The Archway Partnership, a Public Service and Outreach unit at the University of Georgia (UGA), has established an innovative and thriving partnership with UGA’s Terry College of Business Institute for Leadership Advancement (ILA) through years of collaboration. During the ILA course, students are paired with community partners across Georgia to address critical community projects, several focused on significant change. These partnerships are facilitated through Archway, which serves as the conduit between real-world challenges and students in the ILA program. Through these interactions, students learn to navigate working with clients, learn about Georgia communities, apply classroom content in real-world settings, and clients gain a fresh perspective on ways to change and adapt.
The Connected Resilient Communities (CRC) program, a part of University of Georgia’s Archway Partnership, partners with local leaders, students, and faculty to address community-identified priorities through asset-based, collaborative design. CRC projects, ranging from heritage preservation and environmental planning to early literacy, health assessment, and downtown revitalization, apply participatory approaches to generate implementation-ready solutions. Working across rural, micropolitan, and small-city contexts, CRC strengthens local capacity, nurtures cross-sector partnerships, and buildstowards long-term community resilience. This presentation highlights CRC’s model and showcases project examples demonstrating how communities create innovative, place-based pathways toward thriving futures.
[program name] is an emergent program developed from [organization] to bridge university resources and research to community identified priorities. To achieve this, [program name] draws on the research based Collective Impact methodology to bridge institutional and community partners around shared goals, metrics, and strategics. In [town, state], [program] Scholars are working hand-in-hand with local partners to support community needs and goals. Through this program, graduate students in [program] grow as leaders, communicators, and collaborators in community engagement plans. The focus of [program] is to center student experiential learning to develop and sustain impactful community-centered partnerships across [state].
