University of Wisconsin-Madison
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The UW-South Madison Partnership (UWSMP) is a UW–Madison initiative designed to meet the South Madison community’s needs and foster mutually beneficial relationships. Located in the Villager Mall, the physical space—equipped with classroom space, conference rooms, private meeting areas, and university resources—allows community members to engage with UW–Madison in a more accessible, meaningful way. Events and programs the partnership supports include: - UW Odyssey Project: Offers a free humanities course for adult students facing economic barriers to college - Mercadito: Modeled on the mercaditos you find in Latin America, this market includes fun and free activities for children, local products on sale and musical and dance performances - Neighborhood Law Clinic: Provides a range of legal and advocacy services to low-income community members https://communityrelations.wisc.edu/south-madison-partnership/overview

UniverCity Year helps Wisconsin communities find practical solutions to their toughest challenges. We focus UW-Madison’s latest research, state-of-the-art technology, and award-winning faculty and student scholars on the needs that communities identify. UniverCity Year is a three-phase partnership between UW-Madison and one community in Wisconsin. In phase one, the community partner identifies projects that would benefit from UW-Madison expertise, and UniverCity Year staff match projects with faculty across the university. In phase two, faculty incorporate these projects into their courses with graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students. During phase three, UniverCity Year staff provide project implementation support. Throughout the partnership, UniverCity Year staff provide administrative support to help keep the collaboration running efficiently and effectively. The result is on-the-ground impact and momentum for a community working toward a more sustainable and livable future. The most recent work with Green County includes projects across topic areas including: - Communications & Operations - Community & Economic Development - Health - Housing - Parks - Sustainability - Transportation (https://univercity.wisc.edu/ucy/)

Badger Volunteers (BV) is a semester-long program that pairs teams of students with community organizations (schools, nonprofits, municipalities) to volunteer 1-4 hours each week at the same organization. The program is designed to foster meaningful and consistent connections between community partners and students over the course of an entire semester. Badger Volunteers provides logistical support, transportation, training and education sessions for student volunteers in the program. Volunteer opportunities fall into three categories: Education, Sustainability, and Public Health. However, Badger Volunteers has an opportunity for any major and any interest. A list of the individual partnerships that the BV program maintains is included in the attachment to this credit. (https://morgridge.wisc.edu/students/badger-volunteers/)