Funding for Research/Creative Work

The University of Denver’s vision is to be “a great private university dedicated to the public good.” As a means to achieving this vision, the Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship and Learning (CCESL) and the Office for Public Good Strategy & Research (OPG) oversees the Public Good Fund, an annual fund of $100,000 to promote and increase community-engaged research and creative work that involves faculty and community. Additionally, during the academic year 23-24, DU’s Office for Public Good Strategy and Research will recognize faculty mentoring excellence and advance their community-engaged signature work with undergraduate students with two awards through the Signature Faculty & Students Program.

What is Community-Engaged Scholarship?

At DU, community-engaged scholarship:

  • Addresses public problems;

  • Emphasizes the co-production of knowledge in the context of reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships with community stakeholders;

  • Values critical approaches that strive for equity and inclusion;

  • Demonstrates strong collaboration with community partners in all stages of the research or creative work process, from proposal and project development to implementation and dissemination.

  • Includes dissemination to multiple audiences (e.g., traditional academic audiences, community audiences).

CCESL defines community broadly to include university-community partnerships with nonprofits, grassroots organizations, government agencies or entrepreneurs/businesses.

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Signature Faculty & Students Program

The DU Signature Faculty and Student Program recognizes faculty with records of excellence in mentoring undergraduate signature work in order to support their capacity to mentor collaborative, community-engaged signature work that addresses DU Grand Challenges issue areas. DU’s Office of Public Good Strategy and Research will make two awards of up to $26,750 in AY 2023-24. 

Learn More & Apply
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Public Good Fund

Public Good Grants will be awarded in AY 2023-2024. Public Good Grants are available up to $20,000 for projects that will result in measurable public impact through community-engaged research or creative work that is conducted in the context of mutually beneficial and reciprocal community partnership.

Please note that the Public Good Fund Review Committee welcomes proposals with smaller budgets, particularly in cases where faculty are new to community-engaged research or working with relatively new community partners.

The 2023-2024 Public Good Fund call for proposals is now open. The deadline to submit proposals is March 4th, 2024.

Read the 2023-2024 RFP

 

Info Sessions

Faculty members doing community-engaged work or research are invited to an info session on November 8th and/or January 18th to learn more about crafting proposals for Public Good Grants. 

Info Session Details & Registration

Public Good Fund Final Report Templates

If you've come to the end of your Public Good Fund project, please select the final report template that corresponds to the type of grant you received.

Past Recipients

  • Public Good Grant Recipients

    2022 - 2023 

    Ramona Beltrán | Graduate School of Social Work & Kelly Fayard, Anthropology

    Project Title: Orange Shirt Day Denver Project – A Needs-Assessment for Denver Urban American Indian Survivors & Descendants of Indian Boarding Schools 

    Reginald Byron | Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

    Project Title: Broadening the Impact of the Philadelphia Obituary Project 

    David Coppini & Kareem El Damanhoury | Media, Film, and Journalism Studies

    Project Title: Digital Media Literacy for High Schoolers: Designing and Evaluating a Week-long Intervention

    Roger Holland | Lamont School of Music

    Project Title: Black Catholic Liturgical Renewal

    Kamilah Legette | Psychology

    Project Title: Promoting Positive Schooling Experiences in Denver Public Schools

     

    2021-2022

    Angela Narayan | Psychology

    Project Title: A Child-Focused Benevolent Childhood Experiences (BCEs) Scale for Community Providers who work with Families

    Rebecca Galemba | Josef Korbel School of International Studies

    Project Title: Due Process and the Dedicated Docket

    Linda Mendez Barrientos | Josef Korbel School of International Studies

    Project Title: Science to Empower: Leveraging groundwater-level modeling for domestic water security in California

    Alejandro Ceron | Anthropology

    Project Title: "Esencial: An online community archive to disseminate the stories of Colorado agricultural workers"

    Sarah Bexell | Graduate School of Social Work. Institute for Human Animal Connection

    Project Title: "Co-Creating K-12 Humane and Ecologically Minded Professional Development Programming

     

    2020-2021

    Kimberly Bender | Graduate School of Social Work

    Project Title: Deepening understanding of young peoples’ sense of community and security in permanent supportive housing

