Crossing Boundaries Conference Examined University-Community Collaborations

A group of over 100 community agency staff and community activists, university faculty, researchers, staff and students gathered at the UM’s Detroit Center on March 28th to examine University-community collaborations.  The Crossing Boundaries conference addressed three questions: What makes successful university-community collaborations? What is the impact of taking gender into account while addressing problems associated with race, poverty and urban development? and How can universities, community organizations and foundations best work together to promote change in southeast Michigan?  The conference was presented by the UM Center for the Education of Women with sponsorship UM’s Arts of Citizenship, the Ginsberg Center for Community and Service Learning, and National Center for Institutional Diversity.   Emphasizing the importance of developing successful joint projects with outcomes that serve all interested parties,  this conference was one step in the University’s outreach efforts focused on collaboration with community partners in Detroit and other Michigan neighborhoods.

Linda Burnham Discussed Strategies for Success

Keynote speaker Linda Burnham, the 2008 Twink Frey Visiting Social Activist at the  Center for the Education of Women and the former director of the Women of Color Resource Center, reviewed the interests and needs of each partner in community-research collaborations, and outlined strategies for success.  Panelists who followed Burnham restated many of these strategies and described their success in using them: Clear assessment of the needs of both the community and the researcher, incorporation of the community’s voice into the research design, shared trust and effective communication, and commitment to share research results with the community in non-technical language. 

Connie Evans Focused on Women of Color bearing the Burden of the Current Loan Crisis

The second keynote speaker was Connie Evans, founding president of the Women’s Self-Employment Project and the 2006 Twink Frey Visiting Activist, who has worked for two decades on developing economic strategies for low income black women.  Evans focused on the reality that women of color are disproportionately bearing the burden of the current loan crisis both as economic drivers in their communities and as the largest group of mortgage holders in the subprime market.  Evans’ comments were later reflected in discussions regarding research projects in Flint and Detroit.  A community activist asked, “Do the poor always have to be black and female?” while a faculty researcher reiterated that “Race, gender, and class issues are never not with us.” Read Connie Evans' paper.

The conference was co-hosted by four University of Michigan programs: the Center for the Education of Women, the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning, Arts of Citizenship, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity.

Keynote Speakers
Linda Burnham Linda Burnham co-founded the Women of Color Resource Center in Oakland, California in 1989 and served as its executive director until December 2008. Read More

Connie Evans  Connie Evans is an international leader in development finance and economic development with extensive experience in domestic and international community and social development programs. Read More