Recipients of the 2024 W. K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award
and
Finalists for the 2024 C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award

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East Carolina University

Contentnea Health Integrated Behavioral Health

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals 18–34 in the United States. In North Carolina (NC), suicide holds the second spot for youth ages 10–18. In 2023, 51% of adults in NC with mental health issues received no treatment, and six of 10 counties with the highest rate of emergency department admissions for suicidal ideation were in rural counties. Many rural patients in eastern North Carolina (eNC) have unmet mental health needs stemming from economic stressors, geographical isolation, and health challenges. However, a partnership between East Carolina University and Contentnea Health addressing mental health needs has increased access to mental and behavioral health services for more than 7,000 people annually.

The partnership has engaged more than 126,000 integrated behavioral health care encounters with patients through primary care clinics, dental clinics, farms, and schools. The university and its partners have worked to deliver behavioral and mental health services for rural, underrepresented, and underinsured or uninsured patients and families in eNC, while providing students with foundational clinical experiences and standards of care. The success of this partnership relies on lessons learned from stakeholder collaboration and incorporation of the voices of patients and their support systems at every stage of care.

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Oregon State University

Oregon Coastal Futures

The Oregon Coastal Futures (OCF) research team used a collaborative approach that considered costs and benefits of adaptation strategies in underserved and rural communities affected by coastal hazards stemming from climate change and tsunamis. Project leaders brought multidisciplinary expertise while a community Advisory Council provided needed insight to connect the project's approach to adaptation strategies with needs on the ground.

The OCF framework combined deep and sustained stakeholder engagement, an integrated modeling approach, and robust evaluation of policy and coastal hazard scenarios to inform decision-making. Project success was measured in three ways: 1) dissemination of resources and information through diverse channels and range of audiences; 2) elevated community interest in suggested policies and measurable indicators of possible future policy adoption; and 3) targeted interest in the framework. Together this university-community team of students, postdoctoral scholars, and community partners have become adept at telling their stories in accessible ways, including more than 30 presentations to Oregon coastal lawmakers and public interest groups, at academic and professional conferences, and at informal Science on Tap "pub" talks. Originally funded by a five-year award from Oregon Sea Grant in 2018, the success of this project led to an additional $19 million from NSF in 2021 to create a regional consortium.

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University of Minnesota

Center for Urban and Regional Affairs

The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) was established by the University of Minnesota in an effort to align university resources and catalyze community-driven change. CURA has worked with communities on economic vitality, demographic change, energy, education, housing, the environment, public safety, land development, and more. CURA has built a rich track record of partnering with neighborhood groups, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments to support projects aimed at strengthening Minnesota communities, with an emphasis on the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

CURA is home to 13 initiatives that provide high-quality, innovative, and actionable community-engaged research and technical assistance for solution-oriented applications to real-world problems. Together, CURA and community partners strive to address systemic racial inequities and advance solutions that explicitly recognize intersectionality and marginalization. In 2023, the center supported 150 projects in 50 neighborhoods and cities involving 216 students, 32 university departments and programs, and 135 community and government organizations. A central precept of CURA is to disseminate project outcomes through both academic and community venues, including academic journals, online publications, public events and exhibits, and by advancing the work of partner organizations that apply what they learn to their practice and policy change.

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West Virginia University

The Fulcrum Project

The West Virginia University (WVU) Community Engagement Lab (CEL) exemplifies a robust community-university partnership that brings together academic and community expertise to jointly address local issues. The CEL launched the WVU Fulcrum Project, which became a pivotal link to a network of initiatives coordinated with our community partner, the West Virginia Community Development Hub (the Hub). This partnership focuses on projects that communities themselves have identified as essential through previous capacity-building efforts with the Hub. The university's role through the CEL Fulcrum Project is to provide faculty and students who collaborate directly with community members. Together, they co-create assets that align with the community's priorities. The outcome of these collaborations has led to over $3 million invested in these communities, primarily supporting projects that enhance the quality of life for residents and visitors in predominantly rural, underserved areas. The scholarship embedded within this partnership involves an intentional study of community issues through participatory methods and service-learning approaches taught in academic settings. The findings and methodologies are documented and publicized to serve as a replicable model for effective community-university partnerships. This shared knowledge empowers other communities and institutions to implement similar strategies, thus broadening the impact of the original projects.

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Exemplary Projects

Fresh Eyes on Ice

University of Alaska Fairbanks

River ice is central to life in Alaska’s remote communities, who rely on rivers for transportation and access to food. As the climate warms, rivers freeze later and break up earlier, disrupting long-held village traditions around safety and food security.

Fresh Eyes on Ice grew out of these community concerns. The project is built around a partnership between University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) river ice researchers and teams of students, educators, and local knowledge bearers living in Alaska’s remote communities. Communitybased monitoring teams collect ice measurements and make observations throughout the winter. Monthly workshops via Zoom connect community members and schoolteachers with UAF researchers, where they discuss recent observations and their impacts. These observations and local insights provide essential data points for researchers, National Weather Service forecasters, and of course the communities themselves who experience catastrophic flooding during river breakup and dangerous ice conditions during river freeze-up.

With over 2,200 members, an active Facebook group allows people from different communities to share ice observations with each other as well as with the project partners and the wider science community. Students participating in Fresh Eyes on Ice have presented their results at an annual symposium in Fairbanks and at international science conferences.

Community Innovation Incubator

University of North Carolina Charlotte

To demonstrate its distinction as North Carolina's urban research university and its strategic imperative to "co-produce transformative solutions to societal challenges," UNC Charlotte launched its Community Innovation Incubator initiative in 2020. Each incubator brings together about a dozen grassroots leaders and researchers from several academic disciplines, with support from UNC Charlotte students, for 10 months. Using a sharedpower framework, they co-design a solution to a systemic challenge that community leaders have defined and mobilized around but have struggled to solve. Results have been significant for the community and the university.

Participants in the first incubator developed a blueprint for a for-profit, cooperative grocery store along Charlotte's West Boulevard, a historically Black neighborhood that has not had a grocery store in more than 30 years. That project has attracted more than $5.8 million in public and private investment and is scheduled to open in summer 2025. Following West Boulevard's success, Bank of America invested $1 million in UNC Charlotte’s urbanCORE (Community-Oriented Research and Engagement) to launch incubators in Charlotte's five remaining economically disadvantaged "Corridors of Opportunity."

Lessons learned are being shared through a case study, the spring 2024 UNC Charlotte magazine, and a journal article co-written by university and community authors.

The League of VetaHumanz

Purdue University

Seeking to address disparities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programming for children, Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Evaluation and Learning Research Center, local public schools, and community organizations developed and delivered a veterinary STEM curriculum focused on keeping people and their animals healthy. Led by Purdue, and supported by the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the program was replicated and scaled at other universities, evolving into a veterinary superhero league, The League of VetaHumanz, where teams of veterinarians and students partner with community organizations/schools to deliver the curriculum to under-resourced children. Role models develop a sense of belonging to the community, communication skills, and intercultural responsiveness while addressing community needs for positive and nurturing STEM educational experiences that build self-efficacy and seed career aspirations for children. To date, over 200 Purdue veterinary students have participated, spending over 1,346 hours in service to the community in 2023 alone. Nationally, over 600 role models in 25 states have delivered in-person experiences through the effort.