Indiana University Indianapolis
EN-9: Community Partnerships

IUPUI strongly values our connections in the community. Working with individuals, businesses, nonprofits, schools, health care providers and neighborhood organizations enables us to connect students, faculty and staff with relevant issues of today, to better prepare our students, and to find workable solutions to local and global problems. As an anchor urban institution, IUPUI takes a leadership role in improving community, economic, and educational outcomes in central Indiana. The IUPUI Strategic Plan: Our Commitment to Indiana and Beyond, defines how the Office of Community Engagement and other IUPUI units support this civic mission by building relationships with the campus’s neighbors near and far. The Office of Community Engagement creates a more coordinated, strategic approach to professional development and corporate education; neighborhood, school, and family partnerships; volunteerism and service; and a campus wide culture of engagement. The Office of Family, School and Neighborhood Engagement is focused in diverse neighborhoods within the urban core of Indianapolis. Their team works in collaboration with community and university partners to catalyze and support work to enhance the equity and quality of life for everyone in Indianapolis with keen focus on education, workforce and economic development, health and research. The following are examples of some of the ongoing Campus-Community Partnerships: George Washington Community High School Midwest Center for University-Assisted Community Schools Near West Collaborative West Indianapolis Partnerships Near Eastside Legacy Initiative Martindale Brightwood Alliance for Educational Success Talent Alliance The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is a national organization responsible for classifying all institutions of higher education since 1970. The Carnegie Classification is the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education. In 2006, the Carnegie Foundation began a Community Engagement Elective Classification. Unlike the Foundation’s other classifications that rely on national data, the Community Engagement designation is an elective classification in which institutions chose to participate by submitting required documentation describing the nature and extent of their engagement with the community, be it local or beyond. IUPUI was initially awarded the Carnegie designation in 2006 and then achieved an affirming reclassification in 2015. The 2015 designation marked a new era for community engagement at IUPUI and is further supported by the new IUPUI Strategic Plan, Our Commitment to Indiana and Beyond. Currently, only 361 campuses have the Community Engagement Classification.

http://news.iupui.edu/releases/2014/04/near-west-collaborative.shtml April 23, 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the Near West Collaborative have agreed to a formal partnership to promote economic development and address quality-of-life plan priorities for Haughville, Hawthorne, Stringtown and We Care. The memorandum of understanding was recently signed by IUPUI, Hawthorne Community Center and the Near West Collaborative. Under the partnership, access will be provided to a wide variety of resources at IUPUI that will assist seven priority areas identified as important to the immediate and long-term vitality of the Near Westside neighborhoods: housing, public safety, beautification, economic development, education, health and civic/youth engagement. IUPUI is home to a number of schools, centers and programs with extensive expertise in nonprofits, community engagement, education, health care, economic development and quality-of-life issues. The Near Westside envisions itself as a clean, tree-lined, front-porch community with affordable family homes. Residents see the neighborhood as the ideal safe, urban area where people live, work and raise a family in close proximity to downtown. The partnership builds on a more-than-decade-long relationship between the Center for Service and Learning at IUPUI and the Near Westside community. The relationship has resulted in a number of achievements, including: - New relationships with the IU School of Medicine and the Near Westside for annual health fairs and a leadership role with the Indy Food Fund to leverage resources for community food projects. - More than 100 consultations and meetings with community partners and engaged university faculty, staff and students. - IUPUI faculty helping implement elements of the quality-of-life plan. - Scholarships that help promote and teach college readiness for elementary through high school students. - Development of Near West identity and branding including the logo, billboards and more. - Development of an urban gardening program. The Center for Service and Learning will serve as the facilitator for accessing programs and resources on the IUPUI campus. The partnership will initially draw upon the resources in the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, School of Nursing, School of Dentistry, School of Education, School of Social Work, Office of External Affairs, Community Learning Network, and the Center for Service and Learning. Media Contacts Richard Schneider Indianapolis Office 317-278-4564 rcschnei@iu.edu

