Communities of Practice
A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of people who come together with intention because they share a commitment to learning about or transforming something that matters to them.
- CoPs center practice—what we do, how we do it, and how we do it better, together.
- CoPs hold space for emergence—learning is not a checklist; it is a process of discovery.
- CoPs are built on trust—we make room for vulnerability, for challenge, for real conversation.
- CoPs move knowledge into action—what we learn here informs how we show up elsewhere.
Why Now?
CoPs are a powerful mechanism for institutional change for the following reasons:
- They build capacity. We don’t wait for external experts—we learn from each other, drawing on collective wisdom.
- They foster shared leadership. No one holds all the knowledge. No one carries all the weight. We grow leadership horizontally, not just vertically.
- They create sustainable learning. A training or a workshop ends; a CoP keeps going, deepening understanding over time.
- They make change possible. Individual effort is exhausting. Collective effort is momentum, resilience, transformation.
What Does This Mean for Us at Reed?
We are creating space to practice what belonging looks like—asking real questions, and wrestling with complexity.
Two Communities of Practice
To sustain engagement and professional learning, Reed has established two Communities of Practice through Belong.
Drop In/Drop Out
The first, an informal, drop-in/drop-out community, provides flexible engagement opportunities for all faculty and staff. It is anchored by webinars in which participants explore key themes, and a library of resources that offers curated readings, videos, and discussion prompts. Faculty and staff can participate in optional follow-up discussions that deepen understanding and application of these resources.
The first webinar is on April 2, 2025: Navigating Belonging in Higher Ed Amid Challenging Contexts. Participants can choose to attend virtually, join an on-campus Watch Party (with food and drinks), and take part in follow-up discussions, both in person and online. A brief survey will be distributed afterward to assess participant learning.
Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) Belong Course
The second Community of Practice is a structured ACUE cohort, which enrolls six faculty and staff members in the ACUE Belong Credential course that emphasizes applying research-based belonging strategies in real classroom and institutional settings. In the short term, credentialed participants will share insights, implementation ideas, and practical applications. Over the long term, they will contribute reflections and case studies that help scale best practices across campus. As part of Reed’s broader credentialing ecosystem, this effort examines how professional credentialing contributes to institutional transformation.