Community Engaged Scholarship Project Development Cohort

Community engaged scholarship takes time to do well: to develop strong collaborations, to create a strong theory of change, and to identify and enlist the breadth of constituents and resources that need to be involved.

To help give you the time and support you need, we offer the Project Development Cohort.

Over four facilitated sessions, a cohort of project teams work together to refine and advance their project plans to ensure logistic feasibility, community relevance, scholarly rigor and social impact. After completing the Project Development Cohort, each project will have:

  • Clearly articulated goals, including what new knowledge and/or practice the project will produce.
  • List of key collaborators and project contributors.
  • Understanding of the ethical challenges that may be present within the project and plans for addressing ethical challenges.
  • Project logic model or theory of change.
  • Articulated set of academic and public products that will best disseminate the new knowledge/practice coming from the project.

Cohort Information

Project Teams: Community engaged scholarship requires collaboration between community-based and university-based partners. Project teams should have at least one Pitt faculty and at least one member who primarily works in a community-serving program or entity not affiliated with Pitt. This may include individuals working in non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, on behalf of resident coalitions or civic associations, faith-based organizations, or cultural or P-12 educational institutions. The 2023-2024 cohort is limited to six project teams. Teams may have a maximum of four people.

Compensation for Non-Pitt Team Members: To encourage full participation by community-based partners, we offer a stipend of $1,200 for attending all four sessions. This stipend recognizes that community-based partners are offering valuable time and expertise and that they may not be otherwise compensated for their time.

Team Selection: To ensure that teams will benefit from the structure and content of the Project Development Cohort, we require teams to apply using a simple, streamlined application that verifies the project is a form of engaged scholarship, the team is comprised of community and university members, and that the project is likely to result in community impact. 

Apply for the 2023-2024 Project Development Cohort

Timeline:

  • Application Opens: Friday, September 1, 2023
  • Applications Due: Friday, September 29, 2023 at 12 noon ET
  • Applicants are notified of cohort acceptance: Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Sessions:

Setting the Foundation
Wednesday, October 25, 2023, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Teams will introduce their projects to the group and uncover the expertise, motivations, and project goals within their teams. This information will inform the development of team roles and agreements. Teams will then be introduced to logic modeling.

Developing the Plan
Wednesday, December 6, 2023, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Teams will create strong logic models and have dedicated time to delve deep into the development of their theory of change.

Refining the Plan
Thursday, January 18, 2024, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Teams will engage in constituency mapping and update their logic models, accordingly.

Resourcing & Advancing the Plan
Thursday, March 7, 2024, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Teams will consider various funding sources that could be tapped for their projects and outline the various products and deliverables the project will produce.