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- Community engagement: Collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.
- The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good. -Carnegie Classification definition
- Community engaged leadership: Involvement in volunteer community engagement activities not formally linked to an academic curriculum, but fosters student learning around supporting community identified priorities.This would include reciprocal relationships, practicing humility and reflection. Often referred to as community service.
- Also referred to as co-curricular community engagement
- Community engaged learning: Educational experiences that connect academic course work with efforts to meet a community priority. This would include reciprocal relationships, practicing humility and critical reflection.
- Community engaged research: Community engaged research is a process that incorporates input from people who the research outcomes will impact and involves such people or groups as equal partners throughout the research process. This involvement may include co-designing research questions to solve problems, making decisions, influencing policies, and creating programs and interventions that affect their own lives.
- Community‐engaged research (CER) identifies the assets of all stakeholders and incorporates them in the design and conduct of the different phases of the research process.
- A collaborative process between the researcher and community partner that creates and disseminates knowledge and creative expression with the goal of contributing to the discipline and strengthening the well‐being of the community.
