Community Partnerships Playbook: How to Create Equitable Partnerships between Technical and Community Experts

Abstract

As the popularity of community engagement grows among technologists and academics, it is vital to ensure that they engage communities in ways that benefit the people they claim to serve and do not cause harm.

The Community Partnerships Playbook: How to Create Equitable Partnerships Between Technical and Community Experts is a new publication from the University of Michigan’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program (STPP) in collaboration with three community-based non-profit organizations: Detroit Disability Power (DDP), Detroit Justice Center (DJC), and We the People Michigan (WTPMI). The Playbook brings together advice from staff at DDP, DJC, and WTPMI who have had a range of both positive and negative experiences with researchers, academics, and technologists, along with insights developed from STPP’s Community Partnerships Initiative (CPI) and up-to-date scholarly literature.

The Playbook’s purpose is to guide researchers while supporting and lending authority to community organizations as they advocate for partnerships that will benefit their constituencies. The Community Partnerships Playbook aims to provide some answers to such questions as: How can technologists and scientists engage communities in a spirit of partnership, without such extractive practices? How can community organizations work with researchers in ways that benefit their communities and expand their capacity, rather than burdening their staff?

Throughout the Playbook, real world examples are provided from the co-authors experiences on both sides of community partnerships. It is designed to empower both researchers and community organizations.