UOE Facilitates University-Community Partnerships

Partnerships are the heart of successful, sustainable, and impactful university-community collaborations. University Outreach and Engagement works to support the development of partnerships between MSU and the larger community by building relationships with community organizations, neighborhood coalitions, school districts, municipal organizations, state governmental agencies, and other groups eager to engage in scholarly work that addresses important social problems. In addition to developing their own partnerships, UOE staff connect with faculty and staff around MSU to identify new opportunities for collaboration between the university and community and among university units.

In the past few years, UOE has embraced a partnership network model that links sets of potential community partners with interdisciplinary groups of faculty. Partnership networks may be place-based, such as the Flint Community Higher Education Partnership in Flint, Michigan, or they may be topical, like the Regional Economic Innovation Center based in Lansing, focused on economic development. Moreover, UOE is leading the movement for systemic engagement, a framework for university-community partnerships that uses systemic approaches to address social problems through community change. UOE's work to develop partnership networks grounded in systemic perspectives assists faculty, staff, and students to develop engaged research, teaching, and service that has the ability to produce significant, meaningful, and long-lasting benefits to both community and academic constituents.

• Developing Networks for Teaching and Learning: The U.S. EDA Center For Regional Economic Innovation
• Supporting Multidisciplinary Research Collaborations: The Quality Milk Alliance
• Convening and Supporting Place-Based Networks: Capacity Building in Detroit, Flint, and Lansing