Campus-Community Collaboration

The United Nations has chosen the first Monday in October to be World Habitat Day – a day to stand up and let it be known that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere. I was excited to learn of this new day of advocacy as the work of Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofits working to address affordable and adequate housing for all are often the organizations the Michigan Campus Compact students work closely with in their local communities and abroad through service-learning initiatives. With nearly 95 million people having housing problems including a high-cost burden, overcrowding, poor quality shelter and homelessness, it is important we all raise our voices regarding the lack of decent, affordable housing for all.

Recently, Rev. Mike Fales, director of service learning and campus ministries for Olivet College, and Jean Paul Cortes, Michigan Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA serving on Olivet’s campus, coordinated a trip to Pittsburgh, PA where nineteen Olivet College students spent a week constructing a home for a low-income family. They worked with Hosanna Industries, an organization that provides new construction and home rehabilitation programs for low income, elderly and single-parent households. A Battle Creek Enquirer article states that, “In one full day of work, the students were able to completely rough in the interior and exterior walls for a 1,000-square-foot, three-bedroom home.” Click here to read the full article.

Aquinas College announced it is the first college in West Michigan to sponsor an entire Habitat for Humanity home. The college will partner with Habitat of Humanity of Kent County to underwrite and complete a LEED for Homes® Certified “Total Gut Rehab” home in southwest Grand Rapids. Click here to learn more.

And earlier this year, Michigan Campus Compact awarded Grand Valley State University – School of Engineering and Westown Jubilee Housing the 2009 Carter Partnership Award for their campus-community partnership which focuses on energy efficient housing for low income families living in the West Site of Grand Rapids. This partnership is a collaboration in which Westown Jubilee provides a supply of housing projects with energy management needs and challenges and the School of Engineering provides innovative solutions for those challenges. Click here to learn more.

These collaborative opportunities build lifelong partnerships and commitment from Michigan Campus Compact students and organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Westown Jubilee and Hosanna Industries that they work with. How does your organization collaborate with college and university students? If you don’t, do you see opportunities to collaborate? How could a collaborative relationship allow your organization to achieve nonprofit excellence?

To learn more about World Habitat Day, visit http://www.habitat.org/gov/take_action/world_habitat_day_2009_resources.aspx.

Submitted by Dr. Jacqueline Taylor. Dr. Jacqueline Taylor is currently the Interim Executive Director at Michigan Campus Compact and the President/CEO of Taylor Global Consulting. She recently retired as Vice President for Development for Davenport University, and has been in education for over 30 years. Dr. Taylor has served as President and Vice President of community colleges in Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania. *Michigan Campus Compact is an affiliate of Michigan Nonprofit Association.

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