“…to truly honor our public promise, we must be of and for the public — in every way. That means deep, reciprocal community engagement—not outreach to communities, but partnership with communities. It means showing up, listening first, sharing knowledge, and being accountable. It means hearing our critics and responding in good faith to what they have to tell us.” UW president Robert Jones, Inaugural Presidential Address, October 15, 2025.
Building on decades of work and, most recently, each campus’ comprehensive assessments of community engagement through the framework provided by the Carnegie Foundation, which led to each campus’ successful classification as Community-Engaged Campuses in 2020, the UW continues to grow our collective abilities to partner effectively and equitably in community. In recognition of the importance of this collective work within an “impact ecosystem”, in 2022 President Cauce directed resources toward improving tri-campus community engagement infrastructure. Supported by a generous anonymous gift, the goal of this tri-campus effort is to catalyze measurable, positive progress across the University of Washington toward deeper, ethical and effective community engagement by building organizational capacities that support, improve, and celebrate community engaged work.
In fall 2022 a tri-campus Community Engagement Working Group was charged to synthesize existing understanding of campus and university infrastructure, develop strategies and recommend priorities and processes toward that goal. Over the first half of 2023 the Working Group laid some groundwork for strategically investing resources to build capacity for community engagement, in alignment with existing campus and institutional capacities, priorities, and needs. The project was also supported by the CE Project Champions.
In spring 2023 President Cauce approved initial priorities and allocated funds to build foundational infrastructure. The initial priorities for community engagement infrastructure to be addressed through this funding are the strategic plan of this initiative, and include:
- Develop community engagement best principles and blueprints in alignment with diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Support or incorporate community engagement in campus-scale strategies and planning
- Address fiscal policy/process barriers to community engagement
- Improve data collection (tracking, mapping, documentation) and analysis (assessment, evaluation) of community engagement
- Support faculty and staff community engagement by developing and expanding resources for professional development, promotion and tenure, and other supports
- Grow student community engagement training and professional development opportunities
- Build appropriate tri-campus institutional efficiencies and coordination of community engagement to center the benefits to community partners
During the 2023-4 academic year, the Community Engagement Working group addressed these priorities from multiple angles, leading to important insights and next steps. Officially kicking off at the start of winter quarter 2024, thirteen faculty and staff from Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma campuses collectively tackled infrastructure priorities for community engaged research and learning at the University of Washington. Stemming from the tri-campus capacity-building effort launched in 2022, these Community Engagement Leads worked with faculty, staff students and community partners to assess, recommend and build community engagement supports. The results of their work can be found at this report!
In addition to and intersecting with the Community Engagement Leads’ work, the project hosted the Community of Practice (see below), and the Community Advisory Council (see below). Another effort during 2023-4 was the exploration and evaluation of the UW’s data needs with respect to community engagement, and the selection of an enterprise-wide platform to manage community-engaged activities.
In 2024-5, we:
- Shared the CE Definition Principles & Practices, and other guidance with key stakeholders
- Launched Community Connect UW to support curricular community engagement
- Began a project to build fiscal support mechanisms for compensating community partners
- Piloted Faculty and Staff CE Professional Development
- Piloted Student CE Training
- Released this CE Knowledge Hub!
- Built community through the Community of Practice, national conversations, and other connections
“Genuine community engagement does take time, much longer than the tenure of a graduate student or a five-year research grant. That’s why we’re developing a UW home for community engagement that can not only help faculty members or students looking to engage with local communities, but also to ensure that these engagements go beyond any single project. Right now, we’re developing shared principles, practices and accountability for those conducting this kind of work. The academy is often critiqued for doing things TO communities, rather than WITH them, which contributes to public skepticism about our institutions. We must ensure that our collaborations are always generative, rather than extractive..” – UW President Ana Mari Cauce, Annual Presidential Address, October 15, 2024.
Priorities were developed in 2023 utilizing assessments of campus and tri-campus capacities, priorities and needs, and the strategic framework built by the Community Engagement Working Group. These priorities were ground-truthed through a tri-campus survey and focus groups with UW and community stakeholders in 2024.
- Develop a university-wide definition, principles and practices for CE, in alignment with diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Provide supports to incorporate CE into strategic planning
- Address internal fiscal policy and process barriers to CE
- Improve documentation and assessment of CE
- Expand professional development resources for CE faculty and staff, including promotion, tenure and merit review supports
- Grow student CE training and professional development opportunities
- Build appropriate institutional efficiencies and coordination of CE across the UW’s 3 academic campuses to center the benefits to community partners
In AY 2025-6 our high-level goals are to:
- Scale up Community Connect UW to support more people and activities
- Integrate CE professional development and trainings for faculty, students and staff
- Publish resources to address fiscal barriers to CE
- Support units to align TPMR processes for CE
- Improve CE Knowledge Hub
- Continue integrating CE definition and other resources
- Sustain tri-campus CE Community of Practice and other capacities
- Responsively support infrastructure to meet the needs of UW and external communities
The project is guided by the Community Engagement Steering Committee. We are excited to bring more folks into this work, and look forward to sharing more as the academic year progresses!
As a way to build community and capacity among faculty and staff, a UW-wide listserv and series of conversations about community engagement was launched in Fall 2023. Entitled Cultivating Connections for Community Engagement, the purpose of these conversation spaces is to connect with others across the UW who practice, support, or are interested in community engagement; to explore what’s happening across the UW in this space; and to contribute ideas and perspectives for nurturing collective capacity for community-engaged research and learning. Learn more here.
We welcome you to connect with this project to Build Tri-Campus Capacity for Community Engagement. Feel free to email Jen Davison, Project Director, at jnfrdvsn@uw.edu. UW faculty, staff and students, please subscribe to the communityengagement listserv to receive periodic internal updates.