A Core Objective of the IUPUI Strategic Plan : Deepen our Commitment to Community Engagement Establish a structure and leadership to coordinate engagement activities more comprehensively and strategically; leverage our significant community and economic engagement activities; support relationships with enterprises related to areas of university research, creative activity, and professional service; and help to build a culture of entrepreneurship at IUPUI. Commitment to community engagement is a defining attribute of IUPUI, a vital component of our vision, mission, and values, and a tradition dating to the campus’s very beginning. The dedicated efforts of our students, faculty, and staff to improve life in Indianapolis, Central Indiana, and beyond have earned us national recognition and numerous awards. At the same time, our civic and community engagement work is diffuse, involving multiple centers, schools, and faculty initiatives. The following recommendations seek to expand our capacity for effective community engagement by developing an innovative and inclusive engagement agenda aimed at increasing the impact of our engagement; coordinating engagement activities more comprehensively, systematically, and strategically; evaluating, recognizing, and rewarding contributions to community engagement; and seeking external validation and recognition for community engagement activities at IUPUI. Through the IUPUI Office of Community Engagement (OCE): Health and Human Services are key sectors that greatly influence the overall health and wellbeing of a community. As defined by National Human Services, this work uniquely approaches the objective of meeting human needs through an interdisciplinary knowledge base, focusing on prevention as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a commitment to improving the overall quality of life of service populations. Because of this IUPUI is a proud supporter and partner with the Family Access Network, the Indianapolis Scholar house and Great Places 2020. • Family Access Network (FAN) is a collaborative services center working to deliver convenient access to a wide variety of family-focused resources in Indianapolis. FAN has partnered as an affiliate of the Family Scholar House in Louisville, KY to develop Indianapolis Scholar House in Near West Indianapolis. Our team in partnership with the Center for Service and Learning hosted a site visit for our partners to visit sites in Louisville, KY in order to learn more about replicating this program model locally. We look forward to project getting underway in 2016. • Great Places 2020 is an initiative to transform neighborhoods and spur urban revitalization to help improve the Quality of Life in local neighborhoods. We are excited to serve as the convener for the West Michigan and King Street projects. Through the Local Initiative Support Corporation’s (LISC) Great Places 2020 program, a visionary community development project to transform strategic places in Marion County, OCE was selected as the convener for the area of Michigan and King Streets. OCE hired a staff person to serve in this role and has the support of three graduate and one undergraduate student from the CSL Community Partners Scholars program. Students serve as liaisons to the Near West Community to gather input from residents, businesses, schools, nonprofits and others to understand their vision for their community. The outcome of this process will include tangible projects that align with the Great Places 2020 priorities of Livability, Opportunity, Vitality, and Education. Projects have a completion date of 2020 to align with the state’s bicentennial celebrations. Staff from IUPUI are facilitating the planning and implementation of the neighborhood Quality of Life Plan, collaborating with approximately 42 businesses, government, non-profit organizations, and K-12 schools. In 2015, the Near Eastside Indianapolis was designated as a federal Promise Zone, a high poverty community where the federal government will work with local leaders to increase efforts to achieve neighborhood created goals and priorities. Indianapolis was one of eight communities selected through a competitive grant application process in 2015. IUPUI was a strategic partner in the Near Eastside’s successful application to become designated a federal Promise Zone and continues to be closely involved. The Promise Zone designation provides the area with a competitive advantage when applying for federal funding for project and programs. IUPUI continues as a strategic partner in the Promise Zone, with goals for improving economic activity, educational opportunities and clinical care through partnerships between the community and the schools of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Physical Education and Tourism Management, Engineering and Technology, Social Work, Medicine and Dentistry, and the Public Policy Institute, including: • Fitness Zone powered by IUPUI at the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center where the School of Physical Education and Tourism Management (PETM) provides fitness and health programs to residents; • Indiana University Student Outreach Clinic through which Medicine, Dentistry, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Law, and Social Work students provide free and reduced price health, dental, and legal services to the community; • Near Eastside Career Opportunities Center in which FSNE provides training programs and career assistance. Source: http://csl.iupui.edu/doc/deans/oce-engagement-report-2014-2015.pdf

