To learn more about the Academic Associates network, or to join, please contact us by e-mail, or write or phone the Research Director, as listed on the staff page.

Associates are academics who share New Directions' commitment to the mission of research, teaching and service in collaboration with community members and applied to the goal of building better local communities.

Academic specialties in the natural, social and behavioral sciences, humanities and technology are all welcome, as the needs of communities cannot be conveniently fitted within any academic boundaries.

Associates must be willing to establish respectful partnerships with civic groups and to understand that their civic partners are co-owners of the research and its results.

In addition to publication through academic channels, researchers have an obligation to publish a layman's version of their findings that will be useful to their civic partners and to be available (within reason) to speak to groups or answer inquiries on topics within their field of expertise.

It is expected that New Directions will be included as a partner in research projects, in recognition of the Institute’s key role in making the project truly community-based. The business arrangement may vary. In one instance, New Directions might act as subcontractor under an academic associate’s grant. In another the two might be joint recipients of a grant, and in still another the grant could be made to New Directions, with the academic associate as subcontractor or employee.

Many universities and many disciplines within the universities seek practical learning opportunities for university professors/researchers and their students in local communities not far from the campus. For several reasons, these opportunities are hard to arrange even though they are much needed. The most fundamental reason for the difficulty is that civic groups need some preparation before they can act as partners and hosts to the academics. Usually this preparatory work is beyond the time, resources and specific competencies of professors and their students. Consequently, the chance to work with an interested, informed and highly motivated group of community members is missed.

In order to reach out effectively to local communities and carry out their threefold mission of research, teaching and service, academic institutions need more direct access to grass roots partners who can help them to design research that will be relevant to the needs and priorities of the community. Next, they need sponsorship for the work from funding agencies that are attuned to the principles of community-based research and service learning. And finally, if the effort is to be truly a service to the community, the research findings must become the basis for action.

The linkages and the level of cooperation implied in this ideal do not come naturally to the parties involved. More likely the academics will stay within their ivory tower, the civic groups will continue to complain and point the finger of blame, the granting foundations will invest their money elsewhere and the service providers will continue with their established programs.

A go-between agent is needed that will prepare the parties for their roles, bring them together at the appropriate times and places and keep the process moving from start to finish. This is where New Directions comes in. (For more details, please see Mission.)

The typical process is represented in the figure below. Academic researchers are involved most intensively in the community insight phase, where the aim is to gain an accurate view of the community’s problems and potentials.

Our ongoing research agenda is to develop, expand and update descriptive and insightful profiles of partner communities. These include population and housing profiles, public opinion surveys, surveys of natural resources, buildings and infrastructure, local history and other information that may be useful in planning and setting goals. Also we have an ongoing commitment to experimental research and development of the means for dealing with typical problems that are found in communities.

In the area of teaching and service learning, New Directions will coordinate with service learning programs on campus and will work with independent study and internship coordinators to develop support services for interns such as transportation, expenses, summer stipends.

Service, a long-term goal of New Directions, is expected to grow out of the research and learning as good ideas are put into practice and students apply what they have learned about effective citizenship.

Communication will be the key to the carrying out of New Directions’ mission of matching and coordinating civic groups with researchers and students, academics with funders and civics with service providers. We plan to send out e-mail alerts to academic associates, announcing research needs, service learning opportunities and potential funding. Details of opportunities will be posted on the Web site, newdirectionscbr.org, which is being designed as a means of keeping all five sectors in the CBR organization chart (the institute, civics, researchers, funders and service providers) informed and in touch with one another.

Possibly New Directions will hold conferences on community-based research on Long Island, to be attended by representatives of all five sectors.