Building on the momentum and ideas discussed during the CIRCLS’21 convening, AI CIRCLS hosted a discussion series focused on building effective community/practitioner-research partnerships. The discussion series contained opportunities to learn and act; we convened speakers with experience in community partnerships for six sessions of presentations and discussions, and asked participants to bring in their own questions, concerns, and experiences with establishing community partnerships.

Sessions centered on partnerships with schools, formal learning environments, and partnerships with community organizations that create opportunities for learning outside of school. Discussions were approached through a specific lens of equity and social justice in establishing community partnerships, grounded in the RETTL context (with a particular focus on AI and education).

Community Partnerships Resources
From the series, two resources emerged for the CIRCLS community to reference when establishing, building, and maintaining their partnerships. We are excited to share those resources here:

1. Community Partnerships Planning Guide: This template is meant for researchers who are looking to become better partners with their non-academic collaborators. You will find a series of guiding questions developed from themes presented by our speakers.
2. Community Partnerships Speaker Summary: This summary document describes ideas that were covered in the AI CIRCLS Community Partnership series. You’ll find an overview of ideas discussed by all of the speakers in the series.

Click the links above or go to our CIRCLS resource to learn more.

Community Partnerships Series Overview
AI CIRCLS’ discussion series on community partnerships kicked off on January 21st, 2022 and continued through April 1st, 2022. We hosted the following sessions and speakers, described in depth in our summary document:

1. Kickoff and Goal Setting Session
2. The Noise Project
   Featuring Makeda “Dread” Cheatom, Marilu Lopez Fretts, Karen Purcell, Berenice
   Rodriquez, Phyllis E. Turner, Bobby Wilson
3. School Partnerships
   Featuring Jamie Lewsadder and Emily Nestor (CTO at La Canada United School District
   and Technology Specialist at Talladega County Schools, respectively)
4. Informal Science Centers
   Featuring Andres Henriquez (formerly NY Hall of Science)
5. Daigwade Project
   Featuring Breanne Litts, Rios Pacheco, Patty Timbimboo-Madsen, Lilly Martinez, and Brayden Gulso
6. Chicago Beyond
   Featuring Jon Ervin

If you missed a session and are interested in seeing that session’s recording, please contact us and we will be happy to share it. If you haven’t already, you can also fill out our community interest form to continue receiving information about our CIRCLS communities.

Organizers:
Erin Walker, Leah M. Friedman, Kip Glazer