that took place this past march 2024 at iu indianapolis was an opportunity to convene representatives from iu’s campuses to share best practices in programming and models for working collaboratively with communities, explore opportunities for future multicampus collaborations, and develop and strengthen iu networks. case in point, is a co-written article in this edition by kim decker, catherine sherwoodlaughlin, and suzanne allen who through networking at the 2023 unconference and rural conference discussed how their units from the school of nursing, school of public health, and iu corps could build and grow capacity with the implementation and evaluation of substance use prevention and mental health programs in rural schools. jennifer price mahoney who has contributed an article to this special edition points out that a striking feature of community engagement is that it helps all hoosiers win, but not only that, jennifer illuminates a salient point about the unconference. “it gave us the opportunity to find our fellows. it was lovely to see and hear from others who are doing incredible and inspiring things in communities across the state.” the unconference attempted to amass iu staff, faculty, and students from across the iu campuses around key and central topics that resonate, but also to continue to build momentum and turn ideas into positive action. another important component regarding community engagement is developing our students so they are ready when handed the torch from the current generation of faculty and staff who do community engaged work. karen banks, who contributes an article on the importance of service learning for students, expresses the importance of such an endeavor, “because it allows students to work with real data, understand organizational challenges, and apply their new skills and knowledge” which is exponentially important to student experience, growth, and learning. both rafael alamilla and elizabeth bennion, in different articles, highlight the need for civic skill development and why that is so important. for rafael, civically engaged professionals are seminal to the success of stakeholder networks and community capacity. and for elizabeth bennion, she illustrates how civic skill development as a part of community engagement can be developed across levels, modes, and disciplines. moreover, alexander lipsey contributes a useful reflective essay on how tools such as mentimeter (https://www.mentimeter.com/) can be an incredibly powerful for not only collecting important demographic information, but also important feedback on thoughts, questions, and inspirations that can be easily captured and shared in real time through visualizations, charts, and word clouds. to highlight some of the ideas and conversations that transpired, we believed that a special edition of engage! could be realized to capture this important work by ways of reflection, collaboration, models, and best practices. it was a way to fundamentally capture information and share it. for example, rebecca mueller’s work is highlighted in her article, “technical assistance: a high-touch, high-impact community engagement model” which demonstrates and shows that success is grounded in long-term relationships throughout the whole process from asset-based inventories to implementation to sustainability planning. of important note regarding the articles in this special edition is that they are all diverse and distinct from each other which i think is indicative of the nature of community engagement and the broad framework of disciplines, units, staff, faculty, students, and the communities that they work with. jeremy price who authors an article in this edition, coined this consortium of articles as pluralism or multiplicity. i couldn’t agree more. the many facets, layers, and dimensions of this endeavor—community engaged work—are varied and diverse. it’s the real world. it takes time. it’s messy. it’s complicated. but it’s also beautiful. jeremy in his work goes on to say, “community engaged research prioritizes honoring community knowledge and capital, accepts diverse outputs, and values transformative goals,” whereas this is not always the case in traditional research. what do we—a non-land grant, big ten university—owe to the people beyond our campus boundaries? i would say a lot. indiana university has a steeped tradition in research combined with a spectrum of doctoral programs in innovation and research. although this is incredibly important, this image doesn’t paint the full picture of what indiana university brings to the table. for many faculty, staff, and students it’s about journeying off the campus and into communities across the state to meet people where they are and collaborate on opportunities and initiatives that make a difference.i hope that you enjoy this special edition. one thing is for sure. our coalition of community engaged practitioners have been engaging in scholarly interdisciplinary work, establishing meaningful student immersive experiences, and serving our community partners and the state for decades. todd burkhardt | guest editorial 7 t the student voice idea for this edition of the engage! journal was born out of a conversation between me and students in my black political thought class that was being taught via zoom in the midst of the pandemic, before a vaccine became available. we were discussing how the collective markings of a generation as indicated by what is experienced through large societal events can shape how you see the world and define one’s journey through life. while defining the concepts of societal constructs, systemic impediments and environmental struggles, i realized that i was listening to a universal angst in the voices of these students who had been forced to reflect on the #metoo movement, #blacklivesmattermovement, heightened by the killings of george floyd, ahmaud arbery, brianna taylor and simultaneously a global pandemic. their entire life has been digital, shaped by social media, there has been a marked increase in gun violence and environmental disruptions such as hurricanes as a result of climate change, and as remarkable as it seems, these are day-to-day experiences that shape their lives. as young people, they have a lot to say and express as they consider how to problem solve and create fulfilling lives in sustainable ways. my students recognize they are part of increasingly diverse communities and their educational journeys must be relevant to what is witnessed. the butler university students contributing varying forms of expression to this edition of the engage! a m p l i f y i n g s t u d e n t v o i c e s & c o m m u n i t y s c h o o l s journal were enrolled in a class called “activism.” at the beginning of the semester the students wrote and spoke about their backgrounds, socialization, and issues very important to them. along with written pieces, activist posters were created as tools of persuasion, some of which are featured in this journal. there must be spaces for their voices to be honored and valued. we have to wonder what this generation of our young people want for their future selves based on decisions made by others about them today. who is looking out for them and protecting their lives and their right to thrive? – terri jett as a journalism scholar, former teacher, adjunct faculty member, and ongoing freelance practitioner, i view student voices as foundational in the development of community schools. family and community engagement – particularly their voices – are an evidenced-based pillar of community schools. collective stakeholder voice and engagement reflects shared leadership practices, another pillar of community schools. a community school is a time-tested strategy that organizes community supports for student success, where educators and community members collaborate to secure the best supports for all children’s learning and development. decades of research demonstrate community schools are a proven school improvement equity strategy, focused on student-centered teaching and learning that serves the hoengage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 4 “when we embrace social justice as a pillar of learning in our classrooms, we declare that we’re all responsible for improving our world.” educational leadership, may 2009 5 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 political science activism course students – dr. terri jett photo: (back row) paul ford ii, claire shaffer, diana fernandez, rosa clemente, alex pulaski, emily langston, fritz stangler, and michaela ivory (front row) ryile swalis, kamarie fuller-mcdade, justin deem – loureiro, anna marcou, sydney haworth, rylie swalis, and jordan brown listic needs of all students and their families. in community schools, family and community members are considered an asset as their skills, talents, and generosity of time or treasure build on student strengths, engage them as learners, and help them to reach their full potential. on a bench at the university of pennsylvania, a statue of benjamin franklin depicts the words: “the future of our democracy is dependent upon the strength of our public schools.” the strength of our public schools likewise depends on the collective us. schools cannot do this work alone. community schools provide the engagement, the voice, to address the very conditions necessary for learning. the most significant voice is that of our students and their families. – jim grim a m p l i f y i n g s t u d e n t v o i c e s & c o m m u n i t y s c h o o l s 41 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p keywords: collaboration, community engagement, traumaresponsive, partnership, whole child abstract two different community-engaged groups in indianapolis, indiana, recommended trauma-responsive school communities to address barriers to student learning. before merging their work, both groups represented collaborations of university academics; k-12 educators; dental, mental, and basic health providers; service organizations; youth development specialists; and public school parents. the conclusions from the collective work were clear: address the social/ emotional and mental health, trauma and violence, chronic absenteeism, and social media distractions of students or fail to impact learning and youth development success. central to the conclusions was the collaborative nature of the community-engaged studies, input from the field, survey respondent discussions, and analysis of the findings. a culminating report, closing the gap between school & community partnerships: an assessment of schools in indianapolis, recommends adopting whole-child approaches, strength-based family engagement, community school models, and increased public school funding to address the barriers identified from survey responses of 354 educators throughout the city of indianapolis. this paper focuses on how the collaborative, community-engaged process led to the report findings, lessons learned, recommendations, and next steps. introduction two different groups studying how poor health outcomes and related factors can serve as a barrier to learning in indianapolis recognized an opportunity to share data and collaboratively identify recommendations for action to close the gap between schools and community resources. a university-facilitated group studied health factors for five distinct school communities on the indianapolis near-westside, while the other community organization-led group surveyed hundreds of educators throughout the city to see what their schools needed to help address barriers to learning. both groups identified social, emotional, mental health, trauma, and related chronic absenteeism as root cause preventing optimal learning conditions for children and families of the indiana state capital. once the two groups merged, they shared findings, data, and discovery, setting out together to deepen their understanding of the information through collaborative analysis, community-based discussion, and targeted informant interviews. by sharing expertise, resources, closing the gap between schools and community: university/community collaboration addresses identified barriers to student learning author kate roelecke, mph, chw, cyc-p, director of strategy and operations, marion county commission on youth jim grim, ma, director of university/community school partnerships, office of community engagement, iupui silvia garcia, phd, director of research and assessment, office of community engagement, iupui vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p 42 and community access, their collaborative study guided research-based recommendations for change. the marion county commission on youth, inc. (mccoy) brought survey responses from 354 educators throughout the city to the collaboration. at the same time, the indiana university purdue university indianapolis (iupui) team from family, school, and neighborhood engagement in the campus office of community engagement provided research data analysis and recommendation considerations, experienced community discussion facilitation, and established deep school/community relationships. the collaboration between the two groups strengthened the work beyond the earlier separate endeavors. in this article, we define the two partnerships, how their eventual collaboration strengthened the study, and share the results. we conclude with the recommendations for change. the two partnerships in august 2019, two partnerships that worked to understand and bring attention to the health needs of youth in marion county began collaborating to summarize the results of their findings and jointly recommend solutions to the issues found in their respective assessments. the following sections describe the two partnerships – mccoy’s education action team and the culture of health leadership team facilitated by iupui – and their work before joining forces. figure 1 below shows the collaboration timeline and this article's organization. mccoy’s education action team mccoy is central indiana’s primary youth-focused intermediary organization, championing the positive development of youth through leadership on key issues and support for the youth worker community. since 2009, mccoy has convened the early intervention planning council (eipc), a group of diverse stakeholders and community leaders appointed by the city-county council, the indianapolis mayor’s office, and other relevant agencies. the overarching goal of the eipc is to reduce the number of children entering the marion county child welfare and juvenile legal systems by improving the coordination of and access to youth programs and resources. the education action team is a subset of the eipc formed in 2017 to support the education of school leadership and staff on prevention figure 1 partnership timeline engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 43 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p and early intervention protective factors, traumainformed care, and cultural competency. individuals on the action team represent multiple local school districts (msd warren township, msd lawrence township, msd decatur township, indianapolis public schools, the mayor’s office of education innovation), iupui, and multiple community organizations (the marion county public health department, communities in schools of indiana, peace learning center, and jameson camp among them). the team meets monthly to review progress and act on various projects to impact the education system and positive youth development. in 2019, after successfully facilitating poverty simulations for school and community partners, the team determined that an assessment of school needs would be necessary to identify the most appropriate steps to move forward. culture of health leadership team as one of five communities across the country participating in a culture of health project with the coalition for community schools and the robert wood johnson foundation, iupui’s culture of health leadership team was formed in 2017 by family, school, and neighborhood engagement in the office of community engagement at iupui. the culture of health project provided a framework to refocus attention on the health of youth, families, and neighbors of the indianapolis near-westside school communities in a then-federally funded full-service community schools initiative through the mary rigg neighborhood center. it also studied how area partners and service providers deliver health promotion and disease prevention opportunities, particularly the university health-focused schools near the target neighborhoods. the collective study began in march 2017 by forming a leadership team of invested health-related representatives from across the city, totaling about 50 individuals. nearly half of them were from the health schools on iupui’s campus, including the indiana university schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, social work, education, health and human sciences, and optometry. the leadership team also included representatives of ips, peace learning center, eskenazi health, marion county public health department, shalom health services, iupui center for service and learning, office of community engagement, mary rigg neighborhood center, mccoy, and area parents. the leadership team focused on the communities of ips participating in the near-westside community schools initiative: stephen foster school 67, william penn school 49, matchbook learning at wendell phillips school 63, daniel webster school 46, and george washington high school. early on, the team determined it should adopt the terms “wellness” and “wellbeing,” a nuance that helped drive the quest to determine where efforts might best address the state of health in the area. the team met every other month to devise strategies to address an action plan collectively developed at a two-day retreat early on in washington d.c., with representatives of the coalition for community schools and robert wood johnson foundation to foster safe and supportive learning environments to strengthen social, physical, and emotional wellbeing for all school community members. how the partnerships approached their studies before the merger, both groups collected data to inform their actions. between 2017 and 2019, the culture of health leadership team held discussions with professional medical informants, including the chief medical officer of eskenazi hospital, the county hospital on campus. in 2019, the leadership team also launched a health survey for families. meanwhile, mccoy’s education action team launched an online survey of school personnel throughout the city. following, we describe the methodology used by each partnership. vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p 44 the culture of health leadership team health survey for families conversations about the health survey for families started in 2018 when one of the group members reported the results of a survey with health input by families of stephen foster school 67. by january 2019, one of the leadership team members, an independent family engagement consultant, said she wanted to survey families again about health and solicited assistance in updating the questionnaire. the culture of health leadership team and near-westside community schools collectively developed the survey for families. the paper survey was administered to families at three of the five school sites: william penn school 49, daniel webster school 46, and matchbook learning at wendell phillips school 63. parents completed 80 surveys, 30 at matchbook learning, 31 at william penn, and 19 at daniel webster. the survey collected information about health and safety issues in the neighborhood, the use of medical care facilities in the neighborhood, transportation to medical care facilities, primary health and safety concerns about children, and community resources used in the previous month. mccoy’s education action team online survey for school personnel the education action team at mccoy developed a strategy to identify the needs of school personnel to provide targeted programming and capacity building to meet youth needs. the assessment began with an online survey released in april 2019 targeting schools in marion county and nearby suburbs to identify challenges and seek feedback about the resources and support schools need. k-12 teachers, administrators, and support staff from msd decatur township, msd warren township, and indianapolis public schools participated in the survey. the surveyed population also included charter, private, and suburban schools. in total, 354 responses were collected and distributed as follows: decatur (201), warren (81), ips (26), and the remaining (46) were from charter, private, and suburban schools. the survey covered topics affecting students and their behaviors, practices, and programs in schools, barriers to learning, needed resources, and the value of school/ community relationships in addressing the identified challenges. while the short-term intent of the survey was to identify collaborative actions the team could initially carry out to support school personnel through professional development opportunities, the results identified needed long-term systems changes that could improve student outcomes and support school personnel through the education process. results obtained by each partnership the culture of health leadership team health survey results participants in the health survey for families were asked to select the option that concerned them the most about their children’s health and safety. the three highest priorities were crime in the neighborhood, bullying, and the need for mental health counseling. other essential concerns identified the need for healthier food access, the lack of activities for youth to do in the summer, and the need for a mentor or other positive adult in each child’s life. another question in the survey asked about the top three health and safety concerns that could be better in the neighborhood. bullying was mentioned with significant frequency. in addition to the survey results, multiple professional health informant presentations and interviews helped engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 45 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p the leadership team determine that trauma-responsive school communities could best address the barriers to health and student learning. the team discussed the findings with representatives of each of the five school communities — just before merging the work with mccoy because of similar assessment findings and to reach a greater geographic area. along the study journey, the team determined some key lessons: • public health is complex, • cultural norms are difficult to change, and • trauma is a root cause of most of the health issues for youth and families of the indianapolis near-westside. subsequent action focused on: 1) the development of trauma-responsive school communities and 2) onsite healthcare access for students in the one school without it, daniel webster school 46. addressing the social/ emotional needs of students and their families is an emerging interprofessional response to trauma that is exasperated by high rates of crime, drug abuse, and related negative family outcomes demonstrated by adverse childhood experiences (aces) findings both here and throughout the country (medina et al., 2020). mccoy’s education action team needs assessment results mccoy’s survey respondents identified five key issues impacting student success: social-emotional health, chronic absenteeism, trauma and violence, social media and internet use, and mental health (marion county commission on youth [mccoy], 2021). while not the only challenges facing students, survey respondents identified these issues the most. in addition, statistical analysis found significant differences in responses depending on the roles of respondents within the schools (teachers, support staff, or administrators) and the types of schools respondents worked at (charter, indianapolis public schools, private, suburban schools outside marion county, or townships) (mccoy, 2021). respondents were also asked to identify resulting behaviors from these issues (such as substance use, fighting, aggressive behavior, or absenteeism), finding significant differences based on the type of school (township, suburban, private, or charter). survey respondents also listed the types of policies, practices, or programs they implement in their school to address these and other related issues and identified the additional resources needed for students, families, teachers, and administrators. when asked about the barrier to accessing these resources, the most frequent response was lack of funding or financial limitations (mccoy, 2021). the collaboration conversations about the two groups collaborating started in august 2019 after one of the culture of health leadership team members representing mccoy presented the preliminary results of mccoy’s assessment survey. the survey conducted by mccoy drew similar conclusions as the health survey for families and the leadership team conversations and studies around the main issues affecting youth health, such as mental health, trauma, social/emotional learning, and chronic absenteeism. the culture of health leadership team merged with the education action team in early 2020 to continue the study, based on the shared focus on social/ emotional learning, mental health, chronic absenteeism, and creating trauma-responsive school communities. a strong collective of partners from different sectors formed as a result. members of the culture of health leadership team collaborated with mccoy’s education action team (with representatives of multiple school districts throughout the city, mental health providers, communities in schools of indiana, and other vested partnering organizations) to take a broader perspective beyond the near-westside of indianapolis and explore the more expansive approach to collectively address vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 46 the social and emotional needs of students and families throughout marion county. once survey results were analyzed, the education action team collaborated with iupui’s office of community engagement to plan three community conversations with msd of decatur township, msd of warren township, and indianapolis public schools. participants featured teachers, administrators, and support staff, including guidance counselors and social workers. the conversations aimed to identify ways of strengthening the connection between school and community resources, professional development, and programs that address barriers to student success. data also identified what school personnel wished for students – or what they wanted to see as a future result of education. unfortunately, the community assessment process was interrupted by the onset of the public health emergency related to the covid-19 pandemic in march 2020. however, in april 2020, the team conducted three virtual key informant interviews via zoom to dive deeper into key findings. key informant interviews with a k-8 school principal, township administrator, and school-based mental health provider gave deeper perspectives into the experiences of the primary population of the assessment, especially as it relates to the community partnership that could facilitate systems-level solutions to address root causes of these issues. findings that emerged from the key informant interviews suggested that programs and services implementing a case management model may struggle with the capacity to meet the needs of every student and family at the school while also operating under a completely different business model (such as medicare reimbursement) than the school. schools also struggle to engage families with external partners, highlighting the critical role trust and strengths-based practices play in supporting students and their families (mccoy, 2021). each interviewee was asked to share the single most impactful action we could collectively take to support students, and each shared the same answer: family engagement and support. ironically, the most basic way of supporting a family may be connecting families to the resources and services they need most. however, this seems to be where schools lack the greatest capacity due to structural barriers that make it difficult for schools to maintain effective partnerships with community programs and services. when survey data was shared in november and december 2019 with community conversation participants of the three school districts, most said that the data reflected what they saw within their schools. in each conversation, participants shared they wanted more training and professional development to support students and address secondary trauma that teachers experience. trauma-informed professional development and resources were emphasized, specifically regarding mental and social/emotional health. however, while popular, professional development may not be the most effective solution because of the complex and systemic nature of the challenges – something that participants recognized through community conversations. participants acknowledged that schools attempted to address the symptoms of the issues rather than implement systemic strategies to address root causes. in the community conversations to identify potential solutions, environmental and policy strategies were a significant focus of the community conversations was trust as an integral part of engaging with students and their families. research indicates that interactions promoting trust and self-regulation between students and teachers may mitigate the effects of poverty and other environmental influences (adams & forsyth, 2013). 47 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p identified mainly for chronic absenteeism, trauma, and violence but less so for strictly mental and social/ emotional health. a significant focus of the community conversations was trust as an integral part of engaging with students and their families. research indicates that interactions promoting trust and self-regulation between students and teachers may mitigate the effects of poverty and other environmental influences (adams & forsyth, 2013). students in high-trust learning environments perceive more control over their learning (tschannedmoran & hoy, 2000). note: the culminating report by the collaborating group with the marion county commission on youth link: https://mccoyouth.org/closingthegap/ a collective culminating report with mccoy, closing the gap between school & community partnerships: an assessment of schools in indianapolis, outlined the assessment process, key findings, and recommendations to create stronger connections between schools and community resources that support student success. agenda for change throughout the assessment, we contemplated how the challenges were interwoven and systemic. a thorough literature review of the five key issues identified – social and emotional health, chronic absenteeism, trauma and violence, social media and the internet, and mental health – highlights critical data, and research findings point to the complexity of each issue and the overlapping systems and risk factors that impact them (mccoy, 2021). while many schools implement programs to impact critical youth development and education issues, the approaches can only be sustained if key personnel, resources, and funding are available. skill-building programs must be components of multilevel approaches implemented at every level of the education process (slade & griffith, 2013). based on the findings, the assessment report structures recommendations around the socioecological framework to influence various levels of change within the educational system – from individual behavior and attitude changes to modifying the interactions between schools’ staff, students, and families, and finally, changes to the social and physical environments and policies. the recommendations called for schools to adopt a whole child, strength-based approach and the community school model, supported by increased investment in public education. the whole-child approach positively impacts students’ individual experiences and development. the approach is integrated throughout various levels of the education system (curriculum and instruction, school climate and structures, professional development, and student learning) to “influence long-term success rather than short-term achievement” among students (association figure 2 collective final report vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p 48 for supervision and curriculum development [ascd], n.d.). specifically, solutions and strategies are driven by indicators to track outcomes ensuring students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and academically challenged (ascd, 2012). family engagement was emphasized throughout the community conversations and prioritized as a critical action amongst the key informants we interviewed for our assessment. research links family engagement to better student behavior, higher academic achievement, and enhanced social skills (centers for disease control and prevention [cdc], 2018). however, trust is essential to effective family engagement, and our team identified strength-based approaches as effective strategies for improving trust between school personnel and families. based on research from the search institute’s framework for developing relationships, a strength-based approach to family engagement includes acknowledging family strengths and assets, respecting and learning from differences, and authentically sharing in decision-making (early childhood learning and knowledge center, 2022). strength-based approaches improve the relationships between school personnel and families, which may positively impact engagement with community partners offering necessary resources and services. the community school model applies the whole-child approach at a whole-school, whole-community level. within this model, schools, families, and communities work together to support student academic success, positive youth development, strengthen families, and improve communities (lubell, 2011). community services and resources are coordinated, integrated, and delivered through the facilitation of a community school coordinator. at the same time, community school councils engage families and community partners to develop a shared vision and supported pathways for student success (medina, 2020). this collective framework establishes schools as resource hubs within the community to achieve better student, family, and neighborhood outcomes (potapchuk, 2013). the marion county public health department smilemobile provides dental care for students at indianapolis public school william penn #49 engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 49 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p each of the recommendations will only be sustained if an increased investment in public education exists. during the 2017-2018 school year, indiana ranked 47th in average per-pupil funding and 34th in average teacher salary nationwide (national education association, 2019). our assessment identified the systemic and interwoven challenges resulting from decades of financial disinvestment – challenges teachers and other school personnel must navigate daily. moreover, public education underfunding is not equitably distributed, sustaining the systemic racist practice of segregation within our education systems (edbuild, 2019). to equitably impact student outcomes and academic success at the systems level, we must advocate for revised public education funding systems and historical increases in investment from our local, state, and federal policymakers. from research to action the success of the assessment and subsequent report has inspired the expanded education action team to continue collaborating on multiple projects to further the report recommendations. next, we discuss the initiatives being implemented in part by this foundational collaboration. strength-based approaches improve the relationships between school personnel and families, which may positively impact engagement with community partners offering necessary resources and services. wayne township fire department personnel discuss fire safety with students of matchbook learning at wendell phillips school #63, a model community school in indianapolis during the 2017-2018 school year, indiana ranked 47th in average per-pupil funding and 34th in average teacher salary nationwide (national education association, 2019). our assessment identified the systemic and interwoven challenges resulting from decades of financial disinvestment – challenges teachers and other school personnel must navigate daily. moreover, public education underfunding is not equitably distributed, sustaining the systemic racist practice of segregation within our education systems (edbuild, 2019). vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p 50 school-based community health worker pilot project in 2020, mccoy and iupui began conversations with a participating k-8 school principal within indianapolis public schools about addressing chronic absenteeism exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic. together, they successfully submitted multiple proposals —title ii funding by the indiana criminal justice institute beginning in january 2021, title v funding by the indiana department of health in october 2021-september 2023 — to pilot a schoolbased community health worker (chw) program in the school to reduce chronic absenteeism by engaging families and connecting them to community resources and services. this is one of the most ambitious projects to date resulting from our closing the gap assessment, as we continue to develop and evaluate the program to show the critical importance of school/community partnerships. this initiative involves several west indy neighborhood partners, including eli lilly & company, west indy development corporation, west indy public library branch, west morris street church, gleaners food bank, mary rigg neighborhood center, and ingredion corporation. closing the gap case studies while the assessment we completed centered on the needs of schools, we identified significant strengths and assets throughout the assessment process. the education action team is developing case studies of effective school/community partnerships to remain strengthsbased. examples include implementing in-school mental health services, a district-supported family resource center, access to university optometry and dental services, communities in schools of indiana, and a twogeneration approach by an early childhood education center. the case studies will highlight innovative ways schools partner with community services and inspire other communities to develop partnerships. case studies will be published on mccoy's website dedicated to the closing the gap initiative. printouts will be shared at relevant events and shared digitally with schools and relevant community partners when appropriate. closing the gap community conversations in addition to the case studies, the education action team has secured funding to hold additional community conversations to continue the closing the gap initiative. we are still working the details out but plan to do four community conversations focused on the four key recommendations of the support. stipends are being provided to support family and youth participation, and a local consultant has been contracted to support this effort. the goal is to identify actions that individuals, communities, and schools can take to implement the recommendations of the report further. the additional community conversations will focus on the assessment findings and recommendations designed to result in further clear action steps and projects that various community partners can take to improve the connections between marion county schools and community services and resources. the community conversations will culminate in a symposium, bringing together partners and experts to identify innovative solutions to the complex challenges identified throughout the assessment. addressing chronic absenteeism through systems change chronic absenteeism is a symptom of some of the root causes we identified as challenges through our assessment (mental health, trauma, violence, and social/ emotional health). yet, it is a symptom that has garnered significant attention in the post-pandemic education arena. mccoy has convened a new workgroup of community stakeholders, with representation from the indiana department of child services, marion county prosecutor’s office, juvenile probation, and engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s 51 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p public schools, to identify ways of shifting the multiple systems addressing attendance from punitive to more restorative paradigms and practices. lessons learned for effective collaborations community-based partnerships are critical to building a community’s capacity to improve outcomes through community building and empowerment (doyle et al., 2019). strategies for partnership development include community-based goals, strength-focused discussions, shared power, realistic expectations, and celebrating accomplishments (chaskin et al., 2001; glanz et al., 2015; minkler, 2012). additionally, it is helpful for researchers and community partners to establish shared operations practices and decision-making styles to overcome divides in organizational/professional cultures (bstieler et al., 2017). once combined with the culture of health group, the education action team developed practices aligned with the research-based strategies to continue effectively collaborating beyond the assessment project. most importantly, the identified critical ingredient to the collaborative process is trust. community-based goals: working together to build community capacity developing shared definitions of issues, collectively searching for information, and collaborating to select and implement solutions are critical activities of community-building partnerships (cox, 2000). neither mccoy’s education action team nor iupui’s culture of health leadership team established goals in isolation. instead, when the directions of their two note: drs. barbara maxwell and april newton of the indiana university school of medicine (center) with kate roelecke of the marion county commission on youth (right) assist students at the indianapolis public school daniel webster #46 family back-to-school bash. such engagement helps families to increase student attendance with a community health worker through the marion county commission on youth's collaboration with indiana university purdue university indianapolis. vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 52engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p separate projects began to overlap, the groups leveraged existing relationships to merge their efforts. the trustbuilding amongst university and community partners is strengthened through reciprocal communication (i.e., consistent, timely, and adequate communication) (bstieler et al., 2017). the education action team and university partners frequently corresponded through various channels, including email, phone calls, and virtualand in-person meetings. partners felt comfortable asking clarifying questions and checking in frequently to move project activities along. strength-focused discussions: leveraging expertise and talent while our efforts centered around the needs assessments, the group intentionally collected data on existing strengths, assets, and resources of schools and community partners. this helped to identify potential leverage points for future collaboration. in discussing future action steps based on the assessment results, the group launched a series of case studies showcasing promising and effective school/community partnerships, highlighting the strengths of our communities rather than the deficits. additionally, the team not only centered on identifying the strengths of the communities we were assessing, but we also leveraged the strengths and skills of the group, leaning on the expertise that partners brought to the table. specifically, iupui shared the expertise of researchers to help analyze data and well-established school/community relationships, while school partners shared their expertise in school settings, adding to the space and time to hold community conversations mutually facilitated by iupui and mccoy personnel. mccoy coordinated efforts over the assessment study to keep the project on track and ensure that various community sectors were engaged throughout the process. shared power: data and information exchange this assessment would not have been successful without partners sharing power, specifically through their access to data and information. multiple school partners shared survey tools to aid in the development of the initial online survey used in the assessment. demographic data was readily available through the indiana department of education website and database insight indiana. however, the informal information sharing during our monthly meetings opened doors of opportunity and unearthed key insights, guiding the assessment process and informing the development of our key recommendations. the conversations developed trust and a shared understanding of respect for the information provided, resulting in shared ownership of the process and the assessment findings. realistic expectations: navigating a global pandemic this project cannot be discussed without acknowledging the effects of the covid-19 public health emergency (phe) that brought the world to a standstill on march 13, 2020. the education action team had set goals and a timeline for completing the data collection phase of the assessment that was instantly interrupted by the onset of the global pandemic. as schools closed and much of the u.s. workforce sheltered at home, mccoy staff and education action team partners had to navigate how to work virtually from home – most for the first time. practices and expectations had to change considering this assessment would not have been successful without partners sharing power, specifically through their access to data and information. this phe reality, resulting in overcoming challenges and finding improvements and hidden successes in the process. key informant interviews were completed via zoom, for example, making it easier to record and transcribe the interviews for analysis. report writing was aided by the slowed-down nature of working through the pandemic. a significant amount of grace was afforded to mccoy staff in the report-writing, perhaps driven by everyone’s adjusted reality due to our shared ongoing experience of the pandemic. the education action team discussed how the overall assessment findings may or may not be impacted by the pandemic-driven school closures and interruption to the education system. the group concluded that while our assessment data was collected prior to pandemic closures and the challenges we identified were “pre-covid,” the pandemic would exacerbate the challenges. indeed, secondary data collected after schools returned, in most cases, to a full calendar year in 2021-2022 point to the same challenges being present in schools, but at more significant degrees (middleton, 2020; curriculum associates, 2021; dorn et al., 2021; indiana department of education, 2021). chronic absenteeism is a prime example. one of the participants suggested next steps include a deep dive into absenteeism, which is often a symptom of a much larger set of struggles for families. the current attendance laws are outdated and do not accurately reflect the reality of the situation. it is frustrating for educators not to have real support for students and families in this area. additionally, it could help to have easier access to services for students and families. when there are such services, it usually is either difficult to access them or the school is unaware of them. celebrating accomplishments: reflections and ‘what’s next’ conversations reflecting on the assessment process and the success of the collaboration, one of the most significant factors identified by the authors was our sense of shared purpose and the mutual joy cultivated through this work. that joy and purpose continue through affirmation, validation, and celebration – whether through kind words and congratulations shared in an email, checking in on a personal level during meetings, or reflecting on our shared success by presenting together at a national conference (and simply enjoying attending a conference in-person). mccoy, in convening several groups of community partners on various issues over its 30-year history, has learned that when groups succeed, no matter how large or small the endeavor, the efforts typically result in a “what’s next” conversation. recognizing success and celebrating even the smallest of victories lets community partners know that their time and efforts lead to results, and the results have an impact. this builds momentum for the next project or initiative, enabling groups to scale their efforts. the magic ingredient to effective collaborations while not an original discovery, one significant finding deserves repeating: trust is the identified magic ingredient in collaboration at its best. indeed, “through trust, information may become available that would otherwise be overlooked or not forthcoming, partners may choose to provide free information for which they would otherwise charge, and the sharing of information may eliminate duplication in collection and analysis” (cox, 2000). the trust between the partnerships in this study supported data and information sharing, shared goals, resources, and expertise, and the ongoing culture of sincere mutual respect. 53 vo l . 5, i s s u e 1 r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p 54engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s r o e l e c k e e t. a l . | c l o s i n g t h e g a p references adams, c. m. & forsyth, p. b. (2013). revisiting the trust effect in urban elementary schools. elementary school journal, 114 (1), 1-21. association for supervision and curriculum development (n.d.). a whole child approach to education and the common core state standards initiative. association for supervision and curriculum development. retrieved from https://files.ascd. org/staticfiles/ascd/pdf/siteascd/ policy/ccss-and-whole-child-onepager.pdf#:~:text=a%20whole%20 child%20approach%20to%20 education%20and%20the,community%2c%20is%20healthy%2c%20 safe%2c%20engaged%2c%20supported%2c%20and%20challenged. association for supervision and curriculum development (2012). making a case for educating the whole child. whole child education. retrieved from http://www.wholechildeducation.org/assets/content/wholechild-makingthecase.pdf. centers for disease control and prevention (2018). parent engagement in schools. centers for disease control and prevention. retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/ protective/parent_engagement. htm#:%7e:text=parent%20engagement%20in%20schools%20 is,health%20of%20children%20 and%20adolescentscurriculum. curriculum associates research brief | june 2021 (2021). academic achievement at the end of the 2020– 2021 school year insights after more than a year of disrupted teaching and learning. retrieved from https://www. curriculumassociates.com/-/media/ mainsite/files/i-ready/iready-understanding-student-needs-paper-spring-results-2021.pdf. dorn, e., hancock, b., sarakatsannis, j., & viruleg, e. (2021). covid-19 and education: the lingering effects of unfinished learning. mckinsey & company. https://www.mckinsey.com/ industries/public-and-social-sector/ our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning early childhood learning and knowledge center (2022). strengthbased attitudes. head start: early childhood learning and knowledge center. u.s. department of health and human services. administration for children and families. retrieved from https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/ family-engagement/building-partnerships-guide-developing-relationships-families/strength-based-attitudes. edbuild (2019). dismissed: america’s most divisive school district boarders. edbuild. retrieved from https:// edbuild.org/content/dismissed/edbuild-dismissed-full-report-2019.pdf. indiana department of education (2021). 2021 ilearn grade 3-8 statewide summary results. https:// www.in.gov/doe/it/data-center-and-reports/. lubell, e. (2011). building community schools: a guide for action. national center for community schools. the children’s aid society. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ed540950.pdf. marion county commission on youth (2021). closing the gap between school & community partnerships: an assessment of school in indianapolis. https://mccoyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/final-closing-the-gap-report-1.pdf. medina, m. a., grim, j., cosby, g, & brodnax, r. (2020): the power of community school councils in urban schools, peabody journal of education, doi: 10.1080/0161956x.2019.1702425 medina, m., murtadha, k. h., & grim, j. (2020). community schools as a vehicle for social justice and equity. in r. kronick (ed.), emerging perspectives on community schools and the engaged university (pp. 80-97). igi global doi: 10.4018/978-1-7998 0280-8.ch005. middleton, k. v. (2020). the longer‐ term impact of covid‐19 on k–12 student learning and assessment. educational measurement: issues and practice, 39 (3), 41-44. doi: https:// doi.org/10.1111/emip.12368. potapchuk, w. r. (2013). the role of community schools in place-based initiatives: collaborating for student success. institute for educational leadership. coalition for community schools. retrieved from https://files. eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed586381.pdf. slade, s. & griffith, d. (2013). a whole child approach to student success. kedi journal of educational policy, 10 (3), 21-35. tschanned-moran, m. & hoy, w. k. (2000). a multidisciplinary analysis of the nature, meaning, and measurement of trust. review of educational research, 70 (4), 547-593. author ann tobin campus/community liaison, center for service learning, indiana university east the center for service-learning (csl) at iu east works with 20-80 service-learning students every semester from course-based assignments, including students from education m300 teaching in a pluralistic society, as well as students in criminal justice, psychology, or spanish courses. we meet with each student to find a service-learning experience that fits with their schedule, location, and course objectives. students’ experiences in the community often lead to new partnerships in the small towns in the wider iu east service area. the center strives to meet the needs of our well-established and new service partnerships. the most significant work we do every day with our students, however, is through our k-12 tutoring programs. tutoring programs are comprised of math counts! (funded by the stamm koechlein family foundation); indiana kids for 6th-12th graders and funded through a serve indiana grant; work study (the reading tutoring helps fulfill the required community service component of the program); and volunteers. a new program for spring/summer 2020, also funded by a stamm koechlein family foundation grant, is the k-5 tutoring program. benefits of service learning for families and community partners in fall semester 2019, 38 iu east tutors/mentors worked at the iu east on-campus after school program and at many area schools and community youth organizations. students served 1,977 hours with a total of 3,000 interactions with young people. tutors/mentors provided outreach services to 5 elementary schools, 3 middle schools, 2 high schools, as well as girls inc of wayne county. tutors also the center for servicelearning (csl) at iu east engaging students with the community through tutoring and mentoring programs for k-12 students ann tobin t o b i n | c e n t e r f o r s e r v i c e 63 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 answered requests for support from townsend’s harambee after-school program and amigos richmond latino center programs. tutors also organize monthly group mentoring at hibberd early college academy, in which 15 mentors work with 3-5 students each, in socratic discussions. in spring 2020, iu east is meeting new requests from dennis middle school, providing 3 bilingual students and 2 spanish language students to assist dennis’ english language learner students in the classroom. k-12 students, their caregivers, school teachers, and after-school program coordinators find our tutor/mentor programs to be of great benefit increasing not only students’ academic performance, but also their college and career opportunities. students who have worked with iu east tutors and mentors perceive improvement in math, english and sciences, and agree that mentors provide guidance about how to solve problems, as well as define and achieve their college and career goals. they are also perceived by students as good role models who help them keep on track with their academic goals. students express that the program increases their awareness of career options beyond high school and their confidence that they will achieve most of their goals. as one of the students said, “i especially liked getting my grades up, turning homework in on time, and talking to someone while i do my work.” similarly, parents shared that their children’s participation in our programs have helped their students make progress in classes and be more aware of available college and career options. they also noticed how their children like school more and show more interest in finishing high school. one of the parents commented, “tutoring has had a positive impact on [my daughter]. [she] is more confident in her assignments due to learning about how to do them through tutoring.” school teachers, principals, and after-school program coordinators find that iu east tutoring and mentoring programs are a great resource to accomplish their goals to improve student iu east mentor bailey wilkison with mentoring group. photo credit: iu east p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 64 academic performance. hunter lambright, a teacher at richmond high school expressed, “we have many students who have trouble learning math in english because spanish is their primary language. eric is an incredible benefit for our students because he can help with not only the math, but with some of the difficulty in translation. his presence in the classroom has helped keep some of these students from slipping through the cracks and getting frustrated.” marci lindahl, cis coordinator at test middle school commented, “this service is invaluable. our students benefit greatly with having mentors/tutors to help them academically one on one or in a small group. our working parents benefit immensely by having tutors/mentors come to the school rather than having to take them to another facility.” in addition to tutoring, many of our students develop mentoring relationships with the younger students, serving as role models and having discussions about issues that might include healthy choices, friends, priorities, coping skills, as well as college/career goals and readiness. deana hatfield from girls inc. mentioned, “students help us give girls a safe place to go after school/breaks/summer while facilitating programs that range from economic literacy, operation smart, leadership and community action, and friendly persuasion.” claudia edwards of amigos, the richmond latino center, said “by providing [support and mentoring], we are helping shape responsible and caring adults which ultimately benefits the whole community.” iu east mentor bailey wilkison with mentoring group. photo credit: iu east t o b i n | c e n t e r f o r s e r v i c e 65 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 1nsse 2018 snapshot. indiana university east. https://www.iue.edu/academics/ir/documents/nsse2018report.pdf benefits for iu east tutors/ mentors service learning allows tutors/mentors to develop skills that will help them in their futures. according to the national survey of student engagement (nsse) 2018, service learning is the high impact practice (hip) that most graduating seniors at iu east experience during their college careers.1 tutors/mentor have expressed that because of their participation in the tutoring/mentoring programs, they feel they are better at being accountable, caring about others, showing leadership, listening to others, and generating alternative solutions to problems. they also said they are better at managing their time, supporting local community, organizing their work, and communicating. tutors/mentors have expressed the value of helping k-12 students in their learning and goal accomplishment as well as building relationships and working with diverse students. bailey wilkison, a social work major, said,”service-learning is currently helping to inform my future decisions regarding what individuals i will work with and how i can better impact those people. i previously had little social work-related experience and service-learning has helped me to expand that scope. putting my skills to use and practicing ways in which i can assist others has been beneficial to my education as a whole.” iu east offers tutors/mentors professional development workshops, providing the tools needed to successfully work with younger, diverse students in the community. school of education faculty member dr. denice honaker provides tutor training at the beginning of each semester. photo credit: iu east p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 66 50engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry y o u t h v o i c e s & c o m m u n i t y s c h o o l s youth voices & community schools “in converted buses and tin-roof sheds, migrant students get a lesson in hope” by patrick wood, a martínez, lilly quiroz, & milton guevara first appeared august 24, 2022, npr morning edition in a time of political debate and increasing hostility toward immigrants and refugees, it can be difficult to remember there are people at the heart of the “immigration issue.” nonprofit groups like “yes we can” work to center immigrants in their own story. with mobile school programs in mexico, educators serve migrant children living with their families in shelters in the border city of tijuana. the organizers aim to provide stability and hope for children who find themselves in a difficult situation. among the lessons are skills for coping with trauma and creating emotional resilience. what started as a temporary program to serve the surge in migrants near the u.s.mexico border has now become a necessary permanent fixture. read the article learn more about yes we can mobile schools “leaders of tomorrow: immigrant and refugee youth – a guidebook on leadership development” by sabrina sheikh & s. kwesi rollins published september 2021 by the institute for educational leadership the washington, d.c.