The Office of Community Relations and the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are pleased to offer a unique funding opportunity for community- university partnerships. The Community University Partnership Award (CUPA) provides recognition and support for exemplary and impactful collaborations between community organizations and UW-Madison faculty, staff, or graduate students.
Community-university collaborations, whether connected to research, teaching, or ongoing projects or initiatives, are a clear embodiment of the Wisconsin Idea and demonstrates UW’s interest in advancing research and knowledge relevant to Wisconsinites, as well as global communities. UW-Madison appreciates the continuous role community partners play in advancing such collaborations and shaping effective impacts.
Three total awards are available at amounts of $2,000, $3,000, and $5,000 which can be used to support or sustain existing community-university collaborations. Funding may be used to support any activities of the partnership, including but not limited to developing a new project, advancing community-based research or learning, or supporting ongoing projects or activities.
Award applications is now closed.
Any UW-Madison faculty, staff, or graduate student, alongside community partners (with or without nonprofit status) involved in an active partnership are welcome to apply.
Proposals are welcome from any discipline with the following stipulations:
- Each application must be co-submitted by both the community partner and campus partner (i.e. a team member from the community organization and campus unit have to submit one application)
- Partnerships should not be brand new (though new collaborators may be involved or new projects may be pursued), but rather demonstrate some history of relationship
The proposal should clearly describe the known or anticipated benefits to community partners and to the academy. Partnerships will be evaluated based on their commitment to respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and relevance within the partnership.
Specifically, applicants should demonstrate how their partnership:
- Addresses a community-identified priority (either originating within a community or co-created by university constituents and community members working together)
- Supports equitable relationships, specifically addressing the partnership’s commitment to respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and relevance.
- Works to build community capacity and provide a sustained positive impact
- Works toward social change and community impact
Funds may be used to support partnerships in any discipline that engage community organizations, public sector entities, or grassroots groups and UW-Madison collaborators. Because these funds are a form of recognition for community-university partnerhsips the budget does not need to explicitly tie to a research project, but should reflect an effort to sustain partnership.
Funding cannot be used for faculty salary, but may be used to compensate staff members, undergraduate and graduate student employees, or community partners. Funds may also be used to purchase supplies and services necessary for the project. Proposals that use all or a portion of funding for community partner expenses will be given extra weight.
2024 CUPA Award Winners
A Community-Engaged Approach to Cardiovascular Disease
Key Partners: Forest County Potowatami; UW Dept of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine; WI Network for Research Support; Native American Center for Health Professionals
This is a partnership with the Native American Center for Health Professions (NACHP), the Forest County Potawatomi (FCP) Tribe, the Wisconsin Network for Research Support, and UW Cardiovascular Medicine. They established a first of its kind preventive cardiology outreach clinic, directed by community advisory boards of Tribal Elders and providers and staff from their clinic.
Their goal, which will be supported by funds from this award, is to establish a seasonally rooted lifestyle medicine program, incorporating Elder-delivered teachings around a seasonal food, preparing a meal based around that food and discussing a mental or physical health-related topic.
Broadening the Impact, Reach, and Sustainability of Restorative Justice
Key Partners: First Congressional CC Prison Ministry Project; Center for Healthy Minds
Restorative Justice (RJ) offers a paradigm shift, bringing together those who have caused and experienced harm in conversation with other community members, with the goal of repairing and preventing the future occurrence of harm. For over 15 years, the First Congregational UCC Prison Ministry Project (PMP) has facilitated a unique volunteer-driven RJ program within Wisconsin prisons, connecting with over 1,000 individuals. This award will support an emerging collaboration between PMP and the Cultivating Justice CoLaboratory at the UW-Madison Center for Healthy Minds to collect preliminary, mixed-methods data on the short-term impact of program participation, and to support the participation of formerly incarcerated individuals as group volunteers.
Where do the Babies Go?
Key Partners: UW School of Medicine, Dept of Pediatrics, JustDane
This collaboration is part of a Community-based Research project examining the decision-making processes used to place and arrange the ongoing care of newborn infants with caregivers when infants are born to mothers while they are incarcerated.
The overall goal of this project is to improve the health and well-being of mothers giving birth while incarcerated, their infants, and caregivers, and this research will be completed in partnership with community collaborators have extensive knowledge of working with pregnant women who have experienced marginalization, including those who are justice involved, those who’ve given birth while incarcerated, and caregivers who have cared for an infant of an incarcerated mother.