Architecture, planning, and design disciplines play a role in fostering the structural conditions that impact the wellbeing of people and their communities. Co-producing academic scholarship/creative projects with community partners offers one way to explore how architecture, planning, or other design-related disciplines may be a lever for positive social transformation.
Aligned with its strategic plan, the School of Architecture and Planning seeks to advance and support scholarship and creative work that promotes equity in communities through architecture, planning, real estate development, preservation, design, and associated fields. Equity through design is an aspirational principle that aims for positive outcomes for groups of people who are historically marginalized by virtue of their lived experience and/or identity, including Black, brown, and/or indigenous peoples; low-income people; LGBTQ+; people with disabilities; children; the elderly; women; immigrants; those belonging to religious or cultural minorities; among others (and understanding that many of these identities and experiences overlap).
CAREworks is a program meant to foster research that is co-produced with community partners. CARE stands for Community Activated Research that is Equitable. CAREworks offers financial support to teams of faculty and their community partners to co-design research and creative activities that advance equity through architecture, planning, and design-related disciplines.
Community partners are individuals or civic organizations that are part of communities that a faculty member aims to serve through their pedagogy/scholarly/creative work. In co-produced projects, academic researchers and community partners bring varied, and equally valuable, expertise to the design and execution of a research/creative project.
Projects might focus on material outcomes (buildings, installations) as well as contributions to policy guidelines, temporary interventions, printed or digital documentation and mapping, exhibitions, and other platforms. The project goals and deliverables should be defined through equitable co-authorship, co-creation, and collaborative research among faculty, community partners, students (when included), and other relevant actors.
All proposals submitted to this program must be co-produced with community partners. All proposals must also center equity as a goal and guidepost. Successful proposals will engage community partners from the beginning to the end of the project. Faculty who are in early stages of building relationships with their community partners may apply to CAREworks to seek funding to support relationship-building activities (e.g. compensating community partners with honoraria for attending a project planning meeting).
Three levels of funding are available for project teams that are at varied stages of readiness for community-engaged work as an academic-community partnership: Group I (early stage) at $500-1000, Group II (ready to broadcast) at $1000-2000, and Group III (ready for transformative work) at $5000-15,000. “Group I” and “Group II” proposals are accepted on a rolling basis and as funds allow. All “Group III” proposals are due by 5:00pm on Friday, December 15, 2023.
Evaluation of proposals is aligned with the elements of each category. The department chairs, the Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence (ADIX) and the associate dean for research and creative practice (ADRCP) will review all proposals and determine support from the departments and/or School of Architecture and Planning. A community member will also be involved in the review process.
Please note: To receive funding, all applicants must have an up-to-date CV and annual report on file with the department. If awarded, recipients will work with the ADRCP to complete a scholarly advancement workshop, including IRB training and activation of Click (if they have not already done so).
