Community Engagement Definitions

Community engagement describes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education

Community engagement is “[a] strategic process to directly involve local populations in all aspects of decision-making and implementation to strengthen local capacities, community structures and local ownership as well as to improve transparency, accountability and optimal resource allocations across diverse settings.

United Nations Peacebuilding

Key Terms

• Cultural Competence: "...the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services; thereby producing better outcomes."

• Equity: To treat everyone fairly. An equity emphasis seeks to render justice by deeply considering structural factors that benefit some social groups/communities and harms other social groups/communities.

• Oppression: A system for gaining, abusing and maintaining structural and institutional power for the benefit of a limited dominant class.

• Privilege: The unearned social, political, economic, and psychological benefits of membership in a group that has institutional and structural power.

• Social Justice:  "The process and goal of addressing the root causes of institutional and structural “isms...”

For full definitions and more community engagement terms, check out the Foundational Concepts.

More terms can be found in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Resource Guide

Key Terms

• Community-Engaged Research: To practice community-engaged research, one needs to reflect upon the relationship of research and researchers to communities.
• Community Outreach: Building awareness and sharing information about programs, resources, and services with people in a community.
• Reciprocity: The idea that community-engaged experiences provide an equal benefit to students and to the community.
• Service Learning: "...a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development."
• Social Determinants of Health: They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.

For full definitions and more community engagement terms, check out the Foundational Concepts.

Key Theories

• Critical Race Theory: "... considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies take up, but places them in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, and even feelings and the unconscious..."

• Empowerment Theory: " a process and an outcome that includes an increase in shared or individual power, consciousness raising, and various partnerships."

• Intersectionality: "The experience of women of color are frequently the product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, and how these experiences tend not to be represented within the discourses of either feminism or antiracism..."

• Social Capital: "...social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit." 

• White Supremacy Culture: "...the dominant, unquestioned standards of behavior and ways of functioning embodied by the vast majority of institutions in the United States..."

For full definitions and more community engagement terms, check out the Foundational Concepts.

As we adjust to new learning formats and diverse student backgrounds, our accelerated Community Engagement program faces challenges and opportunities. Collaborating with Angélique Bouthot, '21, in spring 2021, faculty developed a foundational concepts document. It serves as a launchpad for understanding the program, delving into key theories, and exploring connections between theory, social justice, and community engagement. Find the Foundational Concepts here: http://bit.ly/CEconcepts  

• Engagement Glossary - Towson University
• Community Engagement: Nine Principles
• Principles of Community Engagement