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Department of Health Sciences

Events & Workshops

As part of its Theorize, Incubate, Enact, Disseminate (TIED) Model, the CPL hosts and participates in a wide variety of events to share theoretical knowledge, contribute to thought leadership, support partners’ community outreach efforts, and more.

Workshops

We offer two kinds of workshops: workshops for our current community partners and workshops that share best practices and lessons learned from the work and models we develop in collaboration with our community partners.

Community Partner Workshops

The CPL regularly leads workshops with our current, long-term community partners. These workshops include activities and guidance for processes such as developing staff cohesion, engaging in collective action, strategic planning, evaluating and learning from past work, mapping power relations and community needs, and engaging community in every stage of work. Recent community partner workshops include:

    • The CPL facilitated organization-wide planning around community engagement and empowerment at Habitat for Humanity of Orange County’s 2023 annual summit. The day-long workshop, led by Dr. Ryan Lavalley, Sayoko Kawabata, and Kevin Giff, guided Habitat staff in processes of building social cohesion, engaging in collective action, and mapping power relations. Learn more about this annual summit.
    • Sayoko Kawabata and Dr. Ryan Lavalley presented their exploration of neighborhood engagement strategies and community consultant feedback to the Habitat for Humanity of Orange County staff in March 2023. The CPL team facilitated discussion about Habitat’s approach in community and amplifying their mission to build health and holistic communities.

Best Practice Workshops

The CPL also offers workshops for organizations and groups who want to learn from the best practices of our community partners. In these workshops, we share details of our community partners’ collaborative models, as well as lessons learned in the CPL’s process of supporting the development and maintenance of community-based models. We also guide organizations to consider how best to adapt current models for their own needs, structures, and goals. Recent best practice workshops include:

    • Dr. Ryan Lavalley and Leiha Edmonds presented a national webinar in November 2023 for the Administration of Community Living (ACL). The webinar, titled “Expanding Home Accessibility Services: Strategies for Sustaining Cross-Sector Collaborations,” was presented for the ACL’s Housing and Services Resource Center. In the webinar, Lavalley and Edmonds offered best practices and resources for home accessibility partnerships, drawing on the Orange County Home Preservation Coalition as a model.
    • Dr. Ryan Lavalley and Leiha Edmonds worked with the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity in a day-long workshop in 2023 to support their developing home repair collaborative, modeled after the Orange County Home Preservation Coalition. Participants mapped out partnership roles, explored questions of access and marginalization, and built infrastructure for a home repair network database. Learn more about this workshop.
    • Dr. Ryan Lavalley led the ethics workshop for the North Carolina Occupational Therapy Association Spring Conference on April 9, 2022. This workshop, titled “Ethics and Justice in Community Practice: A Critically Responsive Approach,” focused on exploring ethical approaches and perspective that are beneficial in community practice and how practitioners in any setting can apply them to support justice and equity.

Academic Presentations

The CPL team engages academic research and thought in a variety of contexts. We share theoretical knowledge, contribute to thought leadership, and engage our academic peers in community-based practices through presentations at conferences and other academic events. Recent academic presentations include:

    • DDr. Ryan Lavalley speaking at a conference podiumr. Ryan Lavalley delivered a keynote address at the for the Turkish Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation Conference on October 25, 2023. Lavalley highlighted how community occupational therapy has been emerging in the United States and specifically at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. View the keynote address.
    • Dr. Ryan Lavalley discussed his approach to community engaged teaching rooted in partnership and sustained community as part of a panel for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Faculty Excellence’s Faculty Showcase in 2023. Along with other panelists, Lavalley discussed the challenges and complications of connecting students with community in meaningful ways while at the same time recognizing the invaluable contributions these opportunities make to student educational experiences.
    • Sayoko Kawabata presents on oral history best practices at 2023 SSO:USA conferenceDr. Ryan Lavalley, Sayoko Kawabata, and Dr. Jenny Womack presented a panel at the Society for the Study of Occupation 2023 Annual Conference. The panel explored oral histories as a method for studying community occupation. The presenters discussed three examples grounded in community experience, including collection of oral histories in Fairview to inform community engagement, programs, and activities.
    • Dr. Ryan Lavalley presented at the Society for the Study of Occupation 2022 Annual Conference in partnership with Dr. Victoria Garcia Wilburn and Diarra Webb. The presentation focused on the contributions of occupational science to moving community practice in occupational therapy forward, offering theoretical and tangible frameworks for community level transformation and health equity.