The University of Georgia Rural Engagement Workshop for Academic Faculty enters its third year with 12 faculty members working in partnership with units of UGA Public Service and Outreach and Extension for grants to help solve rural challenges.
The Rural Engagement Workshop was launched by Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Jack Hu and Vice President for Public Service and Outreach Jennifer Frum. It is designed to help drive community-engaged research in rural Georgia communities.
Cognitive Aging Research and Education (CARE) Center co-directors Lisa Renzi-Hammond and Jenay Beer, both professors at the Institute of Gerontology, used the inaugural Rural Engagement Workshop for Academic Faculty as a springboard for taking the CARE initiative statewide. The CARE Center is a clinical, research and outreach hub that delivers education on dementia risk reduction, conducts cutting-edge research, improves access to dementia diagnosis, and provides planning and support for people with dementia and their care partners.
“The workshop helped us understand what the UGA Archway Partnership was doing, and how to become involved in rural outreach work,” said Renzi-Hammond. “When academic faculty, Public Service and Outreach and Extension are combined, the real magic of community work can happen at a scale that is unparalleled. What UGA has helped us pull off through this workshop—and where other organizations have been less successful—is navigation. We learned how to navigate the needs of rural Georgians, and how to earn and keep trust through our collaborations with Archway and Extension, and that trust has allowed us to hit the ground running and enact change.”
To further their projects, workshop participants will tap into the UGA Public Service and Outreach and Extension networks of faculty and staff who work throughout the state to connect Georgians to the vast resources that UGA has to offer.
“We are excited to see this important…
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