Ball State University
EN-9: Community Partnerships

_____Office of Student Life: Out of the 400+ student organizations housed within the Office of Student Life, Student Voluntary Services (SVS) is one of the largest such groups. _____Student Voluntary Services: Established in 1965, SVS sends more than 2,200 Ball State students into the community to serve others. These students come from all academic disciplines and majors. Some students serve through SVS to complete service-learning requirements for their classes while others sign up with us just for fun! _____Council on the Environment (COTE): COTE includes five members of the Muncie area community; they are appointed by the Provost and serve three-year terms. _____Building Better Communities: Building Better Communities provides comprehensive services to partners across Indiana by connecting them with Ball State University’s expertise and resources. We offer practical solutions to local challenges. Our experts are here to help with community, economic, and business development. Through our Building Better Communities Fellows program, teams of students work with communities, businesses, and government agencies to develop real-world solutions to real-world problems. We call this immersive learning, the hallmark of a Ball State education. Building Better Communities is Ball State’s front door to community partners seeking to benefit from our experts' scholarship and experience or our students’ knowledge, skills, talents, and energy. 1. Community Partner: Henry County Community Foundation, New Castle, IN: Partnering for Results-Students will work with community leaders in Henry County,IN in the Hometown Competitiveness Program(HTC), designed to stimulate economic and community betterment. Project objectives are designed to help of local school administrators to redevelop a student survey instrument through a Ball State Research methods course. 2. Community Partner: First Merchants Corporation (Emerging Media): Auditing Attitude—Social Media Research: How does today’s workforce absorb and internalize technological change? This class project helps to empower a local employee culture to take a step toward a paperless office and to become more tech savvy. Class participants assess the company’s brand position and external messaging impact. Annual White River Cleanup

Annual Living Lightly Fair http://livinglightlyfair.org/ Living Lightly is a FREE resource fair for sustainable lifestyles, held each September on the Minnetrista campus in Muncie, Indiana. Living Lightly is aimed at educating East Central Indiana residents about practical ways to live more sustainably, saving money and resources for themselves and future generations. Sustainable Living practices consider the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the management and use of our natural resources. Resources that are used sustainably can be maintained for use by future generations

Muncie Action Plan (MAP) promotes, supports, encourages, and assists in the development and enhancement of the quality of life in Muncie, Indiana. The Muncie Action Plan is a strategic guide that expresses the values and aspirations of our community, while creating a compelling action agenda for the future. More than 100 volunteers donated hundreds of hours of their time to ensure that the Plan was an open process representing all community demographics. The Plan includes long-term goals and measurable action steps which will accomplish a realistic vision and uphold the values identified by our community. Indeed, the public has been involved every step of the way; first to generate ideas, next to articulate values, and finally to affirm goals and actions. Recommendations from the community, accompanied by extensive factual analysis of trends and conditions, form the basis of the Plan. The Plan is divided into five initiative areas each with specific action steps designed to realize the vision of a stronger, better Muncie. The Plan will be used by the community as public and private decisions are made concerning development, redevelopment, capital improvements, and other matters affecting the well-being of the community. The Plan will be used as the Delaware-Muncie Metropolitan Plan Commission begins working on a Comprehensive Plan update. It will be used by the City’s Community Development Department as it prioritizes projects and funding. The Plan encourages cooperation and neighborhood development. It recognizes that the whole community is responsible for education, community image and identity, economic development and for the effective use of community resources. To our knowledge it is the first city-wide strategic plan and has had unprecedented success in involving the whole community. The Plan strongly recommends an integrated approach to land use and reuse so that decisions are not made in isolation; rather, each decision should consider its impact on other areas (neighborhoods, pedestrian movement, educating the public) and be examined through the lens of the Plan’s goals, principles, and action steps. The 5 Task Forces are: Task Force 1: Linking Learning, Health, and Prosperity Task Force 2: Fostering Collaboration Task Force 3: Strengthening Pride and Image Task Force 4: Creating Attractive and Desirable Places Task Force 5: Managing Community Resources

http://cms.bsu.edu/About/AdministrativeOffices/BBC/