Creating Sustainability Through Community Engagement

1. Creating Sustainability Through Community Engagement Innovations Conference March 12, 2013 12:30-1:30 pm Cortez D

2. What do our communities want from us? “Certainly, they want well-educated graduates who can communicate clearly, think critically, possess a strong work ethic, and have skills that align with local employment needs. But this is not all they want. They want us to be full partners in helping to strengthen K-12 education, expand economic development, enhance local government effectiveness, contribute to regional planning, nurture the non-profit sector, expand the arts, improve the environment, and much more. In short, they want us to be fully engaged in helping shape their future.” James Votruba President, Northern Kentucky University

3. Completion Agenda • Completion initiatives • What student success and completion initiatives are you pursuing at your college? • Who is engaged in this work? • Full partners with your community • What student success partnerships are you pursuing at your college? • Who is engaged in this work?

4. Strengthening K-12 Partnerships

5. Questions • Is there coordination of your student success efforts? • Do you have the human capital to sustain your efforts?

6. Sense of Urgency Snapshot of our community conditions: • High poverty • High drop-out rate • Low college-going rates • High unemployment • Skills gap • Low expectations • Lack of continuity in leadership

7. Internal Structures External Structures

8. The New Normal • Leader assigned 100% to align completion and partnership efforts. • Familiarity with academics and student affairs • Active in the local community • Collaborative nature with great communication and teambuilding skills • Values diversity • Knows when to lead and when to follow • Represents campus practitioner level and has credibility in the college

9. The New Normal Re-invent Internally • Assess strengths and weaknesses internally. • Identify champions in the college who can sustain the efforts. • Evaluate current internal structure and redesign to promote sustainability. • Create a Student Success Alliance.

10. The New Normal Re-engage Externally • Reconnect with Texas P-16 resources and successful models. • Reconnect with minority leaders and understand what they need from our partnership. • Identify champions in the community who can sustain the efforts. • Establish regular meetings to identify community needs and available resources. • Create a Cradle to Career Network.

11. 2012 Community At-Large & Non-Profits Local Government, Business & Industry Cradle to Career Network P-20 P-16

12. 2010-2011 High School Grads % Enrolled in College

13. Leadership RoleBe careful what you wish for… • Facilitate constructive, solution-based conversations. • Engage in strategic planning. • Maintain alignment to student success goals. • Connect champions to resources addressing urgent issues. • Student Success Alliance and Cradle to Career Network have same leader initially. • Emphasize inclusion, team building and collective efforts to achieve all goals. • Example: College and Career Night resource allocation

14. Moving Forward • Undergird our infrastructure with resources from All Kids Alliance. • Establish sustainability of Student Success Alliance and Cradle to Career network independent of current leadership. • Adopt AKA data driven process for continuous improvement

15. AtD since 2006 Leader College 2011 Hispanic Serving (HSI) Dr. Cathy Kemper Vice President of Learning ckemper@lee.edu DeDe Griffith Coordinator of Student Success Initiatives Director of GCPASS dgriffith@lee.edu