Program Overview

Unit Overview

The unit NUTR603 - Engaging with Communities is designed to provide students with an opportunity to develop and enhance their skills in community engagement, cultural safety, and problem-solving. Through an immersive experience, students will work closely with community leaders and members to address a food and nutrition problem.

Unit Rationale, Description, and Aim

The unit aims to provide students with a real-world experience in community engagement, allowing them to develop and enhance their skills in cultural safety, empathy, flexibility, adaptability, teamwork, collaboration, leadership, and social responsibility. Students will work alongside community leaders and members to address a food and nutrition problem, providing them with the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting.

Learning Outcomes

To successfully complete this unit, students will be able to:

• Critically examine the principles of community engagement to help transform food and nutrition problems into solutions
• Demonstrate advanced cultural safety in practice, collaboration, teamwork, and leadership, and proactive problem-solving skills in a community environment
• Reflect and report on the factors that impact the success of food and nutrition interventions in communities
• Reflect on their personal journey throughout the placement and how learning can be applied to ongoing personal and professional development

Unit Content

The unit requires the completion of 15 days of community engagement placement. Content delivery is arranged as required to support these placements and the underpinning theoretical components. This content includes:

• Principles of community engagement and reflectiveness
• Application of principles and practices for sustainable solutions to food and nutrition problems
• Cultural intelligence, especially when working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, Culturally and linguistically diverse, and other diverse groups, in diverse areas (e.g., locally and internationally)
• Professionalism in work contexts
• Food and nutrition problems of placement location

Assessment Strategy and Rationale

The unit has three assessment tasks:

1. Written Assessment Task: Enables students to demonstrate critical evaluation of national or international food and nutrition problems and the role of community development in solving these problems (40%).
2. Multimedia Assessment Task: Enables students to demonstrate their ability to reflect on their placement and how it may shape their personal and professional development (40%).
3. Supervisor's Report of Practice Placement: Assesses students' performance during the practice placement (20%).

• Ungraded Hurdle: Completion of 15 days of placement.

Learning and Teaching Strategy and Rationale

The unit content will be delivered intensively over 4 weeks, with a 1-week theory component followed by the practical component. The learning and teaching strategy adopted comprises three key phases designed to provide students with a developmental learning experience. These phases relate to understanding and practice of community engagement as a vehicle to solve food and nutrition problems.

Representative Texts and References

• Bucker, R. B., & Rucker, M. R. (2016). Nutrition: ethical issues and challenges. Nutrition Research, 36(11).
• Colatruglio, S., & Slater, J. (2014). Food Literacy: Bridging the Gap between Food, Nutrition and Well-Being. In F. Deer, T. Falkenberg, B. McMillan, & L. Sims (Eds.), Sustainable well-being: Concepts, issues, and educational practices (pp. 37-55). ESWB Press.
• Egan, L., Butcher, J., & Ralph, K. (2008). Hope as a basis for understanding the benefits and possibilities of community engagement. The Institute for Advancing Community Engagement, Australian Catholic University.
• Perry, E. A., Thomas, H., Samra, H. R., Edmonstone, S., Davidson, L., Faulkner, A., Kirkpatrick, I. (2017). Identifying attributes of food literacy: a scoping review. Public Health Nutrition, 20(13).
• Temple, N. J., & Steyn, N. (Eds.). (2016). Community Nutrition for Developing Countries. University Press.
• Universities Australia. (2011). What is Cultural Competence? A Discussion of the Literature. In Universities Australia National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities (pp. 37-41).
• Worsley, T. (2008). Nutrition Promotion: Theories and methods, systems and settings. Allen & Unwin.

Locations

The unit is offered in the following locations:

• Melbourne
• North Sydney
• Rome

Credit Points

The unit is worth 10 credit points.

Year

The unit information is for the year 2025.