Wake Forest University
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

The Institute for Public Engagement (IPE) is a resource for the campus and community, connecting the two entities to advance teaching and serve community needs. Wake Forest works closely with numerous partners, including HandsOn Northwest North Carolina, which works with over 300 agencies in the community (www.handsonnwnc.org), the United Way of Forsyth County, which has partnered with 33 local nonprofit agencies on various social justice initiatives, and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Schools. The IPE maintains regular dialogue with our partners to assess our engagement and impact. The Volunteer Service Corps partners with over 30 agencies in the community on various initiatives.

Tutoring and mentoring programs bring Wake Forest students and faculty into local elementary, middle and high schools in our community. The Athletics Department places student athletes in schools as tutors and mentors, the Magnolia Scholars Program supports first-generation college students, and the Education Department places students and clinical faculty in partner schools. Additional tutoring programs are organized through the Academic and Community Engagement Fellows Program and service learning courses. During the summer of 2010, the IPE launched a K-12 Education Initiative to coordinate tutoring and enrichment programs related to reading, math and science.

The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center brings the University’s research and communication skills to serve the needs of our community by providing public health research and education resources targeted to the public health needs in communities of color locally and nationally. The Community Law & Business Clinic provides a full range of legal and professional consultancy services to community based organizations, including nonprofits that provide low-income housing, emergency assistance and many other vitally needed services.

Wake Forest works to bring resources to the broader community through numerous training and capacity building programs. For instance, the Institute for Public Engagement hosts a series of capacity building seminars for nonprofit managers. Topics include board governance, marketing, budgeting and finance, communication, and strategic planning. The Schools of Business hosts the Babcock Incubator/Angell Center which provides over 500 low-wealth businesses with business development services during start up and expansion each year.

A number of faculty have partnered with local agencies on their service learning courses and community based research efforts. Jack Rejeski (Health and Exercise Science) is the principal investigator on a community based project funded by NHLBI that is examining the effects of weight loss and physical activity on mobility disability of older adults who are at risk for CVD and live in rural communities. Earl Smith (Sociology) has partnered with numerous community based organizations working on issues of social justice for prisoners including the Darryl Hunt Project for Innocence and Justice in NC. Jed Macosko (Physics) works with the Atkins High School in Winston-Salem to develop a curriculum for teaching cellular physics and biology to middle and high school students as part of his service learning course. The end result is Biobotz (http://biobotz.com), an edutainment vehicle that teaches the complexities of cellular physics. Anne Boyle (English) facilitates a book club at Northwest Middle School through her first-year seminar course that includes a service-learning component that has helped student performance on standardized tests.

The Institute for Public Engagement, the School of Accountancy and the School of Law have partnered with the Experiment in Self Reliance and other community partners to help local tax-payers in preparing their tax returns under the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The VITA program provides free tax return preparation assistance to income eligible taxpayers. Taxpayers with incomes below $49,000 a year may receive assistance with preparing and filing their tax returns from certified VITA volunteers.

Over the last three years, the Institute for Public Engagement has partnered with local community organizations to host 38 student interns through the Summer Nonprofit Immersion Program. Community partners are categorized into five focus areas- including youth enrichment, human services, arts and culture, philanthropy, and community development. One project completed by an intern with the S.G. Atkins Community Development Center included the development and maintenance of a community garden.

Building on its initial partnership to serve as an internship placement for its Summer Nonprofit Immersion Program, the Institute for Public Engagement and the Winston-Salem Symphony hosted a Concert for Community that engaged several new community partners in building sustained relationships. These relationship promote and connect the innovation of public engagement and arts and culture.

Additional Information is available on the following web pages:

http://ipe.wfu.edu/faculty-resources/programs-initiatives/vita-program/,

http://biobotz.com/,

http://vsc.groups.wfu.edu/about-us/