-based institute for educational leadership (iel) develops programs to engage and support community leaders. their “leaders of tomorrow” program provides curriculum to mobilize immigrant and refugee populations while emphasizing intersectionality across communities, including racial equity, health, employment, and disability inclusion. by providing development and leadership training to marginalized communities, iel works to empower immigrant and refugee youth to be prepared for future challenges. in learning to advocate for themselves, participants in the “leaders of tomorrow” program will be prepared to advocate for their communities and other marginalized groups, as well. the guidebook provides details of the program and key learning objectives. read the guidebook learn more about iel’s leaders of tomorrow program https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1118858805/mexico-migrants-education-school-tijuana-children https://www.yeswecan.world/mobileschools https://iel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/guidebook-final_accessible-version.pdf https://iel.org/leaders-of-tomorrow-student-profiles/ 72engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s k e m p, r o w l e y, & m u r p h y | p r e s e r v i n g h i s t o r y end racism kamarie fuller, butler university author ellen szarleta director, center for urban and regional excellence professor, school of public and environmental affairs, indiana university northwest lifelong learning a community-university partnership advancing collaboration and community capacity building ellen szarleta collaboration and capacity-building for lifelong learning the issues facing communities, particularly urban communities, often elicit demands for action (baum, 2000) and positive social change. these demands create challenges and opportunities for university community partnerships grounded in relationship-building processes (prins, 2005). addressing the immediate and pressing concerns of communities, while building mutually beneficial relationships requires more than modifying an existing process; it requires innovative solutions based on systems change. the collective impact model offers communities and universities the opportunity to support community capacity building efforts engaging in authentic collaborations that give voice to and empower senior citizens. a demographic transformation caused by a rapidly aging population is occurring in the united states. by 2035, older adults are projected to outnumber children for the first time in u.s. history (vespa). a similar demographic transformation is predicted for the state of indiana. by 2030, one out of every five people living in indiana will be a senior (age 65 and older) citizen (strange, 2018). more than 966,000 senior citizens called indiana home as of 2015 (the base of the population projections). by 2050, the number of people ages 65 and older will top 1.5 million—a growth of 57 percent from 2015 levels (strange, 2018). indiana’s population aged 80 and older is expected to grow even more rapidly, increasing by 121 percent by 2050 (strange, 2018). as the population ages, we are faced with policy challenges in a multitude of areas, including creating and supporting an environment for seniors that promotes physical, social, and emotional wellbeing. the public good nature of university education, both formal and informal, fuels dialogue and action benefiting more than the individual student s z a r l e t a | l i f e l o n g l e a r n i n g 67 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 or learner. in the case of seniors, aged 55 and above, informal learning, e.g., noncredit lifelong learning, takes on a broader social purpose and contributes to a holistic approach to community development. therefore, it is incumbent on universities and their stakeholder communities to reflect on the current state of lifelong learning practices, and to understand the needs and wants of a burgeoning senior community. a community-engaged approach to lifelong learning offers a unique opportunity to partner with seniors to co-define the lifelong learning issues of concern and to co-design, co-implement and co-evaluate sustainable educational experiences that maximize the use of both university and community assets for mutual benefit. this project, part of a much larger community-based research study, explores how to engage seniors, aged 50 and over, in redefining lifelong learning and the role of universities in working with and for senior populations. the study employs the principles of collective impact and the practice of participatory-based research to give voice to those whose wisdom is often pushed aside or at worst ignored. the focus of this project is to share the process used to build a community-university partnership grounded in best practices and inspired by mutual values related to lifelong learning. future papers will focus on a discussion of research methods and data analysis. the benefits of lifelong learning the term “lifelong” and its application to learning has been used for over 25 years (laal, 2012). the concept of lifelong learning is not well understood (lamb, 2011). this form of learning takes place both in informal and formal settings, and is provided by nonprofit, private, and public institutions including university-community partnerships focused on advancing educational opportunities. for the purposes of this study lifelong learning refers to the senior university program offered by iu northwest through the center for urban and regional excellence, the campus’ community-university partnership center. in the past 20 years, the literature on the benefits of lifelong learning has grown significantly (coleman, 2017). the social and community benefits of lifelong learning include those of asset-based thinking and creative expression (pstross, 2017), as well as a sense of ownership and sustained relationships (brady, 2013). in addition, studies have shown that older learners generally report positive wellbeing and healthy lifestyles, i.e., non-smoking and regular exercise (narushima, 2018). given the beneficial effects of participation in organized adult education programs on life satisfaction, older learners are encouraged to be engaged in more learning activities (yamashita, 2017). while the literature on the benefits of lifelong learning is substantial, the literature on lifelong learning institutions, centers and programs is wanting in comparison (talmage, 2018). in this area, much of the research is focused on the work of one of the most well-known community-university partnerships offering senior lifelong learning experiences the osher lifelong learning institutes (olli). these institutes are housed on over 100 university campuses. through a community-engaged approach to lifelong learning offers a unique opportunity to partner with seniors to co-define the lifelong learning issues of concern and to co-design, co-implement and co-evaluate sustainable educational experiences that maximize the use of both university and community assets for mutual benefit. p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 68 olli programs, seniors participate in non-credit learning opportunities that don’t require homework but do mirror the academic classroom experience (hensley, 2012). the research on olli and its programs confirms the importance of understanding how institutions engage in lifelong learning and the value in connecting the theory and practice of community engagement to improving the quality of life of seniors and our communities. this study begins to fill a gap in this literature by exploring a collaborative process used to give voice to seniors in designing and implementing lifelong learning initiatives. senior university: the iu northwest experience the center for urban and regional excellence (cure) at indiana university northwest engages the university and the community in the creation of positive, sustainable, and impactful programs and initiatives. cure works collaboratively with organizations in all sectors to promote continued learning, solution-based interaction, and mutually beneficial partnerships in our communities. an important element of cure’s work within the community centers on fulfilling the mission of senior university. for two decades, seniors have participated in and benefited from programs providing educational, social, and engaged learning opportunities to seniors, persons aged 55 and over, residing in northwest indiana communities. residing originally in the campus’ continuing education program, the responsibility for designing and delivering senior university was integrated into cure in 2012. the programs transition into cure set the stage for the transformation of a service-based program into one founded on the principles of community engagement – mutual benefit and reciprocity. informed by the collective impact model of community transformation, cure undertook a critical examination of existing programming, evaluating the diversity and scope of learning experiences as well as the demographics of participants. the examination began with the informal discussions with program participants, instructors and community members as well as a review of course evaluations. while most participants reported high levels of satisfaction with program offerings, responses to questions soliciting input and ideas for future offerings was limited. it was clear there was a need for a more formal assessment of the senior community’s needs and desires in order to create a program that is mutually beneficial and reciprocal. collective impact as a framework for system change the collective impact framework was identified as a viable model for effecting the type of system change needed to realize positive change in the senior community. improving lifelong learning opportunities for seniors will require a coordinated/collaborative effort of multiple organizations. the collective impact model is driven by relationships among organizations and their shared objectives (kania, winter 2011), thus, its potential as a framework for change was significant. for this reason, cure assessed the viability of the collective impact approach using the collective impact feasibility framework. the feasibility framework poses a set of questions addressing the complexity and the scale of the social problem. (fsg, 2015) the approach encourwe don’t know what they will say, but we do know that through this process they will be empowered to have a voice. s z a r l e t a | l i f e l o n g l e a r n i n g 69 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 ages consideration of the community context and when applied helps to identify opportunity areas for investment and support. (fsg, 2015) cure’s evaluation of readiness under the feasibility framework affirmed the viability of the collective impact model for addressing the community’s need for improved lifelong learning opportunities, currently provided by a fragmented set of organizations, whose collaboration would improve the senior community’s wellbeing. the first step, in moving toward a collaborative model was to assess the effectiveness of our program. early in 2018, cure conducted two senior university listening sessions, inviting individuals aged 55 and older and organizations working with seniors to share their views on community needs related to lifelong learning. a press release published in the local news was accompanied by social media announcements. organizational representatives and individuals attended the focus group sessions. in these sessions, seniors discussed the positive and negative aspects of senior university programming and offered insights on a future direction. most significantly, they expressed interest in forming a steering committee composed of community representatives to assist cure in co-visioning lifelong learning initiatives. over the past 18 months, the senior university steering committee, collective of seniors representing a variety of life and professional experiences as well as sectors (private, public and nonprofit), embraced the challenge of “reinventing” lifelong learning and changed the model of decision making. steering committee members engaged with their existing networks to get the “pulse” of the community on learning needs. they promoted existing programming and supported cure by volunteering their time to learn more about participatory-based research processes, setting the stage for later work. cure provided the steering committee members with opportunities for learning and growth. steering committee members presented at an iu northwest chancellor’s board of advisors meeting in 2019 and attended the 2020 indiana campus compact summit to learn more about community-university engagement. over the past one-and-a-half years, the foundation for cross-sector relationships was built. each of the steering committee members serves as a liaison to a network of similarly-concerned individuals in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. it is a small, but necessary step to building a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to lifelong learning in the region. while cure continues to work to foster trust, we also continue to build capacity. the steering committee has determined that it would like to engage in participatory-based research on the question of seniors’ perception of lifelong learning needs. they are obtaining their collaborative institutional training initiative (citi) certificate.1 they are co-designing with the researcher a survey instrument and will soon be trained in qualitative research methods, e.g., focus groups. moving from transactional to transformational relationships community-university relationships must be both fluid and ever-evolving. approximately 20 years ago, prior to the move by higher education institutions to embrace community engagement, the senior university program iu northwest was a service-oriented transactional model of 1the collaborative institutional training initiative (citi) is an online training program used to train all individuals conducting research that involves human or animal subjects. citi training courses are in the areas of research, ethics, responsible conduct of research and other related topics. p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 70 lifelong learning. in such a model, the basis of the relationship is exchange and the end goal is satisfaction with the exchange. seniors attended workshops and special events and were enriched by these experiences. these transaction-based interactions satisfied seniors’ immediate needs to see a performance, partake in art projects or learn about gary, indiana’s history. however, unlike transformative partnerships, they did not focus on mutually increasing aspirations or arousing a need for larger meaning. transactional relationships are short-term and transformative relationships are long-term. transactional relationships are project-based as opposed to issue-based (shalabi, 2013). under a transactional relationship the parties work within the existing system while transformative relationships establish new systems (enos & morton, 2003). the move from a transactional to a transformative relationship between cure and the senior community is in its early stages. by building community capacity, e.g., training community members in participatory research, the seniors will be empowered to lead as well as follow. it is hoped that this approach and its benefits for both the community and the campus will be enthusiastically shared. it may generate increased interest and participation in program design, implementation and evaluation within the steering committee and across the sectors represented by committee members. the next stage of the initiative, i.e., finalizing the co-designed survey and the subsequent data collection and analysis will deliver insights not only on the role of universities in supporting senior learning communities but also the vision of seniors learning experiences. we don’t know what they will say, but we do know that through this process they will be empowered to have a voice. in order to develop effective partnerships a shift in educational structures and culture may be required. the moves away from traditional deficit-based models in which universities attempt to fix problems through one-off projects and activities to asset-based models creates new ways of working together (guskey, 2000). this then opens the space for empowerment and sets the stage for collective impact. higher education in collaboration with seniors and senior-focused organizations can develop experiences that reflect the needs and desires of seniors while honoring the roles of faculty, staff and students. the changing nature of university-community partnerships demands that transformative partnerships be valued, encouraged and supported to facilitate the scholarship of discovery and application while contributing positively to community wellbeing. the moves away from traditional deficitbased models in which universities attempt to fix problems through one-off projects and activities to assetbased models creates new ways of working together. s z a r l e t a | l i f e l o n g l e a r n i n g 71 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 references baum, h. (2000). fantasies and realities in university-community partnerships. journal of planning education and research, 20, 234-246. brady, e. c. (2013). the quest for community in osher lifelong learning institutes. educational gerontology, 39(9), 627-639. coleman, j. (2017, february 7). lifelong learning is good for your health, your wallet, and your social life. retrieved from harvard business review: https://hbr.org/2017/02/lifelong-learning-is-goodfor-your-health-your-wallet-and-your-social-life enos, s., & morton, k. (2003). developing a theory and practice of campus-community partnerships. in b. jacoby, building partnerships for service-learning (pp. 20-41). san francisco: john wiley & sons. fsg. (2015). collective impact forum. retrieved from resources: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/sites/default/files/collectiveimpactfeasibilityframework.pdf guskey, t. (2000). evaluating professional development. thousand oaks, ca: corwin press, inc. hensley, m. (2012). lifelong learning and instructional services for adult learners through olli. loex quarterly, 4-5. kania, j. a. (winter 2011). collective impact. stanford social innovation review, 36-41. laal, m. (2012). benefits of lifelong learning. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 46, 42684272. lamb, r. (2011). lifelong learning institutes: the next challenge. the lli review, 1-10. narushima, m. j. (2018). lifelong learning in active ageing discourse: its conserving effect on wellbing, health and vulnerability. ageing & society, 38, 651675. prins, e. (2005). framing a conflict in a community-university partnership. journal of planning education and research, 25(1), 57-74. pstross, m. t. (2017). in searchof transformative moments: blending community building pursuits into lifelong learning experiences. journal of education culture and society, 62(2), 62-78. shalabi, n. (2013, october 8-9). community partners' perceptions of the challenge to service-learning in egypt. retrieved from engagement scholarship consortium: https://engagementscholarship. org/upload/conferences/2013/presentations/ e2shalabicommunity%20partners%27%20perceptions.pdf stoecker, r. &. (2009). the unheard voices: community organizations and service learning. philadelphia: temple university press. strange, r. (2018, july-august). indiana's elderly population projected to climb sharply. incontext, 19(4). (i. b. center, ed.) indianapolis, indiana, united states. retrieved february 2020, from incontext: http://www.incontext.indiana.edu/2018/ july-aug/article2.asp#_ftn1 talmage, c. r. (2018). directions for 21st century lifelong learning institutes: elucidating questions from osher lifelong learning institute studies. alberta journal of educational research, 64.2(summer), 109-125. vespa, j. (2018, march 13). united states census bureau. the u.s. joins other countries with a large aging population. retrieved february 13, 2020 from https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/03/ graying-america.html p r o f i l e s o f e n g a g e m e n t engage! | i u p u i b i c e n t e n n i a l e d i t i o n 72 17 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 t h r o u g h t h e l e n s o f a n a c t i v i s t mary provence, assistant teaching professor of social work at ball state university, shares in this interview her early years of living and working in the city. as part of her graduate studies at iui, she worked closely with residents who in turn invited her to join their community. early in her career, she called herself a “street outreach social worker.” provence currently lives in that same community where she met her husband and volunteered to support youth. after sharing the reasons for launching the engage! journal, we began our discussion about homelessness and her commitment to effecting change. tell us about yourself and how you became interested in (homelessness and unsheltered) concerns? in 8th grade, i distinctly remember it at the end of every chapter in our health book, it had a highlight of a career, a health-related career, and the the national association of social workers (nasw) had a summary of what social workers do, and i read that. and of course, this was way before the internet, so i literally wrote a letter and asked them to send me more information on what it meant to be a social worker. i grew up in rural and small-town indiana, and i knew that i lived in a place that didn't know these issues and i wanted to know people. and i cared. i cared deeply. i cared deeply about the people that i read about, and it touched my soul in a great way. i had my school library, public library, and home bookshelf. those were the resources that i had, and so i learned the best that i could. the other thing was that my dad supported the edna martin christian center [in indianapolis]. we would drive to indianapolis for different reasons as a family. and i remember being on the interstate and looking down into the urban environment and wondering how do you get there? i don't understand because here i am, a child on the interstate, i'm seeing a place i want to go, that i want to learn about. my undergraduate was at taylor university. taylor had many wonderful leaders that came and spoke to us. are you familiar with doctor john perkins? john perkins is, oh, he's probably 90 years old by now. but john was a founder of the christian community development association, and he did a vast amount of community organizing work in mississippi. he's inspired people around the world to do this type of work. i met him. i've read his books. he's come to my community and multiple leaders like that. i began hearing them at taylor and the more i heard them speak, i bought their books and read their stories. i'm like, this is exactly what i want to do. through the lens of an activist social work professor: concerns for the rights of people who are experiencing homelessness interview with mary provence conducted by andrea copeland engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 18 i n t e r v i e w : c o n c e r n s o f p e o p l e e x p e r i e n c i n g h o m e l e s s n e s s how have you worked with issues facing people who are experiencing homelessness? my husband and i, along with other community residents, started a community development organization in 2001 that for over a decade worked on the issue of affordable housing. in addition, i, along with other neighborhood women, worked to help women that were experiencing addiction and prostitution. to back up a bit, in 1998, i became the first social worker on staff of outreach inc. in places that most people are afraid to go, and as a team, we worked critically on the issue of youth homelessness. i provided case management and crisis intervention to help youth get off the streets. i helped outreach’s founder open their very first drop-in center. now outreach inc. has a beautiful, gorgeous new building here in the city, and they have lots more funding. they're a very large organization, but back then, we were some renegades, we really were. and then in 2017 [at iu], i started my phd program and was told ‘mary, you're going to be working with dr. beth wahler, and you're going to be doing a needs assessment of the indianapolis public library.’ and i just grinned from ear to ear because i recognized that it encompassed everything that was important to me. when i was younger, i used to take my kids to the central public library, and i would see people experiencing homelessness. in fact, that was one of my stops years before when i was an outreach worker. i would meet kids down at the public library. so i had been there for years. and i'm like, ‘the library needs a social worker.’ but even before i began the phd program, i was teaching as an adjunct. one semester, i taught the very last case management class of the certificate program that no longer exists in the [iui school of social work]. provence discussed placements in the community with organizations and individuals as part of this class. one person that she worked with was maurice young who was not affiliated with a formal agency; however, the school allowed her to place a student with him. mr. young, a longtime advocate for the homeless community in indianapolis, described himself as ‘homeless by design.’ they [mr. young and the student] met at the public library. so again, this is pre any of the research that i did. this was all in the background of my life when i walked into the phd program and was told i would be helping conduct a needs assessment at the indianapolis public library. what have you learned that may be applicable for advocates who want to effect change in the systems that are impacting homelessness? first of all, we need to decrease the barriers to service. sometimes agencies will have a rule that you have to prove that you're experiencing homelessness. so that's a barrier, you have to show up, maybe at a certain time or follow a certain protocol in order to get services or you have to have an id. there are all these rules that you have to follow and a lot of times people experiencing homelessness simply can't follow: ‘well, my phone ran out of charge. i didn't know what time it was. i don't have money for a bus fare to get there on time. the police raided the camp and they took my birth certificate. i don't have the paperwork to get an id.’ honestly, as a social work profession generally, we haven't always done a good job about keeping those barriers low, but social work at the library is very organic. it's new, and i hope that as we formalize it in the profession, i hope we don't damage it. i really want to protect and preserve that organic nature of library social work because people can literally just walk in and ask for what they need. as i have interviewed library social workers in my research, they tell me that when the client comes in and says, ‘i need xy and z.’ ok, well, that's what they do. if they haven't done it before, they figure it out. there are almost no limitations to what a library social worker can assist with to break down those barriers (provence, 2022). the library is so accessible because it's already in a place where people experiencing homelessness are naturally. 19 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 i n t e r v i e w : c o n c e r n s o f p e o p l e e x p e r i e n c i n g h o m e l e s s n e s s we also need to decrease barriers to increase accessibility. we really desperately need more daytime full-service drop-in centers. there are almost no drop-in centers in most places. that's one of many reasons why the libraries have so many daily patrons experiencing homelessness. we need more daytime drop-in centers with full services and no need to prove that you're experiencing homelessness. but just ‘hey, i'm walking in. i need to use the shower. i need to use the bathroom. i'd like to have a place to get my mail. i'd like to have a storage place. i'd like to meet with the social worker. i need to see the doctor. i need some legal help.’ very, very few cities have them, and the ones that do, there aren't enough of them. i'd say what the general public does not understand about homeless shelters is that they are often closed down during the day. you almost always cannot stay at the shelter during the day, so now you're back out on the street. where are you supposed to go? well, with the criminalization of homelessness and no daytime shelters, of course, they're going to end up at the library. you can sit in steak and shake only so long, or white castle. they're not going to let you sit there all day long, even if you do buy a cup of coffee. at some point, their hospitality is going to run out. we also need a statewide bill for persons experiencing homelessness. and in fact, this has been done before. puerto rico in 1998 was the first territory to enact a bill of rights. and then rhode island was the first state that did it (rankin, 2015). typically, they're called a homeless bill of rights, but homeless bill of rights does not reflect person first language, so i'd love to see it renamed a bill of rights for people experiencing homelessness or some other kind of life-giving name. a statewide bill of rights would do several things, one, it would hopefully deter localities from continuing to criminalize homelessness. it would also need to have teeth in it for legal enforcement. it also would need to affirm the existing rights that people have (rankin, 2015). for example, it would prevent police harassment in public spaces, and also protect the privacy of the person experiencing homelessness from search and seizure. just because your stuff is in a public place doesn't mean the police should have the right to automatically grab your stuff, throw it away or search. related to advocacy, how can community members who are experiencing homelessness advocate for themselves and others? the whole idea of thinking about people who are experiencing homelessness and being advocates for themselves is challenging. if people are in survival mode, they can't spend a whole lot of time being an advocate for change. criminalization is at issue for many who are experiencing homelessness how might we safeguard the agency of individuals who are experiencing homelessness? criminalizing homelessness is incredibly expensive. it's also very dangerous because what it does is it pushes people farther and farther out to more and more remote places where they can't access services. if you look up what happened with maurice’s camp when it was destroyed. all that stuff was dumped. literally dumped. yes, i know we now have an ordinance here in indianapolis, but if you read the language carefully there are loopholes in it that it's pretty easy for peoples’ stuff to get destroyed. it says they have to store it for 60 days. well, if you're experiencing homelessness, you may face many obstacles to getting it back. what are you going to do after 60 days? it's most likely going to be destroyed. now your insulin is gone. let's say you had your birth certificate in your tent. now it's gone. if you were to lose your housing today, what would be the items you would take? the things you could just not live without. you take your birth certificate, you take your social security card, you would take your medications, your toothbrush, your underwear. when you think about the criminalization of homelessness and the destroying of camps, those are the things that go missing. engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 20 i n t e r v i e w : c o n c e r n s o f p e o p l e e x p e r i e n c i n g h o m e l e s s n e s s there is an economic vulnerability that impacts so many people and the high costs and substantial increase in the cost of housing. is economics the biggest problem? what else is at issue? the underlying issue of why we don't have enough affordable housing, why we have the criminalization of homelessness, all of it, is dehumanization. we don't view people that are in extreme poverty as human as much as we view ourselves as human. we don't look at their feelings, their emotions, their values, their life story, their experiences. instead, we other them into the label, ‘the homeless.’ you're now ‘homeless,’ and in that moment, they lose their face. they lose their agency; they lose their feelings. we can then justify treating them in ways that are less than how we would want to be treated. if we really care about people in the united states, we can eradicate homelessness. according to the national low income housing coalition, the u.s. is short 7.4 million units of affordable housing (aurand et al., 2022). we need to build that affordable housing —and not for 60% of the area median income. i think instead of basing affordable housing on the area median income, we need to base it on the federal poverty guideline. we really need to build affordable housing for the lowest of the low-income folks. we need to have low-income housing that a person on social security can afford without having to live in squalor. we have some of that housing, but there's not enough. if anybody's paid any attention at the library, much of the population of people experiencing homelessness are our grandmothers and our grandfathers. it is a travesty and an insult to the united states that we are letting our older adults live on the street. you can build tiny homes; you can do mixed-income housing. you can do more section 8 vouchers. there are so many things that you can do that are a better use of our money than criminalization. then next comes economics. we don't have a living wage. you can look at the mit living wage (https:// livingwage.mit.edu/states/18) calculator and for a family of four, two working adults and two kids in indianapolis, you need to have both working parents each earning $22.40 an hour to make it. we don't have a living wage. we need to get a living wage. we need more affordable housing, more section 8 vouchers. we need to understand that snap and tanf do not meet the gap between minimum wage and a living wage. still, you cannot reach the cost of affordable housing. we need a lot more mental health treatment. we need a lot more substance abuse treatment. this is my own personal bent, but there's a lot of research evidence to back it up. aurand, a. et al. (2022). the gap: a shortage of affordable homes. national low income housing coalition. https://nlihc.org/gap rankin, s. k. (2015). a homeless bill of rights (revolution). seton hall l. rev., 45, 383. provence, m. a. (2023). changing how libraries respond to patrons experiencing homelessness in crisis: how library social workers are perceived to reduce reliance on law enforcement. journal of the australian library and information association, 72(4), 376-399. references vo l . 5 i s s u e 221 g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s how can you hate diana fernandez, butler university elizabeth kryder-reid, gabriel filippelli with phyllis boyd, paula brooks, aghilah nadaraj, alvin sangsuwangul, and leah humphrey exploring university-community collaborations abstract the riverside neighborhood bears multiple burdens of environmental harm. running the gamut from groundwater contamination in subsurface waters to lead in soils and dust and paint to particulate matter in the air from highways and industry, these environmental insults harm the physical, mental, and economic well-being of the community. the community has also faced an information gap where data was scarce, hard to locate, and sometimes wrong. activists have long worked to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, but faced barriers in the form of policies (e.g. red lining, zoning variances, disinvestment in public services such as street lights and sidewalks) and practices (e.g. absentee landlords, illegal dumping). features such as the central canal that were developed into recreational amenities in other parts of the city were minimally maintained or restricted from use by residents. in the face of these challenges, iupui faculty, students, and community members have partnered on multiple projects to document the history of environmental harms, assess exposure and risk of residents’ exposomes, and share information in ways that are accessible and relevant for residents. the work supports the agency and activism of the community, particularly as it faces pressures of gentrification and university encroachment with the prospect of 16 tech project expansion. the work also takes place in the context of contested interests and harmful legacies as representatives of an urban university that displaced longtime residents work to partner ethically and transparently with those same communities. as a result, current faculty-community collaborations operate within a space complicated 32 authors elizabeth kryder-reid iupui gabriel filippelli iupui phyllis boyd groundwork indy paula brooks hoosier environmental council aghilah nadaraj kheprw institute alvin sangsuwangul kheprw institute leah humphrey kheprw institute engage! | e n v i r o n m e n t a l j u s t i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s by the problematic legacy of harm and ongoing structural racism. however well-intentioned, faculty, students and community members have to navigate that history and enduring power dynamics as they design their research, identify relevant questions, and share results in ways that are accessible and meaningful to community members. introduction university-community collaborations are complicated, and when tackling environmental justice issues, they can be particularly difficult. this essay explores some of the challenges and benefits of two community engaged environmental justice projects from the perspective of iupui faculty members elizabeth kryder-reid and gabriel filippelli in consultation with community partners, and drawing on insights from students involved in one of the projects. both projects focus on the riverside neighborhood, the area northwest of downtown indianapolis and north of the expanding iupui campus. we begin with a discussion of the power dynamics of the collaboration and a brief introduction to the riverside neighborhood. we then share two projects as case studies to illuminate the potential and problematics of environmental justice collaborations between a large urban university and small, non-profit advocacy organizations. iupui’s commitment to community engagement presumes that there is an exchange of value in community-based teaching and research. the faculty who invest in community-engaged work recognize the time and energy it takes to build relationships and trust with partners. they accept the work it takes to produce results that are accessible to community members, whether that is sharing the work in community forums or developing digital tools that expand public access to data. community partners who enter into collaborations with iupui know full well the institution’s history of displacement and the asymmetry of budgets, staff, and other metrics that are typically commensurate with institutional power. within higher education, community-engaged projects are understood to be fraught with disparities of access, authority, and accountability. scholars studying community engagement have mapped the exchange values on trajectories of transactional to transformative (bringle, clayton, and price 2009; dumlao 2018) and debated the merits of tactical versus strategic partnerships (feigenbaum 2010– 2011, mathieu 2005, 2012, parks 2009). rachael shah has proposed a conceptual framework of “critical community-based epistemologies” which posits that “community partners are holders and producers of powerful knowledge, and these knowledges can be invaluable in shaping engagement collaborations.” (shah 2020: 107). she argues that this epistemology should both inform the “ethical vision that acknowledges the importance of community member voices, perspectives, and priorities” (109) and the power dynamics so that community partners can hold universities accountable. for iupui faculty, the value of community expertise is not only a fundamental principle, but a powerful driver of our motivations. community partners’ expertise and lived experience are a foundational knowledge base. at the same time, course-based projects 33 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 through an academic lens, while for community partners the issues of environmental harm and the slow violence to their neighborhoods are lived experiences. faculty and students generally approach projects engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e inherently align with university schedules, ways of working, and desired outputs and outcomes. they are, therefore, often not in sync with community partners’ many obligations, priorities, ways of knowing and working. at a pragmatic level, faculty are paid to teach and do research, and it is both expected and in our professional interest to produce scholarship about our work (such as this article). for community partners, the time to meet, write, edit, and respond to requests for information is unpaid labor that comes on top of the already heavy loads of frontline community development, advocacy, and social justice work. there is often an asymmetry or divergence at an emotional level as well. faculty and students generally approach projects through an academic lens, while for community partners the issues of environmental harm and the slow violence to their neighborhoods are lived experiences. they are a part of generations of racialized environmental trauma, and the impact to their communities’ social, physical, and financial health is personal. finally, the difference is also often about epistemology, paradigms, and assumptions. the university-trained faculty and students are prepared to frame a problem (hopefully one that is relevant to the community), design a methodology, collect data, analyze the data, and share the results. while that research paradigm has its merits, it also frames the entire enterprise in terms of a problem. it leaves little room to celebrate community agency, resilience, and creative problem solving. it often also leaves little space for deep listening to understand the concerns and perspectives, the joys and curiosities, the hopes and fears of community members. the objectivity and rationality that is the scholarly mode of being can be crippling in a project that hinges on building empathy and centering community voices. it also often privileges the observable, material, and tangible, and fails to account for the intangible heritage of lived experiences and oral traditions. it often focuses on objects and outputs, and fails to attend to the relationships and social capital that are central concerns of the community. riverside neighborhood the riverside neighborhood is on the near westside of indianapolis bounded on the north by 30th street and the south by 16th street, to the west by the white river and to the east by west street/mlk. it has many attractive features including riverside park (fig. 1), historic architecture, and a landscape design plan dating to the early 20th century in keeping with the city beautiful urban planning principles. 34 fig. 2. burdsal parkway photo by marc ancel, 2017, courtesy of the cultural landscape foundation fig. 1. postcard view of the 30th street bridge over the white river and part of the riverside park landscape design courtesy of e. kryder-reid c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s the physical, mental, and economic well-being of the community. the community has also faced an information gap where data was scarce, hard to locate, and sometimes wrong. activists have long worked to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, but faced barriers in the form of policies (e.g. red lining (fig. 4), zoning variances, disinvestment in public services such as street lights and sidewalks) and practices (e.g. absentee landlords, illegal dumping) (schwier and elliott 2014). features such as the central canal that were developed into recreational amenities in other parts of the city were in the riverside neighborhood minimally maintained or restricted from use by residents. 35 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 fig. 3. map of site 0153 showing locations of potential responsible parties for the source of the groundwater contamination courtesy of idem portions of the design, including burdsal parkway (fig. 2), a wide east-west boulevard designed by george e. kessler (1909) with a central median planted with grass and mature shade trees, contribute to the riverside drive historic district. while primarily residential with a long-standing african-american community, the neighborhood also has a history of industrial and commercial sites, particularly along the central canal and the southeast area along 16th street and montcalm. the combination of industrial sites, dry cleaners, gas stations, the railroad, and the i65 interstate (completed in 1976) have created a superfundeligible groundwater contamination site (site 0153), and left a legacy of environmental burdens that current residents now bear (fig. 3). running the gamut from groundwater contamination in subsurface waters to lead in soils and dust and paint to air pollution from highways and industry, these environmental insults harm fig. 4. riverside neighborhood, detail of the 1937 home owners loan corporation (holc) map indicating in red the areas that were at “high risk” for loans based on the residents’ demographics and excluding areas with african-americans from eligibility for government loans. k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e projects in the face of these challenges, iupui faculty, students, and community members have partnered on multiple projects to document the history of environmental harms, assess exposure and risk of residents’ exposomes, share information in ways that are accessible and relevant for residents, and create public humanities projects that share the history of the area and create broader awareness of the environmental issues and the systemic environmental racism that has exacerbated them. the work supports the agency and activism of the community members, particularly as they face pressures of gentrification and university encroachment with the planned 16 tech project expansion. we share two of these projects as case studies to offer insights into communitycollaborative environmental justice research. case study 1: lead exposure the center for urban health at iupui has a long history of conducting community-driven work in identifying and eradicating sources of the harmful toxin lead in the environment, and thus improving community health. this work has largely focused on soil-based risks, as much of the lead used in the 20th century in leaded gasoline, lead-based paints, and emitted from industrial sources accumulated and concentrated in surface soils. more recently, the center has built on the citizen-science approaches, in which data is collected by members of the public, by adding indoor dust measurements to its toolkit of exposure monitoring resources, and in 2021 added indoor tap water as another indicator. collectively the science, educational, and outreach aspects of these efforts have been captured in the global citizen-science platform www.mapmyenvironment.com. this resource is a “one-stop shop” for exploring community-based work on the human environmental exposome, and is meant to be adaptable and scale-able to continue adding new functions and layers as more results and more indicators come into play. barriers to participation in such a program includes (1) a community member’s knowledge of this resource, (2) overcoming the “participation cost” which often includes materials and postage, and (3) concerns about liability and anonymity of home-based environmental data. to overcome some of those barriers, the center for urban health partnered with the iupui arts and humanities institute (iahi) and a local collaboration of congregations under the ministerium to conduct a unique and highly geographically focused project to educate on hazards, distribute and collect kits from participants, and deliver results back to participants in an anonymous manner. in this current partnership, the ministerium plays a central role as the public face of the program, and the university partners play the role of kit development, analytical services, and research translation. this “community-forward” approach was successfully carried out in an earlier partnership between the center for urban health and groundwork indy, focusing on soil lead hazards in the riverside neighborhood of indianapolis. this partnership involved the center for urban health augmenting the normal youth leadership development programs at groundwork by funding several additional youth as “environmental justice fellows” and educating a cohort of the students as lead experts. this involved providing some background information about lead and lead in their community, introducing them to the university and the laboratory where the analyses would be conducted, an eye-opening experience for those who had not set foot on a college campus before. the cohort also gathered to discuss how they were going to implement detailed soil sampling efforts. the youth then became the leads 36 c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s of the program, discussing with residents what they were trying to do, conducting sampling of occupied and vacant properties, collecting the samples centrally, and then translating-relaying results back to occupants and answering questions (figs. 5, 6). groundwork indy executive director phyllis boyd explained that part of the goal for the youth participants is to help them see themselves as agents of change. working as part of the “green team” engages them “in the process of how you think and dream about spaces and how you can change them ... so they get to see the whole arc of how you as a person can do stuff in the world” (boyd quoted in yousry 2021). two revelations emerged from this program, exemplifying the importance of community participants having leadership and agency in citizen science projects. the first involved recruitment. many residents were wary of anyone knocking on their door and asking about their property, as they had been victims of predatory real estate agents and other unsolicited visitors. the youth decided it was going to be more efficient to make a door hanger explaining the program and providing a contact number for the residents to call should they want to participate. the youth then went to those homes wearing groundwork indy shirts and a program badge, and had few problems with the sampling. 37 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 fig. 5, 6. youth members of the keep indianapolis beautiful green tree team and iupui students sampling soils at the jvt park in the martindale-brightwood neighborhood of indianapolis for lead analysis. many residents were wary of anyone knocking on their door and asking about their property, as they had been victims of predatory real estate agents and other unsolicited visitors. the youth decided it was going to be more efficient to make a door hanger explaining the program and providing a contact number for the residents to call should they want to participate. k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e the second revelation involved unlicensed day care settings. in some of the introductory discussions, center for urban health staff noted that many of the residents would likely have high soil lead values, and given the risk to children of lead poisoning, that day care centers were a particular concern. but because many day care centers in the area were unlicensed, they did not have soil lead testing and thus could pose risks to the children. furthermore, center staff noted that soil lead was typically a very easy problem to solve if you know it’s an issue, as an intervention as simple as adding a thick layer of mulch solves the soil exposure problem immediately. the youth took these kernels of information, and, unbeknownst to center staff, devised an incredibly creative solution. groundwork had trucks and the ability to provide free mulch, so the youth held beautification days, where they approached the day cares and offered to do landscaping, including adding thick mulch in and around outdoor playgrounds. all of the day cares approached were thrilled about this, and the youth coordinated the “capping and covering” of properties, without even mentioning the word “lead” to the day care facilities. in a perfect world, the facilities would be aware of and have already protected children in their care from lead exposure, but in a practical world the groundwork youth managed an intervention that center for urban health staff never would have considered, given their focus on the science side of the problem rather than the solutions side. case study 2: climates of inequality from 2017-2021 iupui faculty and students in museum studies and public history, along with kheprw institute (ki) and other community partners, had a remarkable opportunity to collaborate on a project focused on environmental justice in indianapolis’ urban core. 1 together, we investigated the history of the city's public waterways to develop a range of environmental humanities projects designed to engage broad publics in the history of environmental harm and its effects on the cities’ neighborhoods, particularly communities of color and lower socio-economic status. in three classes over three semesters, students worked with ki to develop research briefs, exhibits, digital humanities projects, social media, and public programs. (climates of inequality; indy environmental justice history, indy environmental justice history facebook page, toxic heritage climates of inequality project). ki team members were an integral part of the project (fig. 7). 38 1 kheprw institute (ki) is a nonprofit organization focused on empowering youth and building community wealth in indianapolis. since 2003, ki has worked to create a more just, equitable, human-centered world by nurturing youth and young adults to be leaders, critical thinkers and doers who see the people in any community as the most valuable assets and are committed to working with disinvested communities to bring about change that leads to empowered self-reliant and self-determining communities. for a more complete discussion of the coi project, see kryder-reid, holzman, nadaraj, and humphrey, in press. fig. 7. iupui students, faculty, and ki leaders meet at ki in fall 2018 for a conversation about ki’s environmental justice work and the principles of just transition. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s they attended most of the classes, served as ej subject experts, hosted community conversations, and led classes introducing students to the principles of just transition (climate justice alliance 2016). they critiqued students’ presentations of their research and project concepts, and they coached the students on engaging community organizations. they helped students identify people in the community to approach as informants and they filmed oral histories. ki also helped promote the public humanities projects by hosting a showcase of the digital humanities projects in 2018 (fig. 8), promoting public programs, and speaking at the climates of inequality exhibit opening celebration (fig. 9). the project exemplifies some of the benefits and challenges of community-engaged teaching and research, particularly when focusing on issues of environmental justice. from the students’ perspective, the learning experience was powerful because they were co-curating narratives with partners from ki and developing public-facing interpretive projects that spoke to pressing social issues. 39 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 fig. 8. community members gathered at ki to see the presentation of the climates of inequality digital humanities projects developed by iupui students in fall 2018. fig. 9. aghilah nadaraj and leah humphrey speak at the opening of the climates of inequality exhibit at the central library, january 2020. k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e a student wrote that she was excited “to see the project go from research to planning to finally execution ….the [exhibit] opening event allows us to see the interest that people have in this topic and that we are connecting with people and raising concerns through this work” (fig. 10). students also appreciated making connections between the issues of environmental justice and their own lived experiences. for example, one student reflected, "i’ve lived in the indianapolis community for the past five years and prior to this course i can say i knew nothing of its history and issues. it made me recognize that it’s important to really learn about where you reside and call home and to not be a robot who drives by fall creek parkway every saturday and sunday but doesn’t exert the effort it takes into finding out why it smells so horrible." other students valued the opportunity to build relationships with the ki team and other community leaders (fig. 11), gain experience in community-focused collaborative projects, and build skills in public humanities practices (e.g. exhibit development, public programming, digital humanities). at the same time, the ambitious scope and complexity of the project that was valued by some students was also problematic for many others museum studies students had read deeply about museum history and its fraught legacy of exploitation and appropriation. they had read about decolonization (lonetree 2012) and shared authority (adair, filene and koloski 2011). many had participated in projects that seek to address those histories of harm and are committed to the goals of partnerships that are not 40 fig. 10. climates of inequality exhibit, imcpl central library, january 2020 c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s • "i think that we did not address some ethical concerns with this project including coming off as a university trying to be 'white saviors' for the community.” • “i found it difficult to reconcile with feeling like i was part of an exploitative university process that collaborates with marginalized community and then leaves. i did my best to get to know the ki members as individuals by meeting with them outside of class and attending their facebook live events. i often felt guilty during class when people, including myself, expressed uninformed views or made ignorant statements. i struggled to move past the feelings of guilt i had about how ignorant i am to the injustices marginalized communities experience and how i never felt like i had enough time to build deep relationships with community members.” • “it was also difficult to find community members even willing to communicate or share their experiences.... i do not blame the community for not wanting to work with students from an institution that has a harmful local legacy, but it was still frustrating nonetheless because i felt as though much of the content in the projects i was working on came too much from my ‘outsider’ perspective, and didn’t include enough authentic community stories and perspectives.” • “dialogue is important for me, because i hold collaboration, not consultation as an ethical standard for my curatorial practice when interpreting a community’s experience. however, this ethical standard was difficult to adhere to with our single-semester time constraint and i do not feel that we were able to incorporate our community partner enough.... for me balancing my own ethics with expectations was the most challenging part of this course. i did not want to approach this project with a “white savior” lens or by dominating the narrative with my own authority and position of power.” 41 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 fig. 11. students in the research seminar tour fall creek with mapleton fall creek development corporation ceo leigh riley evans and destination fall creek advocate doug day, fall 2018. merely transactional, but have the potential to be transformative. the gap between those goals and the realities of working on a course-based project for a semester were deeply troubling for some students. reflecting on the experience of working with the kheprw institute to investigate the history of indianapolis' urban waterways through an environmental justice lens, some students wrote about their positive experiences as they learned, many for the first time, about the history of environmental harm and its disproportionate impact on communities of color. others offered more problematic accounts of their experiences, particularly their discomfort with the perceived power dynamics of the university-community collaboration and their own positionality of privilege as graduate students and, in most cases, as white people. k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e 42 fig. 12. students learn about the central canal and the riverside neighborhood on a walking tour led by groundwork indy executive director, phyllis boyd, fall 2018. fig. 13. “parachuting into environmental justice,” (top left) a public program developed by iupui museum studies students hadia shaikh and sarah shorter at big car collaborative, january, 2020. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s as painful as these comments were to read, these students’ reflections name many of the issues central to community-university collaborations and called into stark relief the difficulty of changing attitudes, let alone structures of power, through course-based experiences. some students were inspired, but many were also discomforted or even paralyzed with their own privilege that they felt disqualified them from engaging in meaningful ways with community members or feeling like voyeurs on walking tours through affected communities (fig. 12). the experience left many of the students with troubling questions about the possibilities of environmental humanities to affect real and lasting change. in spite of these concerns, for some museum studies students, the project helped to shape their professional values in ways that may inform their entire careers. one student commented in a selfreflective essay, “i want my own professional work to be centered around community and making museums into places for community to be seen and heard.” another wrote that “i learned that true community collaboration means privileging your partner’s voice and that museum professionals must act as an avenue to amplify that voice to new audiences….i am not always the content expert and ...i must defer to community voices to properly tell stories of social injustices….collaborative projects with community must be equitable and benefit the community partners as much as the museum” (figs. 13, 14). another student wrote, “one of the most valuable parts of the class was the opportunity to grow my community collaboration skills including deep listening, active engagement, and genuine commitment. these skills will be foundational for my professional practice when i get a museum job.” for the community partners, particularly ki, the project produced historical and contemporary data as well as narratives that continue to benefit ki’s work as they develop curriculum, provide context of current environmental harm, and curate other storytelling projects. the companion exhibit at the central library featured a spotlight on ki’s work on environmental justice and two ki members spoke compellingly at the exhibit opening. these opportunities helped to raise awareness of ki’s longstanding advocacy for community well-being. 43 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 fig. 14. "follow the fall creek flow" (left) public program developed by iupui museum studies student megan perry at fort benjamin harrison park, january, 2020. k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e furthermore, the project created opportunities for ki youth leaders to gain professional experience both in collaborating with the students and faculty and in participating in the humanities action lab convenings at newark university, rutgers (fig. 15). in addition to the students’ learning outcomes and the benefits for the kheprw institute, the project has also spurred additional research. iupui faculty collaborated on an iahi-funded project exploring the “social and environmental history of dry cleaning,” and the preliminary results have been disseminated in “dirty laundry” a fifteentweet twitter thread (kryder-reid 2020) and “environment and race” a story map (kryderreid et al.). elizabeth kryder-reid and paula brooks, environmental justice coordinator with the hoosier environmental council, also presented a poster at the society of architectural historians annual conference (and subsequently developed as a storymap) interrogating the persistence of environmental racism in indianapolis. it drew parallels between the policies and discourse surrounding the construction of the combined sewer overflow system (csos) in the early 20th century and the site in the riverside neighborhood proposed in 2018 to process gravel from the excavations for the replacement to the csos. working with ms. brooks and other community partners on these research projects has raised concerns similar to those expressed by students in the climates of inequality courses. while there 44 fig. 15. dr. laura holzman (iupui), alisha baginski (iupui), and keenan rhodes (kheprw institute) (right) attend the convening and exhibit opening of climates of inequality at rutgers, newark, october 2019. c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s was benefit in conducting historical research and disseminating the results, it didn’t minimize the university’s past and ongoing harm related to the establishment of the iupui campus, the expansion into nearby neighborhoods, and the current development of indiana avenue and 16 tech (paschall 2020). in this time of racial reckoning, the university has made some gestures of atonement in the form of scholarships for displaced residents. ms. brooks, a third-generation resident of the adjoining near westside neighborhood most impacted by the university expansion, pointed out, however, that there was no apparent input from the people or the neighbors who were harmed. despite the good intentions of such initiatives, the university has continued investing directly in development that is compounding the problematic impact on historical residents of the near westside, namely hostile architecture, disrupted connectivity, dangerous sidewalks and crossings, and increased traffic with its higher airborne particulate pollution as well as congestion and parking issues. the project raised significant questions for faculty roles in community-engaged environmental justice work as well. in a conversation among the authors about the complex and often contested power dynamics of university-community collaborations, a community partner referred to the “four horsemen of gentrification.” although seemingly flip, the comment called into question the roles the faculty were playing in these community collaborations focused on environmental justice. were faculty complicit in the displacement and gentrification that communities were battling, despite the best intentioned citizen-science and purportedly activist scholarship? were faculty merely documenting the historical and contemporary harm of environmental racism, inequity, and injustice, or were they working toward reparative and restorative justice? or more troubling, by training a scholarly lens on environmental justice issues were faculty mounting one of the horsemen of gentrification, along with urban planners and landscape architects, to create an intellectually cohesive but aestheticized narrative that continued to marginalize or erase the real concerns of residents? how were faculty acknowledging the responsible people and institutions, along with the systemic forces that created the conditions, including the role of the university? were faculty just narrating the history, or taking action to address the harm and create real, enduring change? there are no simple answers, and faculty and students must continue to bring critical and self-reflective lenses to this work (shah 2020, warren-gordon 2021). reflections on community engaged ej research and teaching these two case studies exemplify the value of a multi-year projects with long-term shared institutional goals, the value of collaborative research shared in accessible formats, and the potential for using the city as an environmental justice classroom. proponents of engaged teaching have suggested that long term partnerships can be more manageable and rewarding than short-term collaborations (ex. jay 2012) and in ways that allow for not just tactical, but strategic goals (feigenbaum 2010– 2011, mathieu 2005, 2012, parks 2009). the coi project, which has taken four years including planning and dissemination, demonstrates both the results of a longer-term partnership and the challenges of spanning multiple courses and a changing cohorts of students. the coi project in particular revealed the importance of process and structure for ensuring successful student learning outcomes and community partner satisfaction. in many ways these findings are most powerfully highlighted in the project's shortcomings. rachael shah’s rewrit45 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e ing partnerships: community perspectives on community-based learning (2020) was published too late to inform the coi project, but it contains several concepts and resources that may be useful in future community engaged courses. the importance of self-reflection is well documented as a high impact practice, but assigning a weekly journal entry and requiring a final essay was clearly not sufficient to support some students’ struggles to situate themselves in the project and its larger context of environmental justice. shah offers an “openness huerisitic” which asks students to write a definition, provide 4 concrete examples, and offer a self-reflection on each of the 4 dimensions of openness she lays out in the “openness: community members who work with graduate students” chapter: open minds, open construction of self, open construction of others, and open hearts (shah 2020: 149-151). she also provides “community grading sheets” with a feedback form so that community partners can give feedback about their experiences working with college students. these tools will be valuable in future community-engaged pedagogy. perhaps most significant finding for informing future community engaged projects is shah’s concept of critical community-based epistemologies, or ways of knowing, which posits that “community partners are holders and producers of powerful knowledge, and these knowledges can be invaluable in shaping engagement collaborations.” (shah 2020: 107). she argues that this epistemology should both inform the “ethical vision that acknowledges the importance of community member voices, perspectives, and priorities” (109) and the power dynamics so that community partners can hold universities accountable. looking forward, there are lessons for future university-community collaborations on environmental justice issues. the university as an institution has a specific positionality, historically and in contemporary power dynamics, but faculty can work in a somewhat different space. their stakes in the documentation of environmental risks are distinct from corporate and governmental entities, and as such may provide more trusted results than those who rely on the data for profit motives. the university side of the collaboration brings, therefore, the possibility of a counternarrative to the received versions promulgated by government agencies, developers, and industrial representatives. if built on trusted, authentic relationships, these collaborations can also help to amplify the narratives of community perspectives and experiences, but building those relationships is not easy, particularly with the shadow of the university’s past and ongoing community harm. the enduring outcomes are also in question. clearly the intent of those involved is to work for social good, but the actual results are more ambiguous. as dan butin and daniyal saud wrote in 2013, “what higher education can accomplish through community engagement is an open question rather than an obvious answer.… until and unless we carefully push back on what it is that community engagement can do, there may be little to celebrate a generation from now.” (93) for those working for and with iupui, the goals of particular community-engaged projects have to be weighed against the broader institutional agendas and actions of the institution, and that balance is precarious at best. in spite of these enduring structural inequalities, the people involved in these projects remain committed to the goals of environmental justice work and to the benefits of community engagement and collaboration. we take inspiration from reflections such as the student who wrote about participating in climates of inequality, “[it] made me feel that through the completion of this project, i have actually done something that has made a difference in the world.” 46 c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s references adair, bill, benjamin filene, and laura koloski. letting go?: sharing historical authority in a user-generated world. philadelphia: the pew center for arts and heritage, 2011. bringle, robert g., patti h. clayton, and mary f. price, “partnerships in service learning and civic engagement. partnerships: a journal of service learning and civic engagement (2009) 1(1): 1-20. butin, dan w. and daniyal saud. pushing back the rhetoric: a review of what community engagement can do. michigan journal of community service learning, (2013) 19(2), 89-94. available at: https://scholarworks.merrimack. edu/soe_facpub/10 climates of inequality (hal). https://climatesofinequality.org/ climates of inequality (hal) indianapolis https://climatesofinequality.org/story/inequity-along-the-white-river-local-advocacy-for-change/ climate justice alliance, “what do we mean by just transition?” 2016 https://climatejusticealliance.org/just-transition/ (accessed 8-27-21) the cultural landscape foundation, riverside historic district, https://tclf.org/riverside-drive-historic-district (accessed 8-17-21) dumlao, rebecca. a guide to collaborative communication for service-learning and community engagement partners. stylus, 2018. feigenbaum, paul. “tactics and strategies of relationship-based practice: reassessing the institutionalization of community literacy.” community literacy journal (2010– 2011) 5 (2): 47– 66. green, jared. “the power of the ‘four horsemen of the livability apocalypse’” the dirt: uniting the built and natural environments. asla blog post, 05/11/2012 https://dirt.asla.org/2012/05/11/ the-power-of-the-four-horsemenof-the-livability-apocalypse/ humanities action lab (hal) https://www.humanitiesactionlab. org/ indy environmental justice history https://lizkryderreid.wixsite. com/indyejhistory indy environmental justice history 2018 student projects: https://lizkryderreid.wixsite.com/ indyejhistory/iupui-student-projects jay, gregory. “the engaged humanities: principles and practices for public scholarship and teaching,” journal of community-engagement and scholarship 3, no 1, 2012: 51-63. khalid, zain. the four horsemen of gentrification, november 3, 2015. https://www.mcsweeneys. net/articles/the-four-horsemen-of-gentrification kryder-reid, elizabeth. “dirty laundry” chat (contemporary and historical archaeology in theory). festival chat blue bird session, october 29, 2020 (https://twitter.com/kryderreid/ status/1323320674774077440 kryder-reid, elizabeth et al. “environment and race: dry cleaning and environmental justice in indianapolis.” storymap posted may 26, 2021. