California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

Cal Poly Pomona's Center for Community Service Learning's mission is to "advance a culture of meaningful civic engagement by promoting service-learning, sustainable, community-university partnerships and other opportunities for community outreach and leadership." Current partnerships with local organizations include "programs that teach about maintaining sustainable and regenerative environments (i.e. edible gardens, native plant landscaping, etc.), and "environmental awareness including community gardens. Other partnerships address education, ecomonic empowerment, the arts, health and crime prevention. The Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies launched the Regenerative Communities Initiative. Recent studies have highlighted the educational disparity between high-income and low-income Americans, noting that the achievement gap between these groups has grown substantially in recent years. The Regenerative Communities Initiative seeks to address the achievement gap by 1) encouraging pathways to higher education for underrepresented students; 2) empowering communities to address environmental challenges; and 3) developing a model for university -primary school partnership which can be replicated. We have established a relationship with Westmont Elementary in the Pomona Unified School District, through previous environmental workshop sand other engagement activities. The core of this initiative is the establishment of fellowships for Cal Poly Pomona students, to allow for continual interaction with Westmont students during the academic year.