This book discusses race and its roles in university-community partnerships. The contributors take a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multiregional approach that allows students, agency staff, community constituents, faculty, and campus administrators an opportunity to reflect on and redefine what impact African American identity-in the academy and in the community-has on various forms of community engagement. From historic concepts of "race uplift" to contemporary debates about racialized perceptions of need, they argue that African American identity plays a significant role. In representing best practices, recommendations, personal insight, and informed warnings about building sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships, the contributors provide a cogent platform from which to encourage the difficult and much-needed inclusion of race in dialogues of national service and community engagement.

List of Tables Preface: Using History, Experience, and Theory to Balance Relationships in Community Engagement Stephanie Y. Evans Acknowledgments Introduction: Characteristics of Engagement: Communicated Experiences of Race, Universities, and Communities Colette M. Taylor Part 1. Community Service, Volunteerism, and Engagement Stephanie Y. Evans, Colette M. Taylor, Michelle R. Dunlap, and DeMond S. Miller 1. The Community Folk Art Center: A University and Community Creative Collaboration Kheli R. Willetts 2. An African American Health Care Experience: An Academic Medical Center and Its Interdisciplinary Practice Kendall M. Campbell 3. African American College Students and Volunteerism: Attitudes toward Mentoring at a Title I School Joi Nathan 4. Prejudice, Pitfalls, and Promise: Experiences in Community Service in a Historically Black University Jeff Brooks Part 2. Community Service-Learning Michelle R. Dunlap 5. Can the Village Educate the Prospective Teacher?: Reflections on Multicultural Service-Learning in African American Communities Lucy Mule 6. Sowing Seeds of Success: Gardening as a Method of Increasing Academic Self-Efficacy and Retention among African American Students August Hoffman, Julie Wallach, Eduardo Sanchez, and Richard Carifo 7. A Service or a Commitment?: A Black Man Teaching Service-Learning at a Predominantly White Institution Troy Harden 8. Racial Identity and the Ethics of Service-Learning as Pedagogy Annemarie Vaccaro 9. "We'll Understand It Better By and By": A Three-Dimensional Approach to Teaching Race through Community Engagement Meta Mendel-Reyes and Dwayne A. Mack Part 3. Community-Based Research DeMond S. Miller 10. Black Like Me: Navigating Race, Gender, Research, and Community Fleda Mask Jackson 11. A Partnership with the African American Church: IMPPACT and S.P.I.C.E.S. For Life Micah McCreary, Monica Jones, Raymond Tademy, and John Fife 12. "I Have Three Strikes Against Me": Narratives of Plight and Efficacy among Older African American Homeless Women and Their Implications for Engaged Inquiry Olivia G. M. Washington and David P. Moxley 13. A Culturally Competent Community-Based Research Approach with African American Neighborhoods: Critical Components and Examples Richard Briscoe, Harold R. Keller, Gwen McClain, Evangeline R. Best, and Jessica Mazza 14. Community Engagement and Collaborations in Community-Based Research: The Road to Project Butterfly GiShawn Mance, Bernadette Sánchez, and Niambi Jaha-Echols Final Word: African Americans and Community Engagement: A Challenge and Opportunity for Higher Education Donald F. Blake List of Contributors Index