James Madison University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue (ICAD) works with nonprofits, local governments, grassroots coalitions, the James Madison University campus, and campus and community organizations to design and facilitate processes that enable people to talk and think together in productive ways. Processes are designed to meet specific needs for dialogue, deliberation, or collaboration. Potential clients can complete a client interest form. As an example of a long-term partnership, ICAD continued its longitudinal support of the Harrisonburg/Rockingham Bike-Walk Summit, an annual collaborative effort by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition and the Shenandoah Valley Planning District Commission to bring together key decision-makers, public administrators, university employees, and bicycling/walking enthusiasts to discuss ways to improve biking and walking in the City and the County. This commitment starts in January and continues through November when the Summit occurs. ICAD Associate Director Rob Alexander designed the process this year and worked with four communications studies undergraduate students, two Masters of Public Administration students, and three ICAD Affiliates to train them into the process design. In 2017, the Summit theme focused upon retrofitting street infrastructure through community planning and design. For many more examples, see the ICAD 2017-18 annual report: http://www.jmu.edu/icad/_files/2017-2018-icad-annual-report.pdf.

Healthy Families is an evidence-based home-visiting program providing services for parents and children, ages 0-5, to promote maternal and child health and safety, parent/child bonding, and family well-being. The program is recognized by the Department of Social Services as a high quality child abuse and neglect prevention program as well. Healthy Families Page and Shenandoah Counties provide numerous JMU student internships each year. In 2001, a community coalition identified the need for this, and JMU's Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services (IIHHS), together with faculty and students, have engaged with the community to address the need since. 2002.https://www.jmu.edu/news/2015/09/08-healthy-families.shtml

The Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series is a multi-year, multi- institution initiative to promote transformative teaching and learning in research and practice. The Summit Series is centered on five broad and urgent global themes including 1) conflict resolution, 2) human rights, 3) sustainability, 4) global education, and 5) religious and cultural understanding. Hosted by James Madison University (JMU), this effort has brought together approximately 80 leading and interdisciplinary scholars, educators, and practitioners from around the world to confront these issues head-on and apply themselves to unlocking human learning, growth, understanding, and engagement in a way that will address these crucial problems facing modern society. This knowledge-building and knowledge sharing approach is built upon a “four-legged stool,” including a leg for 1) building the community of scholars, educators, and practitioners, 2) developing and publishing a book that includes theory-to-practice chapters by targeted teams of summit participants, 3) producing a Summit Media Package that presents insights of the summit book as accessible, compelling short films targeting a wide, young audience (16-to-22-year-olds), and 4) creating web-based academic curricula and materials that further explain and explore concepts introduced by video content. https://www.jmu.edu/summitseries/

Responsible party for Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series: Dr. Craig Shealy, Professor, Graduate Psychology