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4d28f320d66e4a449b2bca01e2491b9b kryder-reid, elizabeth and paula brooks. “’a malodorous, septic stream’: an environmental justice approach to the architectural history of indianapolis’ urban waterways.” poster presentation, society of architectural historians annual conference providence, ri (april, 2019). published as a storymap with expanded content (august 2021): https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1a810a7e8d58400ca799f5fdf5cc9355 kryder-reid, elizabeth, laura m. holzman, aghilah nadaraj, and leah humphrey. ”legacies of environmental justice in indianapolis: collaborative community curation” in the city is an ecosystem: sustainable education, policy, and practice edited by margaret cuonzo, carole griffiths, timothy leslie, deborah mutnick, and jay shuttleworth. new york: routledge, in press. longo, nicholas v. why community matters: connecting education with civic life. albany: suny press, 2007. lonetree, amy. decolonizing museums representing native america in national and tribal museums. chapel hill: the university of north carolina press, 2012. mathieu, paula. “after tactics, what comes next?” in unsustainable: re-imagining community literacy, public writing, service-learning, and the university, edited by laurie cella and jessica restaino, 17– 31. lanham, md: lexington books, 2012. mathieu, paula. tactics of hope: the public turn in composition. portsmouth: heinemann, 2005. parks, steve. “strategic speculations on the question of value: the role of community publishing in english studies.” college english (2009) 71 (5): 506– 527 paschall, wildstyle. “indiana avenue: the ethnic cleansing of black indianapolis.” new america, february 4, 2020. https:// www.newamerica.org/indianapolis/blog/indiana-avenue-ethnic-cleansing-black-indianapolis/ schwier, ryan and peter elliott “historical injustice in the urban environment: the ecological implications of residential segregation in indianapolis.” published online by the indiana legal archive, (2014) http://www. indianalegalarchive.com/index#ej-case-study shah, rachael w. rewriting partnerships: community perspectives on community-based learning. utah state university press, 2020. toxic heritage – collaborative research website. climates of inequality research project page. https://toxicheritage.com/ research-projects/climates-of-inequality/ (accessed 8-27-2021) warren-gordon, kiesha. “a critical approach to service-learning criminal justice and criminology courses.” collaborations: a journal of community-based research and practice, (2021) 4(1): 3, pp. 1–7. doi: https://doi. org/10.33596/coll.70 yousry, farah. this vegetable garden is also a safe haven for neighborhood youth side effects public media. july 8, 2021 https:// www.sideeffectspublicmedia.org/ community-health/2021-07-08/ this-vegetable-garden-is-also-asafe-haven-for-neighborhoodyouth (accessed august 22, 2021). 47 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 k r y d e r r e i d | u n i v e r s i t y c o m m u n i t y f i l i p p e l l i c o l l a b o r a t i o n s when researching homelessness and the housing crisis, the first thing i notice is the cruelty. for example, from the heritage foundation (rufo, 2020): “first, policymakers must ensure a baseline of public order— in short, enforce the laws against public camping, drug consumption, and homelessness-related property crimes— which is a prerequisite for any successful intervention.” (emphasis added) notice the language: “public order,” “drug consumption,” “property crimes.” unhoused people are not human; they are public nuisances. often editorial pieces and news coverage employ language that is insensitive, dehumanizing, and based on fearmongering about people living with addiction and mental health issues. the concept of “law and order” is a fundamental core of the conservative movement. but “order” is entirely superficial. “order” means not seeing unhoused people in desperate, vulnerable situations out in public; it means hiding them from public view—not working with them to provide resources, not making structural changes to address cyclical poverty and systemic inequities that are frequent causes of homelessness. this became especially clear during the covid-19 pandemic, as companies cut hours and jobs, and rent and mortgages grew increasingly unaffordable. many were forced onto the streets and into vulnerable situations, perhaps the least of which was putting them at increased risk of covid. both covid and housing instability disproportionately affected communities of color (lake, 2020). some temporary relief came in the form of stimulus checks and a freeze on mortgage payments. then we decided covid had ended, and the money ran out; america moved on but the unemployed and unhoused remained. last year, hud released its annual report on homelessness and found, “on a single night in 2022, roughly 582,500 people were experiencing homelessness in the united states” (office of policy development and research). black and indigenous people were and are disproportionately represented; the 2022 annual homeless assessment report found black people made up 37% of all people experiencing homelessness, and 50% of people experiencing homelessness with children. recent legislation attempts to address homelessness. the housing crisis response act of 2023 would provide over $150 billion in funding for affordable housing and investments in closing the racial housing gap. the ending homelessness act of 2023 would include $10 billion to provide housing for people experiencing homelessness and make the temporary interagency council on homelessness permanent. both acts were introduced to the house by rep. maxine waters, d-c.a., and currently sit in limbo. on the global stage, the 58th session of the un commission for social development released the first un resolution on homelessness. but these are words. the real work is done on the ground, by community organizers and activists making do with what little resources they have. in america, they tend to fall into two categories: prevention and support. the prevention organizations are legislation focused. for example, national alliance to end homelessness (endhomelessness.org/) and the urban institute (https:// www.urban.org/), each with national headquarters in washington, d.c. other support organizations work with people experiencing homelessness to address each person’s unique needs. for example, the pathways home (pathwayshome.org/) in birmingham, ala., and the spokane homeless coalition (http://www. spokanehc.com/) in spokane, wash. speaking up and speaking out: systemic cruelty author h. jad rea, mlis student, indiana university indianapolis 30engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y here in indiana, prosperity indiana (prosperityindiana. org) supports communities across the state. the indianapolis liberation center (https:// indyliberationcenter.org/about/) facilitates community collaboration and works to develop policy solutions to systemic issues including housing inequality and labor exploitation. community collaboration to meet individual needs is vital and necessary support. policyfocused organizations are a useful complement to community action. but real change comes from the top. the key first step is recognizing the issue: homelessness is not a “punishment” for an individual’s choices. homelessness and housing inequality is systemic, purposeful cruelty. no real change will come until lawmakers recognize this and involve unhoused people in developing solutions. as the maxim goes: nothing about us without us. references lake, j. (2020, october 30). the pandemic has exacerbated housing instability for renters of color. center for american progress. https://www. americanprogress.org/article/ pandemic-exacerbated-housing-instability-renters-color/ national alliance to end homelessness (naeh). (2021, march 18). new report shows rise in homelessness in advance of covid-19 crisis. https:// endhomelessness.org/blog/ new-report-shows-rise-inhomelessness-in-advance-ofcovid-19-crisis/ office of policy development and research. (2022, december). 2022 ahar: part 1 – pit estimates of homelessness in the u.s. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ ahar/2022-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-inthe-us.html rufo, c. f. (2020, august 24). ‘housing first’: homing in on the problem. heritage foundation commentary, august 24, 2020, https://www.heritage. org/housing/commentary/ housing-first-homing-theproblem. u.s. house committee on financial services. (2023). fact sheet: the housing crisis response act of 2023. https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/2023_housing_supply_bill_fs.pdfv fact sheet: the ending homelessness act of 2023. https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/2023_ending_homelessness_act_fs.pdf u.s. interagency council on homelessness. (2022, december). all in: the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. https://www. usich.gov/all_in.pdf vo l . 5, i s s u e 231 r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y 50engage! | c r e at i v e a rts measuring impact: a collaborative community project to measure peace building authors johnna belkiewitz doctoral student, occupational theory, school of health and human services, jessica flores doctoral student, occupational theory, school of health and human services, jocelyne hernandez, doctoral student, occupational theory, school of health and human services, alex prentice doctoral student, occupational theory, school of health and human services, rachel smith doctoral student, occupational theory, school of health and human services, dountonia batts dountonia batts, director of programs, peace learning center, victoria g. wilburn assistant professor, occupational theory, school of health and human services keywords: peace, community engagement, impact evaluation, restorative justice, occupational therapy abstract recognizing the need for program evaluation, occupational therapy students have provided the peace learning center with vital outcome measures that can lead to program remodeling, content recreation, and improved training, resources, and follow-up for facilitators, all within the profession's scope of practice in the community-based realm. introduction in alignment with the peace learning center’s (plc) purpose and mission, peace is a prerequisite for creating an environment in which all people have the capacity to live safe and productive lives and to engage in meaningful activities and occupations. to address the need for increased peace, nonprofit organizations such as the peace learning center work to promote equity and justice through the implementation of innovative practices. in order for non-profit organizations to effectively promote change in a community, they must be engaged in both direct service and advocacy work; however, creating caring communities and measuring the impacts of peace is a challenge. within indianapolis, the peace learning center strives to be a critical catalyst in creating more peaceful, equitable, and just schools, businesses, and communities. by offering workshops that educate families and community stakeholders, the organization utilizes principles of restorative justice, equity dialogue, and social-emotional learning to provide opportunities for collaborative learning and growth. these trainings take various forms including youth camps and educator workshops and allow individuals to better recognize and overcome challenges that inhibit peaceful communication and livelihood. an occupational therapy student (ots) team, composed of five doctoral students at iupui, engaged in the emerging practice area of community-based care through a course project in partnership with the peace learning center to create a sustainable peace-measuring tool. one of the goals in supporting this aim was b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 51 b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g to conceptualize the definition of peace in a community through a needs assessment, including a brief literature review, which led to the identification of six key themes and six perceptions to measure peacefulness. following this step, the ots team generated three surveys for student groups and families to measure peace in their school and the broader community. periodic implementation of these surveys at school training sites will help to provide data to ensure effective programming and to show evidence of increased peacefulness in the communities served. the importance of a comprehensive peace-measuring tool will allow community organizations, such as the plc, to better understand their impact and implications for needed change, based on participant feedback. figure 1 outlines the full theory of change map that guided the ots team's work. guiding occupational theory (ot) theory community-based occupational therapy, an emerging practice area, is set within the community context and addresses the most pressing community concerns. occupational therapy practitioners focus on a variety of factors to facilitate greater overall quality of life by providing increased opportunities for and by removing barriers to meaningful activity engagement. as a newer practice setting, developing replicable methodology and practice approaches to care are critically important to solidifying the profession's role in community settings. the ots team recognized the unique lens with which they could approach peace-measuring in an evidence-based manner that holistically acknowledges contributing factors. within this project, the ots team utilized the ecology of human performance (ehp) framework to guide thought processes throughout this project. this framework focuses on the person, context, task, and performance (dunn et al., 1994). employing this lens to guide the project aided the team in focusing on specific factors when approaching a partnership with the plc. the ehp framework emphasized the importance of access to opportunities for a meaningful activity to improve overall occupational performance. peace is a vital factor in consideration of the context surrounding a person and can affect the performance and tasks in which they are able to engage. it is through this lens that the team has approached partnership with the plc. methodology needs assesment a needs assessment was conducted to determine the strengths, problems, resources, and barriers that exist for the plc and the populations that they serve. the ots team was initially presented with a problem by the plc’s director of programs dountonia batts via zoom (d. batts, personal communication, september 13, 2021). the team then completed an email interview with the stakeholder, utilizing the questions outlined in appendix a to further determine areas of need. it was determined that a sustainable and effective tool for measuring peace would be created to address the organization’s need for impact assessment of their restorative justice peace is a vital factor in consideration of the context surrounding a person and can affect the performance and tasks in which they are able to engage. it is through this lens that the team has approached partnership with the plc. 52engage! | c r e at i v e a rts programming in indianapolis public schools. the results of the needs assessment interview were utilized to guide the ots team in a brief literature review to provide a better understanding of how to measure peace within the plc’s targeted communities. these stakeholder conversations identified the need for a peace-measuring tool, and the literature review conceptualized peace, outlined existing peace assessments, and provided key statistical measures of peace. literature review peace conceptualization a review of the literature was conducted to include a variety of perspectives to conceptualize the definition of peace. historically, scholars have defined peace as the absence of war or conflict (diehl, 2016; stephenson, 2017). this has become known as “negative peace” and is considered a non-comprehensive definition (boersema, 2015). the concept of positive peace, not considered the antonym of negative peace, has developed and been defined in many ways (stephenson, 2017). positive peace has been defined as, “the integration of human society,” (galtung 1964, as cited in stephenson, 2017). this definition highlights the interpersonal aspect and the importance of community in finding peace. other factors that must be considered in discussing peace in a community are, “integration and cooperation, mutual respect, justice, human rights, democracy, relative gender, ethnic, and economic equality, and truth,” (stephenson, 2017). this was echoed by diehl (2016) in his definition of positive peace as taking into account the variations between people, and including, “conflict resolution, human rights, reconciliation, justice, economic development, human scrutiny, and gender,” (p. 4). it is important to note that while searching through figure 1. theory of change map utilized to guide the ots team's work in partnership with the peace learning center. h a r v e y & v i l l a l y a z o | c u l t u r a l d i p l o m a c y 53 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g the literature, most definitions of peace are focused on western definitions that tend to center on the absence of violence. non-western definitions from a variety of cultures do not focus on negative peace but take a more positive approach, “in the sense that peace means the presence of certain characteristics rather than the absence of negative characteristics,” (anderson, 2004, p. 102). plc's definition and indicator of peace at a personal level is "an individual feels safe, valued, and loved;" while community peace was described as "each person takes responsibility to build respect, responsibility, and good communication to work out conflicts and differences while proactively eliminating injustice and violence," (d. batts, personal communication, october 7, 2021). as scholars continue to conceptualize peace, they view peace as an experience. "peace is experienced by people and can therefore be measured by subjective evaluations," (anderson, 2004, p. 104). peace as an element of the experience of community building makes it inherently interpersonal, and thus can be linked to occupation. to explain further, peace can then be considered an element of the environment, and as occupational participation does not occur in a vacuum, influences performance of all activities. peace assessments due to definitions and indicators of peace varying across people, organizations, communities, and countries, researchers have struggled to develop a well-rounded assessment tool to measure peace. the plc, whose definition of community peace was previously stated, is an organization that serves a large community. with this broadly-spanning definition in mind, a brief review of existing literature was completed to identify possible assessment tools that could guide the ots team in the creation of their peace measuring tool. after reviewing multiple sources, several peace assessments were identified as potential models. while these assessment tools are not allencompassing, they provide a starting point for peace measurement within the plc's targeted community. the guiding assessments that were identified include the peace evaluation across cultures and environments (peace) scale, davenport scale, functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-spiritual well-being scale (facit-sp), and the global peace index (gpi). the peace scale is a "psychometric tool designed to assess an individual's experience of peace across multiple, related psycho-social domains" (zucker et al., 2014, p. 2). in addition, this scale measures how "individuals rate their own sense of peace" (zucker et al., 2014, p. 2). the davenport scale focuses on how, in the past, peace has been described as the absence of war; however, there has been a reconceptualization of the term in which it is not related to war or the absence of it. it develops guidelines on how to study peace, which could help create a specific measurement tool to measure peace (diehl, 2016). one article discusses the facit-sp and the difference and possible distinction between meaning and peace. the assessment is composed of 12 items that measure a variety of aspects that include peace, quality of life, mental health status, satisfaction, and wellbeing. the responses are recorded on a scale of 0-4 with 0 being "not at all" and 4 being "very much". the instructions also say to apply the statements within the past 7 days (peterman et al., 2014). the gpi measures national peacefulness and "ranks 153 nations by its presence or absence of violence using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators that measure both the internal and external peacefulness of countries," (sarangi, 2018, p. 8). like its name, this instrument is used on a global level and measures the state of peace using three domains: "level of societal safety and security, the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict, and the degree of militarization" (sarangi, 2018, p. 8). engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 54 overall, each of these assessments provides a different way to measure peace. while these tools assess peace at individual or global levels, they were utilized as a reference when creating a specific measurement tool to assess peace at a community level for the plc. peace statistics as previously mentioned, two types of peace statistics have been gathered and described in relevant literature: negative peace, which pertains to the reduction and prevention of violence, and positive peace, which is relief from violence through lasting and sustainable social justice movements (christie & montiel, 2013). centering on negative peace, the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc) has a violence prevention division that collects data and provides resources on a variety of violence topics, including child abuse and neglect, firearms violence, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence (centers for disease control and prevention, n.d.). with the goal of preventing violence before it begins, the cdc utilizes the social-economical model as a framework for influencing individual, relationship, community, and societal factors to reduce violence before it occurs (cdc, n.d.). this emphasizes the need for data collection to occur on multiple levels. whereas, the peace data standard focuses on positive peace and has proposed a mechanism for monitoring technology use through four main components: group identity information, behavior data, longitudinal data, and metadata (guadagno et al., 2018). by analyzing these factors, researchers purport that increasing positive engagement across different groups of people can be facilitated through technology use and can, ultimately, be utilized to monitor peace within a results-based economic framework (guadagno et al., 2018). both the negative peace and positive peace models provide a guideline for beneficial data points to monitor. many governmental agencies and major nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations that work to promote peace monitor their impact through the collection of data and statistics within the communities in which they work. the united states institute of peace is a governmental organization that, “promotes research, policy analysis, education, and training on international peace and conflict resolution in an effort to prevent and resolve violent conflicts, and to promote post-conflict stability,” (united states institute of peace, n.d.). some of the data points that are collected by this organization include violencebased deaths, houselessness and displacement, access to adequate food sources, crimes against vulnerable populations, and access to educational opportunities (united states institute of peace, n.d.). the alliance for peacebuilding (2021) is an international non-profit organization that monitors global peace. data points that are collected by this organization include poverty level, infectious disease outbreak, local and widespread conflict occurrence, women’s inclusion in peace processes, and youth violence (alliance for peacebuilding, 2021). each of these major data points are used to quantify the impact of peacebuilding work and to measure the gaps that remain in peacebuilding processes. results & conclusion to tackle the challenge of measuring peace and the peace-promoting process, a combination of the plc's values and decades of research were analyzed. the plc's mission, "to reduce violence and increase kindness" within their community incorporates elements of both negative and positive peace (peace learning center, 2021). in accordance with director of programs dountonia batts' descriptions of personal and community peace, the two are intertwined yet separately defined. based on the organization's priorities and existing research on peace and peacebuilding, b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g 55 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g the ots team comprehensively included both positive and negative peace and multiple levels of assessment, both at the individual and the community level, within peace measuring tools. the ots team created three surveys that focused on the (1) presence/absence of personal and community violence, (2) physical, psychological, and social wellbeing, (3) connectedness to community, (4) perception of safety, respect, and justice, (5) perception of the ability to advocate for and to meet one's needs, (6) occupational participation levels. see appendix b for a full list of survey questions for students k-5th grade, students 6-12th grade, and caregivers, following applicable health literacy guidelines. to periodically monitor peace factors within the communities that they serve, a list of specific statistical measures and online databases were also provided to the plc and can be found in appendix c. both the surveys and statistical measures provide appropriate means for the peace learning center to gauge whether their community work is resulting in its intended effects. recommendations & discussion three surveys resulted from this process for the plc to utilize as sustainable tools for measuring peace within their targeted community, indianapolis public school students and families. the ots team's recommendations for the survey include the following: utilizing a pre-post test method within a four-month timeline after the program is completed, distributing surveys electronically, maintaining privacy of the survey participants via respondent anonymity, and to increase survey participation through incentives. the survey data can then be utilized by the plc staff to evaluate whether the program needs to be remodeled through improved training for facilitators, increasing follow-up training for educators, increased resources post-plc programming, or overall content recreation. these surveys can be utilized to provide valuable feedback for plc's programming within indianapolis public schools. this collaborative experience also served as a learning opportunity for the occupational therapy student group to engage in communitybased work. the peace learning center provided feedback to the ots team about the collaborative process and the anticipated plan of how the tools would be utilized. having been previously unfamiliar with the role that occupational therapy practitioners can play in organizational consultation and program evaluation in a community setting, the plc felt that the partnership provided them with a better understanding of how peace and occupational engagement are intertwined and relayed that the peace-measuring tools felt appropriate for use in their restorative justice programming. in future community-based projects among occupational therapy practitioners and nonprofit organizations, it is important to keep several factors in mind. due to challenges with staffing and resource shortages, communications between the ots team and the plc were limited beyond initial interviews and email correspondence. because of this, the team had to continually remind themselves that their efforts should include shortterm participation on behalf of the occupational therapy practitioners and should result in appropriately sustainable progress, based on the organization's access to resources. the ots team recognized these communication shortcomings and acknowledged that future community-based occupational therapy practice should seek to create additional, feasible ways for community partners to be more collaborative throughout program evaluation processes, suggesting that doing so will help to increase the sustainability of projects. 56engage! | c r e at i v e a rts appendix a: emailed needs assessment questionnaire appendix b: peace measuring tool for k-5 students b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g 57 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 1 b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g appendix d: peace measuring tool for student caregivers appendix c: peace measuring tool for 6-12 students references alliance for peacebuilding (2021). peace & conflict statistics. https:// www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org/ peace-conflict-stats anderson, r. (2004). a definition of peace. peace and conflict: journal of peace psychology, 10(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1207/ s15327949pac1002_2 boersema, d. (2015). sequoyah and seattle: chief world systems. value inquiry book series, 282, 129-138. https://doi. org/10.1163/9789004299597_014 centers for disease control and prevention (cdc). (n.d.). violence prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/ violenceprevention/about/social-ecologicalmodel.html christie, d. j., & montiel, c. j. (2013). contributions of psychology to war and peace. american psychologist, 68(7), 502. https://doi.org/10.1037/ a0032875 diehl, p. f. (2016). exploring peace: looking beyond war and negative peace. international studies quarterly, 60(1), 1-10. https://doi. org/10.1093/isq/sqw005 dunn, w., brown, c., & mcguigan, a. (1994). the ecology of human performance: a framework for considering the effect of context. american journal of occupational therapy, 48(7), 595-607. https://doi.org/10.5014/ ajot.48.7.595 fazio, l.s. (2017). developing occupation-centered programs with the community. slack incorporated. guadagno, r. e., nelson, m., & lock lee, l. (2018). peace data standard: a practical and theoretical framework for using technology to examine intergroup interactions. frontiers in psychology, 9, 734. https://doi. org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00734 peace learning center. (2021). about us. https://peacelearningcenter.org/ about-us/ sarangi, u. (2018). global peace index of economies. international journal on world peace, 35(2), 7-25. peterman, a. h., reeve, c. l., winford, e. c., cotton, s., salsman, j. m., mcquellon, r., tsevat, j., & campbell, c. (2014). measuring meaning and peace with the facit–spiritual well-being scale: distinction without a difference? psychological assessment, 26(1), 127–137. scaffa, m., & reitz, s.m., (2020). community-based and population focused practice in ot. f.a.davis company. stephenson, c. m. (2017). defining peace. international studies review, 19(1), 138-139. united states institute of peace (n.d.). publications. https://www. usip.org/publications?publication_ type[6]=6&page=1 zucker, h., ahn, r., sinclair, s. j., blais, m., nelson, b. d., & burke, t. f. (2014). development of a scale to measure individuals’ ratings of peace. conflict and health, 8(1), 1-7. https://doi. org/10.1186/1752-1505-8-17 58engage! | c r e at i v e a rts b e l k i e w i t z e t. a l . | p e a c e b u i l d i n g engage! vol. 5, no. 3 lipsey | future conference 28 paper 7 speaking up and speaking out: call for future conference alexander lipsey phd student iu indianapolis school of social work i cannot wait for next year, because i will surely be registering for the iu community engagement unconference again. i believe the four assignment topics did a superb job at asking a diverse array of questions to get the voice and opinion of the participants that attended the conference as it relates to how their work is, and can be, applicable to community engagement. i resonated with prompt 2 and prompt 4 the most but see the value in prompt 1 and prompt 3. prompt 2 asked for participants to highlight a best practice or model that they have personally implemented regarding community engagement that has proven successful. i found this to be a real beardscratcher because as a social worker there are many things that i have done regarding community engagement. yet, of those things, which would i consider successful is dependent upon how success is defined. consequently, i had to operantly define success to myself before i was able to continue. deciding to respond to this prompt was monumental for me because i typically just go through the motions of things, believing action is enough. prompt 2 helped me to realize that action and its resounding affect is to be valued. prompt 4 inquired upon participants to give their general thoughts about the unconference, which includes the speakers, the interactions, the networking, etc. because this was my first time attending i did not know what to expect, so having the opportunity to simply reflect and give my feedback about the experience was helpful. i got to experience something new during my attendance. i had never seen the mentimeter app used, which was a remarkable way to get engagement from the audience while relaying their anonymous opinions about the topic being asked in real-time across the presenting screen for everyone to see. that alone was amazing to me because the conference was centered around how to engage the community, and they exhibited an assortment of ways to engage the attendees at the conference, while also promoting what can be done outside of the conference. prompt 1 asked participants how they see their work advancing community engagement, which is like prompt 2 but with one key difference. prompt 1 is asking what could be done, and prompt 2 is asking what has been done. i found prompt 2 easier than prompt 1 because there are countless ways i feel like my work can advance community engagement, but it is all dependent upon and limited to the resources and funds i have available. consequently, i favor prompt 2 because i know all the things i have done and could put them on a likert scale of how successful they were. i see the value in being able to think about the future and what could be done to improve it, but my mind finds it hard to put limiters on future prospects about how things could be done, or what could be done. paper 1 prompt 3 probed participants to think about how does the iu system-wide effort, like the unconference and other engagements, enable institution and network building to be better, together. this is a great prompt to get people's thoughts about how they think iu and things like it encourage growth in the institution and the networks that they are comprised up. some people may feel very strongly that institutions are doing a lot to foster network building, while others may feel just as strongly that institutions are not doing enough. this prompt allows for a disconnect to be addressed if it exists somewhere. otherwise, it allows people to highlight the actions of things being done so that people in places where it is not being done can become aware that it may be something that should be having done. all the topics held value, and i am grateful for the opportunity to attend the spring 2024 unconference to learn and foster connections with professors and individuals of like minds. i am sure next year will be just as good if not better. i would jump at the chance if there was an opportunity to help in the development of future unconferences. 29 lipsey | future conference how social discrimination & housing (un)affordability causes gender-expansive homelessness and policy recommendations to ensure that everyone is housed transgender, gender non-binary, gender non-singular and gender-questioning people (gender-expansive) in the united states are more likely than their cisgender counterparts to experience housing precarity and homelessness. while this disparity results from structural and individual discrimination that limits access to economic, social and political capital, it also results from a massive gap in the amount of affordable and adequate permanent housing available to all low-income members of u.s. society. as a person who experienced housing instability and unsheltered homelessness prior to the covid-19 pandemic, as well as discrimination from the mental health system as a result of my gender-identity during covid-19, this policy brief is informed by my lived experience. while i often felt shame and personal responsibility for my situation, i came to realize that my lived experience reflects structural inequities and gaps in the u.s. housing system. often, when people are unable to rent or own permanent housing due to the excessive and increasing cost of living in many parts of the united states, they rely on the emergency shelter system. this system has a diligent and attentive frontline workforce. there is also abundant evidence demonstrating that safe and affirming emergency housing can help stabilize mental health, physical health and financial challenges. nevertheless, there is a systemic lack of funding to adequately support the shelter workforce and keep up with the need for emergency shelter beds. compounded by inadequate anti-discrimination rules, the emergency shelter system does not serve the needs of low-income, gender-expansive people. using my lived experience as inspiration, this policy brief will outline these gaps in emergency housing services and their specific impact on gender-expansive people. it will then point to existing legislation and shelter reforms that could help alleviate these gaps. designer nick asbell iu indianapolis office of community engagement staff liz m. terry iu indianapolis a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s 6 associate editors william b. crow lehigh university carolyn gentle-genitty indiana university jim grim community engaged scholar rita hodges university of pennsylvania natasha howard morehouse college terri jett butler university brendan maxcy iu indianapolis eric kyere iu indianapolis virgil gregory iu indianapolis mary price forum on education abroad carol rogers iu indianapolis javiette vashan samuel univeristy of tennessee, knoxville sarah stanlick worcester polytechnic institute ellen szarleta iu, northwest laura weaver purdue doctoral student online journal development ted polley iu indianapolis editors khaula murtadha iu indianapolis andrea copeland iu indianapolis author daniel soucy s o u c y | g e n d e r e x p a n s i v e h o m e l e s s n e s s 7 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 trends: gender-expansive people are more likely to experience homelessness due to a limited and exclusive permanent and emergency housing system prior to 2019, the department of housing and urban development (hud) did not track gender-expansive homelessness. however, independent research prior to 2019 and hud data since 2019 clearly demonstrates that gender-expansive people are far more likely than their cisgender counterparts to experience homelessness and, in particular, unsheltered homelessness. while unsheltered homelessness has increased for all genders since 2019, figure 1 demonstrates that gender-expansive people are much more likely to be forced to reside in a car, tent, abandoned building or other location “unfit for human habitation”. these trends result from structural factors. gender-expansive people are more likely to live without access to stable employment. they are also more likely to experience discrimination from their social networks. the consequences of these forms of social isolation are especially prevalent among youth. gender-expansive youth experience housing instability and homelessness at rates twice as high as cisgender youth. figure 2 illustrates that nearly 40 percent of surveyed transgender youth reported experiencing housing instability or homelessness during their lives. leading causes of homelessness are bullying, harassment and discrimination that make it extremely difficult for gender-expansive youth to access education and economic opportunities. note: (hud exchange 2023) figure 1: while unsheltered homelessness has increased for all genders since 2019 (hud exchange, 2023), figure 1 demonstrates that gender-expansive people are much more likely to be forced to reside in a car, tent, abandoned building or other location “unfit for human habitation 8 s o u c y | g e n d e r e x p a n s i v e h o m e l e s s n e s s engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y lack of affordable housing causes homelessness: housing precarity amongst low-income households has increased due to an affordable housing crisis across the united states. households that hud defines as ‘very low-income’ (those households making less than 50 percent of their area’s median income) and ‘extremely low income’ (those households making less than 30 percent of the area median income) are most likely to suffer from this shortage. nevertheless, even wealthier households increasingly pay more than one-half of their income for rent or live in severely inadequate conditions and therefore also meet hud’s definition of worst-case housing needs. methods to improve housing stability include project based rental assistance (pbra) to fund designated units for low-income households and housing choice vouchers which offer assistance to families with low income renting in the private market. however, due to budget shortfalls and poor management, these safety nets are both notoriously inaccessible to low-income residents and prioritize access to cisgender families at the exclusion of gender-expansive people. shelters remain unsafe andunavailable for gender-expansive people: without affordable housing, there is a greater need for emergency shelter assistance, especially for gender-expansive people and people of color. just as permanent affordable housing is not meeting demand, neither are emergency shelters. at the same time, emergency services like shelters and rapid rehousing programs are inaccessible to gender-expansive people. one study found that 85 percent of gender-expansive people experiencing homelessness did not seek shelter due to fear of mistreatment. of those who did, 41 percent were denied access and 44 percent reported mistreatment (o'neill & wilson, 2020). given that people of color also experience individual and systemic housing discrimination as a result of their race (national low income housing coalition, 2021), gender-expansive people of color are even less likely to have access to stable housing. note: rates of youth homelessness by gender in 2022, the trevor project, 2022 figure 2: vo l . 5, i s s u e 29 policy considerations: lessons from the covid-19 pandemic and current funding proposals the eviction protection program: the covid-19 pandemic demonstrates that the federal government has mechanisms to reduce housing instability and homelessness for gender-expansive people. specifically, during the pandemic, the treasury distributed an unprecedented $46.5 billion in emergency rental assistance to states to prevent low-income people from losing their housing. the office of evaluation services (oes) reported that people of color and women benefited from this assistance in large part because state housing authorities were required to promote racial equity and target assistance to these groups (national low income housing coalition, 2021). targeting federal assistance to gender-expansive people could similarly disrupt the inequities described previously. gender-inclusive shelter access: gender-expansive people also suffer from state and local policies that empower private housing providers and non-profit shelters to discriminate against gender-expansive people. during the pandemic, however, many states utilized hotel rooms and other single occupancy units. increasing rental assistance and non-congregate shelters that provide people of all genders more space and access demonstrates how funding and policy changes can ensure that gender-expansive people feel safe in their housing environment. additionally, lawmakers must ensure that hud’s equal access rule remains in place. the equal access rule is a regulation which prohibits discrimination against lgbtq people in hud-funded shelter services. crucially, it requires that transgender individuals be allowed to use the dorm and bathroom facilities that align with their gender identity. conservative lawmakers have attempted to eliminate this rule when allocating funds to hud . this would make it even more difficult and even more unsafe for gender-expansive individuals to seek emergency housing. s o u c y | g e n d e r e x p a n s i v e h o m e l e s s n e s s note: development & research 2023 figure 3: 10engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y s o u c y | g e n d e r e x p a n s i v e h o m e l e s s n e s s what is the proposed budget allocation for 2024? in its fiscal year 2024 draft spending bill, the u.s. senate’s committee on appropriation’s subcommittee on transportation, housing and urban development (thud) increased its allocation to hud by $8.26 billion (appropriations, 2023). meanwhile, the house spending bill proposed an increase of just $2.91 billion and reduced hud grant programs—a critical mechanism for improving low-income communities’ ability to increase affordable housing supply —by $1.733 billion. this is 28 percent lower than fiscal year 2023. researchers estimate that congress needs to increase hud’s funding by at least $13 billion to keep up with inflation and rising housing prices. implications: effects of the covid-19 pandemic and research by housing scholars have made abundantly clear that individual identifiers like race, gender and income exasperate homelessness, especially amongst gender-expansive people. however, at its core, homelessness is a housing problem. it is evident that the united states is experiencing an affordable housing crisis resulting from decades of inadequate funding. the solution is simple, albeit not politically expedient: congress needs to greatly exceed previous funding increases for safe and affordable permanent housing and immediate short-term opportunities for emergency shelter. ensure federal discrimination protection in housing and shelter as previously mentioned, these shelters need to provide specific support to gender-expansive people and gender-expansive people of color who have traditionally been excluded from permanent and emergency housing programs. there also needs to be federal protections against discrimination in these settings. without protections in both privatelyand federally-funded shelter settings, gender-expansive people will continue to face barriers when seeking a place to stay, and will be forced into unsheltered settings. increase affordable housing: states and localities that have looked at their housing market data and increased affordable housing supply and targeted assistance to low-income households have had success in reducing housing instability and homelessness. increasing affordable housing through federal policy will benefit all residents across geographic and demographic differences by creating a more equitable, secure and stable economy. gender-expansive people have effectively advocated for our health, economic and social safety for decades. we have also created alternative support systems like group homes and mutual aid networks to survive in the face of structural hostility. it is well past time to increase affordable housing and shelter for gender-expansive people, as well as affirm anti-discrimination protections within these systems. this will create a safer, equitable and inclusive society that will support all low-income households across the united states who have felt the stress and pain of housing insecurity and homelessness. gender-expansive people need affordable housing and safe shelters now: future funding bills must dramatically increase housing affordability through housing choice vouchers, public housing units and emergency rental assistance. increases in funding must prioritize equity. emergency housing organizations should institute non-discrimination protections and allow gender-expansive people to choose their housing environment based on their gender identity. at the same time, lawmakers should also allow hud to increase emergency shelter beds specifically for gender-expansive people. the design and implementation of new permanent and emergency housing programs must include the voices of gender-expansive people and people of color with lived experience of homelessness. daniel soucy, a researcher and advocate who identifies as queer, white and a person with lived expertise of homelessness. vo l . 5, i s s u e 211 s o u c y | g e n d e r e x p a n s i v e h o m e l e s s n e s s references aclu. (2023). mapping attacks on lgbtq rights in u.s. state legislatures. retrieved august 2023, from american civil liberties union: https://www.aclu.org/ legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights aldern , c., & colburn, g. (2022). homelessness is a housing problem. oakland, california : university of california press. appropriations, h. (2023, july 11). committee releases fy24 transportation, housing and urban development, and related agencies appropriations bill. retrieved from https://appropriations. house.gov/news/press-releases/ committee-releases-fy24-transportation-housing-and-urban-development-and-related center on budget and policy priorities . (2022). policy basics: federal rental assistance. washington, d.c.: center on budget and policy priorities. development, o. o., & research, o. o. (2023). affordable housing/ worst case needs report to congress. washington d.c.: department of housing nad urban development . retrieved from housing and urban development : https://www.huduser.gov/portal/afwcn.html driessen, g. a., mccarty, m., & perl, l. (2023). pandemic relief: the emergency rental assistance program. washington d.c.: congressional research services. exchange, d. o. (2019). hud exchange. retrieved september 2023, from https:// files.hudexchange.info/ resources/documents/ equal-access-for-transgender-people-supporting-inclusive-housing-and-shelters.pdf hud exchange. (2023). pointin-time count and housing inventory count. washington dc: despartment of housing and urban development. national alliance to end homelessness . (2022). housing first. retrieved july 2023, from https:// endhomelessness.org/resource/ housing-first/ national alliance to end homelessness. (2021). trans and gender non-conforming homelessness. retrieved from national alliance to end homelessness: https://endhomelessness.org/ trans-and-gender-non-conforming-homelessness/ national low income housing coalition. (2023, july 21). senate releases fy24 thud spending bill proposing some cuts but overall increases to maintain current levels of assistance offered by hud programs. retrieved august 2023, from national low income housing coalition : https://nlihc. org/resource/senate-releasesfy24-thud-spending-bill-proposing-some-cuts-overall-increasesmaintain national low income housing coaltion. (2023). why do affordable homes matter? retrieved august 2023, from https://nlihc. org/explore-issues/why-we-care office of evaluation services . (2022). equity in the distribution of the emergency rental assistance program. retrieved from office of evaluation services: https://oes.gsa.gov/projects/ era-equity/ office of evaluation services . (2022). equity in the distribution of the emergency rental assistance program. retrieved august 2023, from office of evaluation services. office of policy development and research, d. o. (2023). affordable housing/worst case needs reports to congress. retrieved august 2023, from office of policy development and research (pd&r): https://www.huduser. gov/portal/afwcn.html o'neill, k. k., wilson, b. d., & herman, j. l. (2020). homeless shelter access among transgender adults. los angeles : ucla williams institute. schuetz, j. (2021, may 21). retrieved from states can improve housing well-being through thoughtfully designed policies: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/states-can-improve-housingwell-being-through-thoughtfullydesigned-policies/ us department of housing and urban development. (2023). housing choice voucher (hcv) data dashboard. retrieved 2023, from https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/hcv/dashboard vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 61 r e a | a n n o t a t e d b i b l i o g r a p h y annotated bibliography – immigrant and refugee experiences collected by jad rea introduction the collection of books below shares a variety of perspectives on the immigrant and refugee experience. some titles in the first section, for adults, are written by refugees themselves, including abdulrazak gurnah’s afterlife. this year, gurnah became the first black african author to win the nobel peace prize in literature in 35 years. other titles provide an academic look at immigrant success and resilience, like library journal’s best social science book of the year, after the last border by jessica goudeau. in the second section, for young adults & kids, books are accessible to a younger audience: like multi-award-winning dreamers, a picture book by yuyi morales. taking an intersectional look at immigration, we see the collision of identity and family; of gender, sexuality, and social expectation; of community and isolation. for adults abramitzky, r., & boustan, l. (2022). streets of gold: america’s untold story of immigrant success. publicaffairs. in their study of immigration, abramitzky and boustan provide a new take on the role of immigration in american society and political policy. they argue that americans base present social opinion and policy largely on myths and misunderstandings. abramitzky and boustan claim this study serves as a truthful, fact-based look at the often-divisive topic of immigration. with data gathered through ten years of research, the scholars support their assertion of the positive and vital role played by immigrants in america’s social and economic wellbeing. agustin, r. (2022). illegally yours: a memoir. grand central publishing. agustin uses equal parts humor and candor to share his story of coming to terms with his status as an immigrant. the memoir explores themes of identity, family, and the social repercussions that come from being the child of immigrants. his narrative comes as an answer to the ongoing and often combative discourse over immigration in america. in an issue characterized by generalizations and political policies, agustin reminds the reader of the individual people stuck in the middle of the debate. banerjee, p. (2022). the opportunity trap: highskilled workers, indian families, and the failures of the dependent visa program. nyu press. banerjee investigates the h-4 dependent visa programs and their effect on indian immigrant families. she finds, despite the official language of the programs, immigrants face social and economic struggles. banerjee argues the restrictive policies cause these families to rely on a single income, which is often not enough to sustain them. to support her assertions, banerjee shares the findings of interviews with indian immigrant couples. her groundbreaking look at visa policy reveals the inadequacy of the present system. 62engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry r e a | a n n o t a t e d b i b l i o g r a p h y cohen, s. j., & taylor, s. t. (2021). journeys from there to here: stories of immigrant trials, triumphs, and contributions. river grove books. the immigration debate often focuses on narratives of despair and struggle; cohen’s work adds dimensions of success and resilience. drawing from her work as an immigration lawyer, cohen shares stories of her clients in their own words. firsthand accounts of courtroom proceedings allow a rare look inside the immigration process in america. cohen and her clients encourage readers to reflect on themes identity, community, and belonging. creef, e. t. (2022). shadow traces: seeing japanese/ american and ainu women in photographic archives. university of illinois press. creef explores the history of immigration through photographs. in her study of identity and visibility, she uses images as an intimate look into the japanese and japanese american women who immigrated to america. creef applies a feminist lens to the study of immigration; she poses that we should take a more intersectional look at archival collections and investigate their potential for providing insights into race, class, and gender. she also provides suggestions on the integration of photographs and similar visual mediums into curriculum and research to offer a broader look at often overlooked communities. drake, s. j. (2022). academic apartheid: race and the criminalization of failure in an american suburb. university of california press. drake looks at racial segregation in education in a present context, examining the complex political and social factors that perpetuate the policy despite the supreme court’s brown v. board (1954) ruling making school segregation illegal. he compares ethnographic studies of two california high schools to lay out what systems of discrimination endure. bringing together studies of immigration, race, ethnicity, and class, drake also examines the role of criminalization and overpolicing of black, latinx, and low-income youths. to counter the systemic discrimination, drake shares examples of community resilience and cooperation to fight for equality and success. eng, a. (2022). our laundry, our town: my chinese american life from flushing to the downtown stage and beyond. fordham university press. eng uses his experience as a playwright and performer to reflect on his childhood as a chinese american kid in a changing new york city neighborhood. he mixes literary analysis and anecdote to compare media portrayal—often few and far between—of chinese and chinese american characters and culture on stage and screen with the reality of his own childhood. his journey to discover himself begins in the manhattan theater scene and takes eng across the world to hong kong and guangzhou, china. his memoir sits at the intersection of race and ethnicity, immigration, and identity. goudeau, j. (2021). after the last border: two families and the story of refuge in america. penguin random house. goudeau examines the intersection of gender and immigration in her study of two refugee families and their journey to find a new home in america. the stories of mu naw of myanmar and hasna of syria allow an intimate look into the cruelty and impossible circumstances faced by families across the world. goudeau’s narrative offers a holistic look at america’s refugee policies, charting the history from the second world war to present day and explaining the changing social values that shape americans’ view on immigrants and refugees. gowayed, h. (2022). refuge: how the state shapes human potential. princeton university press. gowayed puts a human face to the united states, canada, and germany’s policy response to syrian refugees. she argues these policies dehumanize refugees despite performative emphasis on individuality. 63 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 r e a | a n n o t a t e d b i b l i o g r a p h y gowayed puts special scrutiny on the united states resettlement policies, which seem to set immigrants and refugees up for failure as they are often put directly into impoverished and difficult circumstances. setting her study against a backdrop of shared human experience of identity and belonging, gowayed emphasizes the human cost of these policies on families and individuals. gurnah, a. (2020). afterlives. bloomsbury publishing. gurnah became the first black african author to win the nobel peace prize in literature in 35 years after he was nominated for his career-long, unflinching depiction of immigration and culture in east africa. afterlives is his most recent novel, a story set in the german colonization of the region. the individual stories of his characters weave into the greater narrative of brutality and injustice faced by residents beneath the oppressive regime of colonialism. gurnah mixes history and fiction to tell the story of imperialism and resilience in east africa. hartman, s. (2022). city of refugees: the story of three newcomers who breathed life into a dying american town. beacon press. in america’s rust belt, with towns left desolate as manufacturers closed factories and hundreds of livelihoods were lost overnight, the thought of immigrants can conjure fears of outsiders taking jobs. in her study, hartman explores the stark difference between this perception and reality. she shows how the arrival of immigrant families to an upstate new york town did not destroy the community; instead, the newcomers helped the struggling city find a second wind to start to recover from economic devastation. johnson, m. t. (2022). the middle kingdom under the big sky: a history of the chinese experience in montana. university of nebraska press. the popular image of “the wild west” often neglect the vital role of immigrants in building and shaping the region; johnson explores this phenomenon through the large chinese population in early montana. he examines the role of myth and sensationalism in our present view of history. a key element of his book is the emphasis of documents and family papers, allowing chinese pioneers to tell their own stories. johnson’s important study stands at the intersection of race and ethnicity, immigration, and agency in the american “wild west.” molina, n. (2022). a place at the nayarit: how a mexican restaurant nourished a community. university of california press. molina examines the role of the restaurant as an important social gathering place in los angeles’ mexican and mexican american communities. the nayarit, created by molina’s grandmother in 1951, served as a place for connection: connection with community, food, and mexico. with her intimate connection to the subject matter, molina weaves a story of family and cooperation across both the good and bad. she relates the narrative to a wider exploration of the factors and relationships that shape our identity, from both inside and outside our own communities. ocampo, a. c. (2022). brown and gay in la: the lives of immigrant sons. nyu press. in this intimate look at the intersection of race and ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, ocampo investigates the complicated definition of identity in los angeles. ocampo himself grew up a queer filipino american in a community largely defined by rigid structures of masculinity and gender roles. he speaks of the delicate balance walked by gay children of immigrants like himself as they traverse their own communities and white spaces. life is further complicated by social stigma and the weight of expectations as a member of multiple “othered” groups. reang, p. (2022). ma and me: a memoir. mcd. in this poetic memoir, reang weaves a story of love, identity, and family. her trials range from her family’s escape from cambodia to her childhood struggles to live up to her mother’s expectations. ma’s dismissal engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 64 of reang’s sexuality further strains their relationship. in heartfelt and bittersweet prose, reang reflects on generational trauma and the intersection of individuality and duty to family. su, p. h. (2022). the border within: vietnamese migrants transforming ethnic nationalism in berlin. stanford university press. su investigates a community often overlooked in the study of the cold war: communities of vietnamese immigrants who settled on both sides of the berlin wall. she describes the political turmoil immigrants left behind in vietnam, and the physical border between east and west berlin that met them in germany. though seen as a single homogenous group by contemporary sources, su argues the newcomers created social divisions within their own communities. she examines the social role of borders and unity, and the malleable concepts of ethnicity and identity. touloui-semnani, n. (2022). they said they wanted revolution: a memoir of my parents. little a. touloui-semnani weaves personal life and politics as she tells the story of her family’s action in iran. when her parents took part in the iranian revolution of 1979, she was just a child; fleeing with her mother to america, touloui-semnani grew up grappling with the fallout of revolution. consulting primary sources and family memory, she comes to terms with her identity as a child of refugees and revolutionaries, and the personal cost of political change. for young adults & kids adewumi, t. (2020). tani’s new home: a refugee finds hope & kindness in america. thomas nelson. tani adewumi’s family had a life, a home, and a successful printing press in nigeria—until, suddenly, they didn’t. when boko haram took power in nigeria, tani and his family were forced to flee the country. they arrived in new york city, homeless and seeking asylum. young tani found hope in an unlikely place: chess. in just a few months, he went from practicing chess in a homeless shelter to winning the new york state chess championship. in this touching memoir, tani reminds us we can find hope and community even in the most difficult circumstances. bui, t. (2017). the best we could do: an illustrated memoir. abrams comicarts. bui’s memoir of love and sacrifice spans generations. she tells the story of her family’s struggle to escape from south vietnam in the 1970s, illustrating their difficult journey in this heart-wrenching graphic novel. bui explores the way that times of struggle and uncertainty can blur identity and familial roles in ways that can go unnoticed and misunderstood for years. in a time of travel bans and an increasingly hostile environment toward immigrants, bui’s experience is timelier than ever. morales, y. (2018). dreamers. neal porter books. in this heartfelt picture book, morales writes and illustrates her own story of coming to america with her infant son. she tells a powerful story of hope and strength in the face of uncertainty. readers of all ages can connect to the story of mother and son dreaming of a better life, remaining resilient in the face of soaring boundaries, and finding strength in each other. takei, g. (2019). they called us enemy. top shelf productions. in a frenzy of xenophobia and paranoia in the midst of world war ii, americans targeted japanese americans. by order of president roosevelt, authorities rounded up japanese americans along the west coast—whether children of immigrants or immigrants themselves—and interned them in so-called "relocation centers.” takei shares his family’s experience in these internment camps through the eyes of a child; he was just five years old at the time of his family’s forced relocation. in this chilling r e a | a n n o t a t e d b i b l i o g r a p h y 65 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 r e a | a n n o t a t e d b i b l i o g r a p h y and timely graphic novel, takei urges us to remember and reckon with this shameful chapter of america’s history. vega, s. r. (2023). drawing deportation: art and resistance among immigrant children. nyu press. in this unique insight into the circumstances of immigrants at the u.s.