The 8th cohort of the UNC Greensboro community-engaged Pathways and Partnerships (P2) Collective Scholarship Fellows is underway! This is a program that invests funding and resources in university-community teams working in reciprocity and mutual benefit to address shared priorities. The new cohort brings together faculty from six UNCG departments and community organizations to advance two efforts: supporting Karenni refugee communities from Myanmar who have resettled in the region, and preserving and interpreting the history of the Strieby Church, School, and Cemetery in Randolph County.
Backed by the Department of Research and Engagement and the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, the cohort program equips teams with seed funding and developmental support to grow research, teaching, and engagement projects that are co-created with community partners and designed for shared benefit. The cohort model reflects UNCG’s long-standing commitment to community-engaged scholarship – work that produces knowledge with the public and strengthens local capacities.
Kayah Theh Du Theh Tu: Growing in Wisdom Together
The Kayah Theh Du Theh Tu: Growing in Wisdom Together partnership responds to opportunities identified by Karenni families – families from Myanmar – who now call Greensboro home. With P2 support, UNCG faculty will collaborate with local organizations serving Karenni residents to co-design activities that support well-being, belonging, and access, honoring cultural strengths and the community’s self-identified priorities. The partnership celebrates the unique experiences and deep knowledge of Karenni people, and the importance of approaches that are community-led, linguistically and culturally responsive, and oriented toward practical growth.
The Strieby Cultural Heritage Collaborative
The Strieby Cultural Heritage Collaborative works to preserve and share the story of the Strieby Congregational Church, School, and Cemetery Cultural Heritage Site in Randolph County, NC. Since its founding in 1879 and subsequent recognition as a place important to state and federal heritage, the Reconstruction-era site has become a touchstone for descendants, community members, and educators alike. Through cross-disciplinary work with community stewards of the site, the team will help document, interpret, and elevate Strieby’s history, connecting students and the public to a locally-rooted narrative of education, faith, and civic strength that endures across generations.
P2’s design is intentional: by pairing modest, flexible funding with a timeline conducive to building deep partnerships, along with coaching and a cohort learning environment, the Institute helps teams move from promising ideas to durable partnerships that generate scholarship and tangible community outcomes. During their three-year period, teams are encouraged to build shared governance structures, articulate mutual needs and benefits, and align evaluation with community definitions of progress and success – all hallmarks of high-quality community-engaged scholarship.
For nearly a decade, UNCG’s Partnerships and Pathways cohorts have underscored how collective scholarship thrives when universities listen first and invest in community relationships. In the months ahead, Kayah Theh Du Theh Tu: Growing in Wisdom Together and The Strieby Cultural Heritage Collaborative will join the two cohorts funded for 2025-8 to create opportunities for students, community members, and faculty to learn together – whether through public programming, curricular integration, or co-authorship of products that return value to the communities we serve. As the new projects mature, they will add to a growing body of work at UNCG that demonstrates how community-engaged scholarship can both advance knowledge and strengthen the social fabric of the region.
To learn more about current and past P2 partnerships, or to explore opportunities to connect your community organization to faculty and researchers at UNCG, visit the P2 grants page. To work with someone in the Institute who can connect you to UNCG colleagues that share your interests, contact the Referral Desk.
The Institute celebrates these partnerships for contributing to the successes of community-engaged scholarship, and for demonstrating how universities can learn from, with, and for their communities. We can’t celebrate without you! If you’re doing community-engaged work, please send us news of your successes!