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UML Community-University Advisory
Board's
Eight Signature Outreach Areas
The Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC)
Advisory Board brings together representatives of the community with those of
UMass Lowell’s administration, faculty and staff . It is primarily composed of
community representatives who serve in Lowell’s public and private non-profit
service organizations, but also includes representatives from local businesses
and labor organizations. The long-term goal of the Board is to
increase the number and quality of University-community partnerships and to help
foster the University’s mission of addressing economic and social development in
Lowell in partnership with community organizations and community members.
To this end, the
Advisory Board created “Signature Outreach Areas” in 2003 to help the University
and community identify where the University can apply its strengths to help
social and economic development in Greater Lowell. To give just one example, one
of the eight areas recognized was “Reinventing
the Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy.” With the
University’s strengths in this area, it could help make Lowell a destination for
learning-based centers and diversify Lowell’s creative economy. Some other
Outreach Areas include “Strengthening
the Environment, Environmental Health, and Health,” “Working to Make Lowell a
Math Mecca,” and “Improving Prospects for Youth.”
The Eight Signature Outreach Areas:
1. Working Together to Make Lowell a Math
Mecca
Lowell’s youth need
more math skills to gain acceptance into college. Businesses are concerned
with poor math skills among potential employees. UML first-year students
and Nursing Department students are performing poorly in math. Several
approaches are being investigated to solve this problem, from emphasizing math
in context as in UML’s DesignCamp, to homework clubs to the Young Professional
Approach being used by Lawrence Community Work. The University wants to be
a constructive part of this process, and through this project we hope to provide
information to help them do that.
2. Reinventing the Arts, Culture, and the
Creative Economy
Creative enterprise
is commonly recognized as a generator of local economic activity. Lowell
has frequently extended its hospitality to the arts, and recently a special
effort has been made to attract the artist community to the Lowell area.
How that affects the University’s work and how we can build synergies with this
economy is an important question that we hope to address.
3. Strengthening the Environment,
Environmental Health, and Health
Obviously a healthy
populace is necessary for a healthy economy, and a healthy environment is
necessary for a healthy populace. Lowell’s 20-year Master Plan emphasizes
environmental concerns. New small businesses are encountering difficulties
with potentially contaminated buildings as locations for their businesses.
Concerns have been raised about the canals and fishing in the canals, by the
National Park, the city, and various citizens groups. Some approaches to
solving these problems include the development of UML environmental health
undergraduate majors, a use of GIS to pinpoint environmental problems, and the
Healthy Homes project at the CFWC. Continuing this type of work is vital
to the health of the local population and the economy, and we hope to discover
areas where the University can be a part of this.
4. Crime and Public Safety as an Emerging
Issue of Economic Development Issue and Diversity
Hate crimes, gang
involvement of some Lowell youth, a recent national focus on integrity in
policing, and a recognition that public safety agencies have been asked to
change in the past but are seldom adequately funded and thus “fly blind” are all
issues that point to this as an emerging issue of economic development.
Possible steps for us to take include developing ways that the University can
help build capacity and support change in this area, and engaging more citizens,
officials and businesses in conversations about public safety and economic
development with a more proactive focus. We hope the information we gain
from this project helps develop that focus.
5. Community Redesign and Revitalization
The closure of the
University Avenue bridge and the possibility of redesign with community input,
the idea of redesign of transportation options and focus groups with immigrant
leaders and the crisis in affordability of housing and the possibility of a
housing report being created to organize housing initiatives are some of the
indicators that community redesign is becoming increasingly desired.
Possible approaches to these tasks include, designing new service learning
activities in community redesign, exploration of other communities’ management
of these issues, and the hosting of community conversations that engage diverse
groups of residents and city and business employees in design and
implementation. We would like this project to point out some of the areas
where these things can happen.
6. The Immigrant Experience
Lowell has a large
immigrant population and one of the largest Cambodian immigrant populations in
the country. The Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce has been running focus
groups on strengthening links between immigrant businesses and the chamber.
There are rising concerns about immigrant youth ineligibility for college.
The National Park is looking to design new outreach strategies that build
stronger relationships between immigrant families and the park. These and
other facts indicate that the immigrant experience has already emerged as an
area of focus for the Lowell area. This project hopes to make some of the
connections between the disparate activities involved and bring awareness to the
activities and the places where the university can be part of this process.
7. Improving the Prospects for Youth
There are
problematic dropout rates among high school students, steep cutbacks in youth
programs, and possible loss of funding for before and after school programs.
The GearUP program at the CFWC addresses the dropout rate problem by encouraging
at-risk youth to finish high school and helping them see the possibilities for
continuing to college. The UML String Project brings university resources and
student training to a partnership with Lowell Schools, and UML is looking for
new ways to involve students, faculty and staff in development of new
opportunities for youth.
8. Meeting the Needs of Elders and Drawing
on Their Strengths
A new Senior Center
in Lowell and calls by local nursing homes to build partnerships with UML and
increasing concerns that the needs of ethically diverse elders are not fully
understood underline the increasing emergence of this area of focus in the
Lowell area. Lowell has developed a new center for Portugese speaking
elders, and there are possibilities of linking up with LIRA, SCORE, and other
programs for elders. We hope to find some other areas where the University
can contribute to these and other efforts, and to find areas where the
University is already doing this work.
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