Land Grant Institutions (LGIs) and Cooperative Extension were founded to bring educational access to the states they serve. In contrast to this mission and the ubiquitous nature of Extension services in US counties, Extension offices can only be found in a small number of indigenous communities. Despite these inequities, there are Extension…

This paper outlines a collaborative approach to the design of open educational resources (OER) with community stakeholders so they can be shared with other community practitioners openly, online and repurposed for other contexts. We view curriculum not as something that educationalists provide but rather something that emerges as learners engage…

Explains how public-private partnerships can provide the impetus to revitalize a community. A public-private partnership developed in St. Louis, Missouri, illustrates how the partners' vested interest in the project leads to its success. (GR)

This paper contrasts two types of university partnerships: first, the Colorado Partnership for Educational Renewal (CoPER), between six higher education institutions and 12 school districts in Colorado; and, second, 10 separate community-university partnerships (CUP). Each CUP was based on an asset (as opposed to a deficit) model and developed and…

Rural schools traditionally have played a central role in their communities. Now, as rural communities face declining quality of life and threats to their viability, collaborative partnerships between communities and schools offer a promising approach to community revitalization and survival. Researchers have identified three distinct, yet related…

A University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign program involving faculty and students in participatory action research to improve community-based organizations in East St. Louis (Illinois) is described. The project's origins, management, community development strategy, and accomplishments are documented, and some of the institutional, environmental,…

Higher education's relationship with and contribution to the public good emerged as a trend in the higher education literature in 1996. Three major themes are represented: the role of higher education, public relations, and collaboration. The literature and research continue to illustrate the valuable role of higher education in the important…

The papers in this collection describe partnership programs and projects involving Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) in Michigan. The first paper, "The Arcadia Commons Partnership: The Community College and Economic Redevelopment," by Marilyn Schlack, describes the Arcadia Commons, a business-education park in downtown Kalamazoo,…

Asian Neighborhood Design (AND) was established by a group of student architects in 1973 to rehabilitate houses and revitalize community spaces in the crowded neighborhoods of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite its growth and development in response to changes in economic conditions, the policy environment, and its own clientele, AND has retained…