Community Engagement Guiding Principles

As a leader in community engagement, there are a number of principles that Towson University adheres to in our work with community partners. All of these add up to relationship-focused, mutually beneficial collaborations, that focus on respect, honesty, and recognizing and valuing the time and specialized knowledge of our partners.

Partner through a DEI lens

All community engagement and partnership work should be conducted through anti-racist and justice-centered approaches to address inequities that impact our campus community and the Greater Baltimore region. Take time to understand the historical contexts, past injustices, and power differentials of partner organizations and their communities, and hold inclusive conversations, without making assumptions.

Listen First

Our community partners are experts on their communities and their needs. Their experiences, knowledge, and voices should be at the table and respected throughout all stages of a collaboration - planning, implementation, and reflection. Community representatives should be leaders in the partnership and their time should be recognized.

Be Transparent & Accountable

Partnership outcomes, shared and individual responsibilities, and timelines should be clearly built, and revisited frequently alongside our community partners. This information should be utilized to hold each other accountable while working toward shared goals. A Partnership Agreement can be utilized as an informal way to capture this information, or if a more formal Memorandum of Understanding is needed, we can facilitate this process.

Ask for Feedback & Evaluate

All partners captured within the BTU Database will be asked to provide feedback on their partnership with TU at the end of each academic year. It is ethically sound and necessary to welcome ongoing feedback from your collaborators to measure successes and determine areas of improvement. This feedback will be provided to the associated TU faculty and/or staff. In addition to the annual feedback process, partners can submit feedback at any time using this form.

Faculty, staff, and community partners should also develop indicators of success and implement custom evaluation methods to measure impact and identify areas of growth.

Disseminate Outcomes

To increase impact and benefit the larger community, partnership and research outcomes, lessons learned, and results should be shared with the community partner and with the greater public. In addition to publishing through scholarly journals and other traditional means, this information should be adapted to various accessible formats and needs to get out into a broad audience to allow it to make the greatest impact toward the public good. The Office of Partnerships & Outreach can assist in developing these various forms of dissemination.

Explore new opportunities

There are a great deal of resources, needs, and expertise across campus. Be open to brainstorming new collaboration ideas with your partner, to expand beyond your college or division. The Office of Partnerships & Outreach is available to navigate new collaborations across campus.