Community Collaboration and Empowerment

Community collaboration and empowerment was identified by the GENIAL organizers as an important theme to include in the Summit. Informal STEM learning (ISL) organizations strive to engage Latino audiences in their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programming on a long-term basis and recognize the importance of understanding the needs, motivations, interests, and challenges of the diverse Latino community in the context of STEM participation. An effective way to collaborate with a community is to involve them as equal partners in the co-development of ISL experiences. A key idea discussed during the Community Collaboration and Empowerment panel was “co-creating ISL programming with, instead of for, the Latino community.” Panelists also highlighted that there is a need to implement organizational changes within ISL institutions and build the internal capacity of staff across the institution for working with diverse communities. During small group discussions, GENIAL participants were asked to consider a set of actionable insights and recommendations. Based on a synthesis of these discussions, the last section of this paper includes a list of recommendations and emerging research questions for the informal STEM learning community to address. This paper covers three main topics: -Principles for Co-Creation and Co-Design -The Inside Perspective: Organizational Change Within ISL Institutions -Looking Toward the Future Principles for collaboration with communities include: respect, understanding the community by acknowledging its knowledge base and working with cultural connectors, and building trust through sustained relationship. The importance of valuing resilience in communities is also highlighted with a call to recognizing that persistence is part and parcel of the Latino communities’ DNA. The article also emphasizes the importance of identifying internal institutional practices to foster capacity for working effectively with diverse communities. These include a committed leadership, diversifying staff at all levels, and paying attention to power dynamics within the organization and with partners. In looking toward the future, several recommendations and areas of emerging research are discussed in the context of program sustainability and building long-term community relationships.

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