The Office of Partnerships & Outreach at Towson University serves as a cross-campus convener, helping to align partnership and engagement work. This includes identifying programs and projects taking place between TU and the community but have the potential to be doing much more if only more faculty, staff and students across campus connected to them. We recently hosted the BTU (Baltimore + Towson University) Roundtable to highlight four efforts that fall into that category, in an attempt to strengthen and deepen these relationships and programs between TU and our community partners. During the event, TU faculty and staff connected with the following four community engagement and outreach efforts to explore opportunities to connect and collaborate.
The Skilled Trades Educational Pathway (STEP) Program: The Department of Facilities Management, in collaboration with Baltimore County and Baltimore City Public Schools, established Skilled Trades Educational Pathways (STEP) as a professional development partnership for high school students and recent graduates. Through STEP, high school students are provided on-the-job training in the skilled trades and structured hands-on experience, allowing them to progressively build their technical skills while working in a real-world environment. Participants move through various trade shops at TU as a cohort, learning essential industry practices and gaining exposure to the demands of skilled trades. Through direct mentorship and supervised training, they develop foundational competencies that serve as a stepping-stone for future career opportunities
Autism Hiring Program: The Autism Hiring Program supports the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, while making workplaces across Maryland more inclusive, supportive and neuro-diverse environments. With an ever-evolving curriculum and employer pipeline, this program has increased partnerships across TU departments, with affiliate organizations and Maryland employers. By delivering transformative outcomes for autistic adults through career readiness programming, self-advocacy and ongoing mentorship, the Autism Hiring Program exemplifies TU’s commitment to the public good and turning ambition into action. The Autism Hiring Program was brought to TU through a partnership with the Autism Society of Maryland with plans to expand into Baltimore County.
Family Science/Sincerely, Divorced: A Partnership for Translational Research: The Department of Family Science, in their growing partnership with Sincerely, Divorced, aims to support education, research and community development related to separation and divorce experiences in our region. With already developed cross-campus connections and interest, this organization hopes to expand research partnerships with faculty and students, and co-create campus and community programming that translates research into practice. Supporting translational research into community supports and programming for folks experiencing separation and divorce in our region and beyond. This partnership looks to expand into larger cross-college and university collaborations that can support faculty and student research efforts, build campus-community connections and transition research to practice via educational programming with beneficial outcomes for all involved.
Learn, Connect, Act: Justice-Centered Community Engagement Training: The Learn, Connect, Act training is designed for faculty with an interest in incorporating community engagement into their courses or research. The training can be accessed on Blackboard and includes the following modules:
- Ethical Engagement & Civic Engagement: These modules provide instruction on community engagement. Through these modules, learners discuss the ethics of community engagement and their civic roles and responsibilities. They also learn about addressing ethical quandaries in communities, preventing harm and protecting autonomy, while creating positive change.
- Systemic Context & Individual Context: These two modules provide context and introduce foundational information to the learners. In Systemic Context, the learners look at the history of their communities, specifically discussing terms, challenges, and opportunities related to Baltimore and Towson. Learners continue building on these concepts through the Individual Context module. Here, they analyze the views and experiences of individuals within these communities, as well as their own perceptions, biases, and outlooks.
- Inclusive Engagement Pedagogy & Community-Based Research: These two modules provide further instructions on applying this knowledge to teaching, learning, and research. These sections have a strong focus on high-impact practices that promote equity and inclusion for all learners and community members. Additionally, both modules focus on creating applicable resources. Inclusive Engagement Pedagogy allows learners to create a personal action plan for applying inclusive engagement in teaching. Community-Based Research utilizes a justice-centered approach to have learners analyze their research projects.
