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Chatham College (Pittsburgh, PA)
Choosing
the Right Partners
Summary
Choosing the right partners has been the key at Chatham College for carrying
out the work of its Engaging Communities and Campuses grant project
and strengthening the relationships developed over the past three years.
Chatham created a set of guidelines for a more successful partner selection
process.
The Practice
Chatham College’s original interest in participating in CAPHE’s
Engaging Communities and Campuses grant program was a natural
outflow of the goals in the strategic plan of the College, which included
a focus on public leadership, service, international education, and the
environment.
In addition to supporting the goals of the strategic plan, the grant
program provided Chatham with an opportunity to focus on selected special
programs and experiential learning in the middle years of college. Chatham
hoped that grant funds could be used to support the development of internships
for juniors and sophomores including course-based experiential opportunities
with Chatham’s community partners.
Chatham looked for partnering organizations that already had existing
relationships with the College and that provided services relevant to
the academic priorities of the College. Chatham originally chose to work
with three partners, and added a fourth soon after the grant program began.
Choosing community partners that had relationships with the Centers for
Excellence and Service-learning, and had missions that complemented the
Center’s missions were natural selection criterions. Another variable
considered in the partner selection process was that the organizations
should have multiple parts or access to more than one entity. Since Chatham
College is a liberal arts institution educating undergraduate women with
many interests in various academic disciplines, selecting partners based
on breadth of services was an important criterion regarding the committed
involvement of our students and faculty.* Furthermore, Chatham’s
commitment to the Pittsburgh community, women’s leadership, global
focus programs, education, experiential learning, service-learning, and
civic engagement needed to be reflected in our selected partner organizations’
missions, values, and goals.
* It is important to note that faculty from various academic
disciplines served on Chatham’s Engaging Communities and Campuses
steering committee: Biology, Business, Economics, Environmental Studies,
Modern Languages, Philosophy, Political Science, and Social Work.
Effectiveness
As a small college with limited resources, particularly during the economic
downturn of the past few years, Chatham was mindful of the need to maximize
the funding provided by the Engaging Communities and Campuses
grant program, and chose partners that would not stretch existing resources
by the need to create entirely new structures. By connecting known organizations
with the academic priorities of the College, and by working with the larger
bodies of the partnering organizations, Chatham was able to expand community/campus
connections towards institutionalization. Chatham’s four community
partners are:
- Communities in Schools, a national advocacy organization for public
schools that works with more than 12 local schools;
- Conservation Consultants, Inc., which specializes in energy efficiency,
environmental education, and sustainable urban development. The CCI
Center houses another eight environmental agencies and has served as
the incubator for additional environmental organizations in the region;
- The East End Neighborhood Forum, a coalition of 13 neighborhood councils
and community development corporations that focus on grassroots organizing,
citizen engagement and empowerment, leadership training, capacity-building,
and sustainable multi-neighborhood strategic planning, particularly
around housing, education, and transportation issues; and
- Global Connections Pittsburgh, a constituency-building network of
organizations and individuals focused on the developing world. Programs
include education, awareness, advocacy, skill building, and networking
opportunities.
Each organization has a similar focus as our Centers for Excellence:
public awareness and education of their own communities regarding international,
women, leadership, environmental, public policy and politics, education,
and teacher education issues.
An unintended but interesting outcome of Chatham’s involvement
in the Engaging Communities and Campuses grant program was the
networking connections and collaborations amongst our four diverse partners.
These partners recognized how each organization could assist the others’
targeted populations without higher education involvement. These organizations
are now collaborating with each other to help build internal capacity.
Overall, Chatham was fortunate to connect with the right community partners
through careful selection criteria. The Engaging Communities and Campuses
grant program helped both the College and the four partners to build on
common interests and expand collaboration in areas where it made sense,
as a way to maximize the impact of funding without straining internal
resources. Chatham faculty members were able to try new experiential components
in courses that were aimed at sophomores and juniors. These years were
specifically chosen to support students between the service-learning program
in Chatham’s first-year curriculum, and the research capstone in
the senior year. As the Engaging Communities and Campuses grant
program comes to a close, Chatham College is continuing in the spirit
of the program—planning for more explicit connections with the community
partners next year through academic courses and experiential learning
opportunities.
Resources
Below are websites for each of the Chatham’s four community partners.
Links to two of the directories that Chatham students helped to create
for the East End Neighborhood Forum and Global Connections Pittsburgh
are also listed. In January 2002, Global Connections Pittsburgh launched
the Pittsburgh Area International Resources Directory, the first compilation
of its kind in Western Pennsylvania. In the Fall of 2002, the East End
Neighborhood Forum published the East End Services Directory to partially
replace the United Way’s “Where to Turn” directory,
which has not been printed since 1994, and is now only available on-line.
Communities
in Schools
Conservation Consultants
Inc.
East
End Neighborhood Forum
Global
Connections Pittsburgh
Contact Information
Eileen C. Buecher
Assistant Dean of Career Initiatives
Office of Career Services
Chatham College
Woodland Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Phone: 412-365-1209
Fax: 412-365-1142
ebuecher@chatham.edu
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