University of Mount Union
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The University of Mount Union has a supportive relationship with numerous agencies throughout the greater Alliance area. Through the Ralph and Mary Regula Center for Public Service and Civic Engagement, many sustainability partnerships between the university and the local community are maintained. The scope of this relationship is to focus on providing student and staff volunteers to cooperate with local service organizations that address social, economic and environmental needs of the community. The duration of this support is ongoing through the established Regula Center and both repeating, continuous, and one-time programs are offered. The commitment of the institution is the support of the Center with a paid director and stipends for selected students called Regula Scholars who develop and implement the activities. In addition the Center raised funds from the campus community to support some projects. The governance is joint between the Regula Center with input from the Regula Scholars, Director, the community agencies, and the audiences being served with all parties involved in planning and implementation of projects. The Regula Center strives to provide resources for students, faculty, staff, and campus organization looking to become more engaged in the Alliance community. Through working with more than 75 community organizations and groups, we are able to create mutually beneficial collaborations on a regular basis. Some of the partnerships include: Trash to Treasure Sale (the funds from this sale go to the Pay it Forward program which allows students learning about community programming to award mini grants to local agencies. This year, $3000 in grants were awarded through the program), a community-wide Thanksgiving Dinner (over 300 meals were served this year at he Salvation Army), Trick-or-Treat for canned goods (3,967 pounds of food was collected for the Food Pantry), MLK Day of Service (over 535 MLK Day Volunteers spent their day off working in the community on local organizations by cleaning the facilities, making care packages, and assisting with daily operations. Some of the organizations helped were the Stark County Humane Society, the Alliance Parks Department, and the Domestic Violence Shelter), Super Service Saturday (this year The University of Mount Union is partnering with the Alliance community for a State Roadway Cleanup, co-sponsored by Keep Alliance Beautiful, Keep Ohio Beautiful, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the city of Alliance), and the Dowling Mentor Program (supporting foster teens in the area). For more information: http://www.mountunion.edu/Content/u/2017-Annual-Report-Web-5014.pdf

The Arts in Stark Alliance Vision 20/20 is a collaborative effort with the community which engages local artists, developers and local recyclers, and which is involved with creating a transportation corridor which would encourage walking and biking between the University and the older downtown area. This collaboration is aimed to address the economic decline that has occurred in downtown Alliance and reverse the trend by a series of activities with a focus on the arts. The duration is multiyear (10 year implementation) having begun in 2012. This collaboration would help to support local artists, support the local small businesses in the downtown area, and encourage the use of alternative transportation. It will also draw tourism to the city, involve K-12 and college students, support other sustainability initiatives, notably the Farmers' Market, downtown beautification, and recycling efforts. The University of Mount Union was the first local entity to step forward with financial and personnel support for the program. The planning team included among its 11 members three UMU faculty and two staff members. the remainder includes local business and government leaders. More details can be found at: https://www.artsinstark.com/20-20-vision and https://www.artsinstark.com/media/1/8/2020-Vision-Alliance.pdf

The University of Mount Union has a partnership with the City of Alliance Green Commission, and its non-profit arm Green Alliance. These groups have developed detailed Sustainability Plans for both the City and University which outline the path the City and University will need to take in order to be ultimately sustainable, providing economic, environmental, and social health. The groups work together to involve stakeholders in these efforts. All Green Commission meetings are open to the public, and are advertised and reported in the local paper. UMU and the City of Alliance signed a statement of cooperation in 2008 to formalize their work together on sustainability issues. The two entities share research on sustainable operations; they support one another in "identifying and securing funding sources for sustainability initiatives". The University provides use of facilities at no cost, as well as use of computers for city carbon inventory and related research items. The groups cooperate on education, with the City offering opportunities for student internships. Members of the UMU faculty and staff have serving on Green Alliance and the Green Commission since 2007. Also, community members are welcome on UMU's Sustainability management Advisory Committee. Most recently the 2 groups are working on the issue of Resiliency Planning. For more information: http://www.greenallianceohio.org/index.html

Information from Abby Honaker and Tiffany Gravlee. Information entered by Jamie Greiner.