University of Miami
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The High School Partnership pairs UM undergraduates in History, English, and STEM fields with high school teachers at Southridge High School in South Miami Dade and Booker T. Washington High School in Overtown to produce a mutually beneficial collaboration among high school teachers, UM undergraduates, and high school students. The goal is to promote a college-going culture among traditionally under-served students; enhance the public school curriculum with innovative lectures and projects; enable UM students to translate their research interests into practical classroom learning; and foster intellectual engagement among the youth of our community. To achieve these goals, UM students work with their partner teachers to enhance the curriculum, give guest lectures and demonstrations, and mentor students. (http://miami.edu/index.php/civic_community_engagement/initiatives/southridge)

The Community Scholars in Affordable Housing program is designed to familiarize emerging leaders with best practices in community development and affordable housing policy and practice in the United States. The program is open to interested professionals working in non-profit, for-profit, and government sectors including development, real estate, finance, design, public administration, community and economic revitalization or related fields. The program explores techniques and concepts in the development of affordable housing and discusses special issues facing South Florida, including Resilience, native ecosystem protection, funding, design, special-needs populations, green building, urban farming, food justice, home ownership, advocacy, markets, and engaging stakeholders. Sessions will feature local and national experts in affordable housing and community development, as well as peer-to-peer learning in a “community of practice” model. Participants will have the chance to acquire skills and build networks that will lead to enhanced opportunities in the field of affordable housing. https://civic.miami.edu/housing-initiatives/community-scholars-program/index.html MAP is an interactive, online mapping platform to support the formulation and adoption of affordable housing solutions and guide sensitive community development in South Florida. This online map of affordable housing includes data to support community development and allow users to understand the geography of cost burden, affordability gaps, and distribution of assisted units throughout the county. Using data generously made available by the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies at the University of Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Housing and Community Development, the City of Miami Department of Community and Economic Development and the Miami-Dade County Information Technology Department, we have produced this interactive map as a tool for housing and community development practitioners, urban researchers, and community members to explore Miami's housing landscape, address needs, and promote informed decisions about housing policy. http://comte.ccs.miami.edu/housing/

City of Miami • UM is participating as a member of the MetroLab Network along with the City of Miami to continue collaborating within, across our communities to research, develop, and deploy technology-enabled solutions that can help address our communities’ most pressing challenges. • The School of Architecture's Center for Urban & Community Design and the Resilient Miami Initiative, an interdisciplinary and inter institutional group of faculty focused on resilient design for historic neighborhoods, are in conversations with the City of Miami on several projects linking historic preservation and resilient design. • Faculty from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the School of Architecture have assisted the City of Miami Sea Level Rise Committee and the Waterfront Advisory Board in providing policy recommendations to the City Commission. • Worked with City of Miami office of Intergovernmental Affairs on outreach for their “Miami Forever” general obligation bond, which voters approved in 2017. The $400 million bond will be used for infrastructure related to flood prevention and sea rise projects as well as resources for housing and economic development. • University of Miami IDEA Exchange is working with Miami Dade Police Department and the City Manager’s office to help clean up abandoned needles in city parks. • The University of Miami School of Architecture launched a new market, gathering space in Coconut Grove with help from City Commissioners and County Commissioners. The market will be comprised of modified shipping containers, utilizing moveable incubator structures to house prepared food, entrepreneurs, and vendors. City of Miami Beach • Worked very closely with the City of Miami to have our Zika Taskforce experts present in front of the City of Miami Beach Commission. • UM is participating as a member of the MetroLab Network along with the City of Miami Beach to continue collaborating within and across our communities to research, develop and deploy technology-enabled solutions that can help address our communities’ most pressing challenges. City of Coral Gables • The UM SoA Center for Urban & Community Design has an MoU in place with the City of Coral Gables. UM have a contract with them to digitally survey historic properties in Coral Gables. Through their preservation division, we are also contemplating collaborations focused on resiliency. Miami Dade County • UM is participating as a member of the MetroLab Network along with Miami Dade County to continue collaborating within and across our communities to research, develop and deploy technology-enabled solutions that can help address our communities’ most pressing challenges. • The University is working with Miami Dade Transit to look for solutions to encourage students, faculty and staff to use public transportation. • Working with Miami Dade County in the “Be Gold Be Bold” Initiative that raises awareness of Pediatric Cancer research. . UM College of Engineering, Sustainability and School of Continuing Education are working with the County on their energy and water bench marking program, BE305 as educational providers for their outreach program. Town of Miami Lakes • Collaborated with our Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) center on an initiative called Autism Shines in Miami Lakes. Autism Shines is essentially meant to be a municipality based collaboration that will result in more inclusion in cities (i.e., parks and recreation, schools, community centers) and more general awareness for residents and those who work in the municipality (i.e., first responders, etc.). https://gcr.miami.edu/

