TY - JOUR
T1 - Confronting environmental challenges on the US-Mexico border
T2 - Long-term community-based research and community service learning in a binational partnership
AU - Austin, Diane
N1 - Funding Information:
The projects described in this article were funded through grants from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the US Environmental Protection Agency, through the Border Environment Cooperation Commission. Additional support has been provided by the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration and the University of Arizona, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Magellan Fund, the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, and the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, as well as the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, a nonprofit environmental organization formed in 1991 in Santa Cruz County, Arizona to protect and enhance the flow and water quality of the river.
Funding Information:
For the first time since 2002, the 2008 annual fall retreat was cancelled, and the monthly meetings were postponed. Although the partnership became dormant, individual projects were achieving high levels of success and contributing to growing levels of trust, acceptance of novel approaches to solving problems, and support from community members and organizations. By January 2009, several individuals began talking about revitalizing the partnership, and eight members came together to discuss the future. The group decided to host a spring tour of environmental projects in the community to celebrate all that had been done and determine the level and nature of interest in revitalizing the partnership. The tour was a success— more than 50 people spent a full day visiting the ITN laboratory where waste vegetable oil and grease are being converted to biodiesel and soap, the fibrous concrete house constructed by the leader of Grupo ConFib, a revegetation and water harvesting project at a youth center, and the composting toilets project. A follow-up meeting held in May led to decisions to revitalize the partnership and to prepare several proposals for an upcoming solicitation for funding for border environmental projects. After that meeting, small groups of partners resumed meeting, sharing dinners, and discussing where the partnership would head. Despite tough economic times, most projects continued through 2009. Several projects are undergoing expansion and a couple of new projects will begin in the fall of 2010, incorporating students from five of the most active schools.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Recent efforts to increase university involvement in addressing community problems and improving the way such problems are conceptualized and addressed have converged in discussions of community service-learning, community-based research, and community-university partnerships. Yet, the intersections among these approaches have not received much attention. This article addresses this gap by describing a multisectoral, binational partnership established to address significant environmental and environmental health issues on the US-Mexico border that includes academic institutions, and within which students play a key role in helping meet partnership goals while at the same time fulfilling their needs and desires for participating in community-based research and community service-learning. The article examines how the partnership has evolved, highlights 4 educational institutions that have been central to the partnership, and illustrates how community-based research and community service-learning have become key mechanisms for engaging people from within and across communities, over many years, in the partnership.
AB - Recent efforts to increase university involvement in addressing community problems and improving the way such problems are conceptualized and addressed have converged in discussions of community service-learning, community-based research, and community-university partnerships. Yet, the intersections among these approaches have not received much attention. This article addresses this gap by describing a multisectoral, binational partnership established to address significant environmental and environmental health issues on the US-Mexico border that includes academic institutions, and within which students play a key role in helping meet partnership goals while at the same time fulfilling their needs and desires for participating in community-based research and community service-learning. The article examines how the partnership has evolved, highlights 4 educational institutions that have been central to the partnership, and illustrates how community-based research and community service-learning have become key mechanisms for engaging people from within and across communities, over many years, in the partnership.
KW - Ambos Nogales
KW - Binational collaboration
KW - Multisectoral partnerships
KW - US-Mexico border
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77955970823&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77955970823&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10705422.2010.490112
DO - 10.1080/10705422.2010.490112
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77955970823
SN - 1070-5422
VL - 18
SP - 361
EP - 395
JO - Journal of Community Practice
JF - Journal of Community Practice
IS - 2
ER -