-mexico border, vega gathers interviews with families and the artwork of immigrant children. the unfiltered reality offered by the images puts a personal face to a policy issue, reminding readers of the human cost of the immigration debate. narratives often dehumanize immigrants and remove their agency; vega argues this treatment applies doubly so to children. by elevating their stories and listening to their hopes for the future, vega offers a study of our current circumstances through the eyes of the children living it, and suggestions for how we might move forward. yang, k. k. (2020). the most beautiful thing. carolrhoda books. in this picture book, suitable for k-3rd grade readers, yang uses her childhood experience as a hmong refugee to tell a story of beauty and identity. young kalia’s family is full of love but faces financial difficulties as they adjust to their new minnesota home. kalia struggles with wanting more and turns to her grandmother for help. speaking across generations and across the world, from laos to minnesota, her grandmother tells kalia the most beautiful thing is found within ourselves and within those we love. engage! vol. 5, no. 3 23 paper 8 using first-year students to harness data karen y. s. banks senior lecturer kelley school of business indiana university bloomington banks | first-year students data is a crucial asset for every business or organization, but the ability to effectively manage it varies widely. some organizations rely on volunteers to manually input and summarize data, while others may not collect or utilize data due to lack of skilled personnel, causing them to miss out on opportunities to showcase their achievements. organizations need assistance in addressing their data challenges, while students require access to real-world data to develop their skills. engaging in community projects provides students with valuable practice, skills, and knowledge necessary for internships or jobs. data systems often operate behind the scenes. for example, when customers purchase items at target, they are unaware that the transactional database manages that data. information systems enable organizations to gather, store, analyze, and distribute data. local governments and non-profits need help with simple data projects due to a lack of knowledge of what is possible and a lack of data skills. simple tasks of collecting, cleansing, organizing, structuring, and summarizing data, and producing reports and charts are valuable skills for students and essential data needs for local governments and non-profit organizations. can first-year students with little to no business or data experience provide value to community projects? yes, they can, and they do. at the kelley school of business, the bus-k 204 honors class students spend the first part of the semester learning about data and information systems. towards the end of the semester, the students watch a video of a client interview and then have a video meeting with the client to understand their needs. following this, the students work in teams to complete a series of assignments to create an information system. while the client may share some actual data with the students, they also learn how to create mock data to demonstrate the system to the client. “local governments and non-profits need help with simple data projects due to a lack of knowledge of what is possible and a lack of data skills.” with approximately 400 students working in teams of six, a power automate system was developed to allow students to ask the client questions indirectly. all students can view the questions and the client's responses. this system prevents students from overwhelming the client by directly contacting them, while still enabling them to ask questions. at the end of the semester, the client can choose to implement a system created by the students. faculty members are responsible for making any necessary updates to the system, importing the client's actual data, and ensuring that the system is operational for the client. the faculty answer clients' questions and solve problems for one year. iu health hospice needed a system to help manage volunteer visits to their clients. volunteers would travel to a client's home, spend time with them, engage in activities, and provide the caregivers with a break. for each visit, specific data needed to be recorded, including the volunteer's mileage, visit duration, covid-related information, activities during the visit, and general information about the client's mental health. volunteers used to submit this information verbally, through email, or in a word document, which required additional effort to retype and summarize the data for reporting purposes. first-year students worked in teams of six to create a system where volunteers could input the required information using microsoft forms on their phones or computers. the iu hospice manager would then download that data in an excel file and import it into a database with the click of a button. another button could be pressed to generate a report summarizing volunteer visits by quarter or year. when onboarding a new volunteer, the manager could use a form to input their information, and another button could be pressed to create a report summarizing all volunteers. first-year students should participate in service learning because it allows them to work with real data, understand organizational challenges, and apply their new skills and knowledge. students can complete competencies based on the national association of colleges and employers (nace) career readiness goals such as: · professionally advocate for oneself and others. · employ active listening, persuasion, and influencing skills. · make decisions and solve problems using sound, inclusive reasoning and judgement. · keep an open mind to diverse ideas and new ways of thinking. · motivate and inspire others by encouraging them and by building mutual trust. · be present and prepared. · collaborate with others to achieve common goals. paper 8 24 “first-year students should participate in service learning because it allows them to work with real data, understand organizational challenges, and apply their new skills and knowledge.” the regular class k201, "the computer in business" class, could benefit by working part of the project. banks | first-year students this experience helps students identify gaps in their knowledge while also motivating them by showing that their work has a real-world impact. by creating systems for clients, students can see the tangible benefits of their efforts, beyond just receiving a grade. additionally, working in teams allows students to connect with their peers and make long-term friends, while also learning the importance of communication and documentation in collaborative work for the smooth functioning of their team. paper 8 25 banks | first-year students 22engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s f e r n a n d e z | w e b u i l d t o g e t h e r t h e s p a c e s i clench the handles of my suitcases as my mother’s fingers tuck the hair behind my ear. tears start to well up in my eyes. “te amo dianita.” before i knew it, i hugged goodbye [to] all our nights dancing in the living room, the chocolate she made lukewarm ‘cause she knows i do not like it piping hot, and our loud laughter after a really good joke. i have been living in indianapolis for over a year now, pursuing the education i had always dreamed of and worked so hard for. i am a “legal” alien on an f1 visa. i am a “guest.” and i have never felt as lonely, as desperate, and as pained as i have here. when you think of indianapolis and the people that are in it, odds are you probably think white. i know i did. my pwi [predominantly white institution] school did not help. i felt vulnerable. i am brown. i have an accent. i am queer. i am not from around here. i have been more-often-than-not the only person of color in my classes, let alone the only person coming from another country. at times i have not understood the words going on around me, or the tone of them, or the phrasing, even though i had always considered myself bilingual. sometimes, i have stumbled on my words because the right word i am looking for in english only exists in spanish or quechua. i have missed hugging people just for the sake of hugging people and talking to the person in line next to me just for the sake of talking to people. immigrating to another country is renouncing a part of who you were and constantly battling to discover and rediscover the place you occupy in this new environment. there are conflicting voices. those of your loved ones repeating that you belong and those of the systems in place that treat you like a threat and an unwanted presence in this country. i have been questioned on my intentions by every officer i have encountered. unfortunately, officers at entrance ports are not the only ones questioning my intentions. uber drivers are a close second. we build together the spaces we end up calling home author diana fernandez, butler university vo l . 5, i s s u e 123 f e r n a n d e z | w e b u i l d t o g e t h e r t h e s p a c e s “if you are a student here, then why do you speak like that?” this country was occupied by immigrants in its foundations, but this country was not built for immigrants that are not white. in the words of victory sampson, a first-generation nigerian american and a freshman at butler university, the atrocity is that it never occurs in their thought process that people were going to come to the u.s. with different colors. this was not intended to be a land for all, and the systems put in place reflect it. immigration enforcement has gotten 333 billion dollars since the early 2000s. ice is set to receive more funding this year — even when they have committed crimes such as racial profiling and apprehending people without probable cause. allowing you into my own nightmare, i have been stopped in an airport and put in a room with people that have my skin color and speak my language simply because i was brown. i have been stopped even when i had all the paperwork to [show] proof [of] my “lawful” intentions in this country. seconds became hours and all i could do was pray that somehow someone would take pity on me and let me leave. from all the horrible things i witnessed, i want to share with you one of them. the officer called a man to review his case. he questioned him in spanish “qué es lo que realmente estas haciendo aquí?” what are you really doing here? the man answered by saying he had been hired for a job. “no tiene sentido. por qué te darian el trabajo a ti, cuando hay miles de americanos ciudadanos de estados unidos que podrían hacerlo?” that does not make any sense, why would anyone hire you when there are thousands of americans, citizens of the united states, that could do the same? the man did not answer. “y si trabajarás aquí, por que no hablas ingles?” and if you are supposed to work here, why can you not speak english? before the man could reply, the officer called three of his colleagues who were on their break. “look at this guy. he is trying to fool me! he doesn’t know that i send people like him back all the time.” the officers laughed. the man they were questioning did not speak english. he had a contract in his hand, his boss’s [telephone] number as a reference, and had been respectful. yet, they were there making fun of him in a language he did not speak. they had deemed him incapable of performing a job, deemed him worthless, with no information other than his name and demographics. and they were doing so while eating snacks. as if somehow the man was their form of entertainment. i held my tears for five long hours and fell down to the floor, incapable of moving, after i got out. but, i got out of that room. not everyone does. immigrants and their children are treated as non-human in the united states. i talked to two of my friends, both children of immigrants, about their experiences. jazlyn khan is deisi and white. although jazlyn holds an american passport and was born here, she has also been treated as the other. “the biggest issue that affects my family is the ability to be here and visit family members,” she said. 24engage! | st u d e n t vo i c e s f e r n a n d e z | w e b u i l d t o g e t h e r t h e s p a c e s aside from policy limitations that exist to prevent immigrants from going back home and coming back, there are constantly people trying to target them. “when the trump ban was occurring, it was a big concern if we could visit pakistan,” jazlyn said and then proceeded to explain that when she tried to get her visa for pakistan, her family was asked to go physically to an office for “special review.” jazlyn was only travelling with her father but had all the permissions from her mother in order. her family had to travel to chicago, because there was no office in indianapolis, and wait hours only so that the officers could see her white mother and confirm she consented to jazlyn’s travelling plans. “the only reason mine took longer is because i am mixed, and not only was that discriminatory against my dad, it was inefficient because you could have gotten the same thing from a phone call.” and even when jazlyn gets to travel, she has always been stopped to check her luggage in airports, once triggering an alarm because of colored pencils. you read that right, a box of colored pencils. random checks are not always random. the sentiment of othering run deeps in the united states. when i talked to victory, he said that “if [his] mom had decided to emigrate to london, still a very white place, instead of the united states, [him] being nigerian would not have been seen as shocking to others.” and while it may make some uncomfortable, we are still here. i will eternally be grateful for hanako gavia and ms. bobbie gibson. they heard me when the world was falling apart and lent me their shoulder to rely on. hanako, thank you for showing me indianapolis is more than just a white population in the middle of cornfields. thank you for taking me to events and places that celebrated diversity, that celebrated people from all over the world, and that immediately treated me like one of their own. meeting you changed my life here. i want to use this space that has been given to me to talk about the power of community and i want to explicitly tell you reading this that indianapolis is a place of immigrants of all colors. i feel it every time i go to [the] global village and see the artifacts from all over the world people have lent for others to see. i feel it in the immigrant welcome center and the stories that all the attendees share. i feel it when i go to delight in cuisines, other than mine, around indianapolis. and while i advocate for the dismantling of oppressive systems and institutions such as ice, i stand with my community and ask you to stand with us. there are so many resources and places in the city that will love us unconditionally. visibilize them! we are your neighbors and we make your city brighter. vote for people that stand with us. talk to us. we build together the spaces we end up calling home. engage! vol. 5, no. 3 janke | unconference planning 30 paper 9 while this segment is typically reserved for students, as a recent graduate and future law student, i believe that my proximity to student life offers a valuable perspective. i joined the center for rural engagement as the team's administrative project manager just days after my graduation in may 2023. it wasn't long before i heard of the looming "unconference" event that i would help plan. initially, i was quite skeptical of the idea. in true gen-z fashion, i am used to relying on email, zoom, and other forms of internet connection to bridge gaps. much of my university experience, including my first day of freshman year, was spent in a zoom classroom. before too long, however, i began to see the need for an unconference. the breadth and reach of indiana university is part of its beauty, but it can be overly byzantine, too. local campuses can feel disconnected and sometimes even rivalrous. there is a lack of a sense of unity and connectedness between campuses, units, departments, and even titles. as a student, i was hardly cognizant of my fellow iu peers outside of bloomington. some departments and programs do a far better job at ensuring connection between geographic campuses, but overall, iu is lacking in this area. as a professional staff member, there can feel like an invisible wall between faculty and staff. at the unconference, all bets are off. from the very first planning stages, there is no hierarchy of importance, no pecking order. of course, the experience that comes with time and achievement cannot and should not be ignored, but the unconference celebrates the expertise and importance of each member regardless of title. looking around the room filled wall-to-wall with university members from many different walks of life, it was incredible to see the diversity of conversation and input. watching folks from different campuses compare their experiences brought shared struggles to light, and interdisciplinary conversations led to some very creative ideas, including concocting a rich metaphor likening the unconference work to dating. annalise janke administrative project manager, center on rural engagement indiana university bloomington speaking up and speaking out: unconference planning paper 9 aside from the brilliant conversations that arose naturally from unconference attendees, the programming of the event tackled difficult issues in a way i admired. susan sciame-giesecke spoke on her prior experience leading a regional campus. she addressed the struggles and the strengths of regional campuses with refreshing honesty. dr. sciame-giesecke also spoke on the power that each of us have to impact the incredibly bureaucratic system that we exist within at iu in a way that encouraged and inspired the audience. phaedra corso discussed research at iu, which resulted in a passionate discussion on iu's blind spot toward community engaged research and a need for true change, communication, and transparency. i left the unconference feeling refreshed and energized, which i believe should be the goal of every conference event. watching my colleagues connect, ideate, and advance their positions inspires me to do the same. while i am not actively engaging in community based research or directly working in communities, i support a team of incredible people who do, and in my future legal career, communityengaged work is of the utmost importance to me. i am grateful for the space the unconference created for folks to connect without the barrier of a screen. the laughter and stories shared at the in-person sessions cultivated a familiarity that enriched the traditional zoom meetings that continued on the next week. now more than ever, it is important for us to create spaces to connect across silos in person and online. i am thankful to have been a part of the unconference, and i'm excited to begin working on its next iteration—the statewide indiana university community engaged institute. watching folks from different campuses compare their experiences brought shared struggles to light, and interdisciplinary conversations led to some very creative ideas, including concocting a rich metaphor likening the unconference work to dating. 31 janke | unconference planning t the cardboard signs held by a man or woman as they stand on the side of the street often read "hungry, please help;” “veteran"; "homeless-will work." lining a sidewalk in a major city, sometimes covering blocks, are tents holding valued possessions of the residents. across the nation and around the world millions of people from diverse cultural backgrounds, are living through unplanned homelessness and unsheltered conditions. at times, their lives in these settings are endured for a short term, but for far too many the time goes on for months, turning into years. in the spirit of recognizing the broad field of housing and the unhoused, sheltering and the unsheltered; funding mechanisms for residences; biases and prejudices against the other; policies and regulations, this issue of engage! will be the first of two. our intent is to raise the voices of social workers and students; of administrators and the challenges they face in providing programs. naming some of the critical failings of the largest building sector of the u.s., home construction, the contributors to this issue present extant data-filled reports; share personal narratives; use quantitative and qualitative methods; reflect on city, state, and national trends. structural factors leading to inaccessibility and discrimination confronted by gender-expansive people are described by daniel soucy. after describing the gaps in emergency housing services soucy draws our attention to the experiences of lgbtq+ gender-expansive youth and the damaging effects of harassment, discrimination, and bullying they experience. caitlin mello examines the policies affecting social work licensure and the effects of the shortage of social workers on homelessness. the brief proposes the expansion of state-level legislation; the possible elimination of a social work licensure exam; and the expansion of licensing to non-degree holders. one idea is that the workforce supporting homelessness services can be changed to reflect the population being served. interviewed for this issue, mary provence shares how, at a very early age, the ethic of caring and the desire w h e n c a r i n g j u s t d o e s n ' t c u t i t to become a social worker and researcher was developed through family travels; unsolicited reading material about her future career, and interacting with community-based organizations. she tells of the many barriers blocking and preventing much needed support structures for unsheltered people. her lived experiences provide insight into what advocates can do to humanize agencies. in collaboration with a community based, non-profit organization working to address the issues and context of homelessness in a college town, josie mcquillan and rachel downey shed light on the specific barriers that prevent unsheltered individuals from securing stable housing. the authors narrow their focus to the lives of “hoosiers” in bloomington, indiana. in the student voices section, “speaking up and speaking out,” h. jad rea a mlis student in the iu luddy school, soundly pronounces homelessness as ‘systemic cruelty’ while offering some approaches that make a difference in the lives of unsheltered million. in addition, mahasin ameen and h. rhea jad contribute an extensive compilation of homelessness and housing organizational profiles to serve as accessible resources for readers. many resources are available throughout this issue. for example, below are links to a newly launched data base (december 2023) produced by savi a research center of the polis center at indiana university. the database provides useful information about the ongoing efforts to address the challenges of evictions, high costs of housing, policies, and practices of realtors. the causes of evictions may best be described, according to the web site, as a ‘synergy’ of rising rent costs, poverty and low wages, inflation, drug and mental health challenges, citizens living paycheck to paycheck, common life occurrences like unexpected bills and the reduction of work hours. the dashboard features many resources for tenants, researchers, and stakeholders. “the goal of the tool is to raise awareness of evictions in indiana and provide a resource to empower communities to instill change; users can explore trends of evictions and foreclosures; examine important associations between socioeconomic variables and evictions data; and take the opportunity to provide anonymous stories of their engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 4 e d i t o r i a l eviction experience on a qualitative data page.” empowering indiana communities with evictions & foreclosure data savi (https://www.savi.org/empowering-indiana-communitieswith-evictions-foreclosure-data/) another resource for information is the melville trust. for instance, researchers at the trust state there is evidence that homelessness impacts some communities more than others. black americans make up 13% of the us population but account for 40% of all people living without a home. landlords file evictions against black renters at nearly double the rate of white renters. “homelessness is the result of economic, social, justice and housing systems that make quality housing a luxury, force chronically ill neighbors to sleep on sidewalks, and allow employers to pay wages that do not cover basic needs. the racial disparities we see in homelessness and housing instability are a result of deeply rooted inequities in systems like housing, jobs, and healthcare, which create multiple barriers for black, indigenous, and latino/a/x people to obtain quality education, maintain their health, make a living wage, and secure a decent home.” the issues data and insights melville charitable trust (https://melvilletrust.org/ourwork/the-issues/) the second issue of engage! will bridge these ideas to ones concerned with visioning the future. this country, its leaders in government and private industry, is not prepared to provide caring support, and housing for its aging, over 70 population as reported by the harvard joint center for housing studies, “over the next 10 years, the us population over the age of 75 will increase by 45%, from 17 million to nearly 25 million. the growth is widespread, across urban, suburban, and rural communities, and the sharpest among baby boomers who will begin entering their 80s in this decade.” harvard joint center for housing studies | joint center for housing studies (https://www. jchs.harvard.edu/) the issues are compounded according to the report, by widening income gaps, inequalities by race and ethnicity, home equity, and housing ownership wealth. “older renter households are more likely to be headed by people of color.” housing america's older adults 2023 (https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/ files/reports/files/harvard_jchs_housing_americas_older_adults_2023.pdf). who are the designers and planners generating creating responses to climate change that impact not only plants and animals but the homeless? and how will new ideas spark activism to address the state of housing in the future, a future that regards unsheltered refugees from famine and war? the national alliance to end homelessness conducted a nationwide survey of homeless services employees, to learn about agency staffing challenges; low salaries and financial difficulties; the effects on service delivery and the need for far more resources to meet the needs of all people experiencing homelessness.working-in-homelessservices-a-survey-of-the-field_12-5-23_final.pdf (https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ working-in-homeless-services-a-survey-of-thefield_12-5-23_final.pdf). moving forward, the plan for the second volume of engage! addressing homelessness is to reflect community engaged and community based participatory research with leaders of the movement for equity and change. 5 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 author benjamin j. clark iupui arts & humanities institute phd student in american studies, iupui school of liberal arts environmental racism in indianapolis the importance of connecting with community partners benjamin j. clark introduction “the lead in that soil we found came from an old lead factory that had been in the community. and when they closed, they poured their pollutants into the soil, into the ground, and then it went into the flood... i guess we could just say it went down into the drains, and the city on the streets, and then came back up into our system” (anonymous, interview by benjamin clark, 29 june 2020, transcript, iupui arts & humanities institute). a longtime resident of the martindale-brightwood neighborhood in indianapolis, an area predominantly populated by black residents for decades, spoke these words. the quote speaks to the disregard that some companies take toward the environment, especially in majority black spaces. the experience is but one example of countless black neighborhoods and communities across the u.s. being polluted by lead factories and other industrial activities (including dry cleaning 1, oil refineries, manufacturing, and waste disposal). at the heart of environmental racism is the simple question: why are black people disproportionately exposed to pollution in the places where they live? (aygeman, et al 2016; beliso-de jesus 2019; bullard 2001; bullard et al 2008; cole and foster 2001; dillon 2014; henderson and wells 2021; mohai et al 2009; nixon 2013; pellow 2016; pulido 2000; pulido 2015; pulido 2016; pulido 2017; sze 2008; turner 2016). the question is not new, but has not received enough governmental response when it comes to the experiences of residents in indianapolis. meaningful research on environmental racism in indianapolis has happened but there is much more to be done (see fuller 2015). community-engaged research, grounded in the humanities and social sciences and rooted in ethnographic methods, can provide 21 c l a r k | e n v i r o n m e n t a l r a c i s m 1 https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4d28f320d66e4a449b2bca01e2491b9b 2 visit https://anthropocenes.org/ to learn more about these projects. important insights into how environmental racism impacts neighborhoods and communities. i am working on a project called the anthropocene household as part of a team of scholars doing community-engaged research at the iupui arts & humanities institute (ahi)2. the anthropocene household explores the current geological epoch, the age of humans, on a local level through the lens of the household in order to understand the experiences, knowledges, and practices associated with environmental change (angus 2016; mcneill 2014; moore 2017). in my research, i look at the experiences and understandings specifically related to environmental racism. in this paper i explore two different examples of environmental racism in indianapolis. one illustrates how white privilege creates environmental racism and the other shows the impact of white supremacy in shaping government response to environmental racism. both examples demonstrate the value in foregrounding voices and experiences of the people who live in impacted communities. community-engaged scholarship brings peoples’ stories and lived experiences to the forefront. we cannot develop meaningful interventions into environmental racism without understanding the lived experiences and creating space to hear these voices. a critical element in effective community-engaged scholarship begins with establishing working relationships with community partners. there is a wealth of community knowledge wrought by personal experiences and connecting to community partners means that as researchers we seek to tap into this knowledge. the iupui iahi and anthropocene household project partners with two organizations based in indianapolis. groundwork indy (gwi)3, part of a larger national network of groundwork organizations and based in the riverside neighborhood, where a groundwater contamination site is located and where lead contamination hotspots are known to exist; gwi assists ahi in distributing free lead testing kits to residents and with recruiting participants in focus groups. the ahi has also developed a partnership with local religious leaders called the indianapolis ministerium. through the ministerium we have developed a network for distribution of the free lead testing kits. the anonymous results are returned to the household with information about levels of lead in the soil, dust, and water. if unsafe levels are found, the information includes no or low-cost suggestions to reduce risk to their families. in addition, we are working with gwi to conduct focus groups with residents to deepen our understanding of how they define and understand their environment in the context of environmental racism. white priviledge and environmental racism “as the child's brain is being developed, they say by the third grade the brain has a hard structure around it, but while it doesn't have a hard structure, lead can get into it. lead, they say, the body thinks lead is milk or calcium so it absorbs it into the brain and it causes damage to you. it shuts it down in certain areas.” (anonymous, interview by benjamin clark, 21 april 2020, transcript, iupui ahi). one of the most common and least apparent pollutants is lead, which is found in many places in everyday environments. house paint and water pipes are what most people think of when they hear about lead contamination, but a more 22engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s c l a r k | e n v i r o n m e n t a l r a c i s m vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 3 https://www.groundworkindy.org/ 4 https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/health-effects.htm 5 https://www.mapmyenvironment.com/ common and troublesome source is lead in the soil around people’s homes. the lead found in soil can easily make its way into people’s bodies when they play in the yard, plant a garden, eat produce from the garden, or from dirt on their shoes that is tracked into the house. sometimes the lead comes from a nearby lead refinery, or it got there from particles in leaded fuel exhaust. often, neighborhoods with the highest concentrations are ones redlined and subsequently bisected by the interstate system. the presence of lead refineries and interstates are often found in predominantly black neighborhoods (hentz, filippelli, et al. 2018, 1). many of these historical factors contribute to the state of spatial inequities we see in cities across the u.s. (see ryan 2021). this first example points to the sort of environmental racism that laura pulido blames on white privilege, or the social and spatial mobility of white people and the social and spatial immobility of blacks (pulido 2015, 2-6). the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc) says there is no level of safe lead exposure for children. children exposed to lead may experience brain and nervous system damage, developmental delays, learning challenges, behavioral issues, and hearing loss. the effects of lead exposure remain long after removal from a child’s environment. lead can linger in a person’s body and cause long-term health problems. children are not the only ones at risk, either. adults with lead exposure and poisoning can cause high blood pressure, kidney damage, brain damage, miscarriage, and infertility. 4 exposure to lead is both a public health crisis and an issue of environmental racism. unfortunately, many people are simply unaware of the presence of lead in their environments and the dangers posed by long-term exposure. dr. gabriel filippelli has done extensive research locally and globally into something he calls the “urban lead exposome.” an exposome is the total environmental exposures a person has over a lifetime. filippelli and his research team lead an ongoing project to map urban lead exposome. they make his findings available to the public as part of a citizen-science project.5 filippelli has worked with indianapolis' kheprw institute and residents from riverside to gather soil samples from homes and yards. the value of doing citizenscience is that it gathers data on a scale that would otherwise not be possible for an individual researcher and it puts power in the hands of the residents (filippelli 2018, 9). filippelli explains that a high lead level in the environment is typically identified through human disease rather than proactive environmental testing. this, he says, is “a harmful and backwards approach to protecting public health” (filippelli 2018, 1). lead hotspots usually are identified from a cluster of children with high blood lead levels. community citizen-science shows the value and effectiveness of testing for the presence of lead before a child children exposed to lead may experience brain and nervous system damage, developmental delays, learning challenges, behavioral issues, and hearing loss. the effects of lead exposure remain long after removal from a child’s environment. 23 exhibits obvious signs of lead poisoning. “social, health, and economic cost of [lead] exposure from urban soils is steep—far greater than the cost of targeted remediation of soil [lead] hotspots” (filippelli 2018, 1). the iupui ahi, as community-engaged scholarship, designed a user-friendly lead testing kit to empower households to test their homes for the presence of lead in the water, soil, and dust.6 the results will be sent directly to residents so they can have information to make decisions about how best to address issues the results reveal without fear of recrimination or fines by the government. the goal is to provide the information they need to understand the environment where they live and what actions to take to protect themselves and their loved ones. in the indianapolis neighborhood of martindalebrightwood, the social justice fight over lead contamination was successfully waged by community. neighbors came together to form a collaborative to make their concerns heard by local officials, and resulted in the area being designated a superfund site. from the 1940-60s, the american lead corporation, a lead smelting operation in the area, left behind pollution for the residents. the environmental protection agency (epa) and indiana department of environmental management (idem) worked together to remediate the pollution, but this time the epa took the lead. thus far, lead-contaminated soil has been removed and replaced with clean soil at more than 100 residential sites. the cleanup process is not complete, but remains ongoing (fuller 2015).7 in an anthropocene household oral history interview with a martindale-brightwood resident and one of the leaders of the environmental justice collaborative effort said: “...we found that based on that a lot of people in this neighborhood did gardening. and after we began to look into it a little more and developed a community concern for it, which was our martindale-brightwood environmental justice collaborative. we got grants, we did a lot of studies and found out that the soil was not one in which people who didn't know had put gardens in and that kind of thing. so we did a lot of training, got a lot of information, had help from... well, the epa had to come out and remediate the yards and put new soil into some of the people's yards. so there were a lot of things that have gone on here since i've been here.” (anonymous, interview by benjamin clark, 29 june 2020, transcript, iupui ahi.) the interviewee raised her children in this neighborhood and, even years after her children had grown up and moved on, i could sense her parental anxiety as she spoke. entire lives were lived in this lead-polluted neighborhood. this resident still proudly calls martindale-brightwood her home and was courageous enough to mount what was, at times, a difficult effort to bring social and environmental justice to her neighborhood and community. black children tend to have higher blood lead levels than their white counterparts (waterhouse 2015, 99). historical factors, including the great migration and redlining, have led to neighborhoods with higher-than-average environmental lead levels to be home to majority black residents. what this points to within pulido’s theoretical framework is lead pollution as an issue of white privilege when it comes to environmental racism. white populations are able to choose and afford to live elsewhere; meanwhile black residents are socially and economically bound to neighborhoods that have historically been the site of heavy industry and lead smelting, 6 https://anthropocenes.org/lead 7 https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/siteprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0501643 24engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s c l a r k | e n v i r o n m e n t a l r a c i s m vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 as in martindale-brightwood in indianapolis (pulido 2015, 2-6; fuller 2015, 2-3). in one oral history interview for the anthropocene household project, the informant discussed concerns about exposure to lead that children experience at school through corroded pipes and outdated drinking fountains. another concern for this interviewee is the lead children are exposed to at home. a concern in particular is lead paint, but lead exposure at home also can come from soil, dust, and water. the main issue with all the lead exposure is long-term health effects, physical and behavioral. the interviewee described an experience he had while visiting a school that illustrated behavioral challenges caused by lead exposure: “there was a kindergarten teacher that was taking her students from the restroom into the class. there were about maybe twenty-five, twentysix students. there was this small little girl, kindergarten, she was just having a fit. we said, let's go help the teacher. the teacher was able to take the other students in, but the little girl was sliding down the wall... when we approached her, i noticed something yellow in her mouth. ‘what's that in your mouth?’ she was picking the paint off the wall and eating it. i knew that just from other lead issues and workshops that it causes, if your blood elevation is high, not only brain damage, but your ability to handle your emotions. there are anger issues, comprehension issues, and some issues can become irreversible as the child grows” (anonymous, interview by benjamin clark, 21 april 2020, transcript, iupui ahi). this informant has worked with the local branch of the naacp and its efforts to raise awareness and take action surrounding lead pollution and exposure in schools and homes—what had him in the school in the first place—but he relayed the story of the young girl “having a fit” and eating paint because he felt it showed the risks and problems children face from lead exposure. without governments and corporations funding large-scale cleanup efforts or dramatic policy shifts at all levels, citizens will have to take matters into their own hands to protect their health and wellbeing. as with most public problems, until institutions catch up and reinvent practices and structures embedded in institutional racism, it is important that community members are empowered with good information and the ability to safely self-advocate. white supremacy and environmental racism in february 2013 citizens energy, a public charitable trust that manages drinking water and other utilities for indianapolis, notified idem about contaminated groundwater (aquifer and wells) in riverside, a near northwest side neighborhood. idem notified the epa and began evaluating the site for the national priorities list to trigger the superfund process.8 superfund is money established to fund long-term expensive projects, and here refers to paying for the cleanup of toxic pollution sites. (the site became known as the riverside contaminated groundwater site later labeled site 0153). according to public documents from idem9, it took more than a year to do a site visit to this place known to have contaminated groundwater. in may 2014, idem finally visited the area to take water samples. by this time the wells and aquifer10 were offline and not contributing to the water coming out of people’s pipes. however, the dangerous chemicals were still present in the ground. evidence suggests the water was contaminated by decades 25 8 https://www.in.gov/idem/cleanups/sites-of-special-interest/site-0153-ground-water-contamination-site/ 9 https://www.in.gov/idem/cleanups/sites-of-special-interest/site-0153-ground-water-contamination-site/site-0153-potential-responsible-party-prp/ 10 https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4d28f320d66e4a449b2bca01e2491b9b of commercial and industrial chemicals seepage into the soil and aquifer and proximity to the polluted white river with its problems related to combined sewer overflow. not coincidentally, this section of the city has been predominantly low income, working class, black residents for decades. “they tried to convince us the whole time, ‘your drinking water is safe. this isn't the case of flint, michigan. blah, blah, blah.’ i'm like, ‘i'm not stupid. i understand that citizens energy is gonna make sure the drinking water is safe, but what about everybody in the neighborhood that has basements. what about these chemicals leaching into the ground and vapor intrusion in the people's basements? how long has this been going on? do they need treatment now? have you tested anybody's basements?’” (anonymous, interview by abbey chambers, 25 july 2018, transcript, iupui ahi). the riverside resident provides a clear window into the challenge posed by site 0153. the city, state, property, and business owners on the one hand and the residents of riverside on the other, and tension over how best to resolve the groundwater contamination. this interviewee had deep concerns that residents were not being told the complete story and that the extent of the problem and potential threats to health and safety were papered over. site 0153 illustrates the white supremacy in environmental racism wrought by governmental indifference, favoring private interests over public good, government agencies hamstrung by lack of funding and toothless public policy, and a lack of enforcement of environmental policies, or any sense of urgency. white supremacy describes the kind of environmental racism that creates differential protection and unequal enforcement of public policy. environmental injustice is readily apparent in the dangers posed to blacks by corporations and governments collaborating to maintain regulatory noncompliance. even with laws and regulations in place, governments let corporations off the hook when adhering to regulations in any meaningful way (pulido 2015, 1-6; melamed 2015; pellow 2016; rodgers and o’neill 2012; rosa and diaz 2019; sampson and winter 2016; turner 2016; waterhouse 2016). public debate focused whether to label site 0153 a superfund site and allow the epa to fund and manage the mitigation project or to have idem take over clean-up efforts. property owners feared the superfund label would hurt property values, so community leadership (mostly in the form of the riverside civic league), 16 tech “urban innovation district,11” with federal and state authorities decided to hand the project over to idem. the resident quote speaks to the unease and distrust that riverside residents had of idem. what site 0153 offers in understanding white supremacy and environmental racism is how it provides a glimpse into various responses from community members as the story folds. residents have a sense of connection and attachment to their neighborhood, even if they do not have a financial investment other than paying rent. statements and public comments below are found on epa’s website for the riverside groundwater contamination site. 12 this website’s public comments are part of the remediation process for superfund sites. from the comments one can sense tension between opposing sides of the argument over the superfund label and ultimately 11 16 tech is a $360 million plan for redevelopment of 60 acres of land within the site 0153 project boundary into 100,000 square feet of research and office space. 12 https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/siteprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.scs&id=0510936&doc=y&colid=33747&region=05&type=sc 26engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s vo l . 3 i s s u e 1 the most efficacious resolution. the quotes illustrate priorities of the person or organization. from 16 tech: “the riverside neighborhood in which 16 tech will be located, along with several other surrounding neighborhoods, welcomes this development and played an instrumental role in 16 tech securing bond financing from the city of indianapolis and the city-county council last year.” (from indiana biosciences research institute and 16 tech community corporation to region 5 u.s. environmental protection agency, 5 september 2016). from the greater indianapolis naacp public statement: “the greater indianapolis naacp branch 3053 is actively working with local public officials, neighborhood residents, clergy and minority organizations in support of the local plan and the removal of the site from npl consideration… as the greater indianapolis naacp branch 3053 believes with continuous collaboration with the state, city of indianapolis and citizens energy group we are able to ensure safe drinking water. we look forward to ongoing investigations for remediation to correct potentially contaminated sites that could be contributing to the groundwater contamination” (chrystal ratcliffe, president, greater indianapolis naacp branch 3053, 7 september 2016). from the riverside civic league: “the riverside neighborhood is at the brink of rising from decades of disregard and we the residents cannot afford to go backwards by becoming a superfund site especially when the reported contaminants can be addressed by a local alternative plan that we help mold and would definitely oversee. once the community was notified, we came together to hear the voices, fears and concerns of our residents then immediately sought out answers so we could weigh the heaviness of this choice.” (peggy gamlin, president, riverside civic league, 12 september 2016). there are pages of public comments, many posted anonymously. to give a sense for public sentiment, i share a sampling of comments on superfund designation: “it would be wrong to designate this neighborhood as a superfund... the riverside neighborhood has been a victim of terrible disinvestment and redlining in the past. the neighborhood has been a great partner to the new 16 tech development occurring in the southern region of riverside. a listing on the npl would halt or end entirely that development and all the work that has been done to revitalize this neighborhood” (anonymous, 27 june 2016). “as a business owner in this area for thirty years, i believe it would be more destructive to the wellbeing of this neighborhood to designate this area as a superfund site than to allow for alternative means of resolution of the purported water contamination… the riverside neighborhood has seen limited to non-existent investment in the infrastructure or neighborhood amenities for decades. the neighborhood now has a potential investor with the new 16 tech development that has been proposed…” (anonymous, 25 august 2016) a comment from someone who just wants something to happen and does not support one remediation over another: “i am a homeowner in the nw area of indianapolis. i would truly appreciate clean water, clean fertile soil, to have my family be safe. i would like a remedy that does the poor and elderly people justice” (anonymous, 12 september 2016). likewise, residents and tenants deeply invested in the community who wanted the superfund label desired financial support from the federal government during the obama administration. residents were skeptical of idem’s leadership under governor pence and the agency’s willingness and ability to follow through on 27 c l a r k | e n v i r o n m e n t a l r a c i s m mitigation. it has been over eight years since epa and idem became aware of the problem and with little progress on contamination removal. public comments posted on the epa website that support superfund designation include: “i live at 14th and delaware and i am very concerned about the water quality in inner city indianapolis. i sincerely hope the epa will approve a superfund to help with this cleanup” (anonymous, 30 august 2016). “the community needs resources from the epa to test our own water. these resources might include financial resources for community organization and education. idem is not a trusted entity by any hoosier i have spoken with.” (anonymous, 30 august 2016). “after attending a presentation at the kheprw institute that included presentations by epa staff, and learning of the idem related to environmental cleanup (which is very poor), i strongly feel the epa should designate riverside as a superfund site. economic development is important, but the fundamental consideration must be the health of the people affected by the water supply. the number of people involved means this should be done correctly and as quickly as possible, and idem has a history that indicates it is not up to the job. please have the epa deal with this as a superfund site.” (anonymous, 31 august 2016). now offline the wells no longer contribute to the city’s water supply, but remaining concern is vapor intrusion since the chemicals remain in the environment. idem site 0153 updates suggest mitigation remains in the planning phase. they only recently identified the method they plan for cleanup efforts. anthropocene household oral history interview, riverside resident: “i do think a big push back from homeowners is the idea of stigma of a neighborhood leading to reducing property values and derailing the development plans and projects for the neighborhood. whereas i think that that was not the first lens we should use to make that decision, or at least have that decision made for the community by these institutional players who’re invested in a certain outcome… the priority was to protect the investment. and it was framed through this lens of local control and stigma that then leads to lowering property values… because nothing has changed about the environmental circumstances… with the fact that idem is doing the cleanup. but the properties are also becoming less and less affordable in the neighborhood, and are quickly rising beyond what i can afford and what others in the community can afford.” (anonymous, interview by benjamin clark, 23 september 2020, transcript, iupui ahi). having idem manage the cleanup, keeping it off the superfund list, would allow property values in this neighborhood to rise and could protect the investments of homeowners, businesses, and 16 tech. one resident described how idem initially made the call to have the epa come in and manage the cleanup but after getting pushback from the developers of an area “urban innovation district” had concerns about a superfund site. 28engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s “the issue is not about implicating any individuals, organizations, or agencies involved. the problem speaks to the structures in place through public policy that all but ensure the process of holding polluters accountable is difficult, time consuming, favoring polluters over the polluted.” vo l . 3, i s s u e 129 anthropocene household oral history interview, riverside resident: “i learned that the indiana department of environmental management is not only incompetent, but they're dirty. they're liars. they try to play the community for fools…” (anonymous, interview by abbey chambers, 25 july 2018, transcript, iupui ahi). distrust that their health and wellbeing are not being looked after, but rather the interests of property owners, business, and corporations invested in gentrification won. the resident explains how idem officials in a public meeting seemed to purposely misrepresent the presence of chemicals in the environment—not only the levels but also the types of chemicals—done in favor of development and gentrification, not to protect the health of residents. site 0153 has been stuck in a bureaucratic malaise for years. meanwhile, area low income, working class black residents live with dangerous levels of chemicals in their environment. citizens energy assures the community that the water is safe to drink. the water meets the standards set forth by the safe drinking water act. nevertheless, the chemicals remain in the environment where children and adults live every day. the issue is not about implicating any individuals, organizations, or agencies involved. the problem speaks to the structures in place through public policy that all but ensure the process of holding polluters accountable is difficult, time consuming, favoring polluters over the polluted, resulting in slow cleanup, ultimately rooted in systems of oppression from white supremacy (pulido 2015; pulido 2016; pulido 2017). an idem project manager asked in an anthropocene household oral history interview who he identified as his customers, his constituents, said: "customers would be environmental attorneys, environmental consultants, their clients, so oftentimes dry cleaner operators, property owners they're interested in redevelopment or cleanup of their property for redevelopment, industry companies that have operated there that have had releases of contamination that either need to clean it up under regulation or are seeking or desiring to get it cleaned up for business purposes, so those are the primary customers or clients or people that we deal with.” (anonymous, interview by abbey chambers and stacia murphy, 19 july 2018, transcript iupui ahi). he clearly states his customers are the polluters. what is absent is any acknowledgement or reference to the people who live in the polluted and contaminated neighborhoods. instead, he says that their customers did the polluting. as a state agency funded by tax dollars, something seems upside down in his response, but speaks to the ways that the structures of public policy fail to meaningfully improve environmental conditions of lower income black neighborhoods. anthropocene household oral history interview, riverside resident: “the way idem works, they don't have a lot of teeth to hold companies accountable. they tried to work with them and put them into a voluntary program, which again, there are long delays between steps and just hoping people do the right thing and trying to occasionally follow up with them.” (anonymous, interview by benjamin clark, 23 september 2020, transcript, iupui ahi). c l a r k | e n v i r o n m e n t a l r a c i s m white supremacy describes the kind of environmental racism that creates differential protection and unequal enforcement of public policy. 30 conclusion site 0153 is an example of regulatory noncompliance wrought by white supremacy that results in environmental racism. the processes move slowly and tend to favor private interests over public good. subtle and multifaceted processes contribute to this slowness and the power dynamics at play that certainly deserve deeper examination. what ends up happening is that lower income black and brown communities are forced to live in polluted environments while the bureaucratic processes play out to favor polluters over the polluted. what is challenging about identifying and calling out white supremacy is that it is so ingrained into our hegemonic white cultural milieu and can be difficult to detect. it can easily fly under the radar. that is the value of pulido’s theoretical framework as it allows us to illuminate the issues more clearly. the regulatory culture around noncompliance is “mutually constituted by the racial formation” (pulido 2015, 2). there are many ways to approach this issue of environmental racism. at the iupui arts & humanities institute and the anthropocene household project, we believe that doing community-engaged scholarship is helpful and meaningful for forming necessary interventions, co-creation of knowledge, and working with impacted citizens to understand and contribute to finding solutions. pulido explains that there is ample research that shows how “environmental hazards follow along racial lines but also many of the meta-processes… such as industrialization, urbanization, and capitalism, are racialized” (pulido 2018, 117). what is fundamentally important about pulido’s point is that the environmental hazards and meta-processes play a role in “determining who lives and who dies” (pulido 2018, 117). environmental racism is at the intersection of systemic racism, systemic poverty, and ecological devastation. if we want to achieve environmental justice, then we are going to have to recognize and call out acts of environmental racism in all its various forms [we're] hoping people do the right thing and trying to occasionally follow up with them.” (anonymous, interview by benjamin clark, 23 september 2020, transcript, iupui ahi). engage! | e n v i r o n m e n ta l j u st i c e c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e d r e a s e a r c h a r t i c l e s 31 vo l . 1 , i s s u e 2 references agyeman, julian, david schlosberg, luke craven, and caitlin matthews. “trends and directions in environmental justice: from inequity to everyday life, community, and just sustainabilities.” annual review of environment and resources 41, no. 1 (2016):321– 40. angus, ian. facing the anthropocene: fossil capitalism and the crisis of the earth system. new york: monthly review press, 2016. beliso-de jesus, a. m. a. j. p. "introduction: special section: anthropology of white supremacy." american anthropologist 122, no. 1 (2019): 65–75. bullard, robert d. "environmental justice in the 21st century: race still matters." phylon (1960-) 49, no. 3/4 (2001): 151-71. bullard, robert d., paul mohai, robin saha, and beverly wright. "toxic wastes and race at twenty: why race still matters after all of these years." environmental law 38, no. 2 (2008): 371-411. cole, luke w., and sheila r. foster. from the ground up: environmental racism and the rise of the environmental justice movement. first edition. new york: nyu press, 2001. dillon, lindsey. “race, waste, and space: brownfield redevelopment and environmental justice at the hunters point shipyard.” antipode 46, no. 5 (2014): 1205–21. filippelli, gabriel m., jessica adamic, deborah nichols, john shukle, and emeline frix. “mapping the urban lead exposome: a detailed analysis of soil metal concentrations at the household scale using citizen science.” international journal of environmental research and public health 15, no. 7 (2018). fuller, trevor. environmental justice and activism in indianapolis. lanham: lexington books, 2015. harvey, david. a brief history of neoliberalism. oxford: oxford university press, 2005. henderson, sheree and rebecca wells. “environmental racism and the contamination of black lives: a literature review.” journal of african american studies (2021). hentz, emily, gabriel filippelli, et al. “assessing lead exposure sources at the property scale in indianapolis.” proceedings of indiana university medical student program for research and scholarship, vol. 1, no. 1, 2018. mcneill, john robert, and peter engelke. the great acceleration: an environmental history of the anthropocene since 1945. cambridge, ma: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2014. melamed, jodi. "racial capitalism." critical ethnic studies 1, no. 1 (2015): 76-85. mohai, paul, david pellow, and j. timmons roberts. "environmental justice." annual review of environment and resources 34, no. 1 (2009): 405-30. moore, jason w. “the capitalocene, part i: on the nature and origins of our ecological crisis.” the journal of peasant studies, 44:3 (2017): 594-630. nixon, rob. slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. cambridge: harvard university press, 2013. pellow, david n. “towards a critical environmental justice studies: black lives matter as an environmental justice challenge.” du bois review: social science research on race 13, no. 2 (2016). perry, marc d. “who dat?.” city and society, vol. 27, no. 1 (2015): 92-114. pulido, laura. "rethinking environmental racism: white privilege and urban development in southern california." annals of the association of american geographers 90, no. 1 (2000): 12-40. ———. “geographies of race and ethnicity i: white supremacy vs white privilege in environmental racism research.” progress in human geography 39, no. 6 (2015): 809–17. ———. “geographies of race and ethnicity ii: environmental racism, racial capitalism and state-sanctioned violence.” progress in human geography 41, no. 4 (2017): 524–33. ———. 2016. “flint, environmental racism, and racial capitalism.” capitalism nature socialism, 27:3 (2016), 1-16. robbins, paul. political ecology: a critical introduction. malden, ma: blackwell pub., 2004. rodgers, dennis, and bruce o'neill. "introduction: infrastructural violence: introduction to the special issue." ethnography 13, no. 4 (2012): 401-12. rosa, jonathan and vanessa diaz. “raciontologies: rethinking anthropological accounts of institutional racism and enactments of white supremacy in the united states.” american anthropologist, vol. 122, no. 1 (2019): 120–132. ryan, jordan. “spatial inequities in indianapolis.” creative mornings. 10 may 2021. https:// creativemornings.com/talks/jordan-ryan/1. sampson, robert j., and alix s. winter. 2016. “the racial ecology of lead poisoning: toxic inequality in chicago neighborhoods, 1995-2013”. du bois review: social science research on race 13 (2):261-283. sze, julie and jonathan london. “environmental justice at the crossroads.” sociology compass vol. 2, no. 4 (2008): 1331–1354. turner, rita. “the slow poisoning of black bodies: a lesson in environmental racism and hidden violence.” meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 15, no. 1 (2016): 189–204. waterhouse, carlton m., and ravay smith. “the lingering life of lead pollution: an environmental justice challenge for indiana.” indiana law review 49 (2016): 99.. 31 vo l . 3, i s s u e 1 c l a r k | e n v i r o n m e n t a l r a c i s m engage! vol. 5, no. 3 bennion | menu of civics projects a menu-based approach to civic skill development and community engagement in courses across levels, modes, and disciplines elizabeth a. bennion chancellor’s professor of political science and director of community engagement indiana university south bend 16 paper 4 developing this generation's civic skills is vital to maintaining and strengthening the foundation of democracy. there is an urgent need to improve civic education and promote civic literacy, knowledge, and engagement among today's college students. this is something faculty can promote across the disciplines. meanwhile, higher education institutions are under rising pressure to increase the number and variety of online courses. accelerated by the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic, the issues of enrollment declines, budget cuts, financial pressures, and market demand are bolstering online course offerings at campuses across the country (hall 2023). what does this mean for civic literacy and skill development? can civic literacy, skills, and engagement be promoted in 100% online courses? and how can face-to-face and online courses incorporate civic skills training without sacrificing necessary class time or content required by departments or accrediting bodies? is there a quick and easy way to introduce students in all disciplines and course levels to the core civic skills they will require after graduation? i argue that the answer is yes! this brief essay explains how a menu-based approach to civic literacy offers opportunities for student civic engagement in their communities – and from the convenience of their homes. while community-based learning advocates recognize the many advantages of well-designed, reciprocal, long-term partnerships that benefit student learners and community partners, there is some evidence that online learning can facilitate, rather than inhibit, community-engaged pedagogies (guthrie & mccracken, 2012; purcell, 2017). indeed, one study concluded that "e-service-learning—the marriage of online learning and servicelearning—holds the potential to transform both endeavors by freeing service-learning from geographical constraints and by equipping online learning with a tool to promote engagement" (waldner et al., 2012, p. 145). i offer such an approach to students taking political science courses at iu south bend. it is an approach that can be used in other courses across the disciplines with students across the state and nation. i adopted and adapted a model pioneered by political scientist judithanne mclauchlan (mclauchlan 2019) to include more online-only assignment options during the covid-19 pandemic and continue incorporating both online and in-person civic action projects in my courses. in addition to audio/video lectures, readings, films, and multimedia materials reinforced through worksheets, quizzes, and discussion forums, i also require a series of hands-on civic engagement activities for all students. students can deepen their understanding of american government, politics, and political culture by completing a series of civics assignments and writing short reflection papers. in these papers, students describe what they did for their project, and what they learned about politics, the community, and themselves, as well as how the project may influence their future behavior. the reports can be very brief (1-4 pages) and can require students to relate what they learned from the experience to the material covered in lectures and in the assigned readings. an instructor may also require that students participate in discussion boards using the campus learning management system (e.g., canvas) to post about their civics projects and respond to others. students can be asked to complete several projects based on course learning objectives and available time. the "menu" of potential civics projects includes activities such as attending a city council, school board, or county commission meeting; attending a homeowner's association meeting; volunteering for a community agency; visiting a federal or state courthouse and watching the proceedings; volunteering for a political campaign; and contacting an elected official about an issue of interest. students verify their completion of the civics projects by including an appendix with photos of them at the events and/or scans of business cards, meeting agendas, or other artifacts of the civic engagement activity. online activities can be verified through screenshots, abbreviated transcripts, timestamps, and email messages from (or contact information for) interview subjects and volunteer coordinators. specific post-activity assignment requirements also help to assure students that all members of the class are doing the work. during ordinary semesters, my primary goal is to get people out from behind their keyboards and computer screens and out into their communities – and to introduce students to opportunities for engagement available to them after graduation. for this reason, no two assignments can be of the same type (e.g., only one city council meeting), and, prior to the spring 2020 semester, only one of the civics projects could be "online" (e.g., watching an indiana supreme court oral argument online or watching a sunday morning political tv show). however, the requirements are easy to adapt to specific cdc guidelines for social distancing or individual students needs or limitations related to childcare, transportation, medical challenges, or other factors. even when a public health crisis, or other circumstance, has confined students to their homes, students can analyze a political talk show, comment on a federal rule change, write a letter to the editor, or conduct a zoom interview with an elected official. they can make phone calls for a political campaign, watch a local government meeting online, or listen to an oral argument in front of their state's supreme court. these are just a few of the ways that students can observe, analyze, and engage in politics in action. see my online list of citizen action project covid19 adaptations for a more comprehensive listing here of examples. such projects expand students' understanding of the political world around them and their vision of how they can participate in representative democracy now and in the future. at a time of democratic backsliding characterized by political polarization, negative partisanship, disinformation, and high 17 paper 4 at a time of democratic backsliding characterized by political polarization, negative partisanship, disinformation, and high levels of distrust in government (and fellow citizens), helping students to understand that they can become informed political actors who engage in ways that benefit their local community is critical. bennion | menu of civics projects https://politicalsciencenow.com/civic-action-projects-for-your-100-online-covid-19-adapted-courses/ levels of distrust in government (and fellow citizens), helping students to understand that they can become informed political actors who engage in ways that benefit their local community is critical. over the years, my students have written to their u.s. senator and representative, governor, state legislators, commented on federal rule changes, submitted op eds to their local newspapers, analyzed the oral arguments of court cases of special interest. they have attended school board, city council, and county council meetings and volunteered for service agencies and political campaigns – often bringing family members with them generating new and important conversations in the household. some have even joined their local homeowners or neighborhood associations, and run for leadership posts in these organizations, after attending for the first time for class credit. students sometimes fall short in analyzing an oral argument or following the correct procedure to submit a letter to the editor, but these are teachable moments, allowing opportunities for detailed feedback and project revisions. such cases are quickly overshadowed by students who become politically active after meeting with a local party chair or add a journalism minor after interviewing a political journalist or watching a taping of the weekly public affairs tv program i host for a local pbs affiliate. now that the pandemic is over, opportunities for face-to-face engagement abound, limited only by the imagination of the instructors and students dreaming up new ways to practice civic skills by connecting classroom learning to meaningful experiences online and in the community beyond our computer screens. individual professors can adapt assignments to focus on topics and skills of high relevance for specific classes and disciplines and determine the appropriate number of projects and ratio of online versus community-based activities. available time, resources, training requirements, partnerships, course level, and learning goals will influence the menu options and course requirements, but instructors and students need not invest an entire semester to become acquainted with – and practice – important civic activities that will benefit them, and the broader society, as they continue to use these skills – and develop new skills – as they practice political, civic, and community engagement over time. references bennion, e.a. (2020). civic action project for your 100% online (covid-19 adapted) courses. political science now, growing online student population. 