Center for Community Engagement and Impact

Community-engaged partnerships can occur with VCU and/or VCU Health.

A community-engaged partnership with VCU Health is a collaboration between VCU Health and community partners that responds to a community need and improves access to health care services, enhance the health of the community, and/or advances medical or health knowledge of communities or populations.

A community-engaged partnership with VCU is a sustained collaboration between VCU and community partners that responds to a community need and results in the mutually beneficial exchange, exploration, and application of knowledge, information, and resources.

Community Partners refers to organizations external to VCU and VCU Health. External organizations can include nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, schools, art galleries, and so on.

Our purpose is to more effectively connect, coordinate, and collaborate with each other, and celebrate and promote community engagement.

The Community-Engaged Partnership Database provides a quick view of VCU and VCU Health’s involvement in the local landscape.

Data you report can also be used for customizable reporting of community engagement that can further support accreditation, grant applications, strategic planning, promotion, and development. For more information on suggested uses of this database, see the "About" tab.

Submitters are responsible for entering and updating partnership information. Only VCU and/or VCUHS employees can act as a submitter. A submitter is either:

1. An individual affiliated with a partnership, e.g., a faculty member, or
2. A person designated to enter information on behalf of the partnership, e.g., an administrative assistant submitting information on behalf of their departmental faculty/staff/team members’ partnerships.

Many partnerships have multiple VCU or VCUHS employees affiliated with it. In order to reduce duplicative entries, please identify one person who will be responsible for either (1) submitting information directly in the database or (2) providing partnership information to a designated submitter who will conduct data entry on behalf of the partnership.

All VCU employees and most VCUHS employees have a VCU eID.

1. First, use the VCU eID Finder to check if you have a VCU eID.
2. If you don’t find your VCU eID using the link above, call IT Support (828-2227) for assistance.

Submitters, it is important to enter eID information for both you as well as VCU and/or VCUHS employees associated with the partnership for two reasons:

1. The eID is used to look up associated information like Institution, Unit and Department and autofill that information where relevant. This makes data entry easier while also keeping data consistent.
2. The eID is used to control the "Show My Partnership" functionality. When you choose that viewing option, you will see partnerships where you are the submitter OR one of the associated faculty members where your eID has been entered.

In other words, regardless of who enters partnership information in the database, any associated member (e.g., faculty) will be able to see and edit their partnership or partnerships when they select the "Show My Partnerships" viewing option as long as their eID has been provided. Thus, we highly encourage submitters to include the eIDs of all VCU or VCUHS employees associated with the partnership, though they are optional fields at this time. If eID is unknown, see FAQ "I don't have an eID. How do I get one?" for more information.

Community partners must approve any description provided and consent to release their information before any information is submitted. This can be done verbally through a phone call or conversation. Or you may want to send an email to ask for more formal consent. Here is a draft email that you might edit and use for that purpose.

Information collected will not be confidential. The majority of data will be made public. Thus, there may be risk to your partnership if your community partner does not want to be identified. Please note that VCU and VCUHS must comply with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Data collected may be subject to FOIA requests. Click here (VCU) or here (VCUHS) for more information:

Data collected in the Partnership Database PDF will be public (phase IV). This includes the following information about Community Partners:

• Organization’s Name
• Organization’s Address
• Organization’s Website (optional)
• Additional Information (optional) – this refers to additional partnership descriptions provided by submitters that will help others more effectively connect, coordinate, and collaborate with one’s partnership, and help us celebrate and promote community engagement. Suggested information to include are: aims, goals, and impact (if available).

Please note that we define Community Partners at the organizational level (i.e., schools, hospitals, government, nonprofits, etc.). Individuals are excluded due to privacy concerns.

Partnerships must be in compliance with VCU and/or VCUHS policies, particularly those listed below (if relevant).

VCU Employees

• Non-discrimination
• Safety & Protection of Minors
• Sexual Misconduct
• Accessibility & Reasonable Accommodation

VCU Health System Employees

Please refer to the "Policies" tab in the Employee Intranet for policies in addition to those listed below.

• Non-discrimination
• Privacy Practices

For further guidance on a specific policy, see the policy link for the appropriate contact. Contact us if you have additional questions.

The VCU & VCUHS Community-Engaged Partnership Map will be updated annually. Data in this map is not connected to the Partnership Database in real-time. In other words, when you enter a new partnership in the database, it will not automatically show up in the map at this time.

We will do an annual campaign to remind VCU & VCUHS employees to add or update their partnerships. After the campaign, we will prepare data collected (i.e., clean and reformat) and update the map. We will make an announcement when this is complete. In addition, we indicate the date of data used for the map in the footer.

You may add or edit partnerships in the Partnership Database at any time. The Partnership Database is real-time meaning that you will immediately see changes once you save your data entry. Also, the following available reports are generated from the database using real-time data. See FAQ: “Can I make or create a custom report?” for report details.

Available Reports:

1. VCU & VCUHS Community-Engaged Partnerships Full Report
2. VCU & VCUHS Community-Engaged Partnerships Simple Report
3. VCU & VCUHS Health-Related Community-Engaged Partnerships

However, we will do an annual campaign to remind VCU & VCUHS employees to add or update their partnerships. After the campaign is complete, we will update the VCU & VCUHS Community-Engaged Partnership Map using a snapshot of the data. Partnerships added or edited after the annual update will be reflected in the Map the following year.

You may add or edit partnerships in the Partnership Database at any time. The Partnership Database is real-time meaning that you will immediately see changes once you save your data entry.

There are 3 community-engaged partnership reports available for download (as excel files), listed below. These reports are intended for VCU and VCUHS use only. If these reports do not meet your needs, contact us for a customizable report.

Available Reports:

1. VCU & VCUHS Community-Engaged Partnerships Full Report
2. VCU & VCUHS Community-Engaged Partnerships Simple Report
3. VCU & VCUHS Health-Related Community-Engaged Partnerships

The above reports can be accessed after you login to the Partnership Database. The full report is immediately available in the landing page of the Partnership Database. The simple report and the health-related report are available under the "Reports" tab.

Please note that the Health-Related Community-Engaged Partnerships report is a subset of the Full Report, and includes only partnerships that meet any or all of the following criteria:

• Affiliated with VCUHS
• Affiliated with VCU and selected Health and Wellness as their focus
• Affiliated with VCU and selected Health-related Services as their activity

Since the Partnership Database is still in development, the Partnership Database and data therein are for VCU and VCUHS use only. Updates, functionality, and increased access for the general public will occur in phased rollouts. See About tab for more information.

You may, however, share the Community-Engaged Partnership Map with your community partner or partners.

Please update your partnership information. See “How to Edit” instructions for how to edit your partnership. Specifically, in the “Length of Partnership” section, enter the month and year (MM/YYYY) for when your partnership ended. Then click on “Save Partnership”.

Please update your partnership information. See ”How to Edit” instructions for how to edit your partnership. Specifically, in the “VCU or VCUHS Employees” section, delete the employee’s contact information. Add new affiliated employees if applicable. Then click on “Save Partnership”.

Please update your partnership information. See ”How to Edit” instructions for how to edit your partnership. Specifically, in the “Community Partners” section, delete the partner or partners no longer affiliated with the partnership. Add a new partner or partners if applicable. Then click on “Save Partnership”.