American University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Institution has one or more formal community partnership(s) with school districts, government agencies, private sector organizations, civil society organizations, and/or other external entities to work together to advance sustainability on a regional, municipal, community, or neighborhood scale.

This may be demonstrated by having an active community partnership that addresses sustainability challenges in the broader community and meets at least two of the following criteria. The partnership is:

• Financially or materially supported by the institution.

• Multi-year or ongoing (rather than a short-term project or event).

• Sustainability-focused, i.e., its primary and explicit focus is on the concept of sustainability, the interdependence of ecological and social/economic systems, or a major sustainability challenge.

• Inclusive and participatory, i.e., underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations are engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation, and review.

This credit is inclusive of partnerships with local and distant communities.

Community-based research and engaged scholarship around sustainability challenges may be included if it involves formal partnership(s). Although community service activities (e.g., academic service learning, co-curricular service learning and volunteer activities, Work-Study community service, and paid community service internships) may involve partnerships and contribute toward sustainability, they are covered in the Community Service credit and should not be included in this credit.

This credit applies to all institutions.

An institution earns the maximum of 3 points available for this credit for having at least one formal community partnership that meets all of the criteria outlined above. Partial points are available for institutions that have a partnership that meets at least one of the criteria, as follows:

Note that points are not earned cumulatively. For example, an institution that has one or more partnerships that meet two of the criteria and one or more partnerships that meet three of the criteria would earn 2 points for this credit, rather than 3.

Timeframe

Report on current partnerships and/or partnerships that were active during the three years prior to the anticipated date of submission.    

Sampling and Data Standards

Not applicable.