16. guthrie, k., & mccracken, h. (2010). teaching and learning social justice through online servicelearning courses. international review of research in open and distance learning, 11(3), 78-94. hall, e. online and hybrid learning are increasingly popular. now colleges have to keep up. chronicle of higher education, august 15, 2023. mclauchlan, j. (2019). civic engagement in the online classroom: increasing youth political engagement in an online american government course. e-journal of public affairs, accessed may 15, 2024, https://www.ejournalofpublicaffairs.org/civicengagement-in-the-online-classroom-increasingyouth-political-engagement-in-an-online-americangovernment-course/. purcell, j. (2017). community-engaged pedagogy in the virtual classroom: integrating eservice-learning into online leadership education. journal of leadership studies, 11(1), 65-70. waldner, l. & widener, m. & mcgorry, s. (2012). e-service learning: the evolution of servicelearning to engage a growing online student population. 16. paper 4 18 bennion | menu of civics projects the united nations estimates that globally 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing conditions (un-habitat, 2022). many of those people live without access to basic services and sanitation, and struggle with housing costs. housing insecurity is a global issue, but often we fail to understand the complexities. the united nations (2023) defines homelessness as: persons living in the streets, in open spaces or cars; persons living in temporary emergency accommodation, in women’s shelters, in camps or other temporary accommodation provided to internally displaced persons, refugees or migrants; and persons living in severely inadequate and insecure housing, such as residents of informal settlements. this type of housing insecurity violates the very principle of inherent human dignity as established in articles 1 and 22 of the universal declaration of human rights. the concept that all human beings are born equal and that each of us is entitled to social and cultural rights is an indispensable one for all humanity. yet homelessness remains a global crisis and is experienced by members of our local communities as well. as citizens of a democracy, we should offer unwavering advocacy in support of a community-wide commitment of eliminating housing insecurity. housing insecurity does not discriminate by race, age, or gender, and could happen to any person. the challenges confront us all and could occur at any time, resulting in an unexpected information need. looking for information and available resources is time consuming. vetting organizations, determining eligibility and the scope of each entity can be a long, arduous process. the list with links below suggests resources that may be relevant to housing insecurity -from addressing basic hygiene needs to fighting generational poverty. while this list is not exhaustive, identified resources are from the united states, as well as the international ones offered by the united nations. un-habitat. (2022). priorities 2022-2023: adequate housing, cities and climate change, and localizing the sustainable development goals. united nations. https://unhabitat.org/ sites/default/files/2022/05/priorities_2022-2023_adequate_ housing_cities_and_climate_change_and_localising_ sdgs_04142022.pdf office of the high commissioner for human rights. (2022). homelessness and human rights. united nations. https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/ homelessness-and-human-rights north america united states chapin hall, university of chicago: voices of youth count (https://voicesofyouthcount.org/) supports communities across the united states and beyond – based in chicago, il mission: voices of youth count is a national chapin hall initiative to bring actionable evidence to prevent and end youth homelessness. discover the initiative’s four-phase strategy to preventing youth homelessness (https://www.chapinhall.org/project/ new-opportunities-the-youth-homelessness-preventioninitiative/). homelessness and housing organizational profiles authors introduction by mahasin ameen, teaching and learning librarian, indiana university indianapolis list compiled by h. jad rea, mlis student, indiana university indianapolis 32engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y a m e e n & r e a | h o m e l e s s n e s s a n d h o u s i n g p r o f i l e s enterprise community partners, inc. (enterprisecommunity.org) supports communities across all 50 states, puerto rico, d.c., and the u.s. virgin islands mission: our mission is to make home and community places of pride, power and belonging. learn more about enterprise’s impact on systems, communities, and people across america (https://www. enterprisecommunity.org/about/our-impact). help usa (helpusa.org) supports communities across new york city and philadelphia – based in new york city, ny mission: help usa works to ensure that everyone has a place to call home. explore help usa’s resources for those facing homelessness, domestic violence, or are in danger of being evicted (https://www.helpusa.org/get-help/). housing trust funds project (housingtrustfundproject.org) supports communities across the united states – based in portland, or mission: the project operates as a clearinghouse of information on housing trust funds throughout the country, and provides technical assistance to organizations and agencies working to create or implement these funds. learn more about the process of proposing and organizing a housing trust fund (https://housingtrustfundproject.org/ campaigns/the-basics/). national adapt (nationaladapt.org) supports communities across the united states mission: adapt is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom. find your local group (https://nationaladapt.org/adaptgroups/). national alliance to end homelessness (endhomelessness. org/) supports communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: the national alliance to end homelessness is a nonpartisan organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the united states. learn to create a coordinated community-wide approach to address homelessness (https://endhomelessness.org/endinghomelessness/solutions/creating-systems-that-work/). national association of housing and redevelopment officials (nahro) (nahro.org/) supports communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: nahro members create and manage affordable housing for lowand middle-income families, and support vibrant communities that enhance the quality of life for all. learn how nahro’s housing america campaign raises awareness about affordable housing (https://www.nahro.org/ about/housingamerica/). national coalition for homeless veterans (nchv.org/) support communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: the national coalition for homeless veterans (nchv) is the resource and technical assistance center for a national network of community-based service providers and local, state and federal agencies that provide emergency and supportive housing, food, health services, job training and placement assistance, legal aid and case management support for hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans each year. learn more about veteran homelessness in america (https://nchv.org/veteran-homelessness/). vo l . 5, i s s u e 233 r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y national health care for the homeless council (nhchc.org/) supports communities across the united states – based in nashville, tn mission: grounded in human rights and social justice, the nhchc mission is to build an equitable, high-quality health care system through training, research, and advocacy in the movement to end homelessness. explore nhchc webinar and online resources for those working at the intersection of homelessness and healthcare (https://nhchc.org/webinars/). national homelessness law center (homelesslaw.org/) supports communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: fearlessly advance federal, state and local policies to prevent and end homelessness while fiercely defending the rights of all unhoused persons. read the law center’s evaluation of the united states response to housing and homelessness in 2023 (https://homelesslaw.org/ wp-content/uploads/2023/09/reportcard2023.pdf). national housing law project (nhlp.org/) supports communities across the united states – offices in san francisco, ca, and washington, d.c. mission: the national housing law project’s mission is to advance housing justice for poor people and communities. discover nhlp’s online resources for tenant rights and the housing movement (https://www.nhlp.org/trainingspublications/). national low income housing coalition (nlihc.org/) supports communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: nlihc educates, organizes and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing for everyone. explore housing needs by state (https://nlihc.org/housingneeds-by-state). national rural housing coalition (https:// ruralhousingcoalition.org/) supports communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: nrhc works to promote and defend the principle that rural people have the right — regardless of income — to a decent, affordable place to live, clean drinking water, and basic community services. learn about nrhc’s legislative campaigns to meet rural housing needs (https://ruralhousingcoalition.org/take-action/). neighborworks america (neighborworks.org/home) supports communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: neighborworks america creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities. explore a network of community nonprofits addressing housing issues (https://www.neighborworks.org/our-network.aspx). pathways home (pathwayshome.org/) supports communities across birmingham – based in birmingham, al mission: empowering women and children on their path out of homelessness through hospitality, housing, and hope. explore pathways programs for temporary and permanent housing for women and children experiencing homelessness (https://www.pathwayshome.org/what-we-do/). project hope (prohope.org/) supports communities across boston – based in boston, ma mission: project hope boston works in partnership with women and families in the dorchester and roxbury neighborhoods of boston on their journeys up and out of poverty. we do this by being a catalyst for change in the lives of families, developing and providing programs and family support solutions to alleviate poverty and homelessness. discover project hope boston’s community impact (https://www.prohope.org/impact#). 34engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y a m e e n & r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y project place (projectplace.org/) supports communities across boston – based in boston, ma mission: project place promotes a community of hope and opportunity for homeless and low-income individuals by providing the skills, education and resources needed to obtain and sustain employment and housing. explore project place’s skill development and employment readiness programs (https://projectplace.org/how-we-help/). prosperity indiana (prosperityindiana.org) supports communities across indiana -based in indianapolis, in mission: prosperity indiana organizes all of its work within its reap prosperity framework: providing resources, opportunities for engagement, advocacy, and signature programs that support members' work. learn more about prosperity indiana's work through their online resources and their ongoing webinar series: legal help for housing stability (https://prosperityindiana.org/ event-5453293) purpose. dignitity. action: justcare program (https://wearepda.org/programs/justcare/) supports communities across king county, wa – based in seattle, wa mission: justcare is a response to the increase in people living unsheltered in vulnerable communities trying to rebound from the covid economic crisis. discover how justcare helps transition participants into permanent, stable housing (https://wearepda.org/justcare-ananalysis-of-housing-and-other-outcomes/). raikes foundation: housing stability for youth (https://www.raikesfoundation.org/what-we-do/housingstability-for-youth) supports communities across washington state – based in seattle, wa mission: the raikes foundation works with young people, multi-sector coalitions, and policymakers to not only respond to youth and young adult homelessness in washington state and across the u.s. but also to prevent it from happening in the first place. explore the raikes foundation’s support of the national education leads home campaign (https:// educationleadshome.org/about-the-campaign/). resident owned communities (roc) usa (https:// rocusa.org/about-roc-usa/mission-history/) supports communities across the united states – based in concord, nh mission: roc usa® was launched in may 2008 by national and regional nonprofits that joined together to serve one mission: to make quality resident ownership viable nationwide and to expand economic opportunities for homeowners in manufactured (mobile) home communities. learn about roc usa’s impact from residents and community members on the ground (https://rocusa.org/ stories/the-opportunity-to-really-have-it-all/). spokane homeless coalition (http://www.spokanehc.com/) supports communities across the greater spokane area – based in spokane, wa mission: the spokane homeless coalition is made up of more than 1300 individuals representing more than 200 agencies, meal sites, churches and ministries in the greater spokane area, all committed to serving those in need throughout our community. explore a network of community organizations providing support for individuals experiencing homelessness in the spokane area (http://www.spokanehc.com/finding-help. html). urban institute (https://www.urban.org/) supporting communities across the united states – based in washington, d.c. mission: to open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions through economic and social policy research. explore the urban institute’s data tools to inform decisions and shape policy (https://www.urban.org/data-tools). vo l . 5, i s s u e 235 a m e e n & r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y canada alliance to end homelessness ottawa (https://www. endhomelessnessottawa.ca/) supports communities across ottawa – based in ottawa, on mission: the alliance to end homelessness ottawa is a member-driven coalition of people and organizations working together to end homelessness through systems planning and coordination, public education and advocacy, and community-wide mobilization. explore how the alliance is building a political foundation through the city-wide starts with home campaign (https:// www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/starts_with_home_ campaign). canadian alliance to end homelessness (https://caeh.ca/) supports communities across canada – based in calgary, ab mission: the canadian alliance to end homelessness leads a national movement of individuals, organizations and communities working together to end homelessness in canada. discover the built for zero canada strategy to educate, engage, and mobilize communities to end chronic homelessness and veteran homelessness (https://bfzcanada. ca/getting-to-zero/). canadian observatory on homelessness (https://www. homelesshub.ca/ofha) supports communities across canada – based in toronto, on mission: the canadian observatory on homelessness (coh) is a non-partisan research and policy partnership between academics, policy and decision makers, service providers and people with lived experience of homelessness. learn more about recent research on the lack of affordable housing for black communities in the vancouver, bc, area (https://www.homelesshub.ca/blog/lack-affordable-housingblack-communities-metro-vancouver). engage and change (https://engageandchange.org/) supports communities across toronto – based in toronto, on mission: engage and change gives people and companies the opportunities to do hands on group volunteer projects that assemble and build kits to assist in the alleviation of poverty. learn about project water, a hands-on initiative to address rates of unhoused people who die from dehydration every summer (https://engageandchange.org/project-water/). hands up canada (http://handsupcanada.ca/) supports communities across northern canada – based in toronto, on mission: hands up canada supports education in ensuring that students from poor, underemployed and disadvantaged families and communities have quality learning supplies along with the adequate nutrition, motivation and encouragement to pursue their studies and improve their future opportunities. learn more about support for individuals living in poverty, including hygiene items and shelter (http://handsupcanada.ca/projects/2764-2/). the period purse (https://www.theperiodpurse.com/) supports communities in ontario and other provinces – based in toronto, on mission: the period purse creates menstrual equity by ensuring sustainable access to period products for all, and by ending the stigma associated with periods through education and advocacy. explore how the period purse reaches out to and partners with first nations communities to make menstrual care accessible (https://www.theperiodpurse.com/indigenouscommunities.html). the shoebox project for women (https://www. shoeboxproject.ca/home) supports communities across canada – based in toronto, on mission: to uplift and empower women who are experiencing or at-risk-of homelessness through in-kind support, education, and community participation. learn how to make a shoebox gift (https://www. shoeboxproject.ca/how-to-make-a-shoebox). 36engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y quest food exchange (https://www.questoutreach.org/) supports communities across british columbia – based in vancouver, bc mission: by bridging the gap between food banks and traditional grocery stores, quest provides a grocery experience based on principles of dignity, access, and sustainability. learn about the upcoming 2023 holiday hamper drive (https://www.questoutreach.org/blog/holiday-volunteer/). mexico mi valedor (https://www.mivaledor.com/en/home-english/) supports communities across mexico city – based in colonia juárez, mexico city mission: to build a healthy community with the valedores, in which workshops are imparted to strengthen their skills, and to collectively create a cultural magazine, the sales of which allow them to generate additional income. browse articles from the current and archived issues of their street magazine, mi valedor (https://www.mivaledor.com/en/ category/magazine/). promoción y acción comunitaria i.a.p. (paco) (https:// pacoiap.org/) supports communities across mexico city – based in mission: to help vulnerable people through three assistance programs directed at children, youths, adults, and elderly people, including support for food, education, health, housing, and clothing with the goal of that community assistance leading to better living conditions. discover paco’s current and past programs (https://pacoiap. org/index.php/programas). international organizations homeless world cup (https://www.homelessworldcup.org/) supporting communities across the world – based in edinburgh, scotland listen to their podcast interviews with activists and leaders working on the ground (https://www.homelessworldcup.org/ podcast). international network of street papers (https://www.insp.ngo/) supporting independent journalists across the world – based in glasgow, scotland mission: to support the global street paper network to alleviate poverty and build a movement for social change. find your local street paper (https://www.insp.ngo/network). nigeria brickify ltd. (https://www.facebook.com/realbrickify) (website under construction) supports communities in lagos and beyond – based in lagos, la mission: brickify recycles plastic waste bags into building bricks and lumber that are used to construct roads and build low-cost housing in nigeria. watch brickify turn plastic waste into a sofa (https://www. facebook.com/watch/?v=1935964536758786). homeless not hopeless nigeria (http://hnhnigeria.org.ng/) supporting communities in ibadan and beyond – based at the university of ibadan, oy mission: homeless not hopeless nigeria is a student-led non-profit organization founded in may 2020 to address the issue of homelessness and its numerous ugly consequences in nigeria. read about the intersection of homelessness and mental health (http://hnhnigeria.org.ng/monthly-articles/). vo l . 5, i s s u e 237 a m e e n & r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y india pehchan india (https://pehchanindia.org/) supports communities across mumbai – based in mumbai, mh mission: learn more about the my mumbai project (in partnership with mylondon/cafe art), which distributed cameras to unhoused individuals in mumbai and created a photograph exhibit to share their stories (https://www.cafeart.org.uk/post/ how-did-mymumbai-go). salaam baalak trust (sbt) delhi (https://www.salaambaalaktrust.com/) supports communities across delhi – based in new delhi, dl mission: sbt provides a sensitive and caring environment for street and working children, and those in difficult circumstances. it seeks to provide a platform for children to realize their full potential, their right to a safe and secure space, education, and health and nutrition. learn about the trust’s city walk tours, led by formerly unhoused children and teens who share stories of their lives on the streets of new delhi’s neighborhoods (https://www. salaambaalaktrust.com/city-walks.php). european union feansta (https://www.feantsa.org/en/about-us/what-isfeantsa) supporting communities across the european union – based in brussels, belgium mission: we are the only european ngo focusing exclusively on the fight against homelessness. our ultimate goal is an end to homelessness in europe. discover feansta’s past and current projects with partners across the eu (https://www.feantsa.org/en/activities/ projects). 38engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y a m e e n & r e a | s p e a k i n g u p & o u t : s y s t e m i c c r u e l t y engage! vol. 5, no. 3 alamilla | civically engaged professional 26 paper 1 speaking up and speaking out: community engagement as a civically-engaged professional rafael a. alamilla ph.d. candidate, graduate research assistant iu indianapolis school of health and human sciences one of the most influential statements i was ever told came from my old undergraduate research mentor dr. jason ng: "people who work at universities are servants to their communities." while it took me a few years to fully realize what he meant by that statement, it has always stuck with me because of the significance of its implications. fast forward five years later, i now realize that this statement has inherently guided my philosophy around what i do as a community–based researcher—and underpins everything that i do as a professional. what it means for me to be a communitybased researcher has evolved over the years. the importance of community was instilled in me from my culture and my upbringing in a mexicanimmigrant community. admittedly though, i had no idea how this mentality and culture could be channeled into research until after i began my ph.d. it took the covid-19 pandemic and living in a city with significant health disparities (brantley, 2018) for me to truly understand the importance of community engagement. community engagement is at the core of my work nowadays—with the primary aim being to build stakeholder networks and community capacity to promote physical activity (pa) for underrepresented racial minority (i.e., black, latino, etc.) adults. our team partners extensively with local health-based groups to facilitate community engagement around pa and promote healthy behaviors. our overarching goal is to promote positive long-term health behaviors that reduce the risk of disease for individuals and foster healthier communities. advancing and fostering community engagement to me is not just about doing research with communities. to me, true community engagement requires civic engagement in the various domains of day-to-day life. it requires me to take on the role of a servant leader (greenleaf, 1977) that helps build bridges; empower others; and see to it that the generations of accumulated knowledge discovered through scientific exploration be transferred to the communities that i serve. at its core, community-engaged research is about serving others. it is about using the privilege, knowledge, and resources i have disposable to me as an academic to make direct, tangible impacts on people’s lives. community engagement is also about fostering mutually beneficial relationships and passing on the tools and resources necessary for communities to thrive. 27 paper 1 working with our community partners has taught me that it is not enough to merely publish papers and stay in our ivory towers hoping that our work somehow trickles down to the general public. rather, i must take on the responsibility of directly engaging with communities on a variety of levels. these efforts for me include advocating for health policies in our local/state governments (alamilla, keith, et al., 2023; broz, 2023), serving on community committees, or taking the time to disseminate science in a way that is understandable to the layperson (alamilla, georgiadis, et al., 2023; alamilla & keith, 2021). it is vital that i make every effort to be engaged in my community and advocate for decisions that benefit the health of my community. at its core, community engaged research is about serving others. it is about using the privilege, knowledge, and resources i have disposable to me as an academic to make direct, tangible impacts on people's lives. community engagement is also about fostering mutually beneficial relationships and passing on the tools and resources necessary for communities to thrive. community engagement should not be seen as a trendy buzzword that panders to broader academia—but rather as a serious call for active participation in the day-to-day lives of those touched by a university's reach. universities and those who work within them have real potential to make tangible, positive impacts in communities—it is up to us to decide if we will spark those changes into fruition. references alamilla, r. a., georgiadis, y. m., kaushal, n., & keith, n. r. (2023). reducing physical activity disparities among vulnerable minorities methods and preliminary outcomes: 1325. medicine & science in sports & exercise, 55(9s), 440. alamilla, r. a., & keith, n. r. (2021, september 15). the importance of sleep for health. american fitness index. https://americanfitnessindex.org/importance-of sleep-for-health alamilla, r. a., keith, n. r., hasson, r. e., welk, g. j., riebe, d., wilcox, s., & pate, r. r. (2023). future directions for transforming kinesiology implementation science into society. kinesiology review, 12(1), 98–106. brantley, a. (2018, may 21). health brief: memphis & shelby county. better tennessee. broz, t. (2023). student helping shape state policy through inaugural fellowship. iupui today. greenleaf, r. k. (1977). servant leadership—a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. paulist press. alamilla | civically engaged professional r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l 38 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 keywords: ulysses syndrome, migratory mournings, five protective factors, migrants, immigrants, refugees, healing, trauma, cultural bereavement, stress abstract as a director of a community-based organization who works predominantly with immigrants and refugees, lucy morse roberts noticed immigrant clients and colleagues were often experiencing ill-defined malaise, headaches, and insomnia. after visiting doctors, the immigrant clients and colleagues were still unwell. she and her team sought to understand and address this suffering and seek ways to heal. research on migratory mournings by joseba achotegui offered her team one lens through which to understand and better respond to the physical and psychological ailments experienced by immigrant and refugee clients. achotegui’s research, including that on the ulysses syndrome and cultural and situational responsiveness, directly changed the programming and priorities at hui international under lucy morse roberts’ leadership. this article first defines migratory mournings and the ulysses syndrome. second, the article offers community partners’ personal and professional insight as to how and why this research is relevant and transformative. lastly, the article offers an organizational framework for effective application and intentional community engagement. i have long loved what one can carry. i have long left all that can be left behind in the burning cities and lost even loss – not cared much or learned to. i turned and looked and not even salt did i become. from solmaz sharif’s poem, “without which” sharif’s poem continues, “i am-even when inside the kingdom-without” (sharif, 2022). as an immigrant herself having been born in turkey and raised in iran and in california, her poems often speak to the challenges faced by the world’s diaspora. hers is a single voice that speaks to the experiences of many. according to unhcr, over 100 million people are currently “without” (displaced) worldwide (unhcr, 2022). those displaced find themselves labelled by their plight of absentia from their land of origin and often struggle to create new lives in new places. many of those who find themselves new to our communities feel without, without a sense of place and with a sense of mourning for what was once a part of their lives and is no more. understanding the ulysses syndrome, effective engagement, and ways to heal authors lucy morse roberts, executive director of hui international/calgalsmedia joseba achotegui, psychiatrist. tenured professor of the barcelona university rachel c. allen, director of the peace and justice institute at valencia college martha lopez, program coordinator for hui international muzhgan fakhri, host of the unlimited possibilities podcast, a hui international/calgalsmedia project engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 39 according to dr. joseba achotegui, from the university of barcelona, this sense of “without” experienced in the extreme can lead to physical and psychological symptoms and can adversely affect one’s health and well-being. these symptoms caused by migratory mournings in difficult situations are often referred to as the ulysses syndrome (achotegui, 2002). dr. joseba achotegui first wrote of the ulysses syndrome, named after the greek mythological hero ulysses, in 2002 and the migratory mournings in 1995. the ulysses syndrome is not a mental disorder but extreme migratory grief. “today, migration is becoming for millions of people, a process that has such intense stress levels that they can exceed the adaptive capacity of human beings” (achotegui, 2015). the most important stressors of ulysses syndrome as pointed out by achotegui (2002) are: 1. loneliness and the enforced separation, especially in the case when an immigrant leaves behind his or her spouse or young children. 2. the sense of despair and failure that is felt when the immigrant, despite having invested enormously in the emigration (economically, emotionally, etc.), does not even manage to muster together the very minimum conditions to make a go of it. 3. the fight merely to survive: to feed themselves, to find a roof to sleep under. 4. the fear, the afflictions caused by the physical dangers of the migratory journey, the criminalization of the migration, helplessness. the harmful effects caused by the adversities and dangers that the immigrant must face are greatly increased by a whole series of unfavorable characteristics associated with stressful situations, which, as achotegui (2002) points out, are the following: • multiplicity (the greater the number of adversities and dangers, the greater is the risk to the mental health). • chronicity. these situations of extreme hardship can affect immigrants for months on end, even years. • the feeling that whatever the individual does he will not be able to change his situation (learnt helplessness, seligman, 1975). • the enormous intensity of the stressors (quite unlike the stress associated with being stuck in a traffic jam or sitting an examination). • the marked absence of any network of social support, absence of social capital (coleman,1984). • the symptoms themselves (sadness, weariness, insomnia, etc.) become an additional handicap that hinders the immigrant in his attempts to survive. to all this, we need to add the classic shocks the immigrant must come through (coming to terms with a new language, culture, environment) and, to these shocks, we must now add the severity of the present extreme stressors. what’s more, the health system often does not provide adequately for individuals suffering from physical and psychological symptoms associated with the ulysses syndrome: either because this problem is dismissed as being trivial (out of ignorance, a lack of sensitivity, prejudice and, even, racism, etc.) or because this condition is not adequately diagnosed and immigrants are treated as being depressive or psychotic, thereby giving the immigrant even more stressors to face. their psychosomatic symptoms are not seen as connected to psychological issues and they are therefore subjected to a series of tests (such as colonoscopies, biopsies, etc.) and given inadequate, costly treatment. the health system, though intended to be a solution, then can become a new stressor for an immigrant. r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l 40 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 migrations and misunderstandings related to the migrant experience have coexisted for a very long time. migration is ancient, as old as humankind. physically, we are designed to move. we have feet and have evolved to move as needed. migration is one of the three evolutionary pillars along with mutation and natural selection. culturally, we evolved to recognize migration as part of our human experience. all three of the abrahamic religions include welcoming the stranger as inherent to being an adherent. our literature also reflects the strengths and sorrows of the immigrant. the odyssey by homer is a classic example of the “displaced” from which dr. achotegui drew his reference for the ulysses syndrome. because migration is part of human history, many now and in the past have experienced the ulysses syndrome. unfortunately, however, few have heard of it. for those focused on engaging the newcomer in their land and those who are the newcomer, understanding the ulysses syndrome and ways to heal is essential. this understanding is foundational to empathy and empathy is foundational to effective engagement. because information on the ulysses syndrome is key to effective immigrant and refugee outreach, the challenge facing agencies and individuals was/is how to translate dr. achotegui’s research and present it in a way that is accessible to all. community partners, martha lopez, arezoo pamiry, and muzhgan fakhri helped create the solution. together with hui international, they developed info sheets and videos as tools to share information on the ulysses syndrome and ways to heal. the goal of the info sheets and videos is to help disseminate dr. achotegui’s research in a way that is accessible to agencies and individuals. lopez, pamiry, and muzhgan are from mexico and afghanistan, respectively. their experiences and input helped hui international not only see the relevance of achotegui’s research but also the need to share it more widely. martha: i heard about the ulysses syndrome during a seminar i attended for work. the moment i heard about it, i wanted more people to be aware of ulysses syndrome and the physical and psychological symptoms associated with the stress of migrating from one place to another. hearing about the ulysses syndrome also made me reflect on my own personal experiences when i came to the united states at age 10 from mexico. my dad had been working here and acquired the green cards for the rest of our family and me. i still remember feeling sad, rejected, and unsupported when i started school and hurt by other students who made fun of me for not speaking english. after attending the seminar, i began to wonder what others experiencing the ulysses syndrome would need to do/have to become more resilient and thrive in new places. i work with other immigrants and know some people who have gone to the doctor to get medicated for different reasons like those associated with the syndrome. often the medication eased their symptoms but did not address the cause of these symptoms. that’s when i realized that the work that i do can help heal the root cause of the suffering many new to our country experience. i love working with families to help, support, and empower them by providing educational information, resources, and new techniques that teach them about the importance of adapting the five protective factors into their lives and communities. immigrants and refugees need to know they are not alone in their suffering, and it is okay to seek help, support, or advice. having just one person they trust to guide them, support, and uplift them when they might feel like giving up can make a positive difference in a life and each of us can be that person. for me when i was new to this country, that one person was my teacher. muzhgan: as an immigrant myself during these six years of my life, i had all the mixed feelings and sad emotions that were mentioned in dr. achotegui’s research. i was a human rights attorney in kabul and was forced to leave when my life was at risk. when engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 41 i first arrived in the united states, i felt useless and hopeless. life where everything was different from my home country, where none of my beloved ones were with me seemed unmanageable. i feared becoming homeless. at that time, i needed someone to calm me and say everything would be alright one day. that is why i feel this topic is important to me and other immigrants. we and others are with them, and our work, videos, and info sheets offer tips and ideas on how immigrants and refugees can heal, accept change, and feel accepted in their new environment. we hope the information will reassure those who struggle, and they find a new life here filled not just with problems but also positive possibilities. the united states is one of the top countries that welcomes thousands of immigrants yearly. therefore, we must talk about the ulysses syndrome and share the information among immigrant communities, so they don’t feel alone. every immigrant should know that feelings of sadness and emptiness are normal for many and, knowing this, immigrants should not feel embarrassed for seeking help. by creating the ulysses syndrome info sheets and videos, we are raising our voices and engaging others so that those who are struggling with their adjustment to a new land do not feel alone. arezoo, martha, and i helped design info sheets and videos in a way we believe acknowledges shared suffering and helps fortify individuals and families. the info sheets and videos mentioned by muzhgan aim to validate migrant experiences and prevent dismissal of suffering and marginalization. the videos and info sheets can be found at https://www.calgalsmedia. io/ava/the-ulysses-syndrome-project. the following graphics on the seven migratory mournings, physical and psychological symptoms associated with the ulysses syndrome, and the graphic on ways to heal are based on the info sheets and videos. 7 migratory mournings that can trigger physical and psychological symptoms are… r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l 42 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 43 the ulysses syndrome, the physical and psychological symptoms associated with migratory mournings, can adversely impact our health and well-being and our relationships with others including our families. the good news is there are many ways to heal, build resilience, and strengthen ourselves and our families. the strengthening families’™ five protective factors offer a framework for and strategies to address stress in healthy ways. r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2engage! | c r e at i v e a rts 44 engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 45 we can help increase protective factors in our communities by offering programs and resources that support and fortify immigrants and refugees, that support and fortify anyone. we can help build the five protective factors through relationships, too. social connections are one of the five protective factors and transformative relationships (as opposed to transactional relationships) are essential to effective engagement and building resilience. transformative relationships offer practitioners and community partners an opportunity to come together and identify and cocreate essential resources. the ulysses syndrome videos and info sheets are an outcome of an effective collaboration with community partners. this kind of collaboration was only possible through meaningful engagement and the creation of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. for this reason, how we engage is as essential as the programming we offer. how we engage and receive those new to our communities can be either a risk factor or a protective factor (achotegui, 2015). receiving someone with a welcoming heart into a welcoming community helps lay a foundation for healing, thriving, and effective community partnerships the following steps and tools can help organizations and individuals effectively welcome/engage immigrants and refugees and build relationships of trust and transformation. step 1: identify intention “what” we do is secondary to “how” we do it. therefore, it is important to reflect on where we are as organizations and individuals in relation to traumainformed principles. do these principles inform your work? your program design? mission? values? the simple matrix below is designed to assist organizations and individuals with assessing their current approach to work and plan for where they want to be. the same type of matrix can be used to reflect on where we are individually and organizationally in relation to being healing-centered. the healing-centered categories in the following matrix are based on work by dr. ken epstein. it is essential to incorporate trauma-informed principles and healing-informed practices internally before a group/organization can effectively apply the principles externally and effectively engage others. deep sincere reflection often requires wrestling with difficult truths about ourselves and our institutions. please remember, as you explore the following ideas, give and receive grace and avoid blame and shame. everyone (colleagues and clients) needs to feel welcome and valued. the following practices developed by parker palmer and further refined by the peace and justice institute at valencia college in orlando, florida, can help create an organizational culture conducive to respectful dialogue and community building. the principles for how we transformative relationships offer practitioners and community partners an opportunity to come together and identify and cocreate essential resources. r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l 46 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 treat each other are practices that develop a traumasensitive environment by inviting participants to slow down, suspend judgment, check assumptions, and speak one’s truth among other practices. when used consistently, the principles support honest and open spaces for authentic dialogue, as well as a foundation for skillful conflict navigation. the principles move individuals and organizations toward a trauma-informed, healing-centered culture where all individuals are welcome. organizations can create their own set of principles and read them at the start of each meeting, post them in common spaces, and return to them when conflicts arise and tensions seep into discourse and relations. the following principles are from valencia college’s peace and justice institute. with intentions set and a framework for engagement engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 47 agreed upon, it is easier to delve deeper into our ideas, attitudes, and work and address possible barriers to effective engagement with immigrants and refugees in our communities. step 2: reflect on... biases “the word welcome confronts us; it asks us to temporarily suspend our usual rush to judgment and to simply be open to what is happening. our task is to give our careful attention to what is showing up at our front door. to receive it in the spirit of hospitality.” — frank ostaseski, the five invitations. everyone has biases. to have a bias is part of human nature. though natural, biases can be harmful and can perpetuate individual, systemic, historic, and institutional trauma and create barriers to helpful, healing engagement. to effectively engage others in a trauma/healing informed way, we need to better understand the lens/biases through which we see the world and others and examine the impact of our lens/ biases on our relationships and interactions. implicit bias: attitudes, stereotypes, assumptions that affect decisions in an unconsciously. confirmation bias: ideas that confirm our existing beliefs and impair our ability to see another side of a story. fundamental attribution bias: creating contextual excuses for our failures and seeing failures in others as inherent to their race, gender, culture, etc. how might these biases impact your work? how can you address biases and increase a sense of welcome? intersectionality intersectionality is a phrase coined by professor of law, kimberle crenshaw to explain the interplay of “isms” that create and perpetuate systemic, historic, institutional, and individual trauma. understanding the interplay of “isms” will help organizations more deeply engage parents/caregivers, address and dismantle systems of oppression, and build systems of well-being is your organization aware of and responsive to the intersection of “isms”? if so, how is this awareness reflected in your community engagement work? if not, how can you and your organization be more mindful of and responsive to the complexity of trauma experienced by individuals and communities?. the principles for how we treat each other are practices that develop a trauma-sensitive environment by inviting participants to slow down, suspend judgment, check assumptions, and speak one’s truth among other practices. when used consistently, the principles support honest and open spaces for authentic dialogue, as well as a foundation for skillful conflict navigation. r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l 48 vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 attitudes transformative or transactional? is your organization transactional (compliance driven) or transformative (relationship driven)? transactional organizations engage bureaucratically, policies, not people, are the priority. in transformative organizations, people/relationships are the priority. a transformative/ relational driven aim can be both policy and people focused but it is difficult for a purely transaction driven motive to be transformative. invitational or institutional? this question is very much related to the aforementioned question of transformation vs. transaction. the former invites people into programming and opportunities and the latter is based on a more impersonal, institutional process. “i have learnt that when people feel supported by strong human relationships, change happens. and when we design new systems that make this sort of collaboration and connection feel simple and easy, people want to join in” (cottam, 2018). collection or inclusion? is your organization’s goal a collection of diverse people/voices or the inclusion of diverse people/voices? the former simply brings people to the table. the latter brings people to the table and creates an environment where diverse ideas and opinions are valued and sought. to demonstrate a voice is valued, listen and acknowledge and, if needed, act. to demonstrate a voice is sought, ask. step 3: engage effective engagement is responsive to changing circumstances and needs. as opportunities emerge to respond to needs of refugee and immigrants in meaningful ways, utilizing the aforementioned tools and framework can provide a foundation for culturally and situationally responsive, trauma/healing informed engagement and transformative work. research indicates being provided with positive social connections and resources can mitigate the harmful effects of violence and improve the mental health of immigrant and refugee adults and children (fazel et al., 2011). for hui international, effective engagement has led to creative collaborations like the hui international’s ulysses syndrome project. final thought as we search for solutions to help those who hurt heal, to assist those who feel lost find and fuel themselves, and to work toward untangling the systems of oppression in this world, we can start simple. engage with intention and reflection, smile and listen. kindness reminds everyone they matter, they are somebody, they are valued within our communities and are not, as sharif described, “without.” intentional engagement can mitigate stress experienced by refugees and immigrants, address migratory mournings, and the ulysses syndrome, offer ways to heal and, as muzhgan, martha, and arezoo’s ideas and efforts demonstrate, our best ideas for engagement and solutions for healing often come from partnering with those in the communities we serve. engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 49 references achotegui, j. (1995). migrar: duelo y dolor. el viejo topo, (90), 31-38. achotegui, j. (2002). la depresión en los inmigrantes: una perspectiva transcultural. ediciones mayo. barcelona. achotegui, j. (2015). the ulysses syndrome: the immigrant syndrome of chronic and multiple stress. ediciones elm undo de la mente. bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. prentice-hall. coleman, j.s. (1994). foundations of social theory. harvard university press. cottam, h. (2018). radical help: how we can remake the relationships between us and revolutionize the welfare state. virago. fazel, m., reed, r.v., panter-brick, c., & stein, a. (2012). mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in high income countries: risk and protective factors. the lancet, 379(9812), 266-282. johnson, h., perez, c.a., & mejia, m.c. (2021, march). immigrants in california [fact sheet]. public policy institute of california. https:// www.ppic.org/publication/immigrants-in-california/ ostaseski, f. (2019). the five invitations. flatiron books. roberts, l. & bourne, g. (2020). the path to effective trauma-/ healing-informed parent and caregiver engagement. family hui. https:// www.familyhui.org/wp-content/ uploads/2021/01/path-to-effective-parent-caregiver-engagement-20210105.pdf said, e. (2002). reflections on exile and other essays (3rd ed.). harvard university press. seligman, m.e.p. (1975). helplessness: on depression, development, and death. freeman & co. sharif, s. (2022). customs: poems. graywolf press. unhcr. (2022). global trends. https://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends/ r o b e r t s e t. a l . | u l y s s e s s s y n d r o m e & w a y s t o h e a l keywords: community-engaged research (cer), hispanic, public health, key informant interviews, dental care education abstract objectives: to analyze perceptions about multiple community-engaged oral health research partnerships with various local hispanic-serving institutions and community-based organizations occurring in indiana from 2010 through 2020, via interviews with actors involved in those partnerships. methods: we designed key informant interview questions based on a literature review to inform the approach at synthesizing perspectives from community partners and academic allies. statements were categorized using thematic analysis and grounded theory. lessons learned: forty percent of respondents stated that community-engaged research projects connect communities with educational information about dental care and low-cost resources. in terms of capacity building, about half of respondents felt these projects had a positive impact. conclusions: community partners defined positive impact as increasing access to dental care educational resources, helping to enhance communication networks through social media with community partners, and contributing to local hispanic health education through tv, internet, and radio partnerships. the partnerships uniting hispanic groups and academic allies appear to have helped set a foundation of trust to support current and future efforts in indiana. introduction community-based research is a collaborative approach to conducting scholarly investigations in which power is shared with, and engages, community partners in the process, always aiming to benefit the communities involved. this positive interaction may happen either through direct changes in the life of the community, and/or by translating research findings into subsequent interventions and policy changes (israel et al., 1998). there are several different types of evaluation— process, impact, outcome, participatory, formative, and summative evaluations—and multiple data collection methods—quantitative and qualitative—that can be used to evaluate community-academic partnerships (israel et al., 2012). vo l . 4 , i s s u e 213 g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s analyzing perceptions of community -engaged health research partnerships comprising hispanic groups and academic allies in indiana author cindy gil, office of community engagement, indiana university-purdue university indianapolis (iupui) karla armenta, healthlink center, san diego state university research foundation camila espada, kelley school of business, indiana university-purdue university indianapolis (iupui) leonel ontiveros-salinas, biology student, indiana university-purdue university indianapolis (iupui) gerardo maupome, richard m. fairbanks school of public health, indiana university-purdue university indianapolis (iupui) the present manuscript describes the findings from key informant interviews conducted to estimate the impact of multiple community-engaged research (cer) partnerships developed between hispanic community groups and one group of academic allies in indiana. we consider key informant interviews to be qualitative interviews because they are conducted with people who know “what is going on in the community,” and are selected for their first-hand knowledge about a topic of interest (usaid, 1996). the main themes from the interviews purported to identify improved strategies for enhancing community partnerships, and further support a framework for the integration of findings into ongoing research projects. methods protection of human subjects in research permission for data collection was approved by the indiana university irb (#1703740862, #1709401236). key informant interview participants did not receive financial compensation for their collaboration. methodological considerations various theoretical and conceptual models provide frameworks for understanding and assessing how community-engaged research (cer) partnerships operate, their impacts and their outcomes. models such as “the conceptual logic model of communitybased participatory research” (wallerstein & duran, 2010) and other theoretical models (lasker & weiss, 2003; schulz et al., 2003; sofaer, 1999) outline how the structural characteristics of the partnership (e.g., attaining membership) influence the group dynamics of the partnership (e.g., communication, or conflict resolution). the partnership’s programs and interventions determine the intermediate measures or characteristics of partnership effectiveness (such as the degree of member involvement), which in turn influence the extent to which a partnership achieves its ultimate outcomes or outputs (for instance, improved community health outcomes). placing the present analytic endeavor in the context of prior approaches our relationship with hispanic-serving organizations developed through their involvement in past studies. through these relationships, key leaders in the community were identified and asked to continue working with us to help disseminate resources and information (health education flyers and manuals) that emerged from our previous research projects. to determine the effectiveness of these partnerships we conducted evaluations to ascertain the effectiveness and sustainability of cer partnerships that may take different shapes and forms. generally speaking, approaches that respect the types of interactions between partners, and that ensure balanced power relationships are preferred. one solid example of such an approach are key informant interviews as they may be used to explore in-depth perceptions and beliefs about cer. we summarize here salient cer experiences in the recent literature. in one study, key informants shared their perspectives and impressions of medical research, as based on personal experiences or stories from other people (rodriguez et al., 2013). interview questions ranged from, “when i say the words ‘biomedical research,’ what do you think of?” to “would you ever participate in this type of research?” key informants were also asked if having this type of research was important in the community as well as if there were any group concerns about having this type of research in the community (rodriguez et al. 2013). the tampa bay community cancer network (tbccn), involving a cancer center and community-based 14engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s vo l . 4 , i s s u e 2 organizations is another example. it used a participatory evaluation approach to evaluate perspectives on adherence to cer principles, priorities for cancer education and outreach, and suggestions for sustaining tbccn and its efforts (simmons et al., 2015). semistructured interviews were used to assess each organization’s perceived role in the tbbcn partnership, both expected (e.g., “what were your expectations of tbccn when you first became a partner?”) and realized benefits of the partnership, and suggestions for network sustainability and partner capacity building (e.g., “in what ways do you think tbccn can enhance efforts to improve community partner capacity/skills?”) (simmons et al., 2015). we used both process and impact evaluation frameworks in a previous cer project which enabled community partners to reflect on the successes and challenges of the partnership. in that study, semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, revealing main themes relating to the process, quality, challenges and value of the partnership, including navigating and defining equitable roles, relationships, and expectations of the partnership and capacity building within community teams and with the university team (stacy et al., 2014). in another example, key informant interviews were used to measure the extent and impact of environmental change in three community-level obesity-prevention initiatives (cheadle et al., 2010). interviews with a range of community stakeholders were used as one of the short-term outcome evaluation methods. the interviews assessed the operations of coalition, documented the efforts made to change community environment, and assessed the impact of those changes on residents most directly exposed to obesity-prevention interventions (cheadle et al., 2010). in a case involving the detroit community academic urban research center (urc), the evaluation subcommittee involved academic and community partner representatives. they designed and conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews to assess the process by which the urc had developed and worked toward meeting its objectives and to assess the impact of the partnership (israel et al., 2012). the topics covered included expectations and hopes for the first year of the partnership and whether they were met; major accomplishments, barriers, and challenges and recommendations for meeting them; personal knowledge or skills gained; tangible benefits from an organization’s affiliations with the urc; and examples of exchanges of information or assistance or support between partner organizations (israel et al., 2012). choice of assessment strategies different approaches are used to design one-on-one qualitative interviews, varying with the degree of formality or informality required, the use of fully specified questions or topic guidelines, and the degree of flexibility in phrasing questions (patton, 2002). despite the different approaches, an emphasis is placed on asking open-ended questions, with followup probes as necessary, allowing a respondent to provide an in-depth explanation of the issues being addressed. patton (2002) noted other aspects should be considered, including whom to interview, where to conduct the interview, recording, note-taking, informed consent, confidentiality, and approaches for data analysis. furthermore, evaluation tools have assessed the effectiveness of cer projects using start-point, mid-point, end-point, and post-project evaluations. examples of indicators used at start-point evaluations include community capacity, organizational capacity, and historical context of collaboration. indicators in process evaluations could inquire about involvement in recruiting study participants, collecting data, and interpreting study findings. indicators in output and outcome evaluations might include academic publications, community presentations, and community 15 g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 16 g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s and organizational development (nash, 2016). our approach was simpler, aiming to incorporate a wider perspective of cer between long-standing community partners and academic allies that encompassed several projects carried out between 2010 and 2020. the academic allies have largely amalgamated around a research program led by gerardo maupomé. the various cer projects have focused on oral health, oral health knowledge, perspectives on dental care and access to dental treatment; general health and mental well-being; food/drinks/snacks choices; the architecture and evolution of social networks in well-established and in recent hispanic immigrants to indiana (maupomé et al., 2016; maupomé et al., 2016; pullen et al., 2018; lopez-owens et al., 2018; pullen et al., 2019) including various aspects of acculturation and integration, such as use of language, adherence to new and old social and cultural traditions, and psychosocial interpretation of the world; and socio-economicdemographic variables. because of the diversity of cer projects over several years, it was unfeasible to conduct start-point, mid-point, end-point, and post-project evaluations for each project. a mosaic of projects were considered to estimate the perceptions of impact of outcomes over the 10 years of such cer collaborations (appendix 1). description of partnerships involved in the present analytic enterprise we have gathered extensive data over 10 years of robust cer collaborations. while this poses a challenge for us to describe in detail each individual partnership, a content analysis following principles of grounded theory unearthed some common themes. each partnership followed general features that have been replicated over discrete cer endeavors. namely, 1. the academic allies maintained a fluid exchange and collaborations on non-cer related aspects, e.g., sharing information about funding resources that might be attractive to community groups. the flow of information also included pieces relayed in the opposite direction, i.e., from community groups to academic allies. 2. community groups encompassed multiple entities. specifically, hispanic businesses, employers with large hispanic populations, parishes and temples with substantial hispanic congregations, parochial schools affiliated with such parishes; community advocacy groups; informal and formal networks targeting recent immigrant families, with community workers and volunteers being charged with supporting assimilation of children to american education systems (academic level, remedial efforts, and language acquisition). 3. community groups participated in various cer projects over the years – some only once, others multiple times. the availability of community groups’ resources, transition periods, financial health, and other varying factors led to the opportunity and the willingness to participate. 4. community members were always compensated for their time, with childcare and refreshments often being available. 5. community members were always compensated for their time, with childcare and refreshments often being available. 6. community members had substantive input in the creation of scholarly products and chose whether or not to be part of the authors’ line up. explicit efforts were always present to engage community groups on an equal footing for research design with academic allies. some specific examples of this include monthly (for local partners) or quarterly (for partners throughout the state) visits to their community sites and communication via email on research progress. g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s vo l . 