University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

The University’s Department of Community Engagement, led by the University's Community Engagement Liaison, ensures community stakeholder engagement is applied systematically and regularly across the institutions activities and decision-making. By partnering with community leaders, government officials and local citizens, we aspire to foster growth in our community, in order to secure the futures of our posterity.

The Office of Outreach and Community Partnerships (OCP) was created to serve as the institutional support unit that promotes university-community partnerships to expand opportunities for engaged scholarship, teaching and learning, while addressing critical societal issues. The OCP works under the same division as Community Engagement and strives to ensure that the institutional vision of outreach and engagement is consistent with the needs of the community, provides the leadership for the university’s strategic initiatives to build thriving communities, strengthens the university’s presence in the community, and provides the platform for communication, collaboration and coordination. The University formed its first development board to strengthen its relationship with the community and work together on improving the quality of life in South Texas. The board, comprised of loyal and accomplished alumni and friends from the region, state and nation and will serve as an advisory group to the president. http://www.utpa.edu/news/2012/08/utpa-forms-development-board-to-advance-its-mission-and-vision.htm United for RGV is a collaboration of local organizations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley working to support the creation of a truly engaged university in South Texas. United for RGV is partnering with the UT System to assure that low-income community residents are active participants in university planning efforts. Local organizations actively engage the RGV’s low-income community on a daily basis through diverse efforts around community development Through various town hall meetings/campus forums, faculty, staff, students and community members can voice their concerns over university decisions that may impact the community. For example, when the strategic plan was created, and two town hall meetings were held to get input from the community before finalizing the university’s strategic plan.

Community-at-large Public Sector/Government Earth-Based Community Private Sector Business Non-Profit Community Adult Learners K-12 Parents/Teachers/Administrators K-12 Students University Faculty/Staff University Students A full list of all of our community partnerships can also be found here: http://issuu.com/utpapartnerships/docs/engaging_communities

Some of the successes shared with community stakeholders can be found in the EN-9-Community Partnerships section. Other successes include: -Community Play Day Students, parents, and community partners planned, implemented and evaluated a Community Play Day at the local zoo with a focus on fostering bilingual emergent literacy in alternative learning spaces. -McAllen ISD Dual Language Initiative Since 2013, the Center for Bilingual Studies at the university and the Bilingual/ESL Department at McAllen ISD partnered to effectively implement dual language enrichment education in elementary schools. -Community Forum The Community Forum brought local stakeholders to the table alongside University administrators, faculty, and leading national experts in the fields of education, economic development, planning and health to help propose an aligned community vision for the future of the university. Two documents were drawn from this meeting. Agenda: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55f857a6e4b0e0afe2858d3c/t/5618030ae4b0a0b98edaba3f/1444414218978/UTRGV_Community+Agenda.pdf Forum: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55f857a6e4b0e0afe2858d3c/t/56180b58e4b0123e19c7339c/1444416344699/ForumBRIEF_FINAL.pdf

http://community.utpa.edu/disc/ http://community.utpa.edu/festiba http://community.utpa.edu/hestec http://community.utpa.edu/sbnrc http://www.utpa.edu/bfrd http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/scioasdfr_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/trcc_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/forge_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/bfrd_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/icna_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/swtcoop_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/fmi_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/gfdm_home/gfdm_pc http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/ce_home/red_home_2011/hnmi_home http://portal.utpa.edu/utpa_main/daa_home/coba_new_home/coba_faculty/faculty_centers/cbest_home