Human-First Collaboration: Our Learnings from a Partnership as Care Model

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Five
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT042 (Sunday)

Abstract

This paper examines the University of Miami–Power U collaboration through the universal childcare campaign, treating partnership itself as the core intervention. Grounded in CPAR as epistemology and theories of epistemic justice and relational accountability, we analyze documents and reflexive interviews to identify four design routines that sustain trust and redistribute power: partnership craft, cadence and repair, evidence as organizing, and boundary clarity. Together, these practices—compensation, translation, shared governance, and consent—demonstrate how care functions as method and evidence as movement infrastructure. The resulting Partnership-as-Care blueprint offers a portable model for university–community collaborations seeking to align research practice with collective well-being under contested political conditions.

Authors

• Karissa D. Coady, University of Miami

• Mindy Aguirre, University of Miami

• Annette Mejer, University of Miami