National Gandhi Day of Service NGDOS is the University of Miami's largest annual service day. For many years, hundreds of students have gone out into the Miami-Dade community to support local Community Partners working towards alleviating varying social issues including, but not limited to: poverty, education, environmentalism, etc. In 2017, in partnership with Hurricanes Help the Hometown, students participated in service at 24 different sites. Website - https://serveandlead.studentaffairs.miami.edu/programs-and-events/service-days/national-gandhi-day-of-service/index.html House Children's Home, Box of Joy, and Earlington Heights Elementary School. 144 students volunteered with these agencies. Students painted, packaged care packages and interacted and engaged with children currently residing in foster care. Website - https://serveandlead.studentaffairs.miami.edu/programs-and-events/service-days/orientation-outreach/index.html. Historic Virginia Key Beach Park: In 2018, the University of Miami partnered with the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park for the university's annual Hurricanes Help the Hometown event. Virginia Key Beach has a rich legacy as it was originally established as the only beach that Blacks and African Americans could visit during the struggle for Civil Rights. Today, Virginia Key Beach Park, works to "promote and maintain absolute public ownership and access, fostering its perpetuation as a passive open green-space that includes nature trails, recreational facilities and museum structures appropriate and compatible with the nature of Virginia Key." During Hurricanes Help the Hometown, 403 UM students worked on various projects at the park including: beach clean up, exotic plant removal, staining of boardwalks, etc. Website - http://virginiakeybeachpark.net/ Other partnerships: • Glazer Lorton Writing Institute held at TERRA High School and the Holocaust Institute held at UM: https://sites.education.miami.edu/institutes/ • IES Goal 3 grant, Reading Achievement Multi-Component Program (RAMP-UP). Professor Mary Beth Calhoon partners with MDCPS for this program. • THE INSTITUTE FOR INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY COUNSELING: http://umiifc.com/ • Clinton Global Initiative A proud member of the Clinton Global Initiative University Network, the University of Miami is committed to supporting you as a Commitment Maker! Each year, college students from all over the world create Commitments to Action which are new, specific and measurable initiatives that address the most pressing social issues in our world. From manufacturing wheelchairs for developing countries to establishing campus bike share programs to creating free vision clinics to developing e-learning applications for mobile phones, there is absolutely no limit to the impact your Commitment to Action can have. The Butler Center for Service and Leadership is offers mentorship and financial support to Commitment to Action. https://serveandlead.studentaffairs.miami.edu/community/clinton-global-initiative-university/index.html • Donner Valle Project – 40 schools - Coordinate placements for students completing field hours for UM courses in K-5 classrooms - Coordinate placements for associate teachers (teacher candidates) in K-5 classrooms - Career Advisement--M-DCPS personnel attend the associate teaching seminar to speak, and the career fair to recruit students for teaching positions. https://sites.education.miami.edu/featured-projects/ • Teaching and Learning Projects - Professor Mary Avalos - Writing for English Language Learners (WELLs): Funded research project exploring writing instruction and writing outcomes for fourth grade English learners (2014-2017) - Definitions Project: Funded research project exploring text supports for fourth grade English learners (2015-2019) - Vocabulary Instruction: Small observation study (8-10 teachers) to document vocabulary instruction for fourth grade English learners (2017-18) https://sites.education.miami.edu/outreach/ http://sites.education.miami.edu/cewrc/ • West Lab Elementary School - For the past several years, professors have taught the reading methods courses (TAL 420 and 426) and have concurrently run the STARS program at West Lab. STARS provides free tutoring to West Lab students who are struggling with reading skills. This program has been going for over a decade. - UM Students are placed at West Lab for field experience. - This semester, professors Ji Shen and Blaine Smith are co-teaching (with a West Lab teacher, who is the lead teacher for the class) an elective for West Lab’s new cohort of 6th grade students. The focus of this elective is STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, math), and the West Lab students will be on the UM campus once per week. https://musiced.frost.miami.edu/about/community-engagement/outreach-teaching/instrumental-music-at-west-laboratory-elementary-school/index.html Current partnerships between the UM Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) and Miami Dade County Public Schools: • CARD has a very close relationship with Miami Dade County Public Schools. • CARD provides extensive teacher training and consultation to schools for their clients and families. It is a long and productive collaboration. • There has been conversations of CARD having space at Citrus Grove, but CARD’s administration feel they do not need space there. They feel an autism program at West Lab would be much more desirable given our proximity to West Lab. • CARD currently runs their summer camp at West Lab.