4 , i s s u e 217 study design and population the key informant interview questions were developed based on a literature review and discussions with the team of community groups and academic allies. an interview script was created and translated into spanish. three areas were identified: research process evaluation, perceived value of research for the hispanic community, capacity-building strategies to further engage community, and preferred research format for working with hispanics. the team postulated that there are unique characteristics of hispanic immigrants compared with other minoritized populations. it was our goal to gain greater insight into how to better design, cocreate, and conduct cer with hispanics living in indiana. the interviews focused on research programs involving hispanic communities from mexico, el salvador, guatemala, and honduras, which made up most of the hispanic population in the area during those years. data collection and variables to collect data, two university students were trained to complete key informant interviews. the interviews were conducted over the phone in either english or spanish. eligibility criteria for interviewees were a) to be a leader in the hispanic community or an academic ally, b) be of hispanic ancestry, and/or c) to have participated in any of the cer projects. twelve key informants were recruited through an email invitation, identified from a list of community partners and academic allies and having been involved currently or in the past as supporting programs addressing health and wellness of hispanics. the phone interviews took place over a two-week period following the email invitation. if no response was received, a follow-up call was made to make sure questions or concerns were addressed. the original number of planned interviews was 12, and 10 were conducted. interviews lasted 25 to 30 minutes and were audio recorded, and responses were transcribed. interviews key informant interview consent was obtained at the beginning of the interview. no personal identifiers were collected. key informants were informed that the interview would be recorded to ensure the collection of accurate information. while most interviews were conducted in english a few key informants preferred conducting their interviews in spanish. using a prepared script (appendix 1), participants were encouraged to expand their responses and provide details when appropriate and were allowed time to think about the questions and responses. the script presented questions related to capacity-building efforts, cer related to oral health, and practices for building engagement through cer. each key informant was interviewed individually. interview core statements were categorized by staff. a number of the questions were met with a “do not know” answer, or “i have no information specific to this question.” rather than considering these categories as ambiguous, we believe respondents felt at ease to answer frankly during the interview. in this perspective, where respondents did answer the remainder of questions, that information did in fact signify firsthand experience, or carefully weighed responses to the standardized questions. respondents were encouraged to speak about their experiences and recollections of the projects, and they were told to omit answers for any reason they felt appropriate (e.g., respondents were not involved in that aspect of the project or did not know about it). data analysis transcribed interviews were thematically analyzed using grounded theory. we developed a codebook, with emerging categories driven by the narratives. simple frequencies and proportions of categories were calculated from the aggregated collection of categories across all respondents. engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry 18 g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s results the following is a description of the key informant participants. a total of 10 participants (each representing a local hispanic-serving institution or community-based organization) took part in the impact assessment study (seven female and three male). five had directly worked as partners with the cer team, and all reported that they enjoyed working with the team. below we present the themes that emerged during key informant interviews. most positive aspects of project forty percent of respondents stated that the cer studies mentioned served to connect communities with educational information about dental resources. another 40% of respondents stated that the cer projects increased the hispanic public’s knowledge of dental care. project success the cer projects had a positive impact among the hispanic community in indiana, according to 40% of key informants. feedback from community members forty percent of respondents indicated they received positive feedback from community regarding cer experiences. in fact, two respondents shared stories of clinicians making use of the educational material developed through an oral health education manual. contribution to building capacity when asked if the cer studies contributed to building capacity in the hispanic community, 60% of respondents confirmed they believed those projects in fact did so. respondents were allowed complete control in describing how “building capacity” emerged from their views. specifically, two key informants indicated that community members shared that the cer experiences helped to educate and connect the community to free or low-cost dental care services. we learned of the need for health educational resources from previous research projects and materials were developed with the participation of community. these resources are now used by the community to share health knowledge. local assets and resources key informants pointed to the potential to collaborate with other projects or groups who have similar goals of advancing health education among the hispanic community. others indicated that concrete dental care resources were most helpful. activities you believe have increased a community’s knowledge of health topics informants shared that the oral health manual was helpful in increasing the community’s knowledge of health topics. additionally, community partners recognized that the cer team has done strong work in outreach, promotion of findings from the studies, and recruitment of individual cer study participants. improved process of building capacity key informants had various suggestions for how the research team could continue to build capacity in the hispanic community. in fact, 40% stated that the cer team could work more closely with community partners, and 50% stated that the best way to conduct cer data collection was face-to-face. this supports consistent use of surveys done one-on-one. it was reassuring to find that 60% of participants thought that community interests were represented throughout the cer projects. community partners would like to receive more information about the status of current cer projects. it is clear that community members see value in the approach and initiatives, thus supporting this involvement. suggested ways to further involve the community include providing updates and information about the events the cer team will attend. 40% of informants shared they would like to receive updates about the progress of cer projects. g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s vo l . 4 , i s s u e 219 education and knowledge increasing access to dental health education was identified as vital by many key informants. forty percent of respondents shared that through the cer projects listed, the community was able to receive educational information about dental care. specifically, the navigation manual was utilized by the community. clinicians provided examples of how patients used this resource to advocate for themselves during dental visits. the value of having resources that speak to targeted hispanic communities has proven effective, rather than attempting to provide ‘one-size-fits-all’ resources meant to address concerns across all hispanic communities. in the case of the navigation manual, this resource focused on newcomers from central american countries (guatemala, el salvador, and honduras), utilizing language and cultural nuances specific to this population. another common theme gathered from the key informant interviews is that in order to continue making a difference for patients in dental care, hispanic communities need to learn about dental care options. by collaborating with partners throughout the state, the cer team has compiled a list of low-cost or free dental care resources. this list is periodically updated, openly disseminated, and also provided to community members as requested. key informants verified that this resource has been invaluable to increase the agency of individuals to have greater knowledge and advocacy tools to negotiate their way around dental care challenges discussion this is a qualitative analysis of perceptions about various research projects. based on the variety of impressions derived from the key informant interviews, we learned that community groups and academic allies are aligned in the process of cer knowledge and resource cocreation of dental health education and local dental care resources. the cer partnerships seem to have led to more hispanics living in indiana gaining greater understanding about access and awareness of dental care. through shared cer involvement, community groups take part in the decision making and shaping of research agendas, and academic allies figure 1: a guide for the care of teeth and mouth for communities from guatemala, el salvador, and honduras. the guide currently is being used by community partners throughout the state. the value of having resources that speak to targeted hispanic communities has proven effective, rather than attempting to provide ‘one-size-fits-all’ resources meant to address concerns across all hispanic communities. in the case of the navigation manual, this resource focused on newcomers from central american countries (guatemala, el salvador, and honduras), utilizing language and cultural nuances specific to this population...hispanic communities. 20engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry gain greater clarity to guide future directions and engagement opportunities with the community. cer partnerships therefore can facilitate further engagement opportunities as directed by community leaders. additionally, engagement should be sustainable through simple and accessible communication with community stakeholders, facilitated through paper and e-newsletters, open forums or roundtables, as suggested by community partners. however important our estimates may be, some methodological considerations apply to the straightforward design we created. while key informant interviews provide rich information and contribute to an enhanced understanding of evaluating communityacademic partnerships, they are labor and time intensive, requiring resources and skills on the part of the interviewer (patton, 2002; israel et al., 2012). additional challenges include the time constraints on the community partners, the degree to which members of a cer partnership have input into the design, implementation and interpretations of the partnership’s evaluation, and whether the evaluation should be led by an individual or team external and without a vested interest in the partnership (israel et al., 2012). perhaps of greater importance is the need to recognize that the evaluation methods used, and the questions asked in partnership and impact evaluation, may need to evolve over time as a cer partnership evolves. tolma et al. (2009) describe how community-academic partnerships go through different phases or stages and the dimensions that need to be evaluated change over time. within the constraints of our approach, it appears that shared power and capacity building can be estimated through assessment efforts such as the present perception analysis. cer lessons may be used to support the implementation of actionable processes where new knowledge can be generated by both academic allies and community members, leading to aligned and improved partner practices that support better health access and equity. together with other peer-reviewed and public announcements resources derived from the research enterprise under analysis, we aim to offer practical advice and real-world resources to support the acquisition of community-relevant tools. the following are the key takeaways from the present report: 1. hispanic community partnerships can serve as a tool for enabling communities accessing resources. 2. through key information interviews we learned how community – through descriptions in their own words – benefitted from past community-engaged research projects, and also about areas that need improvement. 3. connecting to various levels of the community, above and beyond the specific goals of the research project, is a vital part of a community-engaged research partnership. acknowledgments the content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the national institutes of health, indiana university, nor that of the richard m. fairbanks school of public health. the authors gratefully acknowledge the partnerships with numerous community members, multiple hispanic groups, and various entities over the years, as well as the time invested by the key informant interview participants in conducting this assessment. g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s additionally, engagement should be sustainable through simple and accessible communication with community stakeholders, facilitated through paper and e-newsletters, open forums or roundtables, as suggested by community partners. vo l . 4 i s s u e 221 g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s appendix 1 key unformant interview guide informant code: interviewer name: date: location of interview: interview start time: interview end time: introduction hello. thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview to help us evaluate your partnership with a community-engaged research (cer) project. you are being asked to participate because you are a valued member of the community or an academic ally in current or past cer projects. the purpose of this interview is to facilitate a reflection and evaluation of the cer project and your partnership. we are asking these questions to learn about your experiences, so that we can better understand how the projects perform, and how it can be improved to better meet its mission. everything you say will be strictly confidential and anonymous. we value your insight and expertise, so we’d like you to share, in your own words, the successes, any challenges, as well as any outcomes that you feel may have come from this cer project and your role. there is no right or wrong answer to any of the questions that i will be asking today. the interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed by a member of our research team. let’s begin. demographics 1. please describe your role in the community or the academic organization. process evaluation overall assessment of the cer projects. 1. could you briefly describe your knowledge of or role in the cer projects led by gerardo maupome, which you have collaborated with? 2. what were the most positive aspects of your involvement with the cer project? 3. in your opinion, how successful was the cer project in the community? did it add to the hispanic community’s knowledge of health issues? 4. in what ways is the cer project benefiting the community, or has benefitted it? probe: how could the cer project improve its benefits to or value in the community? 5. what feedback, if any, did you receive from community members regarding the cer project? capacity building 1. do you believe that this cer project contributed to building capacity in the hispanic community? (capacity building: allows individuals and organizations to perform at a greater level) yes/no probe: please explain. e.g. increase knowledge 2. to what extent and how has the cer project helped community organizations and members recognize and work with their assets and local resources? 3. if applicable, which activities do you believe have increased a community’s knowledge of health topics as a result of the cer project? 4. looking forward, what suggestions do you have to improve the process of building capacity within your community? 22engage! | e xo d u s & e n t ry g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s research 1. what do you believe is the best way to do cer with the hispanic community? 2. do you think that community interests have been represented and assured in the cer project? probe: please explain why or why not. overall impression 1. given your experience with the cer project, what advice do you have for us in the future? 2. do you have any other comments and/or questions you feel are important to you as a key informant of this impact assessment? probe: if yes, please describe. vo l . 4 , i s s u e 223 g i l e t. a l . | h i s p a n i c h e a l t h r e s e a r c h p e r c e p t i o n s references cheadle, a., samuels, s.e., rauzon, s., yoshida, s.c., schwartz, p.m., boyle, m., beery, w., craypo, l., & solomon, l. (2010). approaches to measuring the extent and impact of environmental change in three california community-level obesity prevention initiatives. american journal of public health, 100(11), 2129– 2136. https://doi.org/10.2105/ ajph.2010.300002 israel, b.a., schulz, a.j., parker, e.a., & becker, a.b. (1998). review of community-based research: assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. annual review of public health, 19(1), 173-202. https://doi.org/10.1146/ annurev.publhealth.19.1.173 israel, b.a., eng, e., schulz, a.j., parker, e.a. (2012). methods for community-based participatory research for health. 2nd ed. [ebook edition]. wiley. http:// ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ iupui-ebooks/detail.action?docid=918182 lasker, r.d., & weiss, e.s. (2003). broadening participation in community problem solving: a multidisciplinary model to support collaborative practice and research. journal of urban health: bulletin of the new york academy of medicine, 80(1),14-47; discussion 48-60. https://doi.org/10.1093/ jurban/jtg014 lopez-owens, m., starkey, k., gil, c., armenta, k., & maupomé, g. (2018). the vidasana study: recruitment strategies for longitudinal assessment of egocentric hispanic immigrant networks. international journal of environmental research and public health, 15(12), 2878. maupomé, g., mcconnell, w.r., & perry, b.l. (2016). dental problems and familismo: social network discussion of oral health issues among adults of mexican origin living in the midwest united states. community dental health, 33(4), 303. https://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ pmc5457701/ maupomé, g., mcconnell, w.r., perry, b.l., marino, r., & wright, e.r. (2016). psychological and behavioral acculturation in a social network of mexican americans in the united states and use of dental services. community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 44(6), 540-548. https://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ pmc7844983 nash, c. (2015). evaluating community based participatory research. community engaged scholarship institute. https:// atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlui/ handle/10214/8902 patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research & evaluation methods. sage. pullen, e., perry, b.l., & maupomé, g. (2018). “does this look infected to you?” social network predictors of dental help-seeking among mexican immigrants. journal of immigrant and minority health, 20(2), 399-409. pullen, e., perry, b.l., & maupomé, g. (2019). talking about teeth: egocentric networks and oral health outcomes in a mexican american immigrant community. advances in medical sociology,19, 105-122. doi: 10.1108/s1057629020190000019006 rodriguez, e.m., torres, e.t., erwin, d.o. (2013). awareness and interest in biospecimen donation for cancer research: views from gatekeepers and prospective participants in the hispanic community. journal of community genetics, 4(4), 461-468. https://doi. org/10.1007/s12687-013-0152-2 schulz, a.j., israel, b.a., & lantz, p. (2003). instrument for evaluating dimensions of group dynamics within community-based participatory research partnerships. evaluation and program planning, 26(3), 249-262. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01497189(03)00029-6 simmons, v.n., klasko, l.b., fleming, k., koskan, a.m., jackson, n.t., noel-thomas, s., luque, j., vadaparampil, s., lee, j., quinn, g., britt, l., waddell, r., meade, c., gwede, c., & tampa bay community cancer network community partners. (2015). participatory evaluation of a community-academic partnership to inform capacity-building and sustainability. evaluation and program planning, 52,19–26. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2015.03.005 sofaer, s. (1999). working together, moving ahead: a manual to support effective community health coalitions. school of public affairs, baruch college. https://www.rchnfoundation.org/ wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ working-together-moving-ahead-shoshanna-sofaer-1. pdf stacy, e., wisener k., liman, y., beznosova, o., lauscher, h.n., ho, k., & jarvis-selinger, s. (2014). community-based research in action: tales from the ktunaxa community learning centres project. progress in community health partnerships: research, education, and action, 8(3), 281– 290. https://doi.org/10.1353/ cpr.2014.0044 tolma, e.l., cheney, m.k., troup, p., & hann, n. (2009). designing the process evaluation for the collaborative planning of a local turning point partnership. health promotion practice, 10(4), 537-548. https://doi. org/10.1177/1524839907311574 usaid center for development information and evaluation. (1996). performance monitoring and evaluation tips: conducting key informant interviews. usaid. http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/ pnabs541.pdf wallerstein, n., & duran, b. (2010). community-based participatory research contributions to intervention research: the intersection of science and practice to improve health equity. american journal of public health,100(s1), s40-s46. https://doi. org/10.2105/ajph.2009.184036 engage! vol. 5, no. 3 8 table talks insights from the statewide conference conference attendees responded to prompts about iu and community 9 table talks (prompt responses con’t) 10 table talks (prompt responses con’t) engage! vol. 5, no. 3 mueller | technical assistance technical assistance: a high-touch, high-impact community engagement model rebecca mueller ma, mph, cph public health specialist iu prevention insights 14 paper 3 we also build fruitful partnerships with our clients as we follow them over months or years, share resources and opportunities, point out themes and takeaways we observe in their work, and explore possible enhancements together. my organization, prevention insights at the iu bloomington school of public health, works to address the addictions crisis here in indiana and nationally. i work closely with clients and communities around the state in my role as a prevention insights technical assistance specialist. technical assistance (ta) is defined by the centers for disease control and prevention as "the process of providing targeted support to an organization with a development need or problem, which is typically delivered over an extended period of time" (cdc, 2018). not to be confused with one-off or as-needed tech support, the prevention insights ta model is grounded in long-term relationships. we support prevention organizations with "technical assistance, coaching, and support" from the earliest stages of needs assessment, staff and organizational capacity building, and strategic planning; through the implementation of community-based strategies, evaluation, outcome dissemination, and sustainability planning. prevention insights ta specialists share our expertise in addiction science, evidence-based strategies, and program fidelity, bridging the gap between academic knowledge and our clients’ local efforts. we also build fruitful partnerships with our clients as we follow them over months or years, share resources and opportunities, point out themes and takeaways we observe in their work, and explore possible enhancements together. we challenge them to adopt best practices, provide high-quality programs and services to their communities, and achieve measurable outcomes. we celebrate when our clients write a successful grant proposal, gain the support of a county council member, or experience a breakthrough with that disengaged student in the back of the classroom. and we reflect together on complex issues, from local politics and conflicts with partners to the community tragedies of natural disaster, youth overdose or suicide. in february, i attended an iu coaching conversations training aimed at academic advisors and other student-facing professionals. the training was very relevant to my work as a technical assistance specialist. like students, our ta clients often come to us—and to indiana university, which we represent—for answers. references centers for disease control and prevention cdc (2018). technical assistance [video presentation]. part of professional development 101: the basics. national resource center for refugees, immigrants, and migrants nrc-rim (nd). using community based participatory research (cbpr). university of minnesota. paper 3 our primary task is to listen closely, explore their questions deeply, provide space for brainstorming, and assist them in recognizing that they and their stakeholders are the experts in identifying community strengths and determining an approach to planning, decision-making, and implementation suited to their local context. as a premier institution of higher learning, indiana university has an obligation to ensure that our work contributes to the public good. our leadership has demonstrated their commitment to this with the iu 2030 strategic plan's goal 3: service to our state and beyond. iu prevention insights' intensive, tailored technical assistance model is a high-touch, high-impact approach to community engagement that could be scaled up elsewhere at iu. high-quality ta service provision by iu experts has the potential to benefit professionals and organizations in any sector. the prevention insights ta model also benefits indiana university. in reference to iu 2030 goal 2: transformative research and creativity, ta clients—or their partners—could be enlisted in community-based participatory research (nrcrim, n.d.) to further our understanding of community-based processes and strengthen the evidence basis for specific solutions. formal research aside, the numerous, long-term community connections built through ta service provision afford an invaluable "bird’s-eye view" of real communities.our prevention insights team reflects regularly on trends and common challenges we observe across indiana, continually adding to our collective wisdom on how communities respond to those challenges, what works, and what doesn't. ultimately, ta service, like many other forms of service, involves its practitioners in communityengaged learning, and this learning can continually inform and improve iu's service to our state. 15 mueller | technical assistance amy warner vice chancellor for community engagement indiana university indianapolis 21 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n keywords homelessness, housing first, low-barrier assistance abstract this study addresses the complex challenges of homelessness in bloomington, indiana. beacon, inc., a nonprofit based in bloomington, plays a pivotal role in providing support to individuals experiencing homelessness in south-central indiana. beacon’s approach prioritizes immediate and barrier-free access to shelter and housing while eliminating stringent entry requirements. beacon offers three distinct programs: friend’s place, an emergency shelter; rapid rehousing, facilitating rapid transitions to stable housing; and crawford homes, providing permanent supportive housing. this research, conducted in partnership with beacon, employs a mixed-methods approach to examine homelessness in the city of bloomington. it includes a literature review, quantitative data analysis from nationwide counts and beacon’s programs, and interviews with beacon staff to gain insights into the housing crisis and its unique dynamics in this community. the results underscore the impact of beacon’s programs in 2022 on individuals experiencing extreme poverty in indiana’s region 10, which consists of six southcentral counties. despite the success of these programs, challenges persist for individuals experiencing homelessness, particularly in combating chronic homelessness. interviews with beacon staff highlighted additional barriers to housing, including high rent, inflexible landlords, evictions, and entanglement with the criminal justice system. this study suggests the need for diverse strategies, including expanding housing first programs and supportive housing models, as well as long-term government housing subsidies for low-income renters. these solutions can reduce reliance on emergency shelters and work to prevent chronic/ recurrent homelessness. by employing a mixedmethods research approach, this study offers valuable insights into homelessness and housing assistance programs, providing a foundation for future research aimed at comprehensively addressing homelessness in bloomington and similar communities. introduction homelessness is a pressing and multifaceted issue that deeply affects the community of bloomington, indiana, touching the lives of its residents and demanding urgent attention. in 2022, the point in time (pit) count, which is “a nationwide count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single date” (hud, 2022), estimated that 5,449 hoosiers were experiencing understanding the homelessness crisis and responses in bloomington, indiana authors josie mcquillan, indiana university school of medicine (iusm) medical student, 2023 hoosier public health corps (hphc) member rachel downey, hoosier public health corps (hphc)-indiana university school of medicine (iusm) part-time advisor/intern engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 22 m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n homelessness (hud, 2022). region 10 of indiana, which includes bloomington in monroe county, as well as five other neighboring counties (lawrence, morgan, owen, greene, and martin), accounted for 426 individuals experiencing homelessness alone (hud, 2022). notably, bloomington is a city that has been home to indiana university (iu), the state’s flagship campus, for over 200 years since the institution was first established in 1820 (indiana university bloomington, n.d.). as iu’s enrollment continues to increase at record pace this past year and the iu student presence in monroe county grows (indiana university, 2023), it begs the question of how this affects community members (smith, 2022) who live in this distinct college town/city and who are experiencing homelessness. overall, the housing crisis in bloomington is complex, driven by factors such as rising median rent, a shortage of available low-income housing options, a significant population of college students, and the criminalization of homelessness. these challenges contribute to and perpetuate homelessness within the city, making it imperative to explore the issue comprehensively. literature review it is essential to situate this study within the broader context of literature on homelessness. the criminalization of homelessness in the united states has been well documented via nationwide studies, as well as specific studies focused on individual u.s. cities (amster, 2003; foscarinis, 1996). many of these studies focus on homelessness within heavy metropolitan areas or the downtowns of major cities (love & loh, 2023). however, when considering homelessness strictly within the context of college towns or smaller cities such as bloomington, there is only preliminary research and data available on the situation in the united states. a recent study from england claims that homelessness is more prevalent in university/college towns within the country (hurst, 2022). however, in the u.s., research on homelessness in college towns is covered mainly through individual news articles or ethnographies of certain towns or regions (amster, 2003; girdwood, 2016; macmillian, 2013; malh, 2023) or focuses on disparities evident in adjacent inequalities, such as income inequality in college towns (depieto, 2022). within the context of indiana, literature on this subject reveals several critical insights and highlights the gravity of the issue. recent studies (hud, 2022) have indicated a downward trend in homelessness in indiana since 2007, which is an encouraging development. however, despite this overall trend, it is important to recognize that homelessness remains a pressing concern in specific communities, such as bloomington. studies emphasize the importance of examining the local context when addressing homelessness (o’flaherty, 2019). the unique challenges faced by communities like bloomington are underscored by localized factors. specifically, the presence of indiana university significantly influences housing availability and affordability. the demand for student housing not only raises rent but also reduces the supply of affordable housing units for low-income residents. moreover, bloomington’s housing crisis is compounded by an anti-homelessness culture at the state and city levels, reflected in various anti-homelessness and municipal laws. for example, in 2020, the indiana general assembly sought to restrict panhandling (solicitation or begging) statewide, a move that was later halted by a federal preliminary injunction (aclu of indiana, 2020). additionally, within the past year, the city of bloomington has upheld comparable anti-homelessness laws by prohibiting tents or homelessness encampments in public parks (lewis, 2023), contributing to the continued displacement of bloomington’s homeless individuals (stock, 2023). such local policies can further marginalize individuals experiencing homelessness, making it crucial to explore compassionate and effective interventions. while there is a growing body of research on homelessness at the national and state levels, there is a notable scarcity of literature specifically addressing homelessness in bloomington, indiana. only a few studies have explored the issue in this specific location, and these have primarily focused on specific subpopulations or aspects of homelessness. for instance, a recent study conducted in bloomington examined m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n vo l . 5, i s s u e 223 homelessness amongst people with companion animals, revealing their high attachment to their pets and the need for more pet-friendly overnight shelters (kim, 2019). while this study provides valuable insights, it also highlights the shortage of comprehensive research on homelessness in bloomington, particularly concerning its broader dynamics and the efficacy of existing interventions. several national studies (culhane, 2017; o’flaherty, 2019) on homelessness have emphasized the significance of low-barrier and housing first approaches in effectively addressing homelessness. these models prioritize immediate and barrier-free access to shelter and housing, with the housing first model gaining recognition for its success in reducing homelessness through the provision of immediate housing without preconditions, followed by the delivery of supportive services. nonprofits, such as beacon, inc., that employ these strategies to assist homeless individuals in college town communities play a crucial role in advocating for the needs of the homeless population in these particular settings. beacon, inc. beacon, inc., is a bloomington-based nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding and empowering people experiencing homelessness. beyond providing essential assistance programs, the staff and volunteers of beacon actively engage in hands-on initiatives to understand and address homelessness in bloomington. one important aspect of beacon’s commitment is its direct involvement in the annual point in time (pit) count. the pit count is often completed with the assistance of individuals who routinely serve persons experiencing homelessness, and this is indeed true for beacon workers and volunteers in bloomington. this collaborative effort is crucial, as the trust established between service workers and those in crisis through routine interactions is instrumental in encouraging homeless individuals to participate in the count. this trust fosters an environment conducive to collecting accurate and insightful data. beacon’s approach emphasizes immediate and lowbarrier access to shelter and housing, aligning with the previously discussed evidence-based practices. this involves eliminating sobriety requirements, income prerequisites, and other policies that hinder entry, retention, or access to opportunities. beacon offers several impactful programs, including friend’s place, an emergency shelter (es); rapid re-housing (rrh), facilitating rapid transitions to stable housing; and crawford homes, providing permanent supportive housing (psh). friend’s place stands out as the only year-round, non-religious emergency shelter for adults in the bloomington area, providing 40 safe and sober beds. rapid re-housing offers short-term financial assistance for security deposits, rent, utilities, moving expenses, application fees, etc., as well as providing supportive case management. crawford homes offers housing and supportive services for individuals experiencing long-term homelessness due to a disability, providing 110 psh homes. these programs are moreover, bloomington’s housing crisis is compounded by an anti-homelessness culture at the state and city levels, reflected in various anti-homelessness and municipal laws. this collaborative effort is crucial, as the trust established between service workers and those in crisis through routine interactions is instrumental in encouraging homeless individuals to participate in the count. this trust fosters an environment conducive to collecting accurate and insightful data. engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 24 m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n critical components of the multifaceted response to homelessness in bloomington. americorps involvement: during the summer of 2023, i had the privilege to serve at beacon’s day shelter, known as the shalom center, as part of an americorps program in partnership with the indiana university school of medicine (iusm), called the hoosier public health corps (hphc). this experience provided me with a unique opportunity to witness firsthand the challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness in bloomington. it also served as the catalyst for conducting a communityengaged research project to investigate homelessness in bloomington, with a specific focus on the responses to the city’s housing crisis within the context of beacon’s three homelessness assistance programs. research methodology and objectives: this study embraces a community-engaged research (cer) approach, in which research is a “true collaborative enterprise between researchers and communities” (wong-parodi, 2022). practically, this approach involves “clarifying research and engagement goals, learning about community context, building trust and relationships, being flexible, and demonstrating long-term commitment” (wong-parodi, 2022). this study’s foundational framework is based on critical community-based epistemologies. using this framework yields a methodology that incorporates key principles of reciprocity, relationality, a focus on action, the use of conversational storytelling, and reflective practices (shah, 2020). community-engaged research, as implemented in collaboration with beacon, places beacon staff in a central role guiding the project’s direction. the primary objectives of the study, as established by beacon staff, involve gaining a profound understanding of homelessness in bloomington, evaluating the impact of beacon’s programs, identifying challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness, exploring effective strategies, and contributing to ongoing efforts to enhance the well-being of individuals affected by this crisis, while working towards lasting solutions for the community. the methodology utilizes a mixed-methods research approach, combining quantitative analysis and qualitative interviews. quantitative data sources include the 2022 point in time (pit) count and housing inventory count (hic), in addition to de-identified 2022 program data provided by beacon, inc., specifically sourced from the annual performance reports of beacon crawford homes (version 1.2), friend’s place (version 1.2), and esg rrh (version 1.2). notably, the active participation of beacon staff and volunteers in the pit count data collection further enriches the quantitative data. this study also integrates qualitative data gathered through interviews with three de-identified beacon staff members. to safeguard participant privacy, roles and responsibilities of the staff members remain unnamed in this study. this multifaceted research approach facilitates a more holistic exploration of homelessness in bloomington, combining quantitative rigor with qualitative depth to capture the nuances of the challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness. results analysis of the quantitative data reveals the significant impact of beacon's assistance programs for individuals experiencing homelessness in region 10. as shown in table 1, beacon alone sheltered or housed 88.75 percent of the population experiencing homelessness in region 10 in 2022. furthermore, the quantitative data highlights the value of beacon offering three distinct assistance programs to meet different needs, as seen in the distribution of active clients in beacon's programs in figure 1. the friend’s place program had a utilization rate of 74 percent and provided 11,761 bed nights, representing the total number of beds filled each night during the year, in 2022. the rapid re-housing program had a utilization rate of 100 percent, and 52.9 percent of individuals assisted through this program successfully moved into housing in 2022. the crawford homes program had a 25 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n utilization rate of 93 percent, and 91.2 percent of individuals served by this program obtained stable housing, either within crawford apartments or in scattered-site apartments throughout the community in 2022. these utilization rates underscore the capacity of beacon’s programs to address homelessness and facilitate housing stability. despite the evident benefits of these programs, the data reveals a high prevalence of individuals who are experiencing chronic homelessness. for this study, individuals experiencing chronic homelessness are defined as those with a disabling condition who have either been continuously homeless for at least one year or homeless table 1. number of people sheltered (*or moved into housing) by beacon's three programs in 2022 compared to the pit's estimated number of unsheltered individuals in region 10 of indiana in 2022. figure 1. the number and percentage of active clients in each of the three beacon programs in 2022. m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n 26 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 at least four times in the past three years (hud, 2022). in 2022, 27.0 percent of friend's place clients and 75.9 percent of crawford homes clients met this definition. this identified struggle of long-term and recurring homelessness is informed by the qualitative data found in this study. interviews with beacon staff members reveal specific barriers in bloomington that impede unsheltered individuals from attaining stable housing, as outlined in figure 2. the high rent and overall cost of living in bloomington pose considerable challenges for individuals striving to maintain housing stability. a staff member emphasized that “college towns see this a lot, the cost of living is higher here” and noted that “rent in town keeps going up.” these elevated rent costs are, in part, attributed to the presence of indiana university, which must accommodate a large and growing number of students. additionally, challenges in working with inflexible local landlords hinder beacon staff’s efforts to help clients secure housing; one staff member explained, “some landlords have refused to work with us.” the prevalence of high eviction rates further contributes to and perpetuates homelessness, as individuals must restart the difficult process of finding a home. furthermore, homelessness itself is criminalized, and any involvement with the criminal justice system poses another barrier to achieving stable and secure housing. a staff member pointed out that “rapid re-housing is only short term [assistance]” and thus any disruptions to one’s housing can be exceptionally difficult for individuals to recover from. these factors may, in part, account for the 11.25 percent of individuals in region 10 who are unsheltered and the elevated prevalence of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in this area. discussion the quantitative and qualitative findings from beacon highlight the complexity of homelessness and the need for diverse approaches. the significant impact of each of the three beacon programs supports the implementation of multiple forms of low-barrier assistance within a single community. as discussed earlier, beacon’s programs have successfully sheltered or housed a significant percentage of the people experiencing homelessness in region 10. the utilization rates reveal a substantial demand for all three of beacon’s programs, underscoring the evident need for these services in the community. the 100 percent utilization rate for rapid re-housing is particularly noteworthy, as it demonstrates the program’s capacity to address immediate housing needs effectively. similarly, the 93 percent utilization rate for crawford homes highlights its role in providing stable housing solutions to individuals experiencing longterm homelessness, a persistent issue in bloomington. these utilization rates align with the broader objectives of addressing homelessness in bloomington, including reducing primary reliance on emergency the prevalence of high eviction rates further contributes to and perpetuates homelessness, as individuals must restart the difficult process of finding a home. figure 2. barriers to permanent, stable housing in bloomington, as identified by beacon staff members. engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 27 shelters like friend’s place and breaking the cycle of homelessness. beacon’s programs actively contribute to the overarching goal of offering individuals stable and supportive living environments, thereby working towards a lasting reduction in homelessness in the community. additionally, it’s crucial to acknowledge the effectiveness of the housing first model, a cornerstone of beacon’s approach. the housing first model prioritizes immediate housing, followed by the provision of supportive services. these services encompass a wide range of support, including case management to assist clients in achieving employment, healthcare access, stability, self-sufficiency, and personal goals. individuals in need are also connected with various community services, such as mental health counseling, substance use disorder treatment, medical care, and legal assistance. research has demonstrated that mental health and substance use services, while important, do not affect the stability of housing outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness (o’regan, 2021). thus, immediate and low-barrier housing should be prioritized (o’regan, 2021). in a randomized controlled trial of a housing first intervention for adults with mental disorders in toronto, it was found that the housing first approach was strongly associated with rapid transitions to sustained housing: 70.4 percent of housing first participants versus 27.9 percent of treatment-as-usual participants (lachaud, 2021). homelessness can be both a cause and consequence of poor mental healthcare, and by overturning conventional prerequisites such as medication adherence, abstinence, and proof of “housing worthiness,” housing first has proven to be effective in assisting individuals experiencing homelessness (padgett, 2020). the growing evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of the housing first approach reinforces the importance of ensuring that individuals have rapid access to housing regardless of their sobriety or mental health status and then offering support services on a voluntary basis (padgett, 2020). this approach contributes to beacon’s effectiveness in addressing homelessness in bloomington and maintaining the humanity of the city’s homeless individuals. while the literature suggests that completing a rapid rehousing program is a significant predictor of remaining in permanent housing (brown, 2018), this project has unveiled a range of external factors that contribute to recurrent and chronic homelessness in bloomington. these persistent barriers align with findings in the existing literature. for example, research indicates that the absence of income growth during participation in a rapid re-housing program increases the risk of returning to homeless services (brown, 2017). additionally, a study of individuals experiencing homelessness who participated in transitional programming revealed that a lack of social support from friends and family was significantly associated with a repeated episode of homelessness within a year of program departure and with a faster time to return to the homeless shelter (duchesne, 2015). despite the utilization of transitional programs like rapid re-housing, multiple barriers continue to prevent individuals from attaining permanent housing. while these programs play a vital role in responding to homelessness, there is an identified need for larger upstream changes in bloomington to achieve a lasting reduction in homelessness. addressing the multifaceted challenges contributing to chronic homelessness in bloomington demands a strategic and comprehensive approach. one evidencebased strategy involves the expansion of long-term m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n these services encompass a wide range of support, including case management to assist clients in achieving employment, healthcare access, stability, self-sufficiency, and personal goals. individuals in need are also connected with various community services, such as mental health counseling, substance use disorder treatment, medical care, and legal assistance. m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n 28 vo l . 5, i s s u e 2 federal government housing subsidies, such as section 8 housing choice vouchers, aimed at assisting lowincome renters (fischer et al., 2019; garboden et al., 2018). these subsidies have notably demonstrated their effectiveness in beacon’s work, playing a crucial role in providing affordable and stable housing options for individuals and families at risk of homelessness. such federal policies are significant factors in shaping the availability and accessibility of resources that are vital to effectively combating homelessness at the local level (fischer et al., 2019). in the context of bloomington, tackling the complexities of homelessness necessitates more than isolated measures; it calls for comprehensive systemic changes. this involves not only the expansion of federal housing subsidies such as housing choice vouchers, but also policy reforms, community-level initiatives, and holistic housing strategies (fischer et al., 2019; garboden et al., 2018). through the collective implementation of these measures, we can forge lasting solutions and address the root causes of homelessness in our community. to address these findings and gain a more comprehensive understanding of homelessness in bloomington, it is essential to acknowledge this study's limitations. a primary constraint is the small sample size, consisting of only three interviewees. this limited sample size implies that there may be factors contributing to bloomington's housing crisis that were not captured in this research. while this study involved interviews with beacon staff and analysis of program data, conducting direct interviews with individuals currently experiencing homelessness in bloomington presents an opportunity to collect valuable narratives and insights not captured in this study’s qualitative data. although interviews with individuals experiencing homelessness would require stringent ethical considerations due to participants’ vulnerability, they could also offer valuable insights into this crisis. future research should aim to delve into the experiences and perspectives of those currently facing homelessness in bloomington, thus enriching our understanding of homelessness and its complexities in this community. despite these limitations, this study represents a valuable starting point for comprehending homelessness in bloomington and identifying potential areas for future research and improvements within the community. conclusions & future implications this study is part of an ongoing effort to better understand the challenges that individuals experiencing homelessness face in securing and maintaining affordable housing in bloomington, indiana. it also aims to assess local homelessness response programs and identify persisting barriers. evidence-based solutions to overcome factors contributing to chronic homelessness in bloomington may include expanding housing first programs, implementing more low-barrier supportive housing models, and providing long-term government housing subsidies for low-income renters. these measures can reduce reliance on emergency shelters like beacon’s friend’s place as the primary solution to homelessness and work toward breaking the cycle of homelessness. moreover, this study underscores the value of employing a mixed-methods research approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data, to gain a comprehensive understanding of homelessness within specific communities, such as college towns and cities. personal narratives from individuals closely connected to homelessness, such as those associated with beacon, offer valuable insights that complement and inform quantitative data on homelessness and related assistance programs. future research in this area should delve deeper into specific barriers, such as eviction rates, parole participation, and legal/criminal cases, to better understand their impact on the housing prospects of individuals experiencing homelessness in bloomington and other college towns/cities. acknowledgments this community-engaged research project was funded in part by the americorps federal agency and serve indiana. thank you to the hoosier public health corps, indiana university school of medicine, and beacon, inc. special thanks to those at beacon's shalom center for welcoming me this summer. engage! | h o m e l e s s n e s s & h o u s i n g i n s ec u r i t y 29 m c q u i l l a n e t a l | h o m e l e s s n e s s c r i s i s i n b l o o m i n g t o n , i n references amster, r. (2003). patterns of exclusion: sanitizing space, criminalizing homelessness. social justice, 30(1 (91)), 195–221. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/29768172 beacon, inc. (2022-2023). annual performance report beacon crawford homes (version 1.2) [data set]. beacon, inc. beacon, inc. (2022-2023). annual performance report beacon friend's place (version 1.2) [data set]. beacon, inc. beacon, inc. (2022-2023). annual performance report esg rrh beacon bos, esg-cv rrh cares (version 1.2) [data set]. beacon, inc. brown, m., klebek, l., chodzen, g., scartozzi, s., cummings, c., & raskind, a. (2018). housing status among single adults following homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing program participation in indianapolis. eval program plann, 69, 92-98. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2018.04.015 brown, m., vaclavik, d., watson, dp., & wilka, e. (2017). predictors of homeless services re-entry within a sample of adults receiving homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing program (hprp) assistance. psychol serv, 14(2), 129-140. doi: 10.1037/ ser0000112 the criminalization of homelessness in indiana. aclu of indiana. (2020, august 11). https://www. aclu-in.org/en/news/criminalization-homelessness-indiana culhane, d. p., & metraux, s. (2017). rearranging the deck chairs or reallocating the lifeboats?: homelessness assistance and its alternatives. journal of the american planning association, 83(4), 346-361. the department of housing and urban development (hud). (2022). point-in-time estimates, housing inventory count [data set]. https://www.hudexchange. info/resource/3031/pit-and-hicdata-since-2007/ depieto, a. (2022, december 14). when it comes to income inequality in america, college towns are often the worst. forbes. https://www.forbes. com/sites/andrewdepietro/2022/12/14/when-it-comesto-income-inequality-in-america-college-towns-are-often-theworst/?sh=41c946442d84 duchesne, a., & rothwell, d. (2015, july 18). what leads to homeless shelter re-entry? an exploration of the psychosocial, health, contextual and demographic factors. ssrn. https:// ssrn.com/abstract=2636551 fischer, w., rice, d., & mazzara, a. (2019, december 5). research shows rental assistance reduces hardship and provides platform to expand opportunity for low-income families. center on budget and policy priorities. https://www. cbpp.org/research/housing/ research-shows-rental-assistance-reduces-hardship-and-provides-platform-to-expand foscarinis, m. (1996). downward spiral: homelessness and its criminalization. yale law & policy review, 14(1), 1–63. http://www. jstor.org/stable/40239449 garboden, p., rosen, e., greif, m., deluca, s., & edin, k. (2018, may). urban landlords and the housing choice voucher program: a research report. u.s. department of housing and urban development. https://www.hud.gov/ sites/dfiles/pih/documents/research_report_hcv-program.pdf girdwood, j. r. (2016). redefining the homeless experience in michigan. michigan state univeristy: msu library-digital repository. https://doi.org/doi:10.25335/ m5fj44 hurst, g. (2022, august). could universities do more to end homelessness? centre for homelessness impact. https:// assets-global.website-files. com/59f07e67422cdf0001904c14/62f664761068fd22e8697afe_chi_universities_policy_paper_v04.pdf indiana university. (2023, september 1). iu welcomes nearly 22,000 new beginner students, sees increase in overall enrollment. iu news. https://news. iu.edu/live/news/31861-iu-welcomes-nearly-22000-new-beginner-students#:~:text=in%20 all%2c%20bloomington%20 has%20enrolled,at%20iu%20 bloomington%20this%20fall. indiana university bloomington. (n.d.). about: the ideal college experience. https://bloomington.iu.edu/about/index.html#:~:text=founded%20in%20 1820%2c%20indiana%20 university,in%20research%20 and%20the%20arts. kim, c. (2019). homelessness and animal companionship in bloomington, indiana. human-animal interaction bulletin. https://doi. org/10.1079/hai.2019.0004 lachaud, j., mejia-lancheros, c., nisenbaum, r., stergiopoulos, v., o'campo, p., & hwang, s. w. (2021). housing first and severe mental disorders: the challenge of exiting homelessness. annals of the american academy of political and social science, 693(1), 178–192. https://doi. org/10.1177/0002716220987220 lewis, m. (2023, august 23). bloomington bans homeless encampments in city parks citing safety concerns. fox59 news. https://fox59.com/news/bloomington-bans-homeless-encampments-in-city-parks-citing-safety-concerns/#:~:text=the%20 park%20commissioners%20 unanimously%20passed,department%20of%20 parks%20and%20recreation.%e2%80%9d love, h & loh, t. h. (2023, december 7). homelessness in us cities and downtowns. brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/homelessness-in-us-citiesand-downtowns/ macmillian, b. (2013, december 31). homeless in a college town documentary explores the homeless in amherst, ma. pulse magazine. https://thepulsemag. com/2013/12/homeless-in-a-college-town-documentary-exploresthe-homeless-in-amherst-ma malh, a. (2023, february 1). stop ignoring homeless people on state street. the michigan daily. https://www.michigandaily.com/ michigan-in-color/state-street/ o’flaherty, b. (2019). making room: the economics of homelessness. harvard university press. o’regan, k. m., ellen, i. g., & house, s. (2021). how to address homelessness: reflections from research. the annals of the american academy of political and social science, 693(1), 322–332. doi: 10.1177/0002716221995158 padgett d. k. (2020). homelessness, housing instability and mental health: making the connections. bjpsych bulletin, 44(5), 197–201. https://doi.org/10.1192/ bjb.2020.49 shah, r. w. (2020). rewriting partnerships: community perspectives on community-based learning. university press of colorado. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/j.ctv11qdwz2 smith, r. (2022, december 7). as indiana university's enrollment increases, monroe county's presence on campus. the harold-times. https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/ education/campus/2022/12/07/ iu-bloomingtons-hometown-student-population-makes-up-lessof-total/69496754007/ stock, e. (2023, march 30). tent dwellers near bloomington shelter seek other options after the city forces them to move. wglt. https://www.wglt.org/ local-news/2023-03-29/tentdwellers-near-bloomington-shelter-seek-other-options-after-thecity-forces-them-to-move wong-parodi, g. (2022). community-engaged research is stronger and more impactful. nature human behaviour, 6(12), 1601-1602. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41562-022-01494-5 engage! vol. 5, no. 3 be better together 21 paper 6 be better together: importance of institution and network building kim a. decker phd, rn, cns clinical associate professor iu school of nursing bloomington catherine m. sherwood-laughlin hsd, mph, ma clinical professor iu school of public health bloomington suzanne r. allen, ms director of iu corps indiana university iu corps networking is the "action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts" (momentum management consulting, 2022). network building, related to public health nursing, involves the process of bringing people, with common interests, together to accomplish specific tasks or goals related to addressing a public health need. to ensure the network building process is implemented to meet the tasks or goals, it is imperative that the information shared with appropriate and relevant colleagues piques their interests and desires to support the public health need. this manuscript describes a communitybased public health nursing intervention and the process of building a network to support the goals of the project (indiana university school of nursing bloomington, n.d.). in 2015, the indiana university bloomington (iub) school of nursing (son) received a donor gift with the task of creating an interprofessional community health education project to meet the health needs in south central indiana. the project leaders reached out to already established community and academic partners to gauge interest in collaborating on the implementation of a needs assessment and the development of an intervention based on the results. the outcome was the development of an advisory committee that included individuals from social service agencies, schools, health care, county health departments, along with faculty, students and professional staff from nursing, public health, brain and psychological sciences, education, and social work. the primary result from the needs assessment were concerns around substance abuse and a need for more mental health resources. since 2015, the advisory committee has served to support the implementation and evaluation of substance use prevention and mental health programs in rural school-based settings. to date, the program has been implemented by 201 college students from multiple degree programs in six county school systems reaching over 6,637 elementary-level students. the advisory committee continues to meet monthly to support the efforts of the son's implementation and evaluation of the program in schools. the committee specifically provides feedback about the implementation of evidencebased programs, successes and challenges implementing the program in schools, ensuring the information and skills the students learn are developmentally relevant, and address current trends. over time, new members have joined the advisory committee based on the results of the evaluations and in-depth discussions to ensure the sustainability of the program. one example is the addition of an expert in rural health and community capacity building from the iub center for rural engagement. this allowed the exploration of securing additional funding to provide the financial support of iub graduate student interns and purchasing program materials to provide the program at no cost to the school corporations. another example was the addition of a doctoral student from the school of education to support the needs related to classroom management, a significant challenge for the facilitators. the cre's unconference led to the expansion of the team through a conversation between the advisory committee's chair and the iu corps director to develop a plan to recruit additional college students from other disciplines to be trained as facilitators and become part of the interdisciplinary team implementing the program in fall 2024. the longevity of the advisory committee and the continual recruitment of members from related disciplines to join the committee have supported the sustainability of the program. these efforts have provided educational opportunities for youth in rural elementary schools to learn about the negative outcomes of substance use and learn skills to support their mental health. the initial funding from a donor to the iub son has led to the implementation of a program that addresses the health and wellness needs of rural youth. references indiana university school of nursing bloomington. (n.d.). outreach. improving the health of our communities: dr. anita aldrich community health promotion project. bloomington/outreach/index.html momentum management consulting. (2022, november 4). what is networking? momentum management consulting blog. paper 6 be better together the longevity of the advisory committee and the continual recruitment of members from related disciplines to join the committee have supported the sustainability of the program. 