Earlham College
EN-9: Community Partnerships

Supportive Partnership example: Earlham College partners with the nearby Cope Environmental Center in many ways including having Bonner Scholars (a community service-based scholarship program) and other student volunteers researching and creating educational programs for children and school groups. One recent project involved Earlham students updating and maintaining Cope's conifer trail. This trail goes through Cope's property to various conifer trees where information about the tree has been placed in a box and is available to read. Cope is also in the process of building a new building following the Living Building Challenge guidelines and Earlham students have been involved in the planning and research of the building's design.

Collaborative partnership example: The college is engaged in a sustained partnership with the city of Richmond through the Richmond Sustainable Communities Initiative. Through the initiative, Earlham College sustainability and community engagement staff meet with city stakeholders across departments and collect ideas for sustainability and livability-related projects. Sustainability staff also meet with teaching faculty interested in integrating community-engaged learning into their courses. A process of match making ensues and courses are matched to city-identified projects. Project examples include Strategic Social Media Planning for the city's IT department, Farmer's Market community based research and planning for the Parks Department, water quality monitoring for the Sanitation Department, a blight survey, and a survey of recycling practices by community residents. Students present their research and projects to city officials at the end of their courses and the officials can use whatever is useful from the student products.