College and Community Collaboration

College and Community Collaboration Initiative

In February the Lilly Endowment announced its College and Community Collaboration initiative (CCC). The aim of this initiative is to encourage Indiana’s institutions of higher education to collaborate with community stakeholders to envision and jointly undertake significant community development efforts to create more vibrant places in which to live, learn, work and play.

IU is committed to leveraging its vast intellectual and creative resources to catalyze Indiana’s economic and cultural development, positioning its educational and research programs to meet industry and community needs, and improving Hoosier health.

IU greatly values the strong relationships between its campuses and the communities they serve, which are rooted in a shared commitment to improving the quality of life and quality of place for Hoosiers across the state.

IU plans to explore successful existing community collaborations to determine the potential for expansion or replication in other communities. Examples include strategic neighborhood development initiatives in River West and Indiana Avenue; cultural asset-mapping by the Center for Rural Engagement in the Uplands region; the public-private Health and Wellness Center at IU South Bend that serves community and campus populations; and partnership in the innovation district at 16 Tech.

A Fair Shake

The university recognizes that it must continue to work towards promoting equity, both internally and within the communities it serves. IU will draw upon what it has learned from recent university-wide investments in enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion on each of its campuses.

These investments include offering K-12 mentorship and advising programs at regional campuses; hosting on-campus summer camp programs to increase college-going among underrepresented populations; incentivizing diversity-oriented, community-engaged research and experiential learning opportunities through the promotion and tenure process; increasing the diversity of the faculty through the Presidential Diversity Hiring initiative; and establishing programs to improve the campus environment for underrepresented students, staff, and faculty. All these efforts will inform and complement the university’s collaboration with the communities it serves.

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