    Ashley Hamilton | College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, DU Prison Arts Initiative

    Project Title: If Light Closed Its Eyes Documentary

    Carol Helstosky & Elizabeth Escobedo | College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, History

    Project Title: Veterans Legacy Program Continuation

     

    2019-2020

    Marquisha Scott & Dr. Aleysia Whitmore | Lamont School of Music, Ethnomusicology/Musicology

    Project Title: Sacred Sounds and Social Justice

    Matthew Taylor, College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics | Geography

    Project Title: Assessing Water (In)Security at the Household Level During Times of Economic and Political Crisis in Nicaragua: Data for Action

    Mike Nguyen, Morgridge College of Education | Higher Education

    Project Title: Understanding the Educational Experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

    Andrea Stanton, College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences | Religious Studies

    Project Title: Post-Conversion Experiences of Denver-based Converts to Islam

     

    2018-2019

    Jing Li, Paul Sutton, & Guiming Zhang |  College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Geography & the Environment

    Project Title: Sacred Sounds and Social Justice

    Elizabeth Campbell | College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, Center for Art Collection Ethics (ACE), History

    Project Title: Ethical Stewardship of Native American Heritage

    Yolanda Anyon, Kathryn Wiley, & Cassandra Johnson | Graduate School of Social Work

    Project Title: Sankofic Journey to Inclusive and Affirming Early Care & Learning Environments for Black Children

    Julia Roncoroni | Morgridge College of Education, Counseling Psychology

    Project Title: Cook Eat Share: Community-Participatory Cookbook Project

    Breigh Roszelle | Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical & Materials Engineering

    Project Title: Development of Middle School STEM Workshops for Underrepresented Students

    Shannon Allen | Morgridge College of Education, Center for Rural School Health & Education

    Project Title: South Conejos Substance Use Prevention Collaborative

    Krystyna Matusiak | Morgridge College of Education, Research Methods and Information Science (RMIS), Library and Information Science (LIS)

    Project Title: Community Resilience: Preserving and Promoting the Park County Local History Archives
     

  • Public Good BRIDGE Grant Recipients

    2022-2023

    Esteban Gómez & Bonnie Clark | Anthropology

    Project Title: Snapshots of Confinement

    Kristina Hesbol | Morgridge College of Education

    Project Title: The Rural Innovative School Leadership Networked Improvement Community: Learning from Each Other Across Rural Communities

    Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong | Geography & the Environment

    Project Title: Northern Ghana Agroecology Project

    María del Carmen Salazar | Morgridge College of Education

    Project Title: Achieving Excellence Academy: A partnership between the Denver Public Schools and the University of Denver

     

    2019-2020

    Tara Raines | Morgridge College of Education

    Project Title: Continuing the Sankofic Journey to Inclusive and Affirming Early Care & Learning Environments for Black Children

    Krystyna Matusiak | Morgridge College of Education, Research Methods and Information Science (RMIS), Library and Information Science (LIS)

    Project Title: Expanding the Reach and Sustaining the Park County Local History Digital Archive

     

    2018-2019

    Shannon Murphy, Robin Tinghitella, & Jennifer Hoffman | College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Biological Sciences, Psychics & Astronomy

    Project Title: DU SciTech 2019: Building STEM identification and scientific self-efficacy with girls of color in Denver

    Marie Berry | Josef Korbel School of International Studies

    Project Title: Inclusive Global Leadership Initiative
     

Past Funded Work

View some of the past work supported by a Public Good Grant.

Health Professions Highway, Building on Success
Our Diverse America
Continuing the Sankofic Journey to Inclusive and Affirming Early Care & Learning Environments for Black Children
Using Photovoice to Understand Community Resilience Under Anticipated Climate Change Impacts  
Trans* Health Literacy: Supporting Colorado Communities through Research, Education, and Policy Advocacy
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The 2023-2024 Public Good Fund call for proposals is now open. The deadline to submit proposals is March 4th, 2024.

Read the 2023-2024 RFP

Note: CCESL programs, including this one, undergo an antiracist, anti-oppression review at least annually. In 2020, the review process led to revision of the program description and application materials; changes in the composition of review committee to include 1-2 community members; the addition of training for grant reviewers as well as information sessions for potential applicants.