"From the Ground First" Community Tour

Plan to arrive by 7:30 am so you can check-in and grab breakfast. The community tour bus will depart promptly at 8:00 am.

A tour of New Orleans area organizations that showcases the potential directions for community-engaged practices in research and service between higher education and community partners. Participants will have the opportunity to visit organizational sites and hear firsthand from local leaders about their partnerships with higher education. The tour will enable participants to gain insights and learn community-engaged approaches that are purposeful, reciprocal, and meaningful for community-based partnerships.

The three selected sites will speak to how community-based leadership takes on research partnership relationships with academia. Important to note is that all three sites are black-centric, either in by who founded them, who directs them currently, and/or their areas of focus. Each site offers a New Orleans story that will leave participants inspired. Participants in the tour will gain a richer sense of the possibilities that abound in community-academic partnerships.

1. The Amistad Research Center, an independent community-based archive organization that is located on Tulane’s Campus and partners with Tulane students and faculty in a variety of research projects. The Amistad Center is a 2022 winner of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service.

2. The New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council, which “consists of chiefs from over a dozen tribes who meet regularly to discuss and implement programs that further interest among youth, and to collaborate on positive social and community activities.”

3. Sankofa New Orleans, a nonprofit organization that approaches health-centered development practices as they build a model for community revitalization for under-resourced low socioeconomic communities. Their neighborhood of focus is the Lower Ninth Ward area of New Orleans. Sankofa’s ultimate goal is to support the creation of a local environment that promotes positive health outcomes and builds healthier communities for generations to come.