Community Outreach Partnership Collaborative

The University of Maine will use its Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) New Grant to foster and support collaborations between the University and neighboring communities. It will strengthen the university’s capacity for community outreach, particularly through service learning integrated into an academic curricula. It will bring visibility to the importance of community outreach, provide models of collaboration and partnership, and demonstrate the many ways in which faculty career enhancement can be obtained through community involvement and by focusing on urban scholarship. The target population for this program is Bangor, Maine’s urban downtown neighborhood.

The Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS) will collaborate with faculty from UMaine’s New Media Program to create Project Life as part of UMaine’s Community Outreach Partnership Center grant. Project Life will take place at Shaw House, the homeless shelter for adolescents in Bangor. Located downtown, Shaw House offers day programs, shelter, short- and long-term housing, and serves all of northern and eastern Maine. The 10-week program will alternate between engaging students in the process of learning how to develop and produce new media content, and workshops that engage them in life planning. Activities designed to develop basic work skills, career aspirations, and exploration of educational options are planned.

Funding Source:

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Funding Period:

2006 - 2009

Contact Person:

Janet May
janet.may@umit.maine.edu
207/581-1383 (V)
800/203-6957 (V/TTY)

Links:

University of Maine Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center