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Foreword A powerful force for community revitalization is gaining momentum across the country: university-community partnerships. In growing numbers, colleges and universities are collaborating with community groups to apply research, scholarship, and service to real-life problems. They are integrating such partnerships into their curriculum, academic studies, and student activities, making them part of their ongoing mission. America’s colleges and universities have more intellectual talent than any other institutions in our society, and many of them are using these partnerships to tackle the complex socioeconomic issues facing the neighborhoods that surround them, such as poverty, joblessness, crime, and homelessness. The third volume in a series, this publication highlights some of the partnerships and bold initiatives undertaken by institutions of higher education and nearby communities. The partnerships combine the strengths of both for the mutual benefit of both. Each partnership exemplifies an emerging new paradigm of scholarship, one that moves beyond seeking and teaching knowledge to putting it into practice at local schools, neighborhood organizations, and small businesses. Many of these institutions are taking a cross-disciplinary approach to pressing social issues and are institutionalizing community service and problem-solving into every aspect of their mission. Undergraduates are engaging in community projects to bring academic knowledge to everyday life. Graduate students are working with local groups to apply research to community issues. Faculty members are becoming practitioners and practitioners are coming to campuses to lecture, teach, and advise. Classes and laboratories are now conducted in places such as public schools, community centers, health clinics, homeless shelters, and government offices. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and its Office of University Partnerships commend these neighborhood-changing projects and partnerships. We celebrate the reinvention and reinterpretation of the traditional educational mission into one that includes a focus on community. Most of all, we applaud the integration of such a mission into the everyday activities of research, teaching, and community service. Finally, we hope that the innovative practices featured in this book will inspire America’s colleges and universities to create a new generation of community development programs and initiatives. Andrew Cuomo, Secretary U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Introduction UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: MEETING THE URBAN CHALLENGE University-Community Partnerships in America: Current Practices, Volume III, celebrates the growing number of commitments that colleges and universities are making to their communities to provide better places in which to live, work, and learn. The number of responses to the call for submissions for this volume is testimony both to the success of these partnerships and to the continuing need within urban communities. With a total of 342 colleges providing 599 entries, this issue includes more than twice the number of activities featured in the first volume, which was published only 4 years ago. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of University Partnerships (OUP) believes that this volume of Current Practices evidences the combined strength of institutions of higher education, local governments, community-based organizations, school districts, and public housing authorities acting in partnership. Colleges and universities are redirecting their economic and intellectual resources, their facilities, and other assets to benefit their communities in many innovative ways. They are working to facilitate economic development, provide much-needed social services, support public schools, offer technical assistance to community-based organizations, target research that provides guidance for community problemsolving, and create opportunities for faculty, students, and community residents to learn from one another. The History of Current Practices OUP was established in 1994 to encourage and fund institutions of higher education to undertake community development activities. In Current Practices, the Office continues to recognize and support colleges and universities as they forge and expand partnerships to address urban problems from the neighborhood to the city and the region. By serving as role models for other institutions of higher education, the partnerships illustrated in this third edition of Current Practices lay the foundation for future university-community alliances across the Nation. Indeed, many of the colleges and universities highlighted in the first two issues of Current Practices have since expanded to take on new partners and new activities. For example, some institutions are now involved in their local Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community or in HOPE VI public housing revitalization activities. Others have expanded an earlier collaboration with a single organization, such as a school district or public housing development, to take on more comprehensive neighborhood activities with many partners. Still others have initiated service-learning programs for students or developed new curriculum on community building for neighborhood leaders. In This Volume This volume of Current Practices is divided into seven subject categories that comprise the major general types of activity of university-community partnerships. Although all the submissions involve partnerships with local governments or organizations, they are organized by how colleges and universities implement 2 them. In cases where a far-reaching program spans more than one category, it was placed with the one that most closely describes its overarching purpose. At the end of the volume is a matrix that categorizes all the submissions by their substantive area of activity (e.g., affordable housing, job training, etc.). The end of the volume also contains a list of contacts, which OUP encourages its readers to use for more information about the programs. The seven subject categories are as follows: Service Learning contains descriptions of university programs in which students engage in service activities for credit as part of their coursework. Service learning activities may consist of actual coursework or the provision of a community service that is related to a specific course of study. Generally, service learning requires students to reflect, write, or otherwise develop their understanding of the issues they have encountered through their work. Service Provision describes noncredit student and faculty initiatives that take the form of coordinated, sustained, long-term projects targeted to a specific community. These activities are designed to foster and nurture community partnerships that benefit everyone involved. Faculty Involvement profiles faculty members who embody the driving force behind activities within the community. These activities are not necessarily related to course work. Instead, they are often related to an area of interest that generally addresses a faculty member’s established professional development goal. Student Volunteerism includes tasks driven primarily by students. These activities are short in duration, unrelated to course work, and provide students with worthwhile positive experiences while allowing them to fulfill noncredit graduation requirements of volunteerism in community development. The Community in the Classroom category depicts specific courses for local residents designed to enhance community building and community capacity. These are nondegree, noncredit courses that support the institution’s outreach mission. Applied Research describes specific, defined, pragmatic data collection, analysis, and reporting. The purpose of this targeted research is to define needs, guide program planning, assess outcomes, or otherwise contribute to efforts to improve conditions within the community. Major Institutional Change portrays initiatives that change the mission, promotion and tenure criteria, awards, and course offerings of colleges and universities. A specific activity may even overhaul administrative processes to meet an institution-community goal. The Office of University Partnerships hopes that the range of models presented will spur widespread replication as institutions grapple with the common as well as unique challenges facing their individual communities. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Introduction Service Learning ..................................................................................................................3 Service Provision ...............................................................................................................45 Faculty Involvement ........................................................................................................141 Student Volunteerism.......................................................................................................155 Community in the Classroom..........................................................................................187 Applied Research.............................................................................................................201 Major Institutional Change ..............................................................................................223 Institutions of Higher Learning Index..............................................................................237 Contact Information.........................................................................................................245