Community Partner Perspectives on Cocreating Strong Relationships With Universities

Abstract

University researchers have defined characteristics of “successful” university–community partnerships. However, few frameworks center community partner perspectives, or examine the relationship between university and community partners as the point of analysis. We, team members from a community-based organization (CBO) and a university, ask: What conditions cocreate strong relationships? We distill literature-derived principles that contribute to strong partnerships, then use these principles to inform guided discussions among our partnership group. Our CBO coauthors highlighted three priorities from the literature as critical to strong relationships: aligning values, building trust, and honoring capacity. Further, CBO coauthors identified embodying reciprocity and acknowledging positionality as core, standalone principles. We discuss how centering these priorities can strengthen broader institutional relationships between CBO partners and universities.