Challenges of Institutional Outreach: A COPC ExampleAbstractThe Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) experience at The Ohio State University (OSU) provided insight into the necessity of institutional change as well as valuable lessons for other actions necessary for development of effective theory-based outreach and partnership strategies within a large research university. The OSU COPC effort departed from usual university and community program approaches, opening new possibilities for building partnering capacity within the university and in the neighborhood.The OSU-COPC reflects a community partnership effort that broke down very soon after award of the grant. Several factors in transforming the partnership into successful cooperation are described, including the unique set of circumstances of this project, faculty flexibility in reevaluating and revising programs, backing from the university administration and the COPC program, flexibility on the part of community partners, and persistence by all partners to form an equal partnership. Lessons learned as a result of conflict and its resolution are presented—the most striking of which is that university structure and resources are necessary but not sufficient for successful partnerships. Challenges of Institutional Outreach: A COPC Example (*.pdf)
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