At the Morgridge Center for Public Service, we understand the power of community engagement as a tool for learning and relationship building. However, we also realize that to be best prepared for equitable and respectful engagement takes some work. We offer a range of resources to help support students, staff and faculty strengthen their understanding of community engagement and learn strategies and dispositions that can lead to mutually beneficial projects and partnerships.
Contact: Community-Engaged Scholarship Specialist Cory Sprinkel: sprinkel@wisc.edu
- Learn about the Morgridge Center
- Learn about Community Engagement
- Upcoming Workshops
- Tabling Requests
Looking to have Morgridge Center students or staff present to your course or group? Students will learn about the Morgridge Center’s program offerings and other Pathways to Public Service.
Looking for a hands-on learning opportunity for your course or student group? We offer a selection of requestable workshops on the practice of community engagement that can be tailored to each groups’ interests. See more about our offerings below or request one here.
The Morgridge Center regularly hosts educational workshops and events that are open to all students. To see our calendar of offerings, click here
Have an opportunity for us to table at a campus or community event? Contact Assistant Director of Civic Engagement José Luis Ramirez Jr. at jramirez27@wisc.edu.
Community Engagement Preparation Curriculum Offerings
Online Modules
Consider assigning students up to three separate community engagement preparation modules. These modules, detailed more below, are designed as self-guided courses that engage students in reflection, readings, knowledge checks and more to explore the content. Each module takes somewhere between an hour to an hour and a half to complete. Hosted through Canvas, these modules can be easily added to your course page as an assignment. We can also work to provide you with reflection and follow-up materials to better integrate the modules into your course. Interested in accessing our Canvas modules? Request access here.
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Intro to Community Engagement
- Articulate your own motivations for and understanding of community engagement
- Analyze how one’s approach to community engagement can impact the community
- Compare various principles of community engagement
Contextualizing Community
- Build skills for learning about communities and community organizations
- Reflect on the connection between positionality, knowledge construction, and intellectual humility
- Develop an understanding of cultural humility and self-awareness and how those concepts impact community engagement
- Consider how systemic and institutional issues may impact community outcomes and experiences
Engaging with Community
- Articulate the role of relationships in community engagement and identify dispositions that contribute to positive relationship formation
- Identify the various considerations that should be applied prior to entering, engaging, or exiting communities
- Examine the opportunities for and barriers to engaging in equitable partnerships
- Reflect on opportunities to maintain engaged on a social issue after completing a community engaged experience
Community-based Research
- Gain an understanding of the principles and practices developed through community-based research
- Strengthen relationship building skills for working with communities
- Explore the variety of methods for Community-Based Participatory Research
Interactive Workshops
Request an interactive workshop for your course that can be facilitated by the community Engagement preparation specialist or one of the community engagement education interns.
These workshops, which typically last an hour and half, are intended to engage your students in meaningful discussion about activities to strengthen their understanding of and approach to community engagement. Interested in attending a workshop?
Sign up with this workshop form.
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Intro to Community Engagement
- Articulate individual motivations and goals for community engagement/”service”
- Define cultural humility and recognize its implications for engaging appropriately with communities
- Recognize the role of root causes in informing the social issue and engagement
- Understand best practices and key considerations for engaging with communities
Entering, Engaging and Exiting Community
- Understand how to analyze a community partner’s mission, history, and context and how those factors inform engagement
- Contrast different principles of community engagement and define their own principles
- Apply active listening and relationship building strategies to their engagement
- Explain the importance of sustainability as it relates to community engagement
Power & Positionality
- Engage in self-awareness and reflection activities
- Understand how histories of academic community engagement shape engagement today
- Explore strategies for power-sharing in partnership work
Preparing Students for Community Engagement
- This workshop, intended for faculty and staff, allows participants to:
- Articulate the importance of student preparation for community engagement and identify preparation needs specific to their course/program
- Understand how to leverage core components of community-engaged learning pedagogies to increase student preparation and success
- Consider skills and practices to engage with challenging conversations and issues in the classroom
- Identify opportunities to improve community partnerships and integrate community voice and knowledge into the classroom/program
- Consider the role of cultural and intellectual humility within community engagement
Special Topics
Our interns and staff are also equipped to facilitate a number of other sessions on topics such as, critical reflection, active listening, virtual engagement strategies, and more. Let us know if you have a specific idea you want to explore.