Text

theses

In Camden and Newark, New Jersey, recent efforts to address environmental issues through a collaborative process provide insight into new ways for universities to work with diverse urban constituencies. Cooperative Extension’s experience in these two communities is being evaluated to form a proposal for an alternative model for future Cooperative Extension Service work and university efforts in urban communities. The proposed model has been developed based on principals of action research, community-based participatory research, and collective impact to understand and define the roles and responsibilities of the university and local partners within a collaborative structure. This process-based model builds on community-identified need and identifies four critical steps for successful collaboration: engagement of key players leading to commitment and investment; organizing that addresses how the group will communicate and self-organize, thereby enabling a local champion and supporting effective partnerships; collaboration that involves developing a common agenda and framework for action; and sustaining impact, which engages the group in implementation and builds toward behavior change, increased knowledge, and change in condition.

ETD_8412

M.L.A.

Includes bibliographical references

by Jeremiah D. Bergstrom

doi:10.7282/T31N8487

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.