Conceptualizing Jesuit Mission, University/Community Partnerships, and Social Work Research: The REACH Center at Saint Louis University.

This article conceptualizes the mission of the REACH (Research on Equity in Action for Child Health) Center at Saint Louis University, a Catholic, Jesuit university's new initiative focused on building university/community partnerships to promote social innovation, health, and wellbeing in the local community. Below I review the history of conceptualizing Jesuit university mission since the historic Land O'Lakes meeting of 1967, discuss why university mission is seen as important for this center, offer a conceptual framework to guide how this research center creates and maintains university/community partnerships, and discuss implications for social work research endeavors in faith-and mission-rich contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]