22 susan sciame-giesecke professor and iu vice president for regional campuses and online education https://nursing.iu.edu/bloomington/outreach/index.html engage publication.cdr acknowledgements editors khaula murtadha iu indianapolis andrea copeland iu indianapolis associate editors william b. crow lehigh university carolyn gentle-genitty butler university virgil gregory iu indianapolis jim grim community engaged scholar rita hodges university of pennsylvania natasha howard morehouse college terri jett st. mary’s college eric kyere iu indianapolis brendan maxcy iu indianapolis thu sương nguyen iu indianapolis mary price forum on education abroad carol rogers iu indianapolis javiette vashan samuel university of tennessee knoxville sarah stanlick worcester polytechnic institute ellen szarleta iu northwest laura weaver campus compact claire wallace olivia macisaac iu indianapolis library designer rituals of an unconference: the emergence of anti-structure through the liminality and communitas of community engaged scholars jeremy f. price associate professor of technology, innovation, and pedagogy in urban education iu indianapolis school of education bringing community engaged scholars together is always a worthwhile endeavor, to allow them to share their experiences, exchange their ideas and practices, and to commiserate around their concerns. the 2024 unconference was one of these experiences, gathering like-minded researchers and scholars in one place to bond, find new contacts, and engage in important discussions and problem solving. at first glance, this appeared as a temporary community of engaged scholars and cultural workers constructed around shared practices and epistemological assumptions. or was this experience and others like it, something else, even more powerful and transformative? as an anthropology major in the 1990's, i was continually drawn back to the works of humanistic anthropologist victor turner. reading turner's the ritual process: structure and anti-structure (1991), joseph campbell's the hero with a thousand faces (2004), and rabbi arthur green's tormented master: the life and spiritual quest of rabbi naḥman of bratslav (1992) sideby-side my senior year in college was a transformative experience. it crystalized my expanding fascination with the active interplay between structure and agency, societal forces and individual freedoms, and the tensions between social progress and the preservation of traditions. years later, while crafting a theoretical framework for my doctoral dissertation, sitting in the warm middle east sun in jerusalem at an outdoor table at a café on emek rafa'im (valley of ghosts) street, i once again wandered through turner's work, specifically dramas, fields, and metaphors: symbolic action in human society (1974). this exploration of his ethnographic works deepened my understanding of the historical and intellectual roots of modern symbolic interactionism and social practice theory. paper 2 online journal development 11 12 turner was particularly and personally significant at each of these moments as those were times when i found myself in a state of liminality. turner defines liminality as in-betweenness, outside of the typical cultural and societal structures that keep one grounded in everydayness. liminality is not meant to be a permanent place or time, where one can transcend and live outside of structure, but rather a phase in which one can become transformed and then participate in bringing about broader cultural shifts. liminality is a process of becoming, growing, and transforming in which the individual actor adopts new ways of being and doing by uncovering new ideas and practices through experience and exchange to bring that new knowledge and ways of doing back to their ordinary, everyday lives. much like campbell's hero's journey in which the protagonist is transformed by acquiring boons and attaching oneself to a guide, liminality is not a solitary event. encountering others undergoing parallel liminal experiences can result in communitas. communitas develops through a shared experience of liminality so that a fluid network rooted in practice and experience emerges, joining people together in solidarity to develop, grow, create, and imagine possibilities. everyday life is grounded in structure, reflecting "patterned arrangements of role-sets, status-sets, and status-sequences consciously recognized and regularly operative in a given society" (turner, 1974, p. 237). from the shared time, experiences, and relationships of liminality and communitas, anti-structure emerges. as much as antimatter in physics does not mean there is an absence of matter, antistructure does not mean there is an absence of structure. rather than representing prescribed patterned arrangements as structure does, antistructure emerges through experiences of liminality and communitas. community engaged research is in many ways a network of liminal practices and epistemologies compared to the structure of traditional forms of scholarship in the academy. while traditional research prioritizes documenting, controlling, and predicting, community engaged research is interand transdisciplinary, pragmatic, and locally focused. community engaged research prioritizes honoring community knowledge and capital, accepts diverse outputs, and values transformative goals. this stands in contrast to traditional research's reliance on gatekeeping and abstract metrics. compared to the structures encoded into how we carry ourselves in our everyday disciplinary or departmental settings, community engaged research—as liminal assemblages of practices, epistemologies, and values—is a set of networks and relationships that allow for the emergence of anti-structure and the opening of possibilities. coconstructing and navigating the anti-structure of community engaged research doesn't always lead to the traditional measure of academic success – that ill-defined concept of "reputation." instead, it offers the potential for real transformation, benefiting both the communities involved and the research teams themselves. the unconference provided those of us in the liminal status that community engaged research practices engender a hearth to gather around in communitas. in gathering around this hearth, we sat and shared stories and concerns to support each other, knowing we are not alone in our endeavors even if it feels that way within the structures of our home departments, disciplines, and offices. in gathering around this hearth, we stood and discussed and planned an agenda to be with communities, reaching in partnership through research and ongoing work with the goal of bending structure to reflect the justice, equity, health, and wellbeing that we know is possible. paper 2 price | rituals of unconference 13 we know it is possible because, in our liminal space of communitas, we imagined it together. that same senior year in the 1990's, i took an archaeology class to fulfill the "four fields" requirement of my anthropology major. as an introduction, we read david macaulay's motel of the mysteries (1979) which documented an imagined future where the world as it is now was buried in junk mail, uncovered and analyzed by archaeologists of the future. if archaeologists were to uncover that ballroom in indianapolis on that day, frozen in time, i wonder what they would see? how they would interpret this assembly at the physical fringes of the campus, would they see a small village at the outskirts of a larger settlement on the banks of a slow moving river? a gathering of magicians or healers? a guild of thieves? the performance of a cult ritual meant to usher in the rains of spring? i write this knowing that these interpretations would only make sense if future archaeology was undergirded by the same arrogance that is a hallmark of contemporary science and social science. paper 2 while traditional research prioritizes documenting, controlling, and predicting, community engaged research is interand transdisciplinary, pragmatic, and locally focused. such assumptions and interpretations should be problematic now and in the future. instead, i hope the archaeologists would recognize the evidence of anti-structure in that ballroom, the distributed nature of knowledge and authority, and the work being done to co-construct and cofacilitate mutually transformational infrastructures and practices for equity, justice, honor, and wellbeing for all communities. references campell, j. (2002). the hero with a thousand faces (commemorative edition). princeton university press. green, a. (1992). tormented master: the life and spiritual quest of rabbi nahman of bratslav. jewish lights. macaulay, d. (1979). motel of the mysteries (illustrated edition). clarion books turner, v. (1974). dramas, fields, and metaphors: symbolic action in human society. cornell university press. turner, v. (1991). the ritual process: structure and anti-structure. cornell university press. price | rituals of unconference 1: cover 2: contents 3: contents 4: more info 5: welcome 6: welcome 7: guest 8: table talks 9: table talks page 10 11: acknowledgements 12: paper 2 13: paper 2 14: paper 3 15: paper 3 16: paper 4 17: paper 4 18: paper 4 19: paper 5 20: paper 5 21: paper 6 22: paper 6 23: paper 8 24: paper 8 25: paper 8 26: paper 1 27: paper 1 28: paper 7 29: paper 7 30: paper 9 31: paper 9 page 32 engage! vol. 5, no. 3 mahoney | reflections 19 paper 5 the community engagement unconference was a validating and encouraging experience for me. i have been involved in community engagement throughout my entire iu career, but often i feel rather isolated in this work. our university is so large, and we receive so much information that we are overwhelmed and lost when we try to connect with others who are doing community engagement. the unconference gave us the opportunity to find our fellows. it was lovely to see and hear from others who are doing incredible and inspiring things in communities across the state. i appreciated hearing from administrators, faculty, staff, and students who are facing similar challenges, but even more, i loved hearing about their strategies, best practices, and resources. some put names to things i had experienced but never named myself. one of these was "cultural humility," a term that resonated deeply with me as a fundamental value we must incorporate into every community engagement initiative. back in my undergraduate days, community engagement was a very different animal; we approached with a "wecan-fix-your-problems" mentality. thankfully, we know better now. we cannot go into a community with a deficit mentality, assuming we know what it needs. we must go in to "listen and listen again," asking questions not only about the community's needs, but also about its strengths. another invaluable aspect of the unconference was the openness and creativity it encouraged. rather than stodgily defending their "territory" or their "discipline," faculty were offering new, groundbreaking ideas to tackle big problems without being constrained by traditional notions of academia. campuses, and across the state. we have so much to offer our students, our state, our nation, and our world. staying married to how things have always been done will limit us to a future that is no better than our past. i was greatly heartened to hear faculty and administrators voicing innovative ideas to collaborate across departments, across campuses, and across the state. we cannot go into a community with a deficit mentality, assuming we know what it needs. we must go in to “listen and listen again,” asking questions not only about the community’s needs, but also about its strengths. jennifer price mahoney associate director senior lecturer in english, iu indianapolis writing program iu school of liberal arts iu indianapolis reflections on the community engagement unconference: helping all hoosiers win bennion | menu of civics projects paper 5 20 finally, i was energized by talking to people who are just as passionate as i am about making real change. our university provides us with so many resources and opportunities to address serious issues like educational inequality, healthcare access, food deserts, climate change, water pollution, and racial injustice. we still face many challenges in supporting and assessing our work. high-impact practices, such as service learning and community-based projects, require more time, energy, and emotional investment than the traditional lecture-discussion-test mode of teaching; the substantial work we put in is difficult to reflect in our annual reviews or promotion and tenure dossiers. still, i left the unconference feeling optimistic about where we are going as a university and what we can accomplish. after 23 years working with students on community-based research and service projects, i am more hopeful than ever that this work is valued and valuable, and our students will use their experiences to make a better future for all of us. all of our campuses – from bloomington to indianapolis, from south bend to kokomo – have experience, expertise, and energy that we can use toward making all our communities stronger, healthier, and more prosperous. working together, we can accomplish so much more to help all hoosiers, not just those of us wearing red and white. bennion | menu of civics projects community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community creating a complete learning community a new chapter for peace learning center and the tribes learning community lynne mcmahan, tiffany talbert abstract more than one hundred years ago, john dewey espoused an aligned belief that classrooms should be a model of the family, a complete community where students would be nurtured and grow through the learning culture. his profound belief in democracy and progressive education focused his pedagogical philosophy around creating civically engaged citizens. this ideal is one that is critically needed in 2020—the year where racial and social justice and a global pandemic have unearthed and tested individual and systemic rights and responsibilities, requiring civically engaged citizens to move us through this unprecedented time. this article is intended to encourage and anchor the reader in the mission and vision and curriculum of two purpose-filled organizations (tribes learning community, tlc and peace learning center, plc) that have taken dewey’s beliefs and philosophy in a civically engaged, democratic classroom to the level of restorative action to build equitable, safe and courageous learning communities of trust and care for our students and the future of their world beyond the year 2020. to build well these equitable and effective learning communities, teaching and learning specific skill sets through social emotional learning, collaboration, and innovative strategies are essential. keywords: civic engagement, resiliency, learning communities, relational trust, social emotional learning, equity, restorative practice authors lynne mcmahan associate faculty member and specialty certification coordinator, prescott college consultant and online platform designer for the transformational school leadership initiative tiffany talbert director of operations, peace learning center engage! 32 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community introduction in the united states, the year 2020 has shined a light on equity as a central force for the educational, health, and economic outcomes of students, their teachers, and their families. many schools and districts that serve youth from lower income families feature arbitrarily enforced rules, punitive discipline, silent lunchrooms, minimal recess, and authoritarian adults from non-representative communities of their students. these practices create hostile learning environments where learning is difficult and relationships are not prioritized. add to this, a global pandemic has isolated not only students from their peers and teachers, their teachers and families are feeling this isolation as well. with this in mind, teachers and administrators in our prek-12 schools who are working diligently to change this paradigm of challenge to creative and constructive learning are asking the critical “how to” question: “how do we build safe and courageous learning communities of trust and care for our students in schools and classrooms during this time of racial and social justice restoration alongside an isolating global pandemic?” we believe the collaboration of peace learning center (plc) and the tribes learning community (tlc) can answer this critical question through their combined curriculum focusing on building civically engaged, democratic classrooms that center the teaching and learning experience through equitable practices, social emotional learning skill development, and restorative practices. more than one hundred years ago, john dewey espoused an aligned belief that classrooms should be a model of the family, a complete community where students would be nurtured and grow through the learning culture. his profound belief in democracy and progressive education focused his pedagogical philosophy around creating civically engaged citizens. what better place to develop this complete community of learning where productive individuals and citizens collaborate and learn through caring and positive classrooms and schools, both virtually and in person but in the container of the classroom? within this caring container of the classroom, educators and students can unpack and experience individual and systemic rights and responsibilities, through civic and community engagement to move all of us through this unprecedented time. classrooms can provide opportunities for deeper and more accurate conversations about our history and civic duties in a democracy where an individual’s inalienable rights and “justice for all” at the foundation of our nation’s constitution, has not been the lived experience for many of our children and their families, or the colleagues we work with. in order for our nation to move from the racial inequality our schools and classrooms have maintained and move away from this lived experience, we need a new way of learning and being together. we need a safe place to facilitate courageous conversations with our students through a critical pedagogical approach, while supporting students with social and emotional skill building to offset and thrive in the social isolation the covid-19 pandemic has created. knowing one’s self well is critical to this deeper learning and engagement in courageous conversations. we believe the curricular process of the tlc and the curriculum design of plc provide educators and students this critical pedagogical opportunity. the following sections of this article include the work each organization is missioned to do, as well as real stories to anchor these missions. classrooms can provide opportunities for deeper and more accurate conversations about our history and civic duties in a democracy where an individual’s inalienable rights and “justice for all” at the foundation of our nation’s constitution, has not been the lived experience for many of our children and their families, or the colleagues we work with. engage! 33 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community the missions of plc and tlc: in the best interest of educators and their students in order to answer the question “how do we build safe and courageous learning communities of trust and care for our students in schools and classrooms during this time of racial and social justice restoration alongside an isolating global pandemic?” through the process of tlc and plc curricula, we begin with the mission and history of each organization and their stories. each organization was created to fulfill the duty of care to support and to create more civically engaged, equitable and peaceful learning communities. peace learning center’s mission “supports communities in redefining peace through equity, social emotional learning, and the implementation of innovative practices. our vision is a healed world where strong and caring communities strive together to fully live in peace” (peacelearningcenter.org). plc has been working in the indianapolis community for 23 years, serving over 230,000 youth and adults. “the clear purpose of the tribes process is to assure the healthy development of every child so that each one has the knowledge, skills and resiliency to be successful in a rapidly changing world” (tribes.com). when jeanne gibbs wrote the first tribes book in the 1970s, little did she realize that the tribes learning community process would help build community in educational settings well into the 21st century. with the support of many dedicated staff and district trainers, tribes has reached over 46,000 educators and their students in over 10,500 schools in 43 countries. this leading social emotional learning (sel) program currently offers training for elementary, middle and high school educators, as well as after school and youth development programs. the two organizations combined will have an impact on hundreds of thousands of youth and adults, educators and students, and communities around the world with their curricular focus on social emotional learning, equity, and restorative justice. tlc will provide the additional evidence-based curriculum that ensures classrooms move through a sustainable group development process of inclusion, influence, and community. peace learning center over 23 years ago two men were cross-country skiing in eagle creek park in indianapolis, indiana when they came across an old home abandoned by time and resources. today, that building is the site of peace learning center (plc), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support communities in redefining peace through equity, social emotional learning, and the implementation of innovative practices. tim nation, co-founder, executive director, and one of those two men, had a vision that plc could be a place where youth could learn about conflict resolution outside of their school settings. after many evolutions of the work at plc, today these programs focus around three key categories: social emotional learning, equity, and restorative practices. over the years plc’s work in restorative practices and equity has been bolstered by innovative programs backed up by data and external evaluations. in much the same way as tribes, plc’s approach is to work institutionally while also working on individual skills growth in each area. through it all, the original concept of plc has remained a priority: students need basic social emotional learning (sel) skills such as conflict resolution to be successful at home, in school, and beyond. the sel curriculum, developed by a team of professional facilitator/coordinators, addressed growing skills for students preschool through 6th grade through a series of eleven lessons focused on the five sel skills: social awareness, selfawareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and maintaining healthy relationships (collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning [casel], 2020). engage! 34 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community while the end goal is to increase sel skills for youth, plc also hopes to build community and mutual respect in the classroom. lesson subjects include: being yourself, our emotions are important, mindfulness, we are a team, handling conflict peacefully, upstander or bystander, and peace leaders in our community. each lesson is thirty minutes to an hour long, includes hands-on activities for youth and is accompanied by follow-up activities suggested for teachers. sel skills are reinforced through field trips to plc’s site where grade level teambuilding challenges create opportunities for youth to use their skills in new environments and with new individuals. developed out of a rising need from schools, the equity work was created as a response to schools’ requests for meaningful and actionable professional development around diversity and differences. the foundation of this work is the “what’s hidden within: implicit bias 101 workshop.” this four-hour workshop examines what implicit bias is, how it differs from overt bias, how to recognize our own explicit and implicit bias and how we move past bias through actionable steps. unique to the workshop is the built-in time for schools to develop personal and institutional action plans for next steps to mitigate bias. this program has been externally evaluated by indiana university purdue university’s lilly family school of philanthropy and used widely throughout the state of indiana. plc has a strong restorative justice program that offers an innovative way to build healthy school cultures with built-in protocols for handling conflict and wrongdoing. the program teaches schools to build relationships and community through proactive circles; lead restorative chats where participants address one another in informal ways oriented toward fixing their own issues; lead responsive circles for full group dialogue about issues facing the whole group; and employ restorative conferences which bring together all parties where issues of serious harm have occurred. the restorative justice program was developed from the model used by the international institute of restorative practices. like tribes, the restorative practices work is a demonstrating and training model that empowers educators to make them an active part of their classroom experience. the combination of each of these components, known as “one indy,” was evaluated in the 20182019 academic year with the goals of: “1) understanding the effectiveness of the initiative and its components; 2) identifying strengths and weaknesses of the initiative; and 3) providing recommendations to improve the one indy initiative” (mulholland, 2019, p. 14). year after year internal evaluations have shown growth in sel skills based on self-evaluation of students, as well as teacher evaluations of students’ skill growth. however, key takeaways from the 2019 external evaluation shaped plc’s next steps as an organization. the first recommendation was to increase the engagement of teachers. “teachers play a huge role in shaping how positive conversations and relationship building can occur throughout the day. when the teachers are not participating in the sessions this ‘affects the power in the lesson.’ generally, the more involved the teacher is in the sel lessons, the more likely that the students are also going to be involved and receptive to the lessons” (mulholland, 2019, p.14). the second recommendation was to increase opportunities for training for teachers around sel skills. it was clear from surveys and focus groups with teachers that time and attention needed to be spent on providing teachers with an orientation and understanding of the need for instruction and skills in sel. but perhaps one of the most critical deficiencies in the one indy sel program was that it was not on the casel approved program list which many educators and administrators look for when choosing curriculum and programming for their schools. an example of the restorative justice program engage! 35 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community is illustrated in the following story. with social media usage increasing and the divide between those different from ourselves becoming larger, more schools have found a need for plc’s holistic approach for not only preventing, but also addressing the challenges they face. a school principal reached out to plc when an incident of racial discrimination made national coverage. using a popular application, snapchat, a student took a photo of sikh students (who wear turbans for their religion) and captioned it “bomb squad.” the snap soon went viral and all parties involved were called in for a restorative conference facilitated by plc. the sikh students maintained from the beginning that they did not want the other student punished, rather they wanted to dispel any perpetuated misconceptions about their culture and religion. as a group, the student who did the harm and those who were harmed, decided to provide educational presentations to the entire student body to educate them on the sikh religion and culture. plc’s restorative practices tools’ emphasis on equity through diversity education, and conflict resolution resources, turned the incident into a learning, growing, and relationship-building experience for everyone. tribes learning community: a new way of being together the tribes process for building communities for learning originated in the 1970’s by author jeanne gibbs to teach small groups of students and their teachers substance use and abuse prevention, replacing risky behaviors with positive choices. the focus was on the individual student, tapping into the human development themes of resiliency and belonging. the tribes learning community (tlc) process created community building through inclusion and an active, safe environment. an unintended consequence of the original process, educators found the method gave them the opportunity to teach core academic subjects in the small group system more effectively. student behavior problems decreased, student self-esteem and responsibility increased, and the overall climate of the classroom improved. the process is based on a synthesis of a wealth of research on human development, social emotional academic learning, resiliency, a caring culture, community building, professional development, authentic learning and assessment, reflective practices and systems change (benard, 2005, p. 4). as with all effective processes, the pedagogy and andragogy of tribes improved over the decades of implementation and consistency of use, as jeanne gibbs embedded the statement “trust the process” for educators to continue to be consistent in their facilitation, trusting that when challenges occur during the influence stage, if educators and students stay the course, a strong healthy learning community will emerge. the cooperative learning model built on positive group dynamics became one of the lead strategies of this improved process, transferring responsibility of problemsolving and group learning support from the teacher, who becomes facilitator of the process, to the students managing their work together. four tribes agreements were determined and comprise the “common language” of tribes communities. the four agreements of mutual respect, attentive listening, appreciations/no putdowns and the right to pass (as well as the right to participate), are the core tenets of building the classroom learning community. we, as public educators, must welcome all students, whatever a student comes with in their “backpack” full of life experiences that may include these societal factors. we must then passionately and compassionately provide opportunities for their emotional, social and academic success. we must learn well to understand the individuals they are when they come to us, helping them find a place of nurture and trust to grow beyond their “categories” of poverty, racial isolation, and student mobility. engage! 36 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community as a process, building a tribes learning community has developmental stages that occur within the class as the greater community or in the small cooperative groups called tribes. the three stages of group development are inclusion, influence and community, each corresponding to basic human needs. “inclusion—the need for safety and belonging; influence—the need for respect, autonomy, identity, and power; and community—the need to be connected to something larger than ourselves that gives our lives meaning and purpose” (benard, 2005, pp. 132-133). specific activities help move the classroom community down the tribes trail (the group development process) as it is called. two important components reinforce the group development down the tribes trail. one component is the community circle, where the class meets on a regular basis to discuss the community’s norms and expectations, as well as creating an opportunity for meaningful and respectful dialogue. in a circle, everyone can be seen and heard. “the circle is an ancient and universal symbol for unity and wholeness. for many millennia human beings have met in tribal or village circles to tell stories, provide mutual support, and arrive at an understanding of the common good” (garfield et al. as quoted by benard, 2005, p. 89). reflection is the second component that is necessary to community and small group development. in reflection goals, working relationships, and the curriculum are processed by the class or in their tribes. reflection increases meaning from the activity, continuously improving the quality of the group’s task, as well as giving teachers an immediate method for assessing learning objectives. both components work because the level of relational trust has evolved from the community the teacher and students have built together. the focus of the community becomes the students and their learning, not the teacher and the teaching. this dynamic term of “relational trust” emerged from a longitudinal study of 400 schools in the chicago area that began in the 1990s by anthony bryk and barbara schneider, affirming the strong belief that we must keep relationships and people at the heart of education in order to keep ourselves moving forward and positively in this often challenging work. in their book, trust in schools: a core resource for improvement, bryk and schneider (2002) shared that relational trust was a critical factor to the ultimate outcome school reform was intending to produce, that of school success and student achievement. they were able to show that schools that were successful academically had high levels of relation trust. these trust relationships were between principals and faculty, faculty trust with each other, and trust between students and their teachers. student benefits to relational trust with their teacher and peers takes on a level of inclusion that supports the emotional and academic well-being of all students, including the external factors that students of poverty and students of color experience (bryk & schneider, 2002). these external factors are the reality of schools as schools are a microcosm of the greater community and mirror back the issues that emerge from it. with that said we, as public educators, must welcome all students, whatever a student comes with in their “backpack” full of life experiences that may include these societal factors. we must then passionately and compassionately provide opportunities for their emotional, social and academic success. we must learn well to understand the individuals they are when they come to us, helping them find a place of nurture and trust to grow beyond their “categories” of poverty, racial isolation, and student mobility. the mission of tribes, “to assure the healthy development of every child so that each has the knowledge, skills, and resiliency to be successful in a rapidly changing world” (gibbs, 2001, p. 10) puts the essential component of relational trust at the forefront of the process: to create democratic classrooms where students and engage! 37 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community teachers teach and learn together and at the end of the year, have grown to be better people through relationship and learning. the tribes agreements and community building process provides the learning community the tools and practice to create this relationship and bond, building relational trust between students and teachers, as well as giving staff members collegial connection in the six plus hours they are together each school day. the school and classroom community learns that when trust and belief in the process of tribes happens, the consistency of use occurs, plateaus in the process are reached, overcome and deepened, and the emergence of an authentic, strong, professional learning community evolves in each classroom. through positive and caring classroom communities, the greater school community blossoms. to share the story of tlc, the story of one tribes focused school illustrates well the benefits of this process. in 2004, when the opportunity came to open a new school, literally from a bare piece of land, the questions of how to create caring and positive classrooms and school culture alongside dewey’s democratic ideals and pedagogical philosophies, were at the forefront of planning and development. the new principal wanted to create a home and a family where staff members, students and their families would come to grow and learn as caring individuals and members of a community, while focusing on social justice by creating a holistic place for all. the diverse new mexico community was an ideal opportunity for this to occur, as students were not only of spanish descent, but mexican american, native american from various tribal communities, african american and anglo. staff members were hired intentionally to meet the needs and perspectives of the various community members, and family and community collaboration in building a learning community was welcomed. the process for creating community through tribes: a new way of learning and being together was selected as the principal had years of imbedding it in her teaching and administrative experience. the goal was to create a community for learners that would sustain both the individual and the family it would become long after the principal had moved on. at its highest and best tribes has helped both teacher and student co-create an enlightened learning community where healthy interactions and meaningful relationships are the norm, and where individuals reach their full potential by participating in an environment where mutual respect, collaborative learning, and commitment to the whole matter most. this was the legacy the principal hoped to leave. this new school embraced the belief of creating a strong, sustainable professional community for learning. the learning community worked hard to live up to the original intention and vision. in the first year, one of the fourth-grade teachers said best what the intention of becoming would be: “a school where the students are given grounding in the skills which will allow them to become persons of civic efficacy and social responsibility; where students are provided the opportunity to acquire self-reliance and selfmotivation; and where diversity is respected; a school where professional collaboration and cross-grade level dialogue promotes achievement of standards-based learning for all our students; and where a love for life-long learning is instilled in students and staff, reminding us of what we are about” (mcmahan, 2007, p. 80). the mission of providing an education for the “whole child” and creating a collaborative environment through the tribes process yielded a bountiful harvest of growth and learning as evidenced by continual improvement on the new mexico standards based assessment scores. from the first year as a school to the second year, students gained nearly 3 percentage points in reading and over 7 percentage points in math. from year three to year four students gained another nearly 7 percentage points in math and nearly 1.5 percentage points in reading. engage! 38 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community after four years and substantial growth in student population from 765 to 1,550, the school divided into three new schools with three new visions and missions. the hope was that the sustainability through the tribes professional learning community process carried on and embedded in the hearts of teachers and students. one of the third-grade teachers described this intention: “i believe as a teacher that creating a strong community within the classroom is vital for a productive year. by creating a strong bond, we are setting high goals and standards for our students to become life-long learners. my classroom is full of students that truly care about each other and feel comfortable sharing things with each other. my students work as a team to help each other to succeed. these children are very good about welcoming new students into our classroom by accepting them and making them a part of our community. another positive aspect of having a sense of community is that it extends beyond my classroom walls and out into the entire school. i believe that not only do the children feel strongly about their community they have created, but i know that all of the teachers feel a bond with each other” (mcmahan, 2007, p. 136). this teacher felt that the bond created by students and staff members formed the strength of the learning community and, with that foundation, could become the complete learning community that john dewey had hoped would occur in a progressive, democratic educational environment. connecting the stories of plc and tlc the acquisition of tlc as an organization by plc has been a mutually beneficial intersection of the stories of each purpose-filled organization. the dilemma plc struggled with in positioning the sel curriculum with casel certified curriculum became more pronounced in the schools plc served. tlc, with extensive evaluation and high value alignment was a perfect fit to complete the trio of offerings at plc: social emotional learning, equity, and restorative justice. in schools like the one described, two-year evaluations of tribes schools found improvements over control schools, such as: ● evidence of improved student inclusion, collaboration, respect for multiracial populations, sense of value, resiliency, and student engagement; ● students and staff enjoyed safe and supportive classroom and school environments; ● teachers and principals reported declines in student referrals and suspensions; ● evidence of better classroom management and increased teacher collaboration and planning; ● three-quarters of teachers reported that the tribes process helped them to address academic standards and helped students master standards; and ● second and fifth grade reading and math scores increased more in tribes schools than in comparison schools (wested, 2003). what was even more compelling to plc was that tribes emphasized and reinforced their two other pillars of programming. community circles are at the heart of restorative practices work. these “proactive circles” are 80% of restorative practices and place meaning in relationship building among teachers and students. the tribes trail with its first stop of inclusion, gave life to their values of equitable practices, inclusiveness, and antiracism. as mentioned earlier, schools are microcosms of the greater community and the inequities that plague it also affect our students. while plc was determining how to address the issue with their social emotional learning programming, tribes was beginning a search of engage! 39 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community a different nature. after several decades functioning as an organization run primarily by founder jeanne gibbs, her children, and longtime trainers, it had become apparent that it was time for tribes to find a new home. candidly, many of those involved in the everyday business of tribes were ready to retire from the profession and believed the organization could benefit from a younger, more diverse ownership. having worked on collaborative projects with plc in the past david gibbs, jeanne’s son, felt strongly that plc would move tribes in the right direction for future success and that plc had solid value alignment with the curriculum his mother created. the partnership was mutually beneficial, allowing tribes to find new ownership as well as filling a void in programming for plc. in plc’s home community of indianapolis black students are 2.6 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers (central indiana community foundation, 2019). due to disproportionate suspensions and expulsions for youth of color and lgbtq youth, researchers have coined the term “school-to-prison pipeline.” what has been found is that students who are suspended just once in their school career are less likely to graduate with a high school diploma. furthermore, youth that do not graduate from high school are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than peers who do (central indiana community foundation, 2019). the long-term effects of a single-biased and unjust interaction with the educational disciplinary system are real and felt by many. “because educational attainment beyond high school has become the key determinant of economic opportunity and social mobility” the gaps in graduation caused by unjust discipline systems have real consequences for students of color (lumina foundation, 2019, p. 98). both tlc and plc have worked diligently to overcome this “school-to-prison pipeline” dilemma by providing proactive sel work that builds relationships between teachers and students and between students and their peers, reducing bias, which in turn reduces the chance for disproportionate disciplinary actions. moreover, the educational system in indiana as well as the educational systems in most states across the country have acknowledged the need for sel skill development in their districts and school. the indiana department of education announced in 2019 that schools should implement sel programming in some capacity (cicg, 2019). many educators understand the necessity of these skills, but most believe they do not have the time or resources to dedicate to the topic. while 70% of principals expect their teachers to incorporate sel skill development into their classrooms, they also acknowledge that “it’s hard because they have to get through so much curriculum for tests” (depaoli, atwell & bridgeland, 2017, p. 21). in fact, more principals (71%) note that the greatest challenge to implementation is lack of time. the difference between the schools who are succeeding in sel and those that are not comes down to, once again, equity. plc sees tribes as a way to level the playing field by providing teachers and students with tools and resources to incorporate sel into their everyday curriculum. it is often said in the tribes community that this process is not another thing for teachers to add to their plate, instead it is the plate on which everything else is supported. the tribes plate that has always included sel skill building and strategies for building resilient learning communities, now includes and supports plc’s curriculum of sel, equity and restorative justice. this intersectionality of the tribes learning community and peace learning center is a new story that has yet to be fully realized and expressed, but as one organization working together to create a complete community of learning for the teachers, students, and families served, dewey can be proud that his legacy of a democratic, civically engaged education will live on. engage! 40 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research: peace & justice mcmahan | complete learning community references benard, b. (2005). what is it about tribes: the research-based components of the developmental process of tribes learning communities. windsor, ca: centersource systems. bryk, a.s. & schneider, b. (2002). trust in schools: a core resource for improvement. new york, ny: russell sage foundation. casel (2020). "what is sel?" https://casel.org/what-is-sel/ cicf. central indiana community foundation, 11 nov. 2019, www.cicf.org/ depaoli, j. l., atwell, m. n., & bridgeland, j. (2017). ready to lead: a national principal survey on how social and emotional learning can prepare children and transform schools (pp. 1-57, rep.). chicago, il: civic enterprises with hart research associates. gibbs, j. (2001). tribes: a new way of learning and being together. windsor, ca: centersource systems, llc. lumina foundation (2020). a stronger nation: learning beyond high schools builds american talent (pp. 96-102, rep.). indianapolis, in: lumina foundation. mcmahan, l. (2007). from the ground up: building and sustaining a new school’s learning community. albuquerque, nm: university of new mexico. mulholland, s., phd. (2019). evaluation of one indy: evidence-based school services program (pp. 1-16, rep.). indianapolis, in. wested (2003). evaluation of the implementation and impact of tribes tlc. san francisco, ca. engage! 41 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making collaborative app-making as a community engagement research method samuel gerald collins, matthew durington, candace everette, jamya anderson, kirtsen foseca, jakayla holmes and ca’syah watkins abstract this article details an ethnographic community engagement project involving mobile app technology as a participatory methodology to create a walking tour of a baltimore neighborhood. greenmount west is an historically african american community in baltimore city that is now experiencing rapid gentrification. after receiving a “mash up” grant from a local museum, researchers from towson university were partnered with the director of a local community center in the greenmount west neighborhood and collaboratively crafted the idea to create a walking tour through the perspective of youth. in this case, four black young women who were already involved in activities at the community center were solicited to participate in the ethnographic research and mobile app development project. through a community engagement process that matched traditional ethnographic methods and technological development as methods, they shared their perspectives on their changing neighborhood and were involved in every facet of producing the tour. the goal was to put the agency and perspective of these young women as the leading voice of this process and development of a mobile app walking tour. the article provides a step-by-step process for how to use this particular technology as a form of community engagement and research. keywords: mobile apps, gentrification, community engagement, technology, ethnography authors samuel gerald collins towson university matthew durington towson university candace everette jamya anderson kirtsen foseca jakayla holmes ca’syah watkins greenmount west community center engage! 52 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making introduction in cultural anthropology, and one could argue in society at large, the smartphone is now an indispensable tool. over the last several years through a process we refer to as “networked anthropology” we have experimented and conceptualized ways to use technology as a methodological tool in ethnographic research. we define this approach as, “an anthropology undertaken in the age of multimedia social networks, one in which all of the stakeholders – ethnographers, interlocutors, community, audience – are all networked together in various (albeit powerful and unequal) ways” (collins and durington, 2015, pp. 4-5). through this approach we have developed ideas on how to utilize various technologies such as mobile apps as a way to not only explore communities but also as a means of producing material relevant to ethnographic research (collins et al., 2017). from keeping in contact with collaborators, to recording interviews, making photographs and film, and “live field noting”1 the ethnographic process2, anthropology has become app-driven: the smartphone has supplanted the ethnographer's paper notebook. that said, the process is not without controversy, and questions over the ethics of app-based media continue to arise--as well they should. many apps are, after all, for-profit platforms that are (on many levels) monetizing the work of anthropology for profits that neither the anthropologists nor the communities in which they work will enjoy. yet, we make the assertion that any community engagement activity in the 21st century is relying upon this technology as well, whether one is conscious of it or not. therefore, this conceptual project informed by and producing ethnographic 1 taking field notes is one of the primary methodologies in cultural anthropology. when conducting ethnographic research an anthropologist will listen intensively to collaborators while conducting participant-observation (both participating in and observing cultural interactions) and will later reflect on this experience and record postevent field notes as records. “live” field noting connotes the process of doing this in real time as events are research challenges community engagement practitioners to consider the role technology should inform their methods and findings. there are many concerns about using technology in ethnographic research and while there is a comfort level with most audio-visual technologies, researchers have been slow to incorporate other networking and social media technologies in their work in a meaningful way. the same concerns are also present in the general public, whose digital labor -the liking, sharing and following actions of individuals on mobile apps -create a product for app developers and social media platforms to develop algorithms and targeted advertising. essentially, our work as anthropologists and the browsing of our collaborators is a product that becomes monetized and sold back to us through mobile apps and social media. at the same time, we have simultaneously noted that the journal articles and books that anthropologists publish are hardly profit-sharing endeavors in and of themselves. the paywalls academic journals erect are obstacles to access for many of the communities in which anthropologists work, an obstacle that this journal thankfully works against. smartphone-based apps, on the other hand, are accessible and familiar to both anthropologists and our community collaborators. for example, we all can show pictures and videos to friends and family, and people can discuss occurring. while one can use tools such as pen and notepad for this, the smartphone offers up another tool to not only jot down notes in a writing application, but also record video, sound and take photos. 2 ethnography is the primary methodology of cultural anthropology which utilizes fieldwork and participant observation to study cultures while being immersive in those environments over an extended amount of time. for many of us, the collaboration needs to come first, and, moreover, arise from people in the community. in other words, only when people articulate their need for our collaboration do we begin the research process. engage! 53 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making results accessible online much more readily than essay publications in obscure journals. our assertion is that the smartphone can help drive an ethnographic project with the goal of creating a collaborative mobile app development to produce an outcome accessible to all parties. this essay outlines an ethnographic project that produces a collaborative, app-building exercise in baltimore, md, involving anthropologists (collins and durington), the program manager of greenmount west community center (everette) and young residents of the neighborhood (anderson, foseca, holmes and watkins). over the course of several weeks in the summer of 2019, we created and published an app-based walking tour of the greenmount west neighborhood from the perspective of its young residents aged 9-12 years old. our young collaborators were already involved in after school projects at the greenmount west community center and when presented with the opportunity to participate agreed to do so with the consent of their parents and guardians. as researchers, we were pleasantly surprised by the tenacity and initiative shown by our young collaborators as they intensively discussed their neighborhood, engaged in mapping exercises and guided our walks throughout the neighborhood as we developed the tour. we also knew that our young collaborators had a keen sense that the neighborhood was changing and were already familiar with the term “gentrification” having heard it discussed by many around them. they also shared with us throughout the process the possibility that they may be losing their favorite places or might have to even move and leave their friends due to changes in the neighborhood. figure 1 the landing page for the greenmount west mapping project. engage! 54 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making gentrification has occurred in baltimore just like many other cities throughout the united states in a process undergirded by discriminatory historic processes such as redlining that depreciated urban neighborhoods in the latter 20th century (durington et al 2009). gentrification relies upon the stereotyping of racialized urban neighborhoods as riddled with crime, drugs and other social pathologies making them ripe for possible change by developers, politicians and others as potential investments for redevelopment. these neighborhoods and communities tend to have little home ownership and high rental occupancy and thus become attractive for redevelopment that caters to new, often mostly white, residents who move while historic, often black, residents are displaced. this same process has occurred in dozens of historic black neighborhoods throughout the united states and in baltimore. 3 https://bniajfi.org/community/clifton-berea/ greenmount west is an historic african american neighborhood adjacent to the west downtown core of the city of baltimore. the larger demographic profile of the community in which greenmount west is located is 93% black, with a median household income of $31,219, and 50.1% of children living below the poverty line. an indicator of incoming change is a rising racial diversity index of 17% with whites making up 2.4% of the total population as of 2018.3 gentrification in the greenmount west neighborhood was inevitable with the changing development patterns of baltimore, but it was triggered through the designation of a nearby newly labeled arts district by the city which is often just one signal of impending gentrification. when this occurs, housing prices rapidly increase, and many long-term residents are then forced out by higher rents. those remaining families see the neighborhood shifting around them, sometimes in ways that are hostile to its long-standing, largely figure 2 the izi.travel website for the greenmount west walking tour. https://izi.travel/en/88aagreenmount-west-community/en engage! 55 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making black population. this project's goals were therefore two-fold: to document a neighborhood undergoing rapid change through gentrification, and to help neighborhood youth engage in placemaking in a neighborhood changing before their eyes, in often unwelcoming ways. smartphones and apps as a research tool as smartphone access has increased globally, apps have become an everyday part of life for many people in the world. the ubiquity of apps demands that researchers pay attention to them as a medium of communication and as cultural media in their own right. apps are global and utilized everywhere throughout the world. one only has to survey a classroom to find dozens of apps that students use on a daily basis to post content on social media, navigate their surroundings through gis mapping or connect with others around them in unique ways. in south korea, for example, nearly 100 percent of the population uses kakaotalk (a messaging app with video capabilities) (hjorth 2014). it would be difficult to do any research in south korea without kakaotalk -it has become literally the platform upon which social life is built. beyond this particular example, it is easy to assert that apps are a global phenomenon. in other words, not only should researchers be studying life in the context of these apps, but the apps themselves function as indispensable field working tools. if a researcher is not gauging what mobile apps their collaborators are using in their everyday lives, then they are truly missing a major part of the culture they are studying. while we still need to be critical of these new media, as kenner (2016) has pointed out in her study of the neoliberal underpinnings of asthma apps, we no longer have the luxury of simply ignoring them as ancillary to either our scholarly work or our work in community engagement. besides, apps offer researchers distinct affordances in their work in urban communities. first, apps are mobile, and, as such, they mirror the mobility of communities themselves: the daily travels that bring people across their neighborhoods, through the city, and back again. second, apps support multimedia. unlike conventional media, divided up into print and visual media, apps evoke transmedia possibilities that mirror the way we counter media in daily life. finally, apps accessed through smartphones present sensory experiences -we often only know where to walk with a phone app, which is operated according to technology interfaces built into the app such as gps tracking. with all of the multimedia contained in them, apps suggest a better way of engaging the senses in our research through what sarah pink calls “sensory ethnography” (pink, 2009). sensory ethnography encompasses multiple senses gleaned from walking, feeling, hearing and seeing. thus, apps extend the possibility of higher forms of community engagement, experiencing and, ultimately, involvement. in this way, we have suggested that apps represent the future of the discipline of anthropology and ethnographic research (durington and collins 2016). now is the time for practitioners of community engagement from any disciplinary background to recognize that the capacities of these technologies should not be ignored but actively utilized and theorized. research ethics and design we adhere to an ethical obligation to collaborate and reciprocate in our research as cultural fundamentally, community engagement work and research must always start with the perspectives of the local populations we interact with. and, simultaneously, there should be an ethical concern to create a constant mechanism for feedback and involvement. hence, we do not adhere to the hierarchical authorship of the academics being the sole authors, but positioning our interlocutors in the same space. engage! 56 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making anthropologists. many of us collaborate with people in the communities where we work. this, after all, is part of the applied and public research that characterizes much of the work in community engagement writ large. of course, the meaning of collaboration varies across context and discipline. in anthropology, collaboration has meant researchers striving to incorporate the voices and the perspectives of the people with whom we work in the research we produce. for many of us, the collaboration needs to come first, and, moreover, arise from people in the community. in other words, only when people articulate their need for our collaboration do we begin the research process. the same ethos should guide any community engagement exercise and anthropology, among other social sciences, provides those parameters and methodologies. while there may be some trepidation to use technologies such as mobile apps and others, to ignore their omniscience in culture would be a shortcoming. this particular project grew out of an intermediary, the peale museum in baltimore, that supports and displays storytelling projects from around the city. they had offered a “mashup” grant program, where teams would pair up to produce original work together, and collins and durington had fortuitously proposed a very similar project to everette and the west greenmount community center. both of the proposed projects involved documenting the changing face of the greenmount west community. everette proposed working with children at the center; they were extremely conscious of the changing politics of the figure 3 the research team prepares for a transect walk in the community. engage! 57 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making neighborhood, and the ways that processes of gentrification were infringing on their own sense of place through both enclosure and through increased rents that were literally pushing longterm residents out of the neighborhood altogether, including some of the youth and their families that we were working with. we all agreed collaboratively in rapport building sessions that the goal of the project would be to help the children articulate their stories of the neighborhood, and the eventual forms this would take included mixed media -performance, an art installation and an app. design and implementation begins with rapport building and forming a community of practice. initially in this dialogue, community members may express their desire to develop a new app to introduce their communities and their projects. geolocated apps allow a community to represent their neighborhood at a very material level: to people walking its streets. while this is certainly attractive as a platform, app development is an expensive proposition. moreover, many of the functions that community groups may desire require extensive work on the back end, in the form of a substantial database housed on a server. one solution to this is to prototype specific app functions with the community in order to “triage” their relevance to community needs. in other words, after ascertaining what our collaborators want to do, we attempt to find platforms and ways to utilize technology to meet these interests. after this process, community members can revisit the question of app development with a better sense of what might work for their community. figure 4 taking pictures of an important site on the walking tour for the online platform. engage! 58 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making there are many app platforms out there that can be used for community projects like these. many can be re-purposed in order to serve politically committed needs. of course, many of these app platforms may be initially free, but require monthly fees in order to maintain and advertise the app. an exciting development in recent years is the proliferation of open source and open access platforms that remain accessible without monetization. after considering multiple app platforms, we decided on a free tour app platform called “izi.travel.” the platform supports the development of geolocated tours, multimedia tours, and includes possibilities for text, audio, photography and hyperlinked media. as of the writing of this essay, the app remains free, although there are now pop-up ads on the smartphone app (that, of course, can be removed through paying a fee). more importantly, there are no fees for uploading multimedia content to the platforms despite the size of data. since several universities and non-profits have created tours hosted on izi.travel, there are an especially rich and varied collection of “tours” available for baltimore. many of them are examples of “creative misuse” (farman, 2016), a process whereby one utilizes technology for a purpose it was not designed for, such as utilizing a travel platform to spotlight social problems and structural inequalities in a city rather than tourist attractions. of course, there is always the option of developing different apps or migrating to a fee-based platform. whatever platform people choose, the important point is that the data should exceed the platform: collaborators should generate more interviews, more video, audio and mapping than they need for their app. and it is helpful to be figure 5 the picture taken in figure 4 in the storymapjs tool with contextual quotes from our collaborators and co-authors. engage! 59 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making redundant. for example, a walking tour developed on this platform can be easily replicated on other web platforms that serve as a quasi-archive. it may be that this excess data ends up on an online archive for others to peruse, as durington and collins did with their “anthropology by the wire” project (http://anthropologybythewire.com). despite its recent tumultuous activity, we have found the tumblr platform useful for this purpose. but whatever the case, collaborators need to have as rich and varied a data set as possible, if for nothing else, to support multiple forms of dissemination that might result in the future of being used in other media-based community engagement projects with collaborators. and, with digital photography and media technologies being readily available on the average smartphone, the tools are there at hand and collaborators already possess a level of proficiency. one only has to glance at instagram to realize the huge amount of photography posted by youth populations, even if they are mostly selfies. what follows are steps in the methodology that utilizes technology for participatory ethnographic research that we have developed and implemented in this project. while there is a focus on developing and utilizing technology, there is a simultaneous opportunity to glean valuable ethnographic information throughout the participatory process. the development of a collaborative mobile app walking tour includes multiple conversations, social mapping, participant observation, background research and media analysis and production. all of these are hallmarks of ethnographic research, therefore the assertion is that the mobile app development is the end to an ethnographic means. methodology i: community and technology assessment it is important for the reader to understand that while the description of the mobile app 4 participatory action research (par) seeks to utilize research between community members and researchers to production methodology focuses on showing the reader how to do this, it should also be realized that this process is not done by automatons working in silos. it should be taken as a given that as we work collaboratively; we are discussing a variety of things such as background stories, observations about the community, likes and dislikes and other everyday things that most technology developers might dismiss, but ethnographers value as data. as our youthful collaborators were being taught about the development of a mobile app walking tour, they were providing us ethnographic insight into their daily lives, their families and their communities. therefore, we recommend that community engagement practitioners wear two hats simultaneously: experiment with these technology methods, but remember that ethnographic insight undergirds the process and the dual data produced by the process, both technological and cultural. the first step in this process is to decide which features of the community to highlight. here, we take our prompts from participatory action research4 and, in particular, the experiences of photovoice researchers (gubrium and harper, 2013). photovoice is a methodology that empowers communities to represent themselves through collaborative, visual forms such as photography that is frequently exhibited in schools, galleries, coffee shops and other significant places in communities. the idea is that communities represent their daily lives, and then there are convening events where dialogue is develop information for direct change through collective inquiry. it is the editorial control given to the people you are working with that empowers their voices as experts in the community and creators of its representation. engage! 60 vol. 1, issue 3 http://anthropologybythewire.com community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making fostered between community members and others. in june of 2019, collins, durington, everette and children from the greenmount west community center met to map their neighborhood through an examination of the “daily round5.” associated with the work of eliot liebow, ulf hannerz and others, “daily round” methods emphasize the neighborhood as a source of rich social connection and reciprocity, and as a method is an important corrective to overemphasis on family and employment as the only salient sites for social observation. this honed method from social science helps push back against murky uses of reciprocity as a community engagement strategy. as dostilio et al. states, “understandings and applications of the concept 5 a focus on the “daily round” gives meaning to the daily walks to and from locations such as school, neighbors’ of reciprocity may vary widely, distinctions among uses of the term may be overlooked, and this term may be easily conflated with others” (dostilio et al., 2012). by thinking critically about the hierarchical nature of community engagement work we seek to empower our community collaborators to safeguard issues that can occur despite possessing a participatory and reciprocity ethos. this is particularly important in a place like baltimore where youth are not only racialized but often not provided a voice or platform to talk about their communities. by providing a space and a platform for their voices, our young collaborators are positioned as those possessing local knowledge houses, stores, work and others and the social encounters and observations one has during those times. figure 6 recording descriptive audio for the walking tour. engage! 61 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making and educating academic outsiders about their communities and lives demonstrating true reciprocity. and the fact that we are positioning our interlocutors as co-authors of this piece and not simply as research participants demonstrates a disruption of hierarchy in participatory work and authorship that all community engagement practitioners should employ. methodology ii: media and documentation having identified numerous sites, the collaborators agreed on some good days and times for “transect walks6” through the community that would capture all of the sites the children had identified. of course, the point was to not only identify those sites, but to explore their significance and the sense of belonging that came with the children's place-making. accordingly, the team brought multiple technologies with them -cameras, digital recorders, and video cameras. over a three-hour session, the group created an overlapping media archive. while we benefit from having access to these different technologies, it is important to assert that this could be done with the average smartphone as well. the capturing of media on these transect walks is collaborative as well. while we are shooting footage of the children talking to create a primary editing roll, we employ other cameras simultaneously and also put these cameras in the hands of our collaborators. this footage is spliced in and often possesses on-thespot interviews of our collaborators interviewing each other in addition to describing sites important to them on the daily round. as the process unfolds, we have seen time and time again that the more you provide the means of representation to your interlocutors, the collaboration becomes more powerful and our partners begin to take more control of the process of representation in community engagement. after creating the video, still photography and audio footage, we utilize editing software such as adobe premiere and audacity to edit video and audio into clips. we also utilize adobe photoshop for still photography. this edited cache of 6 a “transect walk” is different than a “daily round” in that you determine a specific route to walk with community members’ input and then observe resources, landscape multimedia is then given back to our collaborators for assessment and possible inclusion in the mobile app walking tour or any other means they might need it for. this latter step is crucial in that the community members must be positioned as the primary editors. we simply provide the fodder for them to utilize in collaboration. (we can promise the reader that this particular set of collaborators had no problem telling us what they didn’t like.) this method tends to take the labor off of our collaborators and is useful for rapid projects, but there are other methods that utilize longer amounts of time to work with and tutor interlocutors through these technologies. although it may be redundant, it is important to stress once more that all of these editorial processes can be found on free platforms and in apps on smartphones. our savvy collaborators also had the capacity to edit media as it was loaded on to the izi.travel platform to build out the mobile app walking tour. this process of collaborative media creation once again positions our partners as both the educators about the community where they live, and also ensures that the now created media representations are vetted and approved before being disseminated on a public platform. methodology iii: prototyping technology even after collaborators have a sense of the sites, there’s still a real question about what kind of app to build. with a tour app, the questions also include: where do you want people to go, and how do you want them to get there? the first step in any app design is to create a model of the tour that captures the flow of sites across the map. in the past, durington and collins have used pencil and paper or prototyping applications like “prototyping on paper” (pop), which allows users to hyperlink their pen-and-ink drawings in order to simulate the flow of an app. in either case, the point of the exercise is to think about the user experience. this app is about walking. but how should people walk? in what order should they see significant sites? and how? what kinds of explanatory context should accompany images and other features to prompt explanations of what meaning those observations have to community residents. engage! 