University and Community Agency Research Partnerships: Implications for Teaching, Scholarship, and Service

Community-partnered research presents unique opportunities for personal and professional development among social work practitioners, researchers, and students. It is a vehicle for promoting social work values, generating and sharing knowledge, and connecting research to practice. Findings from these types of partnerships can be instructive for those interested in pursuing community-partnered research to improve practice. In this article, we describe lessons learned from a Boston-based university and community agency research partnership. We include implications for partnership development, teaching, scholarship, and service to provide guidance for those interested in community-partnered research efforts. Although time intensive, community-partnered research exemplifies essential social work values and has the potential to benefit university and community partners.