A Core Objective of the IUPUI Strategic Plan : Strengthen Internationalization Efforts IUPUI will become a global campus and will partner with Indianapolis as it becomes a global city. We will accomplish these aims through effective international partnerships; international opportunities for students, faculty, and staff; and development of our students as global citizens. Over the past 15 years, IUPUI has invested considerable effort in internationalization initiatives, focusing especially on developing strategic partnerships with higher education institutions abroad, bringing more international students to the IUPUI campus, increasing study abroad opportunities, internationalizing curricula across academic programs, providing co-curricular international opportunities for our students, and attracting international staff, faculty, and visitors. With leadership from the campus’s Office of International Affairs (OIA), these efforts have borne fruit. Our development of strategic international partnerships and comprehensive campus internationalization have become nationally recognized models for promoting broad and deep collaborative relationships at home and abroad. Since 1999-2000, the number of international students studying at IUPUI has more than tripled, from 606 in Fall 1999 to 1,837—more than six percent of all IUPUI students—in Fall 2013. Study abroad opportunities have multiplied, particularly shorter-term programs that fit the needs of the majority of our students; students studying abroad now number approximately 400 each academic year, up from 151 in 1999-2000. Approximately one-third of these programs have a service learning theme, developed in collaboration with IUPUI’s Center for Service and Learning. On-campus internationalization efforts have gained momentum with the establishment of a bachelor’s degree in Global and International Studies and the development of an international videoconferencing facility for interactive teaching and learning with faculty and students overseas. Beyond campus, the Global Cities Initiative: A Joint Project of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase is supporting development of a plan for ongoing engagement between IUPUI and the Indianapolis metropolitan area on matters of international trade and economic development that will last well beyond the four years of the Global Cities Exchange itself. This progress has set the stage for a major move forward in the coming years. Our aim is to transform ourselves into a global campus, in partnership with the Indianapolis metropolitan area, by 2020. The strategic initiatives and actions we identify will help us to achieve our goals by providing international opportunities to all IUPUI students, faculty, and staff; developing IUPUI as an international and intercultural hub to make Indianapolis more welcoming and attractive to international students and other visitors; and implementing the Internationalization Plan emerging from our participation in the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Internationalization Laboratory. Together, these proposals reinforce IU’s Principles of Excellence, which serve as the foundation for IUPUI’s strategic international initiative to create distinctive approaches to campus internationalization that serve the needs of our students and city. The Office of International Affairs (OIA) at IUPUI facilitates international engagement and partnerships; hosts IUPUI’s study abroad programs, supports international teach and learning programs, and partners to support community and campus events that promote cross-cultural awareness and understanding. In 2015, a record number of 125 students participated in study-abroad, and international spring break programming. Another opportunity we offer students are Alternative Spring Breaks, also called by its acronym ASB, which are service-learning experiences that take students outside of Indiana to work with community organizations. Each trip focuses on 1-2 social issues and serves with a community organization that also works on those social issues. Students are group in teams of 10-12 to serve 6-8 hours a day together and then discuss their experiences in “reflection” sessions. On the “Exploration Day” students will visit different local sites as a group during their day off from service. Trips are planned by Alternative Break Scholars and supervised by a staff or faculty advisor. The Center for Earth and Environmental Science and the School of Education developed the following international collaborative interactive program: Discovering the Science of the Environment Internationally http://cees.iupui.edu/education/kenya-us-discovering-science-environmental-international Discovering the Science of the Kenyan Environment http://www.cees.iupui.edu/blog/discovering-science-kenyan-environment

Additional information can be found in the 2015 IUPUI Community Engagement Report http://csl.iupui.edu/doc/deans/oce-engagement-report-2014-2015.pdf