Emory University
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

Emory University was one of the first universities to receive the Carnegie Foundation's elective Engaged Institution classification for both Curricular Engagement and Outreach and Partnerships. In February 2008, Emory was honored with the Presidential Award for General Community Service, the highest honor possible under the President's National Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the US Department of Education and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, the American Council on Education, and Learn and Serve America.

In 2010-11, Emory created a Sustainability Engaged Learning graduate internship whose role is to expand relations with sustainability-focused community partners across Atlanta. In addition, two faculty internal grants are developing guidelines and training programs for departmental internship coordinators and also new faculty development activities to help expand community engaged learning opportunities throughout the curriculum.

Emory’s partnerships include working closely with more than two dozen organizations and government agencies concerned with sustainable development and environmental protection. Much of Emory's work in and with the community flows through the Office of University-Community Partnerships (OUCP). The OUCP strives to promote social responsibility, civic engagement, and public service among the Emory community. Since its founding in 2002, the Community Building Fellows Program has engaged undergraduate students in intensive collaborative community building projects with two dozen local community organizations and government agencies. Community Building Fellows have worked with the Atlanta Regional Commission to evaluate the Livable Centers Initiative by studying all of the grantees and their efforts to create more sustainable community centers, the result of which was an investment of an additional $5 million in and some revisions to the grant program. Fellows have also worked with about a dozen local community development corporations to evaluate and monitor efforts to preserve affordable housing and promote healthy development of greenspace as well as mitigating brownfields and stopping illegal dumping.

Longtime community partners, the Outdoor Activity Center, the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) and the National Wildlife Federation have collaborated with the OUCP, Rollinsteers, Campus Life, and the Department of Environmental Studies on a series of projects to build and maintain low-impact hiking trails, an outdoor classroom, and educational exhibits about conservation and preservation at the Center.

The Sustainable Partnerships for Atlanta Neighborhoods (SPAN) project is a new initiative of the Office of University-Community Partnerships. SPAN was recently awarded a $1 million grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation that will fund student and faculty efforts to protect metro Atlanta's natural resources over the next five years. As part of a business communications course, a team of undergraduate business students will develop a communications strategy and products for the GA Chapter of the Sierra Club's campaign to reduce coal emissions. The Service Learning in Environmental Studies course, also supported by SPAN and OUCP, engages Environmental Studies majors with organizations like WAWA, ECO-Action, the City of Atlanta Office of Sustainability, and the Alliance to Improve Emory Village on semester-long projects related to environmental protection and sustainability. Students have worked to help the City of Atlanta Office of Sustainability draft initiatives and a work plan.

Emory’s OUCP also partners with Equity Atlanta, a coalition of more than two dozen community development, community advocacy, and community building organizations as well as philanthropic foundations and institutions of higher education united to promote equitable and sustainable development in the metro Atlanta region.

In addition to the community partnerships coordinated by the OUCP, Emory’s Turner Environmental Law Clinic at the Emory University School of Law provides free legal assistance to individuals, community groups, and nonprofit organizations that seek to protect and restore the natural environment for the benefit of the public, while training law students to be effective environmental attorneys with high ethical standards and a sensitivity to the natural environment.

The Scholarship and Service Summer Program, SAS, is another attempt to get scholars involved in service with our communities. SAS is a two-tiered program. Tier 1, the Living/Learning Community, is designed for students with less experience in community-based learning. Tier 2, the Independent Internship, is designed for students with a good deal of experience in community-based learning. Both programs offer scholars an opportunity to work as an intern over the summer in an approved service setting, whether in Atlanta, elsewhere in the United States, or abroad. In addition to study discussion sessions, scholars have opportunities for personal reflection and mentoring. A Theory Practice Learning program, SAS helps expand the scholar's knowledge about Atlanta or their particular service setting, themselves, and others, as they discover how they best learn and serve as part of a community.

EASL (Ethics and Service Leadership) Program sponsors the Servant Leadership Summer, a funded summer internship program that places qualified Emory University students in Atlanta-area nonprofits, government agencies, and socially responsible businesses. EASL internship opportunities include CARE, Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Eco-Action, East Lake Foundation, Greening Youth Foundation, Livable Communities Coalition, Trees Atlanta, and the Urban League. The Servant Leadership Summer internship program is designed to enrich the student's life and integrate the practical, intellectual, and spiritual components of work, while deepening understandings of responsibility, service and vocation.

The School of Nursing maintains a summer clinic for migrant farm workers in southern Georgia, which provides basic healthcare to under-served populations.