62 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making and audio? and how detailed should these be? and are they narrated by our collaborators? many features in a community may require sophisticated contexts and some features associated with gentrification may be welcomed by a community that has historically experienced under-investment. but there are also tensions and to see those through the lens of youth in the community provides a rare perspective. for the prototyping phase of our project, we utilized a mapping tool, knight lab’s “storymap,” a free application that allows people to visualize their daily round with text and photographs. these entries were completed with the children from the community center and became the basis for mapping out the narratives for the app, as well as selecting media. laying out the prototype also showed us the holes in our work: where we needed more photographs or where there were more questions that needed to be answered. methodology iv: editing once entries are complete, we undertake an editing process that involves conversations with our collaborators about what is working and not working. using the same software noted above (adobe premiere, audacity, adobe photoshop) we then complete another round of editing to “clean up” the footage and find additional footage, pictures or audio to fill the identified holes in the narrative being created. while capturing media is often seen as the primary component of this type of participatory fieldwork, we would assert that the editorial process is where true collaborative voices are truly realized and media-based community engagement comes alive. it is the editorial control given to the people you are working with that empowers their voices as experts in the community and creators of its representation. methodology v: walking and applying knowledge the izi.travel platform allows users to test their app tour before publishing it to the platform for the general public. this iteration is where the collaborative creative process is realized and excitement builds. our young collaborators lead the way once more on the walking tour but this figure 7 one of the stops on the walking tour is referred to as “the red store” by youth in the community despite its actual name. as the ethnographic quote illustrates it may be problematic, but it does have “icys.” engage! 63 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making time with a smartphone in hand and earbuds in their ears listening to their voices and viewing the media they have created as they are geolocated on the route. the initial prototype walk-through also provides another layer of editorial control as we test out whether certain media are ordered correctly and the zones of geolocation are pinned correctly on the izi.travel platform. after completing the walk-through, we have a debrief about the process, what worked and didn’t work, discuss possible reordering of sites and possible changes. as anthropologists, this debrief provides another capacity for ethnographic data collection due to its format as a semi-structured interview which becomes valuable for reflection. in this case, we were able to ascertain even more insight into the feelings our young collaborators had about their neighborhood changing and their concerns about losing things valuable to them. we see many possibilities for community engagement methodologies and data collection at this stage. questions are asked once more about why particular sites are important and what meaning they have for our partners, both foundational ethnographic data points. methodology vi: going live once the group has agreed that the tour is set, the button is pushed and the tour is made live. this is an exciting moment, particularly for our youthful partners to see it come to life not only on a computer and smartphone, but now in the public sphere. just as with the photovoice methodology, opportunities now exist to take friends, family members and others on the walking tour placing educational power with the children. feedback can be solicited by those taken along on the tour which becomes another valuable component of data expanding the local knowledge of sites for researchers. and participant observation can be undertaken as well providing yet another set of fieldnotes for ethnographic assessment and possible inclusion in the mobile app walking tour. methodology vii: assessment effective community engagement is only as strong as the capacity to assess its impact. while this particular community engagement project is in its nascent stages, past utilization of this methodology has proven quite effective. for instance, we utilized the same process with partners from east wilmington, de, and the national park service (nps) in 2018. community members reported back in follow up conversations that while the app and walking tour was a positive outcome, it was the opportunity to build rapport with individuals they would normally not be able to talk about during the planning process that was the most meaningful. in addition, the nps has utilized and replicated the model as a community engagement tool as they develop sites in delaware. in addition, we have utilized the walking tour development project with students at towson university in partnership with a variety of other communities including one in south baltimore. this multi-year community collaboration with a fellow anthropologist in our department has provided both quantitative data of usage by high school students and anecdotal qualitative data. quotes from students demonstrate that they appreciate the chance to develop technology tools and possess the authority to represent their lives and community. finally, a walking tour developed with community members in the baltimore neighborhood of sharp leadenhall illustrates how a walking tour can be utilized as a template for individuals becoming docents for walking tours themselves. rough drafts can become fully developed web-based tours and resources as seen at the website https://sharpleadenhallwt.tumblr.com/ where a rich multimedia tour was created. we look to the literature on community engagement once more to utilize another assessment tool. distilio et al. (2012) provide a framework for gauging the nature of participatory community engagement through a three-step analysis of exchange, influence and generativity: engage! 64 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making exchange: participants give and receive something from the others that they would not otherwise have. in this orientation, reciprocity is the interchange of benefits, resources, or actions… influence: the processes and/or outcomes of the collaboration are iteratively changed as a result of being influenced by the participants and their contributed ways of knowing and doing. in this orientation, reciprocity is expressed as a relational connection that is informed by personal, social, and environmental contexts… generativity: as a function of the collaborative relationship, participants (who have or develop identities as cocreators) become and/or produce something new together that would not otherwise exist. this orientation may involve transformation of individual ways of knowing and being or of the systems of which the relationship is a part. the collaboration may extend beyond the initial focus as outcomes, as ways of knowing, and as systems of belonging evolve. (distilio et al., 2012, p. 19-20) with this matrix in mind, this project in greenmount west meets each of these community engagement criteria. there is demonstrated exchange through rapport building and collaborative exercises in developing the walking tour. influence is demonstrated by having our young collaborators take the lead in developing the app, flipping the often-hierarchical nature of the research process. finally, generativity is demonstrated in the outcome of the app being developed and a different way of seeing and knowing about the community through the lens of younger inhabitants. figure 8 our collaborators and co-authors. engage! 65 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making findings the ethnographically informed mobile app walking tour project described in this article has findings typical to the nascent stages of long-term anthropological research that are valuable to cultural anthropologists but could be even more valued by community engagement practitioners. 1) when attempting to do any type of community engagement research that is ethnographically informed, the voice of your collaborators should guide the process as we have described. 2) when introducing novel technologies such as mobile app projects to community collaborators, a methodical process should be followed while ensuring that it is not deterministic. the insight of collaborators could and should change the course of the project. 3) while we may have an academic understanding of processes like gentrification, adding voices of those that are not often listened to such as youth, is an important indicator of what is occurring to all members of a community. youth are just as anxious about being displaced as adults may be and their focus may be different than adults, and may be the safe spaces and friends that they rely upon on a daily basis. 4) by showing what youth value in a community, we are able to understand differential appreciation attached to space and place. while the neighborhood corner store may just be a place to get a snack or drink for an adult and perhaps not regarded as important on a walking tour, for a young person it may be the center of their cultural universe. 5) and, for those who both discount and underestimate the voice and technological savvy of youth in urban environments, you are missing an important ethnographic data set for understanding communities and their residents. conclusion although this exercise is specific to baltimore’s tumultuous urban development, this kind of collaborative work can be used in any community, and it underscores basic truths about the ways that urban-based research should be conducted. researchers and university administrators can also highlight and replicate these novel experiments to demonstrate yet another tool for community engagement based in reciprocity. translating this work to the public and our collaborators enhances participatory opportunities. this addresses an invitation by hammersley for the “…higher education community to deconstruct key terms used to describe community engagement activities and relationships, and encourage critical reflection on our attempts to enact them through our research and practice” (hammersley, 2017). fundamentally, community engagement work and research must always start with the perspectives of the local populations we interact with. and, simultaneously, there should be an ethical concern to create a constant mechanism for feedback and involvement. hence, we do not adhere to the hierarchical authorship of the academics being the sole authors but positioning our interlocutors in the same space. it also asks that researchers work with communities towards forms of dissemination that are meaningful to people living in those communities. furthermore, it outlines a collaborative process that works to break down hierarchies by engaging community members as experts rather than the subjects of research. it is just one example of the methodological toolkit for a networked anthropology. theorizing about the experience of walking in the city, michel de certeau wrote, the long poem of walking manipulates spatial organizations, no matter how panoptic they may be: it is neither foreign engage! 66 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making to them (it can take place only within them) nor in conformity with them (it does not receive its identity from them). it creates shadows and ambiguities within them. it inserts its multitudinous references and citations into them (social models, cultural mores, personal factors). (de certeau, 1984, p. 101) of course, walking around the neighborhood is no panacea to the many problems that may bedevil a community. it will probably not address questions of segregation, redlining, disinvestment, gentrification and abandonment. but as a form of collaboration, walking around a community guided by a community member’s vision may work to critique neoliberal understandings, where people “deserve” what they get and the only way to create a healthy neighborhood is to land a starbucks and a whole foods franchise, the oftentell-tale warnings of eventual class and racial displacement. in this context, walking creates a space for critique in the ideological overdetermination of urban development in the u.s. for people in a community, the app may have similarly ambiguous outcomes. will this really help stop the skyrocketing rents? will it keep schools from being replaced by dubious charters? whatever else, the collaborative app is another technology of place and place-making, inscribing a visible record of neighborhood identity. it provides a platform for further conversations and participatory research. the data gathered together -the maps, photographs, recordings, films and texts -are, ultimately, data for the community, to be re-mixed and re-used for presentations, grant applications and exhibits. in a larger media-based community engagement practice this is just one tool, but it provides demonstrable participatory opportunities. and, what we learned from this particular project is the power of the perspective of our young collaborators and co-authors. engage! 67 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research collins | collaborative app-making references collins, s. g., & durington, m. (2015). networked anthropology. routledge. collins, s. g., durington, m., favero, p., harper, k., kenner, a., & o’donnell, c. (2017). ethnographic apps/ apps as ethnography. anthropology now 9(1): 102-118. durington, m., maddox, c., ruhf, a., gass, s., & schwermer, j. (2009). civic engagement and gentrification issues in metropolitan baltimore. metropolitan universities journal (20)1: 101-114. de certeau, m. (2011). the practice of everyday life. university of california press. dostilio, l. d., et al. (2012). reciprocity: saying what we mean and meaning what we say. michigan journal of community service learning, 19(1) 2012, p. 17+. durington, m., & collins, s.g. (2016). games without frontiers. in gubrium, a., editor, harper, k., editor & otanez, m. editor (eds.) participatory visual and digital research in action (pp. 259-276) left coast press. gubrium, a. & harper, k. (2013). participatory visual and digital methods. routledge. hammersley l. (2017). language matters: reciprocity and its multiple meanings. in: sachs, j. editor & clark, l. (eds) learning through community engagement. (pp. 115-131). springer. hjorth, l. (2014). locating the social and mobile. asiascape 1(1–2) 39-53. kenner, a. (2016). asthma on the move. health, risk & society 17(7–8) 510–529. pink, s. (2009). doing sensory ethnography. sage. stocking, g. (1992). the ethnographer’s magic and other essays in the history of anthropology. madison. university of wisconsin press. engage! 68 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors protective factors using the life course perspective in maternal and child health a community-based participatory research approach abraham a. salinas-miranda, lindsey m. king, hamisu m. salihu, roneé e. wilson, susan nash, sarah l. collins, estrellita “lo” berry, deborah austin, kenneth scarborough, evangeline best, lillian cox, georgette king, carrie hepburn, conchita burpee, richard briscoe, julie baldwin abstract the life course perspective (lcp), a valuable theoretical framework for investigating racial disparities in birth outcomes, examines the cumulative exposure of risk and protective factors throughout the life span. although risk and protective exposures are equally vital to health, most studies have focused solely on the risk factor exposures faced by vulnerable populations. in clear contrast to the traditional public health approach, which emphasizes a deficit model, strengths-based approaches focus on protective factors and fostering resilience. these approaches view communities as valuable assets that have the capacity to fully engage themselves and their residents to achieve optimal health. participatory action research methods are well suited to apply a strengths-based approach to understand health disparities. our study aimed to explore maternal and child health protective factors from community residents’ perspective. a group of researchers, including active members in the community with a long history of grassroots development work, conducted ten community-based participatory focus groups with community residents in tampa, fl, using the lcp framework. a total of 78 residents participated in ten focus groups. perceived protective factors during pregnancy included self-esteem, spirituality, pregnancy support, good nutrition, prenatal care, and community resources. protective factors for non-pregnant women were self-esteem, spirituality, social support, health literacy, community support and community resources, and societal factors. for children and adolescents, relevant protective factors were self-esteem, positive role models, nutrition and physical activity, and community support. the identified factors are community assets or strengths that mitigate or eliminate maternal and child health risks in families and communities residing in low-income neighborhoods, which must be considered in developing effective maternal and child health interventions. keywords: community-based participatory research (cbpr), maternal and child health, life course perspective, protective factors, qualitative research authors abraham a. salinasmiranda university of south florida lindsey m. king university of florida hamisu m. salihu baylor college of medicine roneé e. wilson university of south florida susan nash baylor college of medicine sarah l. collins university of florida estrellita “lo” berry reachup inc. deborah austin reachup inc. kenneth scarborough reachup inc. evangeline best reachup community advisory board lillian cox reachup community advisory board georgette king reachup community advisory board carrie hepburn reachup community advisory board conchita burpee reachup community advisory board richard briscoe reachup community advisory board julie b aldwin northern arizona university 69 vol. 1, issue 3 introduction the disparity in birth outcomes between black and white americans is one of the most persistent and striking health disparities in the u.s. black infants are twice as likely to die within the first year of life and have higher rates of low birth weight and preterm birth than white counterparts (hauck et al., 2011; salihu et al., 2011; tucker et al., 2007). to explain this disparity, researchers are exploring relationships between healthcare, social, environmental, bio-behavioral, economic, and structural factors over the life course (e.g., racism) and across generations (lu & halfon, 2003). in this context, the life course perspective (lcp) has been proposed as an overarching theoretical framework to guide multidisciplinary research in racial/ethnic disparities in birth outcomes (lu & halfon, 2003). the lcp explains how risk and protective factors at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels influence health over the life span (centers for disease control prevention [cdcp], 2011; hellserstedt, 2013). the lcp suggests that conditions a mother is born into and grows up in, as well as her pregnancy circumstances, are all important for reproductive success and future health (lu & halfon, 2003; pies et al., 2012). in this context, g. h. elder (1998) proposes the principles of life course theory, which includes: (1) life-span development, which explains that both human development and aging are lifelong continuous processes; (2) human agency, which states that persons as individual agents shape their lives through the choices and actions they take but within the constraints and opportunities of their socio-historical circumstances; (3) time and place, which highlights the influence of the historical times and places on the life trajectories of individuals and communities; (4) timing, which focuses on the consequences of life transitions, events, and behavioral patterns that vary according to their timing in a person’s life; (5) linked or interconnected lives, which illustrates that human lives are interdependent and that socio-historical influences happen within a network of shared relationships. through these principles, life course research emphasizes the study of cumulative exposures of protective and risk factors that contribute to good or poor health trajectories (elder & giele, 2009; hellerstedt, 2013; lu et al., 2010). studies have suggested that black women residing in the u.s. may be exposed to fewer protective and more risk factors throughout their life course than white women (lu & halfon, 2003). although risk and protective exposures are equally vital to optimal health, most studies have focused solely on the risk factor exposures faced by vulnerable populations (salinas-miranda et al., 2017). for example, there is evidence that black women are more likely to be exposed to discrimination and more social stressors (nurujeter et al., 2009). moreover, the disparities persist even for black women who are highly educated and with higher incomes, suggesting that american women living in the same socioeconomic category may not have the same life experiences (lu & halfon, 2003). racism is also a factor that exerts its influence over the life course (nuru-jeter et al., 2009), affecting adults and children. in contrast, the evidence on protective factors specific to maternal and child health remain scant and loosely defined. some hypothesized protective factors include resiliency (stress-coping mechanisms), healthy relationships, and health-promoting policies (hellerstedt, 2013). the traditional public health approach emphasized a deficit model which viewed communities as problems that need to be fixed (hellerstedt, 2013). in clear contrast to such traditional views, strengths-based approaches, such as community resiliency, appreciative inquiry, and asset-based mapping analyses, focus on community protective factors that foster resilience (zimmerman, 2013). such positive perspectives represent a paradigm shift that views communities as valuable assets that have the capacity to fully engage themselves and their residents to achieve optimal health (zimmerman, 2013). in line with the current asset-based approaches in maternal and child health, our engage! 70 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors study adds information on specific protective factors that are relevant for disadvantaged communities of color (friedeli, 2012; lightfoot, mccleary, & lum, 2014; morgan & ziglio, 2007; schooley & morales 2007). other authors have used strengths-based approaches, but studies that capture low-income neighborhood residents' perspectives are less common. participatory action research (par) methods are well-suited to apply a strengths-based approach to understand disparities (minkler et al., 2003) and capture the unique perspective of the community members themselves in explaining the protective factors that lead to optimal health. maternal and child health programs could benefit from a greater focus on community-centered and communitydriven approaches to understanding disparities in mch. the health care field needs to integrate par into community health needs assessments and make informed decisions based on the community perspective (wallerstein & duran, 2006). research using the lcp can be significantly enhanced through the use of community-based participatory research (cbpr), a strategy that utilizes the intimate participation of community residents in every decision-making phase of the project (blumenthal, 2011; israel, 2005; minkler & wallerstein, 2003; schulz et al., 2002; wallerstein & duran, 2006). cbpr is a useful technique for collecting the community perspective and results in culturally-tailored public health interventions that are more pertinent to the lived experiences of community residents (blumenthal, 2011; israel, 2005; minkler & wallerstein, 2003; schulz et al., 2002; wallerstein & duran, 2006). therefore, using the cbpr approach to frame the inquiry and the lcp as the guiding theoretical framework, this study explored maternal and child health protective factors from community residents’ perspectives. material and methods we conducted this study as part of a mixedmethods cbpr project, funded by the national institute on minority health and health disparities (nimhd/nih). details regarding the specific methodology of the larger study are described elsewhere (salihu et al., 2015; salihu et al., 2016; salinas-miranda et al., 2015; salinasmiranda et al., 2017). we conducted this study within a targeted urban community that encompassed five zip codes in hillsborough county, fl, usa. the community's estimated population was 110,451 in 2013 (u.s. census bureau, 2013). neighborhoods within this targeted area are largely impoverished (u.s. census bureau, 2013; florida department of health, 2013). within the study area, the majority of residents are black (60%), followed by white (18%), hispanic/latino (12%), and other (10%) (u.s. census bureau, 2013). at the start of the study, hillsborough county’s infant mortality rate (imr) was 7.56 per 1,000 live births, (florida department of health, 2013), above the health people 2030 target of 5.0 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. infants born to black mothers within hillsborough county die at an imr of 13.9. in contrast, the imr for white babies is 5.5 deaths per 1,000 live births (florida department of health, 2013), demonstrating a disturbing black-white disparity in imr. this project built and expanded upon an existing 15-year community-academic partnership between reachup, inc., and the university of south florida (usf) (salihu et al., 2011). reachup is a community-based, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides healthy start services and risk reduction services to mothers and children. prior cbpr collaborations between usf and reachup have significantly reduced preterm birth in the area by 30% (alio et al., 2013; salihu et al., 2009; salihu et al., 2011). we used this successful cbpr platform to plan, implement, analyze, and disseminate this project and created a community advisory board (cab). the cab comprised eight active members in the target area with a long history of grassroots development work, who were well connected with various local organizations. many members were past cbpr participants and therefore possessed expertise in research activities (alio et al., 2013; salihu et al., 2009; salihu et al., 2011). they served as engage! 71 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors gatekeepers between the academic researchers and the larger community and represented the community’s racial/ethnic diversity. cab volunteers took ownership of the study plan and protocol. they participated in bi-weekly face-toface cbpr trainings and discussion meetings to ensure methodological rigor and develop a shared vision of the research process. all cab members completed a human subjects protection certification course. the study was approved by the usf institutional review board (irb) and the uf irb. trained community members conducted ten focus groups. cab members recruited participants through word of mouth, email, flyers, social networks, and social media. we used purposive sampling, a sampling strategy used commonly in qualitative research that carefully selects participants based on their experiences, rather than random sampling. purposive sampling was used to identify individuals who could provide insight into the community context (krueger & casey, 2000). participants were selected based on the following criteria: residency of five years or more in any target zip code, interested in sharing views about mothers and infants in the community, female or male adults and children 12 years of age or older with parental consent, and able to speak english or spanish. individuals interested in participating in a focus group called the phone number provided in study flyers, and community research staff answered questions and provided study information. informed consent was obtained, and $10 incentives were provided (an amount deemed acceptable and non-coercive). we monitored the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics to prevent overrepresentation in any particular subgroup. focus groups were conducted in private rooms in designated community locations and held at times most convenient for participants. trained community moderators facilitated the focus groups. community co-moderators and graduate student volunteers at the usf college of public health enrolled in a cbpr doctoral-level course took detailed field notes. we used a semistructured questioning guide with questions developed with cab members. the facilitators provided a summary of examples and asked for any additional feedback. we used probes when needed to encourage discussion. all focus groups were recorded with a tape recorder and transcribed verbatim, except for one focus group where we only took field notes. transcription of each focus group was performed by a trained community member who was familiar with the local language. in order to maintain confidentiality, identifiable information was deleted from transcripts. trained cab members hand-coded paper-based transcripts, using flipcharts, sticky notes, and scissors (krueger & casey, 2000), facilitated by usf researchers during one of our bi-weekly meetings. hand coding is a commonly used qualitative method signifying that coding was done through comprehensive review and rethe community advisory board (cab) and academic researchers at a bi-weekly meeting, hand-coding the paper-based focus group transcripts. engage! 72 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors review of transcripts and not using a computer program (patton, 2002). we conducted exploratory thematic analysis (sandelowski & barroso, 2003) by reading the data while reflecting on study aims. we then coded meaningful categories by dividing cab members into groups of two to three by focus group transcript and creating codes from the community perspective. we listed the categories and discussed them for contrast and comparison across focus group transcripts, which led to the identification of concurrent themes across focus groups (sandelowski & barroso, 2003). illustrative quotes were selected to represent themes (strauss & corbin, 1998). findings from early analyses were presented in two community forums to check for validation. these early findings also led to the creation of a community needs assessment survey (salinas-miranda et al., 2015) and a community-based dietary intervention (salihu et al., 2016). risk factors were published in a separate article (salinasmiranda et al., 2017). two members of the research team then preserved written notes digitally with nvivo qualitative analysis computer software, including illustrative quotes (nvivo qualitative data analysis software; qsr international pty ltd. version 11, 2015) to maintain a record of the analysis and to conduct conceptual/thematic descriptions (sandelowski & barroso, 2003). we used axial coding, an established qualitative data analysis technique of linking categories to subcategories and connecting categories at a higher conceptual level (strauss & corbin, 1998). this process involved coding and re-coding until agreement on the emerging themes was achieved by the cab members and researchers (strauss & corbin, 1998). from our themes, subthemes, and continuous coding and re-coding, hierarchical patterns developed, and we conceptualized a model based upon these relationships. results a total of 78 community residents participated in the focus groups. the distribution of focus groups was as follows: one focus group from each of the five target zip codes, one focus group comprising fathers only (mixed zip codes), two focus groups in spanish for spanish speakers (mixed zip codes), and two focus groups comprising adolescents (mixed zip codes). table 1 presents the sociodemographic characteristics of participants. the majority of participants were characteristics % age 12-18 years of age 10.3 19-40 years of age 46.1 41 and older 43.6 gender male 38.7 female 61.3 ethnicity hispanic or latino 20.5 not hispanic or latino 79.5 racial categories american indian/alaska native 2.6 asian 2.6 native hawaiian or other pacific islander 2.6 black or african american 61.5 white 25.6 more than one race 5.1 (n=78) table 1 participant sociodemographics engage! 73 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors adults. the two focus groups conducted with children 12 to 18 years of age represented 10.3% of the participants. the majority of participants were female (61%), non-hispanic or latino (80%), and black (62%). protective factors across focus groups, community residents mentioned several protective factors that frequently contribute to maternal and child health. we organized these factors as themes around three life periods, under the life course perspective: including factors affecting the health of children and adolescents, women in general (preconception period), and women during pregnancy. some factors cut across life periods, whereas other factors were discussed with particular emphasis for one or two life stages. within each life period, we identified constructs that fit within the broader themes of personal and family factors, health issues, and community and economic factors. we were also able to identify factors (figure 1) that are more relevant for the different life periods based on community members' perspective and potential cumulative pathways of factors that may continue to exert their protective effects in a continuous manner. protective factors that affect the health of children and adolescents protective factors that affect the health of children and adolescents were identified and classified into subthemes such as self-esteem, positive role models, nutrition and healthy diet, physical activity and recreation, and community support. quotes are presented in table 2. self-esteem was a protective factor that emerged throughout all the focus groups and across all genders/ages, having its origins in childhood and adolescence. participants noted positive role factors affecting adolescents and children factors affecting preconceptive women factors affecting pregnant women pe rs on al a nd fa m ily f ac to rs } self-esteem } positive role models } self-esteem } spirituality } social support } self-esteem } spirituality } support during pregnancy h ea lth is su es } nutrition and healthy diet } physical activity and recreation } health literacy } good nutrition } prenatal care c om m un ity an d ec on om ic fa ct or s } community support } community support } community resources } societal factors } community resources figure 1 possible pathways of maternal and child health protective factors throughout the life course identified by community members engage! 74 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors models in their lives and shared their positive experiences, which they recommended should be emulated through positive role models for children. personal & family factors self-esteem “feeling good about yourself, having self-esteem.” positive role models “my stepfather took me out in the yard on saturday … the first thing he told me was, ‘boy, keep you a rake and a lawnmower because the grass won’t never stop growing.’ and that was… you know, i was nine years old and right now today i own a tree service and landscaping service… i always remember, that’s why i renamed the business after my stepfather because he told me that… don’t roll that weed, get a weed eater.” health issues nutrition and healthy diet “my momma had me in the garden…to raise vegetables and … health foods and stuff, you know, organic type of stuff…and then that helps you, too, you know, environmentally. and then you have growin’ trees and stuff in your neighborhood and stuff like that. plant a tree or something.” physical activity and recreation “you know, there used to be a lot of after school programs at the parks and everything for the kids to go get involved in, even during the summer programs. but nowadays they done took away all those programs, now the kids don’t have nothing to do but walk around the street, then there’s nothing to do...but if you left those programs and you really implemented programs and encouraged those programs, the kids will become better kids, role models, that’s because the kids are the future.” “creating programs within the community, where they can come and being a public role model without just listening to the music all the time. the education at the ymca, you know, they have… teaching them on health... the kids don’t get that today. so mainly in the health issues, that’s what we’re lacking.” “i think children need to be involved in school activities. like, if your daughter’s a cheerleader, you should find time to go and watch her as she’s cheering. your son playing football or some type of sports. because i go and volunteer at the high school concession stand, and the parents do not come to watch their kids. and right there is no support…yes, there was only two high schools, but it was a community effort, you went and supported your child. and you had worked just as hard all day, and then you had to get a ride.” community & economic factors community support “yeah, the whole neighborhood raise them.” “big brothers, big sisters, united way, and others. well, really, to keep our teenagers staying healthy we just need a little help… just like encourage them a lot and try to do what’s right and, you know, go by… i also think like the big brothers program or something like that, maybe finding like a role model, somebody that you personally know that your child looks up to this person and try to talk to them maybe behind the child’s back to say, hey, my child’s struggling with this, this and that, i’ve tried, you know, but he doesn’t or she doesn’t want to hear it from me, you know, could you help me out with this.” “the school system has placed some more emphasis on healthy teens or, you know, i would say that can be attributed to a lot of positives going on in the community.” “exposing your kids. you can live in a rough neighborhood, like i grew up in…we went outside the neighborhood to museums. and i think a lots of time we stay within our community. but going outside and that really enlighten you. expose your mind.” table 2 protective factors that affect the health of children and adolescents engage! 75 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors some participants had specific family members or mentors that encouraged skills and motivated the individuals, while other participants commented on the importance of programs for children who may not have such positive role models. programs such as big brothers, big sisters were mentioned frequently and praised by participants. a healthy diet was mentioned repeatedly as important for health, especially for children and adolescents. one participant discussed how her mother taught her to grow vegetables in a garden, which she described as leading to healthier eating. the theme of nutrition and a healthy diet does not exist in isolation, rather it is also related to the theme of positive role models. participants stressed that parents have an essential role in the food their children eat and suggested a need to educate parents and families on the importance of a healthy diet and nutrition for health. nutrition, physical activity, and recreation among children were perceived as very important, as indicated by the emphasis and rich examples provided. one participant noted how after-school programs were beneficial in helping kids with physical activity. however, participants noted that such programs are scarce within this community. even though the lack of after school programs within this community is seen as a risk factor, participants indicated that physical activity and recreation are very important to youth and serve as protective factors. participants stressed the need for creating community programs for physical activity and general health promotion among adolescents. these health promotion programs and programs that promote physical activity and recreation seemed to have existed more in the past, and the participants commented that such programs are missing nowadays. participants also indicated the key role of parents in supporting children’s active living. for instance, one participant indicated that although kids may be involved in sports -mentioned as protective to health -parents often do not provide enough social support. social support from parents was discussed as a protective factor that was also more present in the past but seems to be lacking today. lastly, community resources for children and adolescents were described as the “it takes a village” (implying the need for many people’s involvement). one participant noted that there were community resources that could help parents establish better communication with their children. these resources are often underutilized, as depicted in table 3. these resources could also provide solutions to barriers previously mentioned, such as the low number of parents who show up to their children’s sporting events. another participant noted beneficial changes in the local school health system that may channel positive change in adolescents. these changes were connected to the previous theme of selfesteem. on the other hand, participants recognized the need for accessing outside community resources to support children’s health. although taking children to museums and other places outside of the community were described as protective factors, there was an emphasis on a need to bring more programs to the community. protective factors that affect the health of women in general (preconception period) subthemes identified for women in general offered a wider breadth of protective factors (table 3), including spirituality, health literacy, community building, and societal factors in relation to race and ethnicity. though this cohort offered unique subthemes, some subthemes were repeated, such as self-esteem and various forms of social support. the importance of spirituality and related practices (e.g., prayer) were mentioned frequently as protective factors for women. participants indicated that the church has always been the center of the community, explaining that churches do a lot of good for the community. however, participants also emphasized that churches should work together more intensively to solve community problems, as many churches within engage! 76 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors the community do not communicate and work with each other. self-esteem was again mentioned as a protective factor that affects the health of women in general. participants also emphasized the importance of personal & family factors spirituality “so, every day have some spiritual time with him to read in that bible.” “prayer and support help you to stay healthy.” self-esteem “you need to know how to come back, even though you fail, you need to know how to step back up.” social support “support. common support. family support. you know, support from any and everybody.” “like i say, it’s a big job cleaning the house up, keeping the house clean is a big job. and then we as men should recognize that and try to help our spouse, and i think that’s going to help. when you’re helping a woman and doing that, that going to make her love you more.” health issues health literacy "being caught up-to-date, you know, through the clinics and stuff. the clinics giving out information about diseases and you knowdifferent type of sickness.” "if people are educated about health care and especially minorities because we’re at risk for so many things like high blood pressure and diabetes; and i think if people are educated about the dangers and what can happen to you with these diseases, then they’re more likely to take care of it. preventive health care is another thing.” community & economic factors community resources and community building activities “i think that we should implement more opportunities in our neighborhoods for all of our people to come together, maybe a place of recreation for the whole community. i did hear one time about people having community garden where they got together and they, the little ones, the older ones, the ones in the middle, you know, everybody got a chance to participate and be proud of what they created which also brought unity to the community and people to know who each other were.” “we need to get to know each other again.” “they have a bus that does mammograms, they do blood pressure check, there’s a bus.” “i think going into the different neighborhoods at least once a month or once a week, letting them know this is available to you.” “have like community outreach where you can come get… because i know back in the day, if your baby needs shots, they’re like a saturday or sunday, you know, when i was a kid because my mom used to take us, the public housing would have on saturdays where you could come in, get your baby shots, you know, get them checked for colds and, you know, different stuff like that. they don’t do that anymore.” societal factors “i think it’s lack of opportunities, maybe how society sees the black woman. and it shouldn’t be like that but it is. because they’re made to…feel inferior but they don’t realize, if it wasn’t for a woman, we would have nobody to carry us…if we would concentrate on more opportunity, it could get a lot better… if you have more opportunity, you’ll get out of those things.” table 3 protective factors that affect the health of women in general (preconception period) engage! 77 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors resilience. although self-esteem and resilience were noted as significant protective factors for women, participants emphasized a need to connect women with more mental health resources and other community programs that build self-esteem and resilience. participants stated that there are many resources available but residents need to be made aware of these resources and connected to the appropriate programs. several participants noted the protective role of social support from close relationships and other social connections. a male participant stressed the role of instrumental social support from men. participants emphasized that adequate relationship support and support from family members and friends were critical protective factors that helped women reduce and manage stress. focus group participants indicated the importance of health literacy as a protective factor. one female participant discussed being informed about her health as an important protective factor for women’s health. one female participant also pointed to the importance of community-tailored health education and its potential to prevent health problems in the community. participants further elaborated that knowledge acquisition and the personal practices associated with information sharing were key determinants for a woman’s health. participants talked about the importance of community building activities and community resources. both a community garden and a community center were mentioned as important protective factors for health because they build community unity and a sense of togetherness. even though these were seen as protective, many participants said that community gardens and community centers were lacking in this community and emphasized that creating opportunities for neighbors to come together would be protective through support and community unity. participants also stressed the importance of community outreach programs and health fairs as protective. some mentioned them as being abundant in the community and noted that community outreach is a strength of this community. other participants indicated there is a need for more advertising and marketing of these events. other participants mentioned a greater need for programs within this community and that programs like this used to exist but are less common today. other participants mentioned societal factors, such as socioeconomic opportunities for black women. when participants discussed social and economic opportunities for women in general, they focused on their absence and mentioned the need for more significant opportunities and changes to attitudes and stereotypes. in this regard, greater social inclusion of black women, improved social and economic opportunities, positive attitudes toward black communities, and the elimination of negative stereotypes are in line with strategies for healing racism and addressing historical trauma (williams et al., 2019). although not explicitly mentioned, these factors emerged from the conceptual analysis. protective factors that affect health during pregnancy protective factors for pregnant women echoed similar themes and subthemes as children and adolescents and preconception periods. however, there was a unique emphasis on spousal or partner support during this period in a woman’s life (table 4). self-esteem and positivity were mentioned as important protective factors that affect health during pregnancy. participants described having a positive mental outlook and psychological wellbeing as necessary. they talked about surrounding oneself with optimistic people, as positive role models, and accepting the pregnancy if you are going to have the baby. another participant discussed the importance of setting personal goals. residents emphasized the importance of remaining optimistic, even if the engage! 78 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors personal & family factors self-esteem and positivity “just hanging around positive people. even if you are pregnant out of wedlock, don’t hang around someone who can always talk you down.” “working hard for something. having a goal in mind. being focused on something.” spirituality “you ought to remind the young woman that carrying the child is [to] read your bible to your child every day. read the bible to her. that’s one of the key things i always tell them when i say take them vitamins, drink plenty of water …out loud so the baby can hear what you’re saying.” support during pregnancy/father support “having a good support system. and, preferably if it’s the dad of that child.” “so she can have some time to herself. if it’s nothing but to take a nap or take a walk, she can have a few minutes to become just herself and not have to be a momma or this or that or whatever, she can just be herself and just have a few minutes. you know, and that’s what i can actually do to help somebody to be, you know, just to give her a chance to reset her mind. she need emotional support from her significant other or family members because whatever affect her will affect the baby.” “and for new mothers before they even have their babies…the support groups, where they can get together and they can talk about all of those things that they can do for their babies once they are born… i think that would be a really good requirement for pregnant women to have to go through something that where they would have some insight on what they’re going to… just to teach them what they are going to be facing. there should be a requirement for every pregnant mother to go through something like that, to just be aware of the changes that’s going to happen, the mother and the father as a matter of fact.” health issues good nutrition “eating right and eating properly” "i don’t know, but he may not understand it totally but he knows that a pregnant woman need to eat right.” prenatal care “taking your prenatal vitamins” and “get the shots.” “also, with women with the things that we can do is we can also… well, what they can do to be healthy is make sure they follow through with their doctor appointments, make sure they take their medications, make sure that they eat well, and do… and we can pray that daddy steps in and gives her a hand, you know, if he don’t do nothing but rub her feet because they swollen up...” community & economic factors community resources "i feel that if they had somewhere to go where a pregnant…a bunch of them pregnant women can sit down and talk and be amongst themselves and talk about things and have a avenue where they can air out problems or get help with the children or the babies…you’re taking another step in your life, to prepare them… like a support group.” table 4 protective factors that affect health during pregnancy engage! 79 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors pregnancy was unplanned. for women in general, spirituality was mentioned as an important protective factor for pregnant women. the residents cited support from friends and family and the father as a protective factor for pregnant women. community members indicated companionship is an essential social support aspect, and others suggested that instrumental and emotional support were also critical. some participants also indicated specific formal support sources, such as pregnancy support groups and parenting education classes for new mothers. a support group like the one mentioned would provide various types of social support, including emotional and informational. it would also offer education and tools to help better care for babies. participants noted the importance of adequate nutrition to protect against pregnancy complications. the importance of a healthy diet for pregnant women was frequently mentioned and often stated that a healthy diet helps pregnant women to “be their best” during gestation. one participant also noted the partners’ role in knowing what a healthy diet during pregnancy is, emphasizing the importance of nutrition as a protective factor for pregnant women. it also highlights the importance of social support, especially support for healthy eating. residents noted the importance of keeping up prenatal care appointments recommendations. participants indicated that partners could help women adhere to prenatal care measures. the help partners and other friends/family members provide to pregnant women to keep up with prenatal care emphasizes the importance of instrumental social support as a protective factor for pregnant women. community members also highlighted several resources available in the community that women could access to get support and health-related resources (e.g., insurance and nutrition education). these community resources included churches, food banks, and programs for mothers and babies in the area that serve as protective for pregnant women. although some participants mentioned the abundance of resources in this community as a community strength, others said these resources are lacking. connecting with a support group to receive various types of social support and pregnancy education was also mentioned as protective for pregnant women under the community resources theme. discussion this study used a cbpr strategy of inquiry through focus groups and the lcp as the theoretical framework to examine community residents’ perspectives of maternal and child health protective factors. our goal was to obtain a better understanding of how life protective factors contribute to the health of women and children in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. lu and halfon (2003) first theorized the lcp, suggesting that disparities in birth outcomes are not only caused by pregnancy exposures, but by the cumulative exposure throughout the life course. in 2010, lu and colleagues developed a 12-part plan to reduce the disparities in birth outcomes using lcp (lu et al., 2010). the lcp emphasizes that exposures may be particularly salient at critical time periods, with three periods identified (in utero, the first three years of life, adolescence) as critically important for social, behavioral, and biological development (lu et al., 2010). the lcp also posits that the broader community environment strongly affects health, emphasizes the importance of transitions all individuals experience throughout life and places particular emphasis on equity (hellerstedt, 2013). our study found qualitative evidence for life course theory principles. life span development was assessed through the perceptions of community residents, which provides views within the community context. however, our study is not a longitudinal account of the individual participants experiences. instead, our questioning strategy specifically asked the participants’ views about the engage! 80 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors factors that are perceived to be associated with well-being and health for three life span stages (mothers, children, and youth). by asking about their perceptions about health during life span stages, the participants reported their experiences within their community context. thus, commonalities emerged across the lifespan stages such as social support. for each stage, the rich responses provided by the participants illustrate the importance of assessing health as a process and beyond the present immediate context. on the individual level, participants identified self-esteem as a protective factor throughout all life periods and positivity in specific life periods. the constructs of self-esteem and positivity are consistent with previously theorized protective factors of the lcp, including personal resiliency (hellerstedt, 2013). resilience is a set of skills that are reinforced by healthy relationships that allow individuals to cope in the face of adversity (mcdonald et al., 2016). there is evidence that the influence of community social networks, social stressors, and personal resources all confluence to predict self-esteem among women (woods et al., 1994). self-esteem as a protective factor may also be eroded by exposure to traumatic experiences (matheson et al., 2015). improving self-esteem, fostering mental wellbeing, increasing self-efficacy, and ultimately enhancing self-identity among women and children may be important untapped mechanisms to address maternal and child health disparities in communities of color (matheson et al., 2015). programs that increase self-esteem, positivity, and resiliency, especially among youth, would be an essential social investment to improve the overall health of communities, resulting in healthier mothers and babies (lu & halfon, 2003). one of the most salient life course theory principles illustrated by participants was the one related to interconnected lives/linked lives, which was depicted in several quotes that mentioned social support and community support for children, adolescents, and pregnant women. notably, the importance of parents and community support is an illustration of the principle of linked lives, showing the interconnectedness of community residents during all three stages assessed. this notion of linked lives is contrasted to the narrow view of health and healthcare as a personal issue. individual choices and personal resources are important (agency principle, which explains the human capacity to make changes themselves and own the capacity to have resilience), but they are constrained by the social and historical context. some examples of human agency noted by participants were the role of spirituality as a personal resource, as well as self-esteem. those aspects were cited as health-promoting factors over the life course. however, one’s spiritual beliefs are also shaped to a certain extent by the cultural and historical background of communities (e.g. black churches as sources of spiritual support during times of segregation). self-esteem was a protective factor that emerged throughout all the focus groups and across all genders/ages, having its origins in childhood and adolescence. participants noted positive role models in their lives and shared their positive experiences, which they recommended should be emulated through positive role models for children. self-esteem is a self-concept construct that is also shaped by one’s identities (i.e., gender identity) within the cultural milieu of the community (biro, 2006). however, the fact that it was mentioned across life stages is intriguing. we speculate that given that the majority of respondents were racial/ethnic minorities, it is possible that they have been exposed to we speculate that given that the majority of respondents were racial/ethnic minorities, it is possible that they have been exposed to discrimination and racism. several studies indicate how racism (micro and macro aggressions) is associated with low self-esteem and hopelessness. engage! 81 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors discrimination and racism. several studies indicate how racism (micro and macro aggressions) is associated with low self-esteem and hopelessness. conversely, the role of high self-esteem as a protective factor for ethnic minorities is understudied. a cross-sectional survey study by fisher and colleagues (2017) found a protective effect of ethnic identity on youth substance use, mediated by self-esteem. more studies are needed to examine the relationship between self-esteem, ethnic identity, and health over the life course. consistent with previously theorized relationship level lcp protective factors (lu & halfon, 2003; hellerstedt, 2013), participants identified social support throughout all life periods, with participants identifying positive role models as important for children and adolescents and support during pregnancy, particularly father support, as necessary for pregnant women. on the community-level, and in accordance with previously theorized community-level lcp protective factors (lu & halfon, 2003; hellerstedt, 2013), the importance of prenatal care among pregnant women emerged as a protective factor. the lcp suggests “improving the quality of prenatal care” and “expanding healthcare access over the life course” (lu et al., 2010). the lcp recognizes the significance of prenatal care to early fetal programming and optimal health over the lifespan (lu & halfon, 2003). however, the lcp emphasizes that prenatal care cannot reverse the effects of early life chronic social stressors and cumulative risk factors (lu & halfon, 2003). prenatal interventions may better improve birth outcomes if they begin before conception, as a vital part of women’s health care during reproductive age and over the whole life course (lu & halfon, 2003). the lcp also suggests that eliminating disparities will involve not only improving individual medical care, but also build stronger communities that foster the health of women and children throughout their lives (lu & halfon, 2003). community-level factors were mentioned as protective factors in all life stages (lu & halfon, 2003; hellerstedt, 2013). participants highlighted several community resources available that women could access to get support and healthrelated resources, such as churches, food banks, and programs for mothers and babies in the area. participants also talked of the importance of community building activities and community resources, mentioning community gardens and community centers as critical protective factors because they build community unity, but noted that these programs were scarce. the lcp plan proposes strengthening social connectedness/capital and investing in community building and urban renewal. community building must begin with economic development, infrastructure development, accessible and safe parks and recreational facilities, and political development (lu et al., 2010). societal factors were mentioned to be protective, in accordance with previously theorized lcp societal factors (lu & halfon, 2003; hellerstedt, 2013). participants noted a need to change stereotypical attitudes and the need for more significant opportunities for black women. this finding highlights the need to address racism and mitigate associated risks, which is consistent with nuru-jeter (2009), in a study exploring childbearing black women’s experiences with racism, nuru-jeter’s (2009) findings suggest that racism measures focus on the lasting impact of institutionalized, vicarious, and internalized racism on women’s experiences throughout their life. our findings are also consistent with pies et greater social inclusion of black women, improved social and economic opportunities, positive attitudes toward black communities, and the elimination of negative stereotypes are in line with strategies for healing racism and addressing historical trauma. engage! 82 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors al. (2012), who suggested focusing on social determinants, such as efforts to undo racism, that will continue into future generations (pies et al., 2012). our study has several notable strengths. to our knowledge, this is one of the first studies that has combined the lcp as a theoretical framework with the strategy of cbrp, creating an lcp-cbpr hybridization to identify protective factors for optimal maternal and child health using community residents’ perspectives. combining life course conceptualization with intimate community involvement has built a strong foundation, revealing how the target community perceives maternal and child health protective factors as leading to optimal health. despite these strengths, our findings should be understood within certain limitations. even though we utilized purposive sampling, selecting participants for their specific experiences, selfselection bias may have been present because community residents who chose to participate in the focus groups may be more interested in this topic than those who did not participate. additionally, using qualitative methods can provide insightful information concerning a specific topic and generate hypotheses, but it is difficult to generalize our results to other communities. even though risk factors are described in a previously published article (salinas-miranda et al., 2017), to fully conceptualize the lcp, it is important to examine protective and risk factors simultaneously. this article only describes the protective factors that lead to optimal health. some of our findings discuss protective factors that the participants identified as being protective, but that might not actually exist within this community. in this regard, the lack of protective factors may be considered as a risk with a detrimental effect on the community. although this community may lack certain protective factors, the residents still identified these factors as protective to health, so we included them within these findings. finally, this community is primarily comprised of socioeconomically disadvantaged residents of color; however, our study did not specifically target african american women. the cab recommended that we query everyone in the community about their perspectives. we considered this a positive way to engage the entire community in a discussion about the health of mothers and babies. our perception is that this strategy of asking everyone about mch issues fostered a wider community engagement, as opposed to other approaches that only engage women or men. we recommend that future studies address african american women’s, male’s, and children’s/adolescents’ perceptions separately. we believe the current study has achieved an appropriate balance between community participation and rigor. we recommend that future studies capture the perspective of community residents in other localities, as our results are not generalizable and are contextdependent (oetzel et al., 2018). engage! 83 vol. 1, issue 3 community engaged research salinas-miranda | protective factors references alio, a. p., lewis, c. a., scarborough, k., harris, k., & fiscella, k. 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