At its core, BTU is dedicated to supporting, aligning, and elevating collaborations between Towson University and its many community partners. In addition to convening and best practice events, recognition opportunities, and strategic support, BTU provides a variety of mechanisms to support faculty and staff involved in community engagement and partnership work.
Faculty & Staff Resources
2023 BTU Partnership Awards
The 2023 BTU Partnership Awards will recognize up to three mutually beneficial partnerships taking place between Towson University and at least one community partner. Recipients are determined based on the following criteria:
- The extent to which the partnership aligns with at least one of the five BTU impact areas
- The impact and scope of the partnership on Towson University and Greater Baltimore
- How the partnership exemplifies best practices and problem solving to address community needs
- How outcomes are assessed and measured
Award recipients and their community partner(s) will be celebrated at an awards reception on Wednesday, November 8 2023.
BTU supports this work in a variety of ways, including:
- Holding discovery sessions with community engaged faculty and staff to determine, navigate, and implement support strategies to enhance their work. Outcomes of support may include strategic management of existing partnerships, initiating new partnerships, expanding efforts across campus, marketing, communication, and storytelling support, and navigating community engagement in your role. Contact the BTU Team to schedule a session.
- Providing critical funding resources to enhance and sustain community engagement work. Learn more about funding opportunities and guidelines below.
- Collecting and utilizing data through the BTU Database to measure and share information related to partnerships and community engagement efforts. Learn more about the information captured in the BTU Database and make sure your partnership information is submitted below.
- Hosting an annual cohort of BTU Faculty Fellows, to expand and reinforce partnerships related to each of the BTU Impact Areas and work to make Towson University more accessible to community partners.
Ongoing Funding Opportunities
BTU resources are intended to support partnership and community engagement work of
faculty, staff, and students. There are many different forms of community engagement
and partnership work within higher education. At Towson University, this work is seen
as “a dynamic relational process that facilitates communication, interaction, involvement,
and exchange between an organization and a community for a range of social and organizational
outcomes” (Johnston 2018). Individuals seeking BTU support should craft requests with
these parameters of community engagement and partnership work in mind.
Enrichment Support
BTU Enrichment supports engagement activities such as event and material supplies, catering or meal needs, workshop supplies, external subject matter expert support, gap funding, equipment, marketing materials, honorariums, stipends, and other activities directly related to qualifying community engagement and partnership work. To further TU's economic inclusion efforts (link), BTU asks that all efforts be made to make purchases from local, small, minority-owned businesses. Requests are limited to $1,000.
Transportation Support
BTU Transportation supports the utilization of Towson University shuttles, the rental of vans, and parking codes for faculty, staff, or students traveling off-campus, or partners traveling on-campus, for partnership and community engagement projects.
Student Employment
BTU Student Employment supports Towson University students who are serving the public good by participating in applied community-engaged work that enhance their education and serve the needs of the Greater Baltimore region. Faculty and staff who are leading these projects may apply for funding to support of up to 150 hours of pay per year.