Keystone Community Partnerships (KCP) is a program of [The Institution] Outreach, leveraging collective resources, knowledge, and expertise of the University in collaboration with community stakeholders to enhance capacity and address community priorities throughout the state. KCP fosters transparent and adaptable university-community partnerships where trust, support, and empowerment thrive. A graduate certificate program called KCP Scholars within the College of Agricultural Science trains exemplary graduate students in the KCP model for community engagement, creating experiential learning opportunities for the students as they become project managers on KCP initiatives embedded in communities. This presentation will discuss three community based KCP initiatives along with the KCP Scholars program. Three KCP Scholars will share their experiences of community engagement and development implementing initiatives such as mobile medical and veterinary clinics, school-based community gardening through a social-emotional learning lens, and in-the-field workforce development opportunities for high school students. The presentation will highlight programs successes, lessons learned and measurable outcomes for the collaborating communities.
