We engage with community partners to co-create knowledge, connections, and tools... in the St. Louis region and beyond.
Since its founding in April 2018, UMSL’s Community Innovation and Action Center (CIAC) has worked with over 25 community partners across 75 distinct projects centered around local, state, and national community impact projects. Its current work — with 14 full-time staff working across over 20 active projects — focuses on being responsive to community priorities, implementing participatory frameworks, and connecting the dots across partners, sectors, and information.
You can partner with CIAC to focus on:
Co-designing actionable plans that align with community goals and advance shared priorities. CIAC advances Strategy projects through:
- Developing strategic plans
- Launching and expanding a community coalition
- Building data and learning systems across partners
Centering the perspectives and priorities of those most impacted to understand context and pursue more responsive actions. CIAC advances Community Engagement projects through:
- Conducting/analyzing focus groups and interviews to answer critical questions and understand community priorities
- Recruiting diverse participants for new programs and initiatives
- Translating data and research findings for community accessibility and action
Developing transparent, action-oriented infrastructure and analysis. CIAC advances Data projects through:
- Developing strategies for how data can best be used for community impact
- Expanding data infrastructure to support data sharing and collaboration
- Building data analysis and visualization tools for community use
Answering questions that matter by elevating community expertise and lived experience. CIAC advances Evaluation and Research projects through:
- Planning and conducting process and impact evaluations of programs, coalitions, and systems
- Conducting applied research projects (like needs assessments, social network analysis, concept mapping)
- Matchmaking between community priorities and university research expertise
Strengthening collective capacity to address complex issues through collaborative training and skill-building. CIAC advances Learning projects through:
- Implementing collaborative training and skill-building programs
- Developing experiential learning approaches for key sectors and leaders
- Pairing students and fellows with community-based projects/priorities
Work with us
UMSL's Community Innovation and Action Center is here to support your Strategy, Community Engagement, Data, Evaluation and Research, and Learning priorities. Email our leadership team at ciac@umsl.edu to get started!