Ever hear of a memory café? It’s an informal community meetup for people who have dementia and whose cognitive struggles might tilt them toward withdrawing socially. The semi-organized café gatherings offer sanctuary from judgment and raised eyebrows, and provide group interactions that can engage attendees and bring joy to their lives. “A memory café setting is intended to be a safe, inclusive space in the here and now. Usually, people with dementia leave feeling more connected or feeling like they…
Community engagement stories archive
How HCDE students helped Rainier Valley Food Bank see its community in new ways
When Seattle’s Rainier Valley Food Bank (RVFB) opened its new community hub in the Rainier Beach neighborhood in 2025, staff began asking new questions about how people experienced the organization’s services, from learning about available resources to navigating the food bank for the first time. To help answer those questions, RVFB partnered with students in the University of Washington’s Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE). Over the course of a year, three Directed Research Groups and a…
Where curiosity meets community
At UW Tacoma, undergraduate students have ample opportunities to engage in research that tackles complex questions and creates tangible community solutions. When you imagine scientific research, what do you see? Chances are, you’re picturing sprawling laboratories filled with highly specialized equipment and researchers working late into the night. Depending on the project, you’re not too far off. At the University of Washington Tacoma, however, research takes many forms and often starts somewhere more familiar: a lingering curiosity that won’t go…
A Roadmap to Assessing Community Engagement at UW
As a part of tri-campus efforts for increasing capacity for community engagement, partners across the University of Washington sought a way to improve the documentation and assessment of community engagement. They approached the eScience Data Science & AI Accelerator program seeking tools for this purpose and found unexpected insights in the process. During this collaboration, eScience Senior Social Scientist Anissa Tanweer and Community Engagement & Leadership Education (CELE) Center Community Engagement Analyst Afomia Assefa quickly realized that they could not immediately…
College of the Environment celebrates partnership and impact at Community-Engaged Research Symposium
In late May, more than 120 colleagues from the University of Washington came together for an inaugural showcase and conversation about community-engaged research across the College of Environment. Community-engaged research is central to the University of Washington’s mission as a public university: Learning with and from communities is deeply embedded in our commitment to the people of Washington state and beyond. “This is a unique moment,” said Joel Thornton, Maggie Walker Dean of the College of Environment. “At the heart…
Help for the local ecosystem — one yard at a time
When Lynne Robins moved to the Finn Hill neighborhood in Kirkland, Washington, in 1999, she fell in love with the forested slopes and verdant landscape. Over the years, however, she saw native plants replaced by chemical-dependent lawns due to development. “Watching these changes was heartbreaking,” said Robins, professor emeritus in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education in the University of Washington’s School of Medicine. “I began to wonder what one person could do to make a difference.” Inspired to act, she decided to…
Making meaningful opportunities for students
In any given enrollment period at the University of Washington Bothell, students can choose among dozens of community-engaged learning and research opportunities. From STEM to disability justice, each class features hands-on partnership with organizations and people across Puget Sound. How do faculty connect with the right community partners in the first place? And how do they build strong, enduring relationships with them? Enter Dana Washington, community-engaged learning program manager in the Office of Connected Learning. Each year, she supports the University’s more than 100 community partners and…
Community Connect UW Spring 2026 Update
Community Connect UW (CCUW) is a database and management platform that allows UW faculty, staff, students and community partners to connect, organize, and understand impacts of collaboration. Interested in exploring? Login (using your NetID) and join both CCUW’s home group and your campus group (below) to start! Bothell | Seattle | Tacoma Over the past academic year, we’ve expanded Community Connect UW exponentially: Over 100 courses tracked, with over 90 managed through the platform, spanning campuses, units and geographies 30+ Civic Health Scorecard…
How UW partnerships foster disaster resilient communities
When the Eagle Creek fire roared through the Columbia River Gorge in 2017, it was during the salmon commercial fishing season. Tribal fishers along the river were out in boats as the sky turned a dark red and the air filled with smoke. Buck Jones was working at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC), the fisheries technical and advisory organization of the four Columbia River treaty fishing Tribes: the Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Nez Perce. As the fire…
A Seat at the Table with Gregg Gonsalves
On the evening of Wednesday, April 1, 2026, Gregg Gonsalves — global health activist, epidemiologist, ACT UP veteran, and professor at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale Law School — sat down with Students of Color for Public Health, along with CAB members from the Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit, and UW Positive Research for a small dinner and a very open conversation about research, activism, and the future of public health. For many in the room, this was not…