Community engagement: where reality meets the road

Abstract

Community engagement is an important higher education pillar which underlies a meeting of the theoretical as taught at universities, with the practical as it occurs in the real world. Learning in this holistic manner allows primary customers of universities: the students, to professionally and confidently anticipate the real world. They are empowered to understand the dynamics of working with excellence in solving issues and contributing to society, in a meaningful, respectful, timely, organized, and feasible manner. This paper will firstly, discuss five community engagement projects that final year Environmental Health students participated in, in Durban, South Africa. This will be followed by a discussion on the key components of community engagement projects that should be considered such as project planning, collaboration practices, overcoming challenges, celebrating successes and evaluation. These components are based on my experience in managing these community engagement projects from conception to conclusion.