African Americans & Community Engagement in Higher Education: Community Service, Service-Learning, & Community Based Research

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface: Stephanie Y. Evans

Introduction: Colette Taylor

PART I : COMMUNITY SERVICE, VOLUNTEERISM, & ENGAGEMENT

CS Introduction: AACE editors

Kheli R. WillettsThe Community Folk Art Center: A University and Community Creative Collaboration

Kendall M. Campbell A University's Commitment to the Health of an Underserved Community: Exploring Community Service for a Predominantly African-American Population

Joi Nathan African American College Students and Volunteerism: Attitudes Towards Mentoring at a Title I School

Jeff Brooks Pitfalls, Prejudice and Promise: Experiences in Community Service in an Historically Black College or University (HBCU)

PART II: COMMUNITY SERVICE-LEARNING
CSL Introduction: Michelle Dunlap

Lucy Mule Can the Village Educate the Prospective Teacher?: Reflections on Multicultural Service- Learning in African American Communities

August Hoffman, Richard Carifo, Eduardo Sanchez, & Julie Wallach Sowing Seeds of Success: Gardening as a Method of Increasing Academic Self-Efficacy and Retention among African American Students

Troy Harden The Liberator or the Sell Out: Issues of Identity, Place, and Praxis for a Black Man as a Service-Learning Educator in a Predominantly White Institution

Annemarie Vaccaro Racial Identity and the Ethics of Service Learning as Pedagogy

Meta Mendel-Reyes & Dwayne Mack We'll Understand it Better By and By": Three Dimensional Approach to Teaching Race Through Community Engagement

PART III: COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH
CBR Introduction: DeMond Miller

Fleda Mask Jackson Black Like Me: Community-Based Participatory Research with African American Women

Micah McCreary, Monica Jones, John Fife, & Raymond Tademy A Partnership between the African American Church and the University: IMPPACT and S.P.I.C.E.S

Olivia Washington and David Moxley“I Have Three Strikes Against Me”:  Narratives of Plight and Efficacy among Older African American Homeless Women and Their Implications for Engaged Inquiry

Richard Briscoe, Harold Keller, Gwen McClain, Evangeline Best, & Jessica Mazza Implementing A Culturally Competent Community-Based Research Approach with African American Neighborhoods: Critical Components and Examples

GiShawn Mance, Bernadette Sanchez, & Niambi Jaha-Echols Community Engagement and Collaborations in Community-Based Research: The Road to Project Butterfly

Final Word: Donald Blake


African Americans and Community Engagement (AACE) discusses race and its roles in university-community partnerships. This edited volume allows students, agency staff, community constituents, faculty, and campus administrators an opportunity to reflect and redefine what impact African American identity--in the academy and in the community--has on various forms of community engagement. From historic concepts of "race uplift" to contemporary debates about racialized perceptions of need (seen in discussion of "urban" communities or service efforts with Hurricane Katrina survivors), African American identity plays a significant role. This volume offers a cogent platform from which to encourage the difficult (yet much-needed) inclusion of race in dialogues of national service and community engagement. Social change can happen more effectively through critically discussing assumptions, expectations, experiences, and perspectives that emerge when placing race at the center of town-gown communication and practice. The AACE chapters represent best practices, recommendations, personal insight, and informed warnings about building sustainable--and mutually beneficial--relationships.