A university’s purview is knowledge — but its mission is to work towards a social good. This is a three-part series exploring the nature of community-university partnerships and their role in making knowledge public. Part one explores some of the discourse surrounding community engagement work and its consequences. Part two is making a case for the value of community knowledge and the perspectives of people with lived experiences of research questions. Part three is where I share some of my learnings from working in university-community engagement and call for a practice of engagement that empowers communities in their work with institutions.