University of California, Santa Cruz
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Good Neighbor Initiative was started to foster positive relations between UCSC and the City of Santa Cruz. Good Neighbor Initiative Interns work diligently with the UCSC University Relations Office to bridge communication between neighbors, students, the city, and the university. Interns provide student interface with neighbors and are glad to field any suggestions, responses, or policy ideas to improve the university's relations. The goal of the Good Neighbor Initiative is to foster good relations and improve sustainability in the Santa Cruz community.

1) UCSC supports this program financially through staff and student worker time and with an operational budget.
2) This is an ongoing initiative that has been running for multiple years
3) Building community is a key tenant of sustainability. This initiative maintains a UCSC Campus Walking Map to promote pedestrian travel, provides the campus and community with a brochure that includes information about recycling, end of year move out options, cleaning up, and general "Good Neighbor Guidelines". The brochure also highlights information for renters/landlords advising services to understand their rights. For example, local rent control policies.
4) This initiative is inclusive and participatory in that its interns listen to the community's needs and work to ameliorate concerns. Underrepresented/vulnerable groups are engaged in the strategic planning of the initiative: University Relations has repeatedly hired DREAM Act student interns. Those students have been integral to thinking up additional ways to provide services for historically underrepresented minorities and/or vulnerable populations. For example, at the Good Neighbor fairs, the interns decided to recruit an expert to explain to students how to apply for food stamps and another expert from the Equal Opportunities Program (EOP) office to talk to DREAM students regarding housing issues. Also, interns are out in the community speaking to multiple diverse community members.

Website: https://urelations.ucsc.edu/about/units/government/commrelations/good-neighbor-initiative/index.html

The UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden has collaborated with the local tribal band to create the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program (AMRP). This effort works to assist the tribe in their efforts of cultural revitalization, recuperation and relearning of dormant cultural knowledge, and environmental justice.
The Garden's California Native Conservation Gardens (CNCG) provide a place where Tribal members can relearn plant identification and uses of native plants while incorporating traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and traditional resource and environmental management (TREM) into the growing and management of the plants which the Tribe can then sustainably harvest for cultural practices. The CNCG is a research garden where TREM practices can be tested and the results of this research can be used to inform other collaborative projects in the area and to inform land owners and managers about the best practices to manage cultural resources for healthy and resilient ecosystems.
The AMRP uses interpretation and events at the garden to educate UCSC students and students of all ages, and the general public about the importance of indigenous cultures and their knowledge, the history and contemporary issues of the AMTB, ethnobotany, TEK and TREM, and California Indian lifeways.

1) UCSC provides financial support for this program through staff time and an operational budget and has been ongoing for several years
3) Land stewardship and social justice goals make this a sustainably focused program
4) The native Amah Mutsun Tribe engage as equal partners throughout the Program's decision making

Website: https://arboretum.ucsc.edu/education/relearning-program/

UCSC is also a leading partner in the City of Santa Cruz's Green Wharf Project: https://greenwharf-wp.soe.ucsc.edu/

UCSC's Carbon Fund has provided grants to support greenhouse gas reductions in the City of Santa Cruz, for example, school lighting retrofits.