BIPX202 - Community Engagement: Building Strengths and Capabilities

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

UNCC100 Self and Community: Exploring the Anatomy of Modern Society or PHIL102 Theories of Human Nature or PHIL104 Introduction to Ethics or PHCC102 Being Human or PHCC104 Ethics and the Good Life

Incompatible

BIPX100 - Professional Experience A, BIPX201 - Business Experience

Teaching organisation

150 hours over a twelve-week semester or equivalent study period

Unit rationale, description and aim

Engaging in business practices which strive to contribute to the common good, to enhance the dignity and wellbeing of people and communities especially those who are marginalised or disadvantaged is an important responsibility for business and reinforces the University’s Core Curriculum and Mission and commitment to serving the common good and for the dignity of all human beings. Further, the ability to communicate effectively in any workplace is crucial. This unit covers multifaceted business communications concepts to enable effective interaction. In addition, this unit aims to build knowledge and understanding of four key principles of community engagement: critical reflection, active learning, student involvement in service-learning and civic engagement experiences. In this unit, students will develop an awareness of the types of contributions individuals and organisations make to the community, by communicating and connecting the business skills developed in the Peter Faber Business School and their application within communities at local, national and international levels. In this unit, students will volunteer their time to assist poor, vulnerable and marginalised groups supported by social enterprises, not for profits organisations, and incorporated community groups. and not for profits. Students will further develop cultural awareness and apply their knowledge of community engagement and the skills from their Business degree through a volunteer placement which contributes to the achievement of social and civic responsibility in the wider community. This will be achieved through participation in volunteer experience within a social enterprise, not for profit organization or incorporated groups for up to 70 hours but with a minimum of 35 hours.

The aim of this unit is to foster knowledge and understanding of community engagement and its application within marginalised or disadvantaged communities while applying ethical, personal communication and professional business skills developed within the Peter Faber Business School environment.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 -explain  policies, strategies and approaches to building safe and supportive environments especially for children, young people and vulnerable adults, while being aware of cultural differences (GA1, GA5)

LO2 - examine the principles and focus of community engagement, ethical and social responsibility of businesses and organisations in relation to the marginalised and disadvantaged communities while serving the common good (GA2, GA5)

LO3 - apply knowledge of communication practices, information literacies,  business skills and judgement during their placement as their contribution to the sustainability of these organisations and incorporated community groups.  (GA5, GA9)

LO4 - construct, implement and communicate strategies related to work readiness drawn from volunteer experience and associated personal and professional skill development during their studies (GA5, GA8)

LO5 - reflect upon the impact of the community engagement experience on their values, assumptions and attitudes (GA4, GA5)

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity 

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Content

Topics will include: 

• introduction to community engagement and the nexus between business and community organisations
• principles and focus of community engagement including ethical and social responsibilities and contributions to achieving sustainable outcomes for the placement organisations as their contribution to the sustainability of these organisations.
• policies, strategies and approaches to building safe and supportive environments for working with children, young people and vulnerable adults
• work appropriate behaviour, work readiness strategies, personal and professional business skill development  that will focus on integrating knowledge to help students make the transition to employment 
• preparation to engage directly with a social enterprise, not for profit organisations, and incorporated community groups.
• multifaceted cultural awareness, critical reflection, and effective communication with internal and external stakeholders and social media.
• Negotiating and persuasion

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This Unit takes a transformational learning approach to guide students in the development of knowledge associated with community engagement and the nexus with business sustainability practices. Students are able to explore knowledge underpinning community engagement in a series of workshops. These workshops are designed to support students to actively take part in the development of knowledge. Students will systematically develop their understanding of the critical aspects of community engagement and how to prepare for and participate in volunteer experience within a social enterprise, community group or not for profit organisation. This Unit takes an experiential approach to support students in developing work appropriate behaviours, work readiness strategies, and the reflective and communications skills required to maximise the outcomes of their volunteer experience by sharing stories and insights and reflecting on experiences. This approach is designed to interest students who prefer to learn within a social environment and build skills for future community engagement that are linked to business acumen and contribute to the placement organisational sustainability.

