Principles of Community Engagement (Second Edition)

5. O VERCOMING COMPETING PRIORITIES AND INSTITUTIONAL
DIFFERENCES
From the concepts of community set forth in Chapter 1 it is apparent that
universities can be seen as communities that have their own norms, social
networks, and functional sectors How can we resolve the conflicts and
misunderstandings that result when the operations and expectations of
universities differ from those of their collaborating communities?
A. How do you work with a community when there are competing priorities and
different expectations?
Karen Williams, PhD, John M. Cooks, Elizabeth Reifsnider, PhD,
Sally B. Coleman
Challenge
A major priority for the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston when
developing its CTSA proposal was to demonstrate community partnership
with a viable, grassroots community-based organization (CBO) One of the
coinvestigators listed on the CTSA proposal was a research affiliate of an
active CBO, which was composed of persons representing practically every
facet of life in the community While focusing on its own organizational
development, this CBO had identified eight community health needs for its
focus and implemented two NIH-funded projects (Reifsnider et al , 2010)
The CTSA coinvestigator wanted the CBO to be the community partner for
the CTSA proposal, and the other CTSA investigators agreed The brunt of
the active work in the community outlined in the CTSA proposal became
the CBO’s responsibility However, although the CTSA work was within the
existing scope of work for the community partner, certain invalid assumptions
about the type of activities the CBO would do for the CTSA were written
into the final version of the grant Most important, no budget was presented
to the CBO that showed support for expected deliverables
The CBO was unwilling to commit to being a part of the CTSA until the
proposal spelled out in detail what it was required to do for the funds An
official meeting took place between selected CBO members and CTSA investigators;
after an informal discussion, CBO members gave the university
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