| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 54.69 |
| Liaison | Trevor Ledbetter |
| Submission Date | Jan. 6, 2025 |
University of Arizona
EN-10: Community Partnerships
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.00 / 3.00 |
Trevor
Ledbetter Director Office of Sustainability |
1st Partnership
Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Which of the following best describes the partnership?:
Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? :
A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability:
The UArizona School Garden Workshop is an internship-based course centered in the School of Geography and Development. The course provides the opportunity for motivated and self-directed UArizona students to participate in the growing school garden movement. School gardens are innovative and powerful educational tools for exploring local ecologies, nutrition, the culture and politics of food, and practical life skills not limited to horticulture. Students are trained by staff from the Community Food Bank Food Resource Center School Gardening Program and supervised by a field coordinator and faculty member to assist a Tucson school with a garden and gardening education or to support a community garden in one of Tucson's neighborhoods. Students are eligible for internship credit that can range from 2-6 units. Each unit of credit represents 50 hours a semester of involvement which translates into about 3 hours of internship per week. The internship includes the opportunity to engage with students, teachers, and community members around the design and maintenance of a garden as well as weekly class meetings around garden-related readings, videos, films, and group discussion. The goals of the program are outlined below:
- Enable Tucson teachers and community members to develop and sustain gardens and use them as experiential learning sites.
- Connect all students to their communities and the culture and politics of food.
- Provide all students with opportunities to develop collaborative decision-making and self-determination.
- Encourage a dedication to the environment and social justice.
- Support the development of a regional food system that is just and equitable.
2nd Partnership
Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (2nd partnership):
A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
FoodCycle is a commercial univeristy-composting service establishd in 2014 by the UArizona Compost Cats and the City of Tucson Enviromental and General Services department. Through this partnership, Compost Cats and the City work with 20 businesses currently (and more than 100 historically) collecting compostable waste to be transformed into high quality compost. All the compost created is then donated to public areas in Tucson, including City parks, the University of Arizona grounds, local farms, TUSD school gardens, and community gardens. Overall, the program has diverted well over 30 million pounds of food and green waste from local landfills and through its continued expanding partnership within the Compost Cats and the City of Tucson, stands to dramatically increase this number in the coming years. Compost Cats also offers a residentially focused food scrap collection and composting program that serves campus and community members. The monthly service fee for this program was recently eliminated in an effort to make the program as accessible as possible. Additionally, over the last few years, Compost Cats has been increasingly involved in the redistribution of still-edible foods to groups like the Community Food Bank and the University of Arizona Campus Pantry.
3rd Partnership
Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Which of the following best describes the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (3rd partnership):
A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
The Cooper Center for Environmental Learning is a partnership between the College of Education and Tucson Unified School District. The Cooper Center works with Title I schools in Tucson to provide students half-day, full-day, overnight and multinight educational field trips. During these field trips, the Cooper Center strives to increase students' ecological understandings, deepen their connection with nature and inspire more sustainable living. They also work with teachers and university researchers directly to support environmental learning in the classroom. The Cooper Center is located on 10 acres of desert land next to Tucson Mountain Park. They hold a special educational-use permit for Tucson Mountain Park granted by the Pima County Department of Natural Resources, Parks, and Recreation.
The Cooper Center Advisory Board works to support the director and the staff at the Cooper Center in maintaining long term growth and stability. The Advisory Board works with the local community to form good relationships with nearby neighborhoods, ensure curriculum emphasizes Arizona State Science Standards, plan events, conduct audits, and more. The Advisory Board is made up of 8 committees:
- Curriculum Development
- Facilities
- Data Management & Planning
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
- Events & Fundraising
- Board Recruitment
- Marketing
- Neighborhood Relations
Optional Fields
Website URL where information about the institution’s community partnerships to advance sustainability is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Data sourced from the following: Office of Sustainability - https://sustainability.arizona.edu/ and others.
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.