ACU Online

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in situations similar to their future professions. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

Assessment strategy and rationale

In order to pass this unit, students are required to complete a compulsory hurdle task: complete online modules that examine cultural awareness and submit your completion certificate. The unit also requires submission of two graded assessment tasks and achievement of an aggregate mark of at least 50%. Marking of assessments will be in accordance with a rubric specifically developed to measure their level of achievement of the learning outcomes for each item of assessment. Students will also be awarded a final grade which signifies their overall achievement in the Unit. The assessment strategy for this Unit is designed to ensure reflection, understanding of a community engagement and provides the opportunity to share and learn from experience. The assessment of this Unit allows students to develop their knowledge and skills of community engagement to the point where they can effectively complete their volunteer experience and submit a reflective report on their learning from the experience and knowledge and skills gained throughout the unit. To develop this level of capability, students will demonstrate their knowledge of community engagement in developing and reporting on social innovation concepts and interpret their reflections and learnings from the “lived experience” of their placement in the final assessment task.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Adro, F. & Fernandes, C. (2021) Social entrepreneurship and social innovation: looking inside the box and moving out of it. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. [Online] Taylor & Francis

Australian Children’s Commissioners and Guardians (2013). Submission to Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Issues Paper 3 – Child Safe Institutions Principles for Child Safety in Organisations.  

Anon (2017) ASEAN journal of community engagement. Depok, Indonesia: Directorate of Research and Community Engagement, Universitas Indonesia.

Bromley, P. & Meyer, J.W. (2017), ‘“They are all organizations”: The cultural roots of blurring between the non-profit, business, and government sectors’, Administration & Society, 49(7), pp.939-966.

Crupi, A. et al. (2021) The top-down pattern of social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Bricolage and agility in response to COVID-19: cases from China. R&D Management [Online] 52, (2) pp. 313-330

Fagan, A. A. et al. (2019) Communities that care : building community engagement and capacity to prevent youth behavior problems. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Gutterman, A. S. (2021) Community engagement and investment. New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

Haverila, K. et al. (2022) Development of a brand community engagement model: a service-dominant logic perspective. The Journal of consumer marketing. [Online] 39 (2), 166–179.

Henley, P. et al. (2021) One Health approaches require community engagement, education, and international collaborations-a lesson from Rwanda. Nature medicine. [Online] 27 (6), 947–948.

Hicks Peterson, T. (2018) Student Development and Social Justice Critical Learning, Radical Healing, and Community Engagement. 1st ed. 2018. [Online]. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Konsti-Laakso, S. & Rantala, T. (2018) Managing community engagement: A process model for urban planning. European journal of operational research. [Online] 268 (3), 1040–1049.

McKinley, E. et al. (2021) ‘Going digital’ - Lessons for future coastal community engagement and climate change adaptation. Ocean & coastal management. [Online] 208105629–.

Moore, T., McDonald, M., McHugh-Dillon, H., West, S. (2016). Community Engagement – A key strategy for improving outcomes for Australian Families. CFCA Paper no. 39 [online]. Australian Institute of Family Studies. Available at: https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/community-engagement/introduction

Mtawa, N. N. (2019) Human Development and Community Engagement through Service-Learning The Capability Approach and Public Good in Education. 1st ed. 2019. [Online]. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

OECD Local Employment and Economic Development (LEED) Papers (2021). Building Local Ecosystems for Social Innovation A Methodological Framework  [Online]

Rademacher, N. & Sheety, A. (2017), ‘Enhancing Learning through Community-Based Partnership’, Innovations in Higher education Teaching and Learning, vol.8, pp.191-205. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Yuan, D. et al. (2020) Managing the product-harm crisis in the digital era: The role of consumer online brand community engagement. Journal of business research. [Online] 11538–47.