CUMU Conference 2019

How can our Community Engagement and our Anchor Mission work align to provide opportunities to strengthen relationships between our institutions and the communities that are most impacted by this work? Particularly in areas that involve a hard look at University business practices, it can be challenging to bring community members into the decision-making process in a meaningful way. However, working with these challenges can result in a more impactful Anchor program, stronger partnerships and new advocates. In this Community Conversation, representatives from several of the institutions in CUMU’s Anchor Learning Network will share how they’ve grappled with this tension, including some of the experiences and tough questions raised by intentional engagement around their local purchasing, hiring, resource allocation and development practices. Conversation will touch on data sharing and goal-setting, community benefits agreements and accountability mechanisms and developing mutually beneficial partnerships and programs. Some tools and best practices will be offered. These include the creation of a Community Development Working Group, a local Anchor partnership and the development of a series of neighborhood-based Community Engagement Centers that incubate innovative anchor approaches that can be scaled to institutional strategies over time.