So You Walk the Walk, but Do You Talk the Talk?: Crafting and Enhancing Communications to Support Community Engagement in Higher Education
Presentation Format
Individual Presentation
Intended Audience
Administrators
Presentation Description
Rationale:
This individual presentation will explore best practices for ensuring quality communications to key audiences using various methods when discussing and disseminating community engagement resources, scholarship and initiatives at higher education institutions. A recent study by Arrazattee, Lima and Lundy (2013)* illustrated that most university websites did not contain community engagement content that reflected best practices of university-community partnerships. Consequently, while partnerships may be mutually-beneficial, communications fail to represent reciprocity and community engagement principles. With civic engagement becoming a prominent frontier in the present and future of higher education institutions, more administrators and faculty are being tasked with communicating about their work. Communication strategy to support community engagement must be developed to support organizational mission while remaining true to the principles of mutually-beneficial partnerships. This individual presentation will take an interactive approach to exploring best practices for crafting a strategy to enhance online dialogue around community engagement. I will discuss how to strategically embed community-engaged language in already existing communication methods and content in order to generate a wide reach to university and community audiences. Virginia Commonwealth University’s Division of Community Engagement website will be used as a case study on ways to structure a website and utilize social media to create a dialogue grounded in institution mission. Attendees will walk away with tangible next steps to shape their already existing communications and plans for creating strategies that will convey the mutual benefit of university-community partnerships in methods tailored to their institutions. Combining these best practices with practical web based applications will allow instructors and administrators to engage in critical dialogue and to share information in a way that properly reflects the principles of mutually-beneficial university-community relationships.
Goals:
This presentation has several main goals for attendees, including:
-Gaining an understanding of best practices for communication strategies to promote and advance mutually beneficial university-community partnerships
-Developing and pinpointing stakeholders, content and tools to enhance and develop online community-engaged dialogue
-Networking with other community engagement faculty and administrators
Engagement:
This individual presentation will have interactive components. It will begin with a short lecture on Virginia Commonwealth University’s online presence that will be used as a case study for review of best practices when communicating about university-community partnerships. The presentation will then focus on attendees own needs, allowing time for attendees to reflect on their own organization’s mission, purpose for communicating and audiences. This reflection will then be used to guide a conversation on how to use these factors to guide creation and implementation of communications strategy, including best technological tools for communicating and how to integrate best practices when using these tools. The remaining time will be spent in an open conversation, brainstorm sessions and strategy development.
*Arrazattee, C.K., Lima, M., & Lundy, L. (2013). Do university communications about campus-community partnerships reflect core engagement principles?. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 20(1), 41-52.
Location
Room - 212
Start Date
4-14-2016 10:45 AM
End Date
4-14-2016 12:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Trussell, Audrey, "So You Walk the Walk, but Do You Talk the Talk?: Crafting and Enhancing Communications to Support Community Engagement in Higher Education" (2016). Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016. 24.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gss/2016/2016/24
So You Walk the Walk, but Do You Talk the Talk?: Crafting and Enhancing Communications to Support Community Engagement in Higher Education
Room - 212
Rationale:
This individual presentation will explore best practices for ensuring quality communications to key audiences using various methods when discussing and disseminating community engagement resources, scholarship and initiatives at higher education institutions. A recent study by Arrazattee, Lima and Lundy (2013)* illustrated that most university websites did not contain community engagement content that reflected best practices of university-community partnerships. Consequently, while partnerships may be mutually-beneficial, communications fail to represent reciprocity and community engagement principles. With civic engagement becoming a prominent frontier in the present and future of higher education institutions, more administrators and faculty are being tasked with communicating about their work. Communication strategy to support community engagement must be developed to support organizational mission while remaining true to the principles of mutually-beneficial partnerships. This individual presentation will take an interactive approach to exploring best practices for crafting a strategy to enhance online dialogue around community engagement. I will discuss how to strategically embed community-engaged language in already existing communication methods and content in order to generate a wide reach to university and community audiences. Virginia Commonwealth University’s Division of Community Engagement website will be used as a case study on ways to structure a website and utilize social media to create a dialogue grounded in institution mission. Attendees will walk away with tangible next steps to shape their already existing communications and plans for creating strategies that will convey the mutual benefit of university-community partnerships in methods tailored to their institutions. Combining these best practices with practical web based applications will allow instructors and administrators to engage in critical dialogue and to share information in a way that properly reflects the principles of mutually-beneficial university-community relationships.
Goals:
This presentation has several main goals for attendees, including:
-Gaining an understanding of best practices for communication strategies to promote and advance mutually beneficial university-community partnerships
-Developing and pinpointing stakeholders, content and tools to enhance and develop online community-engaged dialogue
-Networking with other community engagement faculty and administrators
Engagement:
This individual presentation will have interactive components. It will begin with a short lecture on Virginia Commonwealth University’s online presence that will be used as a case study for review of best practices when communicating about university-community partnerships. The presentation will then focus on attendees own needs, allowing time for attendees to reflect on their own organization’s mission, purpose for communicating and audiences. This reflection will then be used to guide a conversation on how to use these factors to guide creation and implementation of communications strategy, including best technological tools for communicating and how to integrate best practices when using these tools. The remaining time will be spent in an open conversation, brainstorm sessions and strategy development.
*Arrazattee, C.K., Lima, M., & Lundy, L. (2013). Do university communications about campus-community partnerships reflect core engagement principles?. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 20(1), 41-52.
Program Abstract
With community engagement rapidly gaining prominence in higher education, more faculty and administrators are being tasked with communicating about community engagement activities. Communications must be developed to support the institution’s mission while remaining true to principles of mutually-beneficial partnerships. This session explores best practices for developing and implementing a university communications strategy for community engagement. Attendees will reflect on their institution’s communications and will leave with tangible strategies to elevate community-engaged dialogue through online presence.