Community-Campus Partnership for Health conference, Chicago: April 30-May 3, 2014

You are invited to the CCPH conference next year in Chicago: April 30-May 3, 2014.  The theme is "From Rhetoric to Reality: Achieving Authentic, Equitable and Transformative Partnerships."  The call for session and poster proposals was released on 1 May, with a 30 September deadline.

The conference is designed to tackle the challenges that prevent us from “walking the talk” of true partnerships and fully realizing their transformative potential. As community engagement, community-based participatory research and service-learning gain prominence, we are concerned that some are using these terms in name only without embracing the commitment to diversity, equity, justice and impact that they demand. We are also concerned that significant resources are being invested in institutional infrastructure and capacity building without a parallel investment being made in communities. At the same time, we seek to recognize and applaud the individuals and organizations who are leading the way in developing and sustaining partnerships that balance power, share resources and contribute to systems change.  Your visionary, boundary-spanning leadership demonstrates that it can be done!