August 2024

NEWS

The Office of Community Engagement and Outreach is pleased to announce a call for applications for the 2024 Community Engagement Academy (CEA). 

The interdisciplinary professional development program is designed for new UTK faculty (0-3 years), postdocs, and graduate students that are interested in the fundamental concepts of community engagement, academic outreach, and community-engaged scholarship, which they can apply to their research, teaching, and practice. Through interactive sessions, guided discussions, and a community tour, participants will explore grand challenges and potential solutions. Benefits include individual consultation, access to background literature, strategies for successful engagement activities, and strategies for publishing community-engaged scholarship. 

For full consideration, complete the application below and submit your interest letter, resume, and chair’s endorsement statement by August 30 at 12:00 p.m.. For questions, contact Amy Gilliland, Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Scholarship.

Registration is open for the Office of Community Engagement and Outreach's 7th Annual Engagement and Outreach Conference. This year's theme is “Advancing the Modern-Land Grant Mission: UTK's Response to Grand Challenges, Complex Problems, and Broader Impacts."

The 7th Annual Engagement and Outreach Conference will highlight mutually beneficial partnerships and the positive impacts of community-engaged work while sharing strategies and solutions for sustainable partnerships. It will also provide a platform for intentional conversations about the many ways that UKT’s community engagement impacts lives
across the city, region, state, country and globe. View the tentative schedules for October 1-2 here. 

On Saturday, August 3, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville distributed supplies to area scholars as part of the Knoxville Area Urban League’s 22nd annual Shoes for Schools. The event provided shoes, backpacks, supplies, food, haircuts and a host of other services to over 1,500 children and their families.  Special thanks to the College of Social Work, Enrollment Management, Communications, Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, Jones Center for Leadership and Service, and Facility Services for their contributions and volunteers. Your involvement exemplifies a VOLunteer!

The Office of Community Engagement and Outreach hosted the 3rd Annual UT Family Fun Day at the Change Center on Saturday, August 3, to celebrate UTK employees and their families.  Participants enjoyed food, fun, skating, and received school supplies. Many thanks to Facility Services for partnering with the Office of Community Engagement and Outreach to sponsor this event.  

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES

The Division of Access and Engagement (DAE) offers competitive funding throughout the year for faculty, staff, and community organizations, to support educational initiatives, engagement and outreach, research, exhibits, speakers, and workshops. The request for proposals for Challenge Grants, Engagement and Outreach Grants, and Sponsorships will close on September 15. Please note, if you have been awarded funds in any of these categories in the last three years, you are not eligible for funding.

In addition, DAE will consider requests from eligible Deans to apply for up to $10,000 in funding to support faculty access and engagement officers, college-wide committees, or other college initiatives that facilitate progress on UTK’s commitment to access, education, and opportunities. Initiatives should focus on UTK's land-grant mission while demonstrating how the academic unit will collaborate with the Division of Access and Engagement or one of the units within the division which include the Office of Community Engagement and Outreach, Office of Equal Opportunity and Accessibility, or Office of Assessment, Culture, and Education. 

Please contact Dr. Javiette Samuel, Associate Vice Chancellor for Access and Engagement and Executive Director with questions.

Are you interested in learning more about academic outreach, community engagement, and engaged scholarship? Join the Office of Community Engagement and Outreach for one or all of our workshops coming this Fall and Spring semester! Sessions begin on Friday, September 6 at 2:00 p.m. and will continue bi-weekly through the end of the academic year.

UTK's Office of Community Engagement and Outreach and the Center for Global Engagement are proud sponsors of the 11th Knoxville Asian Festival will be held Saturday, September 8, at the World’s Fair Park from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The festival features authentic traditional food vendors representing Asian Cultures such as Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Korea, China, Japan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistani, and Vietnam. The Asian Cultural Parade will start at 10:30 a.m. at the water fountain on the park lawn and ends at 11:30 a.m. at the Amphitheater stage. To volunteer with UTK at the event, please contact Sonja Jackson, OCEO Assistant Director. To purchase tickets to attend the event, please click here. 

Are you hoping to implement better discourse practices on campus in the coming semester? Join Campus Compact on Wednesday, August 14, at 11:00 a.m. for a how-to webinar on utilizing their back-to-campus starter kit, Better Discourse. During this virtual event, you'll hear from civil discourse and bridge-building experts and have time to reflect with colleagues from across the country about addressing campus needs.

ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH OPPORTUNITIES

The University of Tennessee System is seeking engaging presentations from University-affiliated faculty and staff for the 2025 Grand Challenges Summit. Planned for February 13-14, in Murfreesboro, this summit is aimed at addressing Tennessee's most pressing issues, including overcoming addiction, advancing K-12 education, and strengthening Tennessee's rural communities. Proposals are due September 1.

Campus Compact will be hosting their 2025 National Conference from March 31-April 2, in Atlanta, GA. In 2025, they will celebrate "40 years of Campus Compact and imagine a future where the cumulative impact of communities, campuses, and individuals working together brings about a collective flourishing for all." 

Compact25 plans to be the largest national conference focused on the role of higher education in building healthy communities and fostering a just and equitable democracy.  Proposals for the conference are being accepted through September 27. 

While community engagement has been an integral element of American higher education since its inception, equitable approaches to community engagement practice have ebbed and flowed across time and institutions. This edited volume will interrogate the concept of equity in higher education community engagement by examining how equity is perceived and experienced in community-campus relationships; contemporary practices of equitable community engagement; the various ways they are defined across diverse cultures, perspectives, and contexts; and how they are initiated, enacted, revised, and institutionalized.

This book, tentatively entitled Equitable Community Engagement with Colleges and Universities: Exploring Equity in Community-Campus Relationships, is under contract with Routledge and AAC&U. Co-editors include Cindy Vincent (Salem State University), Karla Bird (University of Montana), Suchitra Gururaj (University of Texas), Sara Moore (Salem State University), and Andrea Robles (AmeriCorps).

This edited volume is seeking contributions from community organizations, faculty, staff, practitioners, and students to share their experiences creating and maintaining equitable community-engaged relationships in their teaching, research, and/or practice. Authors will be asked to produce a chapter using a case study to critically reflect, dialogically explore, and/or convey research that examines equitable definitions, values, frameworks, policies, or approaches that have been implemented in community-campus relationships. For the purposes of this book, communities are defined as external to the university.

Those interested in writing a chapter are invited to submit a brief chapter abstract (250 words or less) by August 23, 2024. For more specific information, further topic ideas, and the full chapter timeline, please visit the submission link or contact Cindy Vincent.

FUNDING, FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS

The Spencer Foundation is granting awards up to $400,000 over a period of up to three years through the Research-Practice-Partnership (RPP) Grant Program.The RPP Grants Program is intended to support education research projects that engage in collaborative and participatory partnerships. For example, practitioners might work in school districts, county offices of education, state educational organizations, universities, community-based organizations, and other social sectors that significantly impact learners’ lives. The Intent to Apply form is due September 13. If you intend to apply, please notify Jill Passano in advance. 

The Pilcrow Foundation’s mission is to provide children’s books to rural public libraries across the United States. Through its Children’s Book Project Grants, the Foundation provides a two-to-one match to rural public libraries that contribute $200 to $400 through a local sponsor for the purchase of up to $1,200 worth of new, quality, hardcover children’s books. Applications must be submitted online or postmarked by October 1, and grant recipients will be posted on the website by October 15. 

Toshiba America Foundation (TAF) is dedicated to helping classroom teachers make STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning fun and exciting for students in U.S. schools. TAF funds innovative STEM projects designed by teachers for use in their own schools and classrooms. Teachers at public and nonprofit private schools throughout the United States are eligible to apply. Please note, the grant schedule varies by grant type. 

The Sociological Initiatives Foundation provides grants for community-based research that helps communities organize for change. The grants (up to $25,000) support participatory research projects that help: change laws and regulations, reform institutional practices, amplify the voices of those left out, and build the political power of groups excluded from decision-making. Concept proposals for community-led projects that link an explicit research design to a concrete social action strategy are being accepted through August 15. 

The Rural Technology Fund provides grants to schools and organizations in the United States for rural technology education projects and assistive technology projects. Rural Technology Education Grants support teacher and student-led projects in public schools and libraries to help spark student interest in technology-based careers. 

OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH

If you are conducting community-engaged research, scholarship, or outreach work, we invite you to share your activity with us. Your work is important and deserves to be elevated to the highest extent possible. Please complete the Engagement Project Form here. 

If you received a copy of this newsletter from someone else and want to subscribe, please click here. 

Office of Community Engagement and Outreach
within the Division of Access and Engagement
301 Andy Holt Tower
1331 Circle Park Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996
Phone: 865-974-4742
communityengagement.utk.edu
communityengagement@utk.edu