Community Engagement and Partnerships

The mission of the Community Engagement and Partnerships (CEP) is to increase the School of Nursing’s outreach to our community by forging strong partnerships to meet the healthcare needs of our community.

We collaborate with university and community engagement centers (CEC) partners to share, address and educate the community on best nursing practices that touch on social determinants of health. We create innovative models of clinical care, service learning and community-based research to identify and address high priority healthcare needs in our community.

Building this culture of service and community partnership enriches both our faculty and students' academic experience and by preparing them to be creative, empathetic, and transformative healthcare leaders. CEP creates innovative models of community partnerships that:

  1. Increase collaboration with our partners to identify and meet the health care needs of community members based on principles of respect, social justice, and the fundamental right of all individuals to receive high quality health care;
  2. Develop community clinical experiences that promote students' empathy and ability to meet the unique health care needs of vulnerable/underserved community members;
  3. Provide infrastructure, guidance and support to faculty teaching service learning courses;
  4. Identify high priority health concerns in the community and develop resources to promote community-based research to address those needs.