Site Partners:
DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH

Creating Partnerships to Support Grassroots Social Change

The Institute for Community-Based Research engages in projects to inform social change at the grassroots level. The Institute’s focus areas include: environment, health, and food security; education and employment; vulnerability and resiliency in the face of disaster; and organizing cooperative alternatives.  It is a collaborative partnership between the Division of Social Sciences and the Center for Community and Economic Development at Delta State University.

The Institute provides an avenue through which DSU students, especially those pursuing a Master of Science degree in Community Development, are able to collaborate with faculty and community organizations to engage in timely and meaningful research.

Faculty and students work with membership-based community groups (including nonprofit organizations and cooperatives) in Mississippi as well as with other organizations throughout the Delta region and across the country. Institute partners must demonstrate a commitment to processes of active collaboration as they seek creative solutions to social problems.

Institute activities include:

• Partnering with community groups to meet their research needs, including training and technical assistance with question formulation, research design, methods of inquiry, data analysis, and reporting.
  
  
• Linking community groups, larger area nonprofit associations, government agencies, and educational/research institutions.
  
  
• Developing and strengthening the research, outreach, and educational skills of Delta State University students as they work with community groups and their partners to directly address social problems.

Source: Information profided by the Institute for Community-Based Research, Delta State University