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Vol. 7 No. 3

A Multidisciplinary Collaborative Approach to a University-Community Partnership: Lessons Learned

Submitted
August 5, 2010
Published
2010-08-05

Abstract

Universities often respond to community needs through a traditional, single disciplinary expert outreach model. However, multiple perspectives are required to solve complex community problems. In this case example, a multidisciplinary university team was selected to work on a contracted university-college partnership project over an eighteen-month period. Lessons learned from using this problem-focused multidisciplinary approach to outreach intervention are presented. Topics discussed include the time needed and issues associated with
multidisciplinary team development; leadership changes during the project; the need to bridge organizational structures across partners; the ways in which faculty cultures may inhibit outreach activity; and the importance of intellectual and organizational neutral space to multidisciplinary team success.