University of Dayton
EN-9: Community Partnerships

The University of Dayton supports the Dayton Link Bike program, implemented in Spring 2015. Link Bike is a bike-sharing program connecting locations in central Dayton, providing the community easy access to bicycles for commuting, site-seeing, or running errands. Five bike stations are located on and adjacent to UD's campus, with UD contributing to the installation of the stations. https://www.linkdayton.org/sponsors-and-partners The University of Dayton supports the Mission of Mary Farm through paid internships, service days, and volunteers. Mission of Mary Farm is a project of the Mission of Mary Cooperative, a non-profit group that works for urban social justice on the east side of Dayton. The farm is entering its 6th season of production growing. In addition to a CSA vegetable distribution program and farmer’s market operations, Mission of Mary Farm hosts community events, educational workshops, a children’s outdoor day camp, and a teen work skills development program. It works extensively with the land and the people of the Twin Towers neighborhood, a diverse but low income urban neighborhood about 1.25 miles east of downtown Dayton. https://www.udayton.edu/ministry/csc/beyond_ud/social-justice-internships.php The University of Dayton is a sponsor and host site of the Research Education for Teachers summer STEM education program. UD faculty and students collaborate in hands-on STEM learning and real-world engineering research with preK – 12th grade public school teachers. The six-weeks of experiential training entails developing curriculum for studying alternative fuels development and appropriate technology. https://www.udayton.edu/engineering/initiatives/stem_teachers_program/index.php Five Rivers MetroParks events, Outdoor Recreation Center, community gardens, and land stewardship department: Through a twenty-year partnership, students are engaged in various projects throughout the local area that help give students more life experiences and exposure to natural ecosystems as well as leadership opportunities to expand on professional and community building skills. The parks also give students the chance to apply classroom concepts to problems and processes happening within a unique urban/suburban park system. Many faculty engage with the parks to offer professional advice on water quality, river restoration, and water collection systems. The partnership also allows for ample opportunities to develop service learning courses. The partnership provides older youth opportunities to feel like a scientist and to do something that helps their watershed; provides valuable watershed information that will help in monitoring water quality and knowing how to solve problems related to water resources; staffs a huge national community event to raise awareness about outdoor recreation; helps the celebration of natural resources; adds to vibrancy of the community; provides research and tools for the local food movement; and expands the capacity of community gardening in the local community.

Leaders in Building Community: A collaboration of the Fitz Center, the departments of Political Science and Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work and the Public Administration graduate program, the Leadership in Building Communities seminar enrolls a mix of Master of Public Administration graduate students and undergraduates from the disciplines of political science, sociology, education, criminal justice and others. This seminar places UD students within a City of Dayton neighborhood to understand the inner workings of local politics. Through lectures, tours, neighborhood meetings, a team project, and extensive reading, the seminar teaches the art of building community. Participants are introduced to asset-based community development and learn about a neighborhood directly from its citizens, businesses, and leaders. The participants in this seminar function as a learning organization with the neighborhood. A neighborhood tour, two evening meetings in the neighborhood and individual interviews bring citizen leaders and community partners together with seminar participants to identify and explain the community’s own analysis of the past, description of the present, and vision of the future. The course culminates in a report presented to the community partners. https://www.udayton.edu/artssciences/ctr/fitz/academic_progs/leadership_building_communities_sem.php Adventure Central. Adventure Central is a trusted, community-based, positive youth development partnership between 4-H, Ohio State University Extension, the University of Dayton and Five Rivers MetroParks. Adventure Central has served at-risk youth and their parents in the West Dayton community for over 10 years. With the aid of the natural world, staff nurture families in life-changing activities that strengthen values, build lasting life skills, and empower youth to explore life's possibilities. A high intensity, long duration and high frequency programming approach is used, and the primary delivery modes include afterschool, day camp, and teen programs. Parent and family engagement is a high priority. The program includes leader- and learner-directed opportunities for youth to engage with and experience the natural world. Filling an unmet need in the community, it features hands-on environmental education experiences, and sustained contact with nature, other children, and positive adult role models. A special feature of Adventure Central is that the center is physically located within a 60-acre urban park. Partnerships with local institutions and organizations provide resources to the program in the form of AmeriCorps members, student service learners, and other programmatic support. Applied research and evaluation efforts indicate that Adventure Central has been very successful in creating a high quality, positive youth development environment, and that youth and their families have developed a greater connection with nature. The University of Dayton contributes to this sustained, multi-year program by supporting UD students working with the program through the Semester-of-Service, River Stewards, and other community-engaged learning programs.

In partnership with Miami Conservancy District, Five Rivers MetroParks, Greater Dayton Conservation Fund, City of Dayton Water Department, and Partners for the Environment, the University of Dayton’s Fitz Center for Leadership in Community created the Rivers Institute to reunite Dayton and its rivers by building opportunities for the Dayton community to see the Rivers as the strategic natural resource central to the communal, economic, aesthetic and ecological vitality of the region. Programs and initiatives include the River Stewards program, a 3-year interdisciplinary program focused on leadership development and civic engagement around the region’s river and water resources; hosting Ohio’s Greatest Corridor Association’s annual River Summit, a regional endeavor to link cities, farmland communities, and individuals across the watershed; the Rivermobile and community outreach, bringing a traveling learning studio to schools and communities throughout the Great Miami River Watershed; and the River Leadership curriculum integrating multiple subject areas and applying them to river systems, available to students of all majors. The University of Dayton’s Fitz Center for Leadership in Community was selected in 2004 to design the concept and build partnerships for five Neighborhood School Centers, a major initiative of the Dayton Foundation and the Dayton Public Schools. This initiative encourages parent and neighborhood participation in learning, increases program resources through community partnerships, and improves the neighborhoods surrounding the schools. Because of its leadership in NSC, the Fitz Center works directly with the superintendent of Dayton Public Schools on her agenda and “non-negotiable” priorities. University faculty, staff and students working in these centers are engaged directly with school-specific data on attendance, performance, school readiness, and graduation, and are part of the strategies to improve each. Neighborhood School Centers are an important component of the DPS family and community engagement strategy as well as the larger community’s “Learn to Earn” initiative. The Fitz Center works with site coordinators to connect UD faculty, staff, and students with projects, research and volunteering. The Neighborhood School Centers bring together students, families, and neighbors, and act as a heart and hub of activity for the community. The result is a more connected community where we learn and share together to create a better world for all. Specific objectives of NSC include improving student performance; improving quality of life in the neighborhoods; attracting families with school-age children to the neighborhood; realigning community resources to support youth achievement; sustaining leadership and support for NSC; and developing in Dayton a replicable national model.

The School of Engineering, in collaboration with Grupo Fenix, partners with communities North, Central and South America, Asia, or Africa for short-term “break-outs” and 10-week summer immersion ETHOS programs. The collaborations contribute to the well-being of rural communities, creating an awareness of sustainable lifestyles through technical and cultural exchange, promotion, and research in the field of renewable energy. Grupo Fenix works with the Solar Women of Totogalpa and university student interns who build solar cookers and dryers and offer courses in construction. Students contribute to ongoing research for this organization, provide recognition for the organization, and provide economic resources to the local community. The local community provides housing, food and laundry services (for a fee) for the students. This has empowered women in the community to have some financial independence and to be able to take care of their families.