Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 56.01
Liaison Suzanne Wood
Submission Date Aug. 16, 2023

STARS v2.2

UMass Chan Medical School
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 3.00 Kortni Wroten
Sustainability and Energy Manager
Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
North Quadrant Support Services

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership?:
Sustainability-related

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? :
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability:

The North Quadrant Support Services initiative builds on the highly successful academic partnership between the Medical School and the North Quadrant of the Worcester Public Schools. This program aims to address some of the socioeconomic barriers to academic success faced by many of the students in this school district. With the support of the Remillard Family Community Service Fund, UMass Chan has addressed a number of needs which include: stocking a food pantry at the North High School to supply nutritiously balanced food, coordinating volunteers to paint school walls, and delivering backpacks filled with school supplies to elementary school students to ensure that they are able to start off the school year with the necessary tools to succeed.


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
Worcester Pipeline Collaborative

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
Sustainability-related

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (2nd partnership):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):

Led by UMass Chan since 1996, the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative engages with every school in the North Quadrant in an effort to prepare students for higher education and careers in the region’s health care and science industries.  UMass Chan's involvement is particularly intensive in North High School, Worcester Technical High School and Worcester East Middle School – helping guide the Health/Science Academy at North High and the Allied Health and Biotechnology programs at Worcester Technical High School.  The Pipeline’s mission is to encourage, educate and challenge students, many of whom are economically disadvantaged and/or from ethnic or racial groups underrepresented in biotechnology, biomedical research and health care professions, to become college and career ready so they can pursue careers in these fields.  Partnership activities include mentoring, job-shadowing, tutoring, clinical, observerships, research internships, after-school science programs, visiting scientist programs, a speaker's bureau and family involvement activities. UMass Chan staff dedicated to the Pipeline include a full time Master’s Degree level coordinator, an administrative assistant and additional staff resources measuring in the hundreds of hours.


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
Summer High School Health Careers Program

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Sustainability-related

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (3rd partnership):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):

UMass Chan operates a statewide summer program to provide academic enrichment to high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds or from ethnic or racial groups underrepresented in biomedical research, biotechnology and the health professions.  Although the program is statewide, Worcester students participate at a very high rate, typically making up the majority of students in the program (and in some years 100% of the students). In 2013, we estimated the combined value of staff time dedicated to the Pipeline Collaborative and to Worcester student participation in the statewide high school summer program (i.e., prorated for Worcester participation) to be approximately $240,000.  It is notable that this figure which does not include the time of twenty-five to thirty UMass Chan professionals who host and supervise the high school job-shadowing/interns in their departments each semester. In addition, through the WPC, two students from NHS and two from WTHS receive full scholarships each summer from the National Youth Leader Forum of Medicine.
https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2021/07/high-school-students-explore-health-careers-at-umass-medical-school-summer-program/


A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
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Website URL where information about the institution’s community partnerships to advance sustainability is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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