University of Rochester
EN-6: Community Partnerships

"The Center for Community Engagement is in the second year of a partnership with the Genesee Land Trust to build capacity for planning the proposed High Falls State Park in an inclusive and sustainable way. In its second year, the project will continue its commitment to fostering equitable development, addressing gentrification concerns, and preventing displacement in the Edgerton and El Camino neighborhoods along the Genesee River. Building upon the success of the first year Rochester Youth Year initiative and existing partnerships with Greentopia, Tour Blend, and local neighborhood groups, the project maintains a focus on capacity building within the Genesee River Alliance.

The primary objective remains advocating for access and inclusion, utilizing an equity lens to ensure that the health, recreational, economic, and other benefits of revitalization projects along the river, particularly the proposed New York State Park at Genesee Falls, are accessible to all community members. The short-term goal is to enhance Genesee Land Trust's engagement in the target neighborhoods, expanding stakeholder involvement, identifying additional resources, and fostering increased collaboration. This, in turn, contributes to the capacity of the Genesee River Alliance, empowering the community to actively engage in the discourse and ongoing public planning of the New York State Park."

The Center for Community Engagement has supported an ongoing project led by two faculty members: Rose Pasquarello-Beauchamps (Program in Dance and Movement) and Stephanie Ashenfelder (Digital and Media Studies). This multi-year project in partnership with the Wild Center’s Youth Climate Program works to convene, engage, connect and empower young people around the world to take action on climate change. They do that through conference-style Youth Climate Summits that focus on the knowledge and skills needed to become effective climate leaders. Summits empower youth to generate Climate Action Plans that they can implement in their schools and communities. The project has also involved collaboration with other faculty and community partners to raise awareness of and address issues related to climate change, adaptation, and resilience in communities located in the Adirondack mountain region of New York State.

 

"The Center for Community Engagement has partnered with the Taproot Collective (https://taprootcollective.org/) through its Rochester Youth Year Fellowship program from 2020-2024 to build its capacity to advance urban agriculture and environmental justice in Rochester. Most recently, this partnership has launched a new initiative known as ""The Collective,"" which is a free membership program designed to address the needs of community gardeners in the city of Rochester. Since critical and sufficient resources can be difficult to access, The Collective offers members a range of material and technical support through a tiered menu of services. Services include design-build, fiduciary, and logistical support, and provision of gardening materials. In 2023, we invested nearly $100,000 in material, labor, and in-kind support in 65 gardens and farms in Rochester. The constituent population the VISTA will collaborate with include community gardeners and garden managers, representatives of peer organizations, volunteers, and Taproot’s youth employees. Beyond this project, the Taproot Collective has also partnered with Professor Karen Berger and the University's EcoReps initiative, This class-based partnership has benefited Taproot's First Market Farm, including preparing garden beds for the winter, attending

community workshops, and breaking up and separating compost."

In addition to the partnership with the Taproot Collective described above, the University has a longstanding affiliation with the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. That partnership is managed through the University's Center for Community Engagement and included collaboration through the Center's Rochester Youth Year AmeriCorps VISTA program from 2020-2023. The Gandhi Institute has a focus on environmental sustainability and maintains a garden on their property in a marginalized neighborhood adjacent to the University. Students are connected to this work through various ways, including credit-bearing community-engaged learning (such as through the EcoReps course) as well as through co-curricular programs such as the Unviersity's annual Wilson Day of Engagement. In addition, the Gandhi Institute also focuses on nonviolence education, restorative practices, and racial justice, and leads conflict de-escalation programs in several underresourced schools in the Rochester City School District. (https://gandhiinstitute.org/)

Professor of Anthropology, Kate Mariner, is leading a multi-year project called Fertile Ground (https://www.fertilegroundroc.org/). Fertile Ground is an anthropology of placemaking in Rochester that examines everyday urban life to explore how historically marginalized folks build physical spaces of community, intimacy, and healing within the context of enduring racial hypersegregation, as a way of learning, being, and practicing together to envision and enact a more just future. This project has been carried out in partnership with several local organizations, including the Flower City Noire Collective, Common Ground Health, the Strong National Museum of Play, and the Community Design Center of Rochester. This work has been supported by both internal funding as well as a National Science Foundation early career grant and a grant from the Institute for Citizens and Scholars.