SUNY Buffalo State
EN-6: Community Partnerships

In 2018, with the NYS Plastic Bag Ban slated to go into effect, many of the campus’ community partners expressed concern about what they would do – how would they distribute foodstuff from their pantries without access to cheap bags for their clients to use to carry their items? The reusable bags were desired, but costly for many of the small, neighborhood, volunteer-run food pantries, who wanted their funds to be used for food items, not bags. As the Civic and Community Engagement Office heard their concerns, we worked with the community partners to devise a solution –students could create reusable bags as civic and community engagement projects. Since then, more than 2,000 bags have been distributed to Buffalo and WNY food pantries for community members to access to carry their items back to their homes. Some of the organizations that the bags have been donated to include West Side Community Services, Provisions 139, Matt Urban Hope Center, and Black Rock Emergency Food Pantry. Many of the re-used t-shirts have been donated by students, faculty, staff, and community members. A significant portion of the shirts were also donated by Roswell Cancer Institute. Materials that are leftover (sleeves, neck area) from the creation of the t-shirt bags are donated to Savers, to use in their textile recycling program to create housing insulation.

Buffalo State's Community Academic Center (CAC) is focused on addressing aspects of social justice, poverty, and inequity as described in the STARS sustainability challenge definition and tie directly to several UN SDGs including 1: No Poverty, 4: Quality Education, 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, 10: Reduced Inequalities, and 17: Partnerships for the Goals.  The CAC provides support for children, youth, and families through enhanced educational opportunities. 2023-2024 programs include,

• Global Youth Leaders: a civic leadership program for multilingual high school youth and local college students focusing on service, college and career readiness, and fostering civic growth and knowledge of social justice. The program provides former refugee youth with intentional opportunities to expand educational supports, inspire career and economic opportunity, and encourage action around inequity and social justice issues.
• Adult English as a New Language: CAC staff and Buffalo State students teach multilingual adults English to assist with adult education goals, language skills for the work place in order to lead to improved economic opportunities and educational success. 
• U.S. Citizenship Classes: CAC staff and Buffalo State students provide instruction for recent immigrants and former refugees in preparation to take the U.S. naturalization test. Providing opportunities for immigrants and former refugees to become U.S. citizens will support economic growth, reduce inequity, and expand safety.
• Afterschool program support: The CAC partners with the Karen Society of Buffalo (KSB) to support academic enrichment in the program through Buffalo State service-learning and volunteer involvement. KSB is a local community-based organization seeking to enhance the quality of life and to cultivate the self-sufficiency of immigrants from Burma while preserving and sharing their cultural heritage. 

The CCE distributes community partner surveys at the end of each semester to gather quantitative and qualitative partner feedback. The 2023-2024 survey included a series of questions aimed at assessing whether partners thoughts the collaboration was mutually beneficial. The question defined mutually beneficial collaborations as “those that address your organization's priorities while equally benefitting our students' learning” and asked five follow up questions. The questions and data from 2023-2024 include,

• Respondents  agreed "quite a bit" or "very much with the statement, " My organization's goals for the project were understood and respected".
• 100% of respondents agreed "quite a bit" or "very much" with the statement, "The campus and my organization had collective goals that guided the project".
• 88% of respondents agreed "quite a bit" or "very much" with the statement, "We communicated as equal partners".
• 100% of respondents agreed "quite a bit" or "very much" with the statement, "My experience, knowledge, and opinions were valued in the partnership".

This data has served to provide opportunities for CCE staff to adjust services and supports, provide opportunities to expand professional development for faculty and community partners, and expand outreach to other departments and organizations as we grow and deepen community engagement.

Policies, guidelines and practices:

As the hub of community partnerships, the CCE acts as a centralized resource for community partners to connect to the institution, for faculty, staff, and students to begin exploring potential community partnerships, and to help all involved navigate the partnerships successfully. CCE intentionally and explicitly promotes equity, reciprocity, and mutual benefit in a number of ways, 1) It’s mission statement, “The Civic and Community Engagement Office advances the urban-engaged anchor mission of Buffalo State by providing curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities, developing civic skills, and building reciprocal community partnerships that promote equity and address community-identified priorities”. 2) The CCE invites current and potential partners to meet with faculty and staff during community partner meetings four times per year, involving 20-40 partners per meeting. These meetings serve to build community, identify potential partnerships around community priorities and/or community-engaged learning courses, listen to and respond to feedback and questions about collaborations, provide data and feedback for partners and faculty, and scaffold learning opportunities. Continued professional development opportunities were shared during the January 2024 partnership meetings for example, with partner being invited to join a SUNY Buffalo State-CSU Northridge Reading Group and/or a Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning Community of Practice, both facilitated by the CCE Associate Director during the 2023-2024 AY. 3) Partners are encouraged to complete a partnership interest form, which asks partners to identify their priorities (which are shared with relevant individuals and/or departments), respond to specific course collaboration ideas, and provide feedback on the collaborative process.  4) The CCE facilitates meetings between individual faculty and potential community partners to identify mutually beneficial partnership opportunities and discusses the important of reciprocity during these meetings. 5) The CCE staff conduct mid-semester check-ins with partners and faculty to support the collaboration and problem solve as needed. First year students may also receive mid-semester check-ins from CCE staff to provide encouragement, support, and success. 6) The CCE conducts site visits to regular community partners, and one of the purposes of the site visits is to gather individual feedback about existing partnerships, and to collect information about additional potential partnership priorities. Feedback and input from these informal conversations is collected on a site visit form and distributed to relevant staff and faculty for continued growth and improvement. 7) The CCE provides community-engaged learning handbooks for faculty and community partners, and library resources guides for faculty and students to provide guidance, policies, and supports