Community First

The Community First Initiative places the needs, aspirations, and voices of our local community at the forefront of our research endeavors. Community First represents a pledge to ensure that our work is not just academically rigorous but deeply relevant and impactful for the communities we call home.
 

Community First Fellows

CURE is looking for students to participate as fellows and community partners to serve as placements for the Summer 2025 Community First Fellows program.

More information about eligibility and requirements is available by viewing the program interest forms:

Completing an interest form does not guarantee participation due to limited program slots. However, forms completed by April 28th will receive priority during the selection and matching process in May. 

Community First Fellows is a program in which Rutgers-Camden graduate students are placed with local community partners to support their work.   

The program has two main goals:  

1) To support local work and build the research capacity of local organizations. 

2) To provide students with the support and training to become the next generation of community-engaged researchers. 

Here are some of the organizations fellows have been placed at and the variety of projects they have supported:

Program Background

In the spring of 2024, CURE piloted the Community First Fellows model through a graduate course taught by CURE Director Dr. Stephen Danley. Fellows in the course were paired with a community organization and together they developed a research project which advanced the mission of the community partner. In this way, the standard curriculum for community development research methods was flipped. Instead of starting with a ‘gap in the literature’, it started the research process by engaging in rich community work. This direct experience with community led research was supported by class reflection and course readings, which allowed fellows to build a valuable toolkit of methodological knowledge that they can bring to future community work. 

Building on this pilot, the Community First Fellows program ran again in the summer of 2024. Over ten weeks, thirteen Rutgers-Camden graduate students were provided stipends to work up to 25 hours a week with community organizations in Camden, South Jersey, and Philadelphia. The fellows were selected based on their commitment to community-engaged scholarship and were an interdisciplinary cohort, with students from programs in Data Science, Prevention Science, Public Policy & Administration, History, and Childhood Studies.

 

Community First Research Projects and Partnerships

Equity Analysis of Camden’s Open Enrollment Process

Funded by the Rutgers Urban Innovation Fund and the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health, this project partners with One Camden to analyze equity of Camden’s Universal Enrollment process. In Camden, households can apply to send their children to any school in the city. Through this partnership, we test application data to analyze equity within that system.

Partnership with the South Jersey Institute for Population Health (SJIPH)

Starting January 1, 2024, CURE announced a partnership with SJIPH to support the Institute’s funding of community-engaged research. SJIPH funds collaborations between Rowan University researchers, Rutgers University-Camden researchers, and community partners. CURE supports that research through technical support, data analysis and strategic planning. Dr. Danley serves as the Rutgers Co-Lead for SJIPH.