Developing Strong Community Partnerships

The purpose of the CTSI Developing Strong Community Partnerships Micro-credential is to acquire skills for connecting to your chosen stakeholder community. It outlines community engagement from initial planning and identifying relevant partners, to making partnerships and effective collaborations, to sustaining relationships. This micro-credential offers experiential learning opportunities and coached practice of community engagement skills, and best practices.

Upon completion of the Developing Strong Community Partnerships Micro-credential, learners will be provided a clear understanding of what community engagement is and what it is not. Common pitfalls experienced by researchers and their teams are presented and strategies to avoid them are provided. Plain language, trust-building, cultural and community humility, and building and maintaining relationships will be addressed. Assignments will describe successful strategies to engage community collaborators and unsuccessful strategies to avoid. In addition, learners will develop a plan to apply community engagement skills to their chosen team.

Curriculum — Videos:

Request and watch Community Engagement videos from past Core Competency Workshop Series from the CTSI Education Workforce Specialist to build or hone key teamwork skills. Workshop videos:

  • Introduction to Community Engagement (presented by Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter, PhD) 
  • Use of Plain Language and Plain Language Research Project (presented by Andy Strohmeier, MEd, Grace McKenzie, MEd)
  • Engaging New Community Collaborators (presented by Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter, PhD)  
  • Maintaining a Community Collaboration and Sustaining Partnership: Real Examples and Successes (presented by Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter, PhD)

Curriculum — Assignments:

1) Prior Knowledge 2) Abstract/Flyer 3) Plan Review 4) Video/Field Notes 5) Final Project
  • Review one of two videos — “Community Partnerships: St. Peter’s Health” or “TEDx TALK: The Power of Community Partnerships” with Ronald Frick of United Way, Pennsylvania — and reflect on the ways they partner with their communities. Identify one way to maintain a community partnership and describe a way to give back to their chosen community.
  • Review the example Community Event Report/Field Notes and identify one outcome from participating in the community event. Learners identify whether the event was successful, explaining their rationale. Learners also identify one pitfall of the event and something they would change for participating in future events, explaining their rationale.


For more information and to access videos, contact Education Workforce Specialist Catherine Sedota, MS, at cmp9@buffalo.edu.