Office of Community Outreach and Partnerships¹
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The Office of Community Outreach and Partnerships (OCOP) of Georgia State University serves as vehicle for linking the University’s resources, students and faculty to the community through coordinated outreach activities. OCOP works to establish and strengthen community-based relationships, develop a structured University-wide service-learning program, promote community outreach within the University, and organize a foundation for University-wide, community outreach initiatives. Linda Calloway is director of the Office of Community Outreach and Partnerships.

Promoting effective outreach to form supportive, collaborative links between the university and community is crucial in supporting Georgia State University’s commitment to public service. OCOP’s activities include: partnerships and collaborations with local non-profit organizations, public schools, colleges and universities and for-profit entities invested in community building; short and long-term projects with community-based partners; outreach opportunities for students, including service learning, paid internships, training and volunteer activities through sponsored programs; service learning reflection sessions and collaboration within the University. Programs are not exclusive to the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. OCOP collaborates with a broad range of university units to implement activities, and encourages university-wide participation. Developing alliances with offices and departments that have similar activities stimulates dialogue and promotes community outreach within the University.

Activities

Community Partnerships. OCOP developed thirteen new community partnerships and one GSU in-house collaborative placement site: Achor Center, APPLECorps, Dress For Success, Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, Interfaith Outreach Home, Literacy Volunteers of America, Men Stopping Violence, Neighborhood Charter School, Progressive Redevelopment, Inc., TeenSmart:GSU, The Center For Pan-Asian Communities, Inc., and Youth Art Connections.

Urban Universities Portfolio Project. Engagement/Urban Services Web site: This national initiative was designed to create the institutional portfolio for communicating the work and effectiveness of urban public higher education. Each participating university’s portfolio is on the Internet. OCOP manages the Engagement/Urban Services Web site of the Georgia State portfolio, and is currently updating existing projects. The Web site address is http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwupp/.

Atlanta Outreach Consortium (AOC). OCOP serves as the outreach liaison office for Georgia State. AOC, comprised of four Metro-Atlanta research institutions, Clark Atlanta, Emory, Georgia Tech., and Georgia State, works together to investigate the potential for joint community outreach projects and coordinate efforts for re-enforcing existing projects. 'A Day In The Life’ is an outreach program that gives Atlanta area high school students a chance to view college life at Georgia State University first hand. One hundred-twenty-five 10th and 11th grade students from George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington and Alonzo A. Crim high schools participated in the 2001 event. The Program was expanded to include the Atlanta Outreach Consortium Universities. This partnership provided AOC with the support needed to enhance relationships with Atlanta Public Schools.

The Link. The Link is an OCOP publication covering issues, interests and projects in service-learning and other community outreach activities within Georgia State and other local communities and higher education institutions. The newsletter is published quarterly and distributed to OCOP community and university partners, staff and faculty.

Freshman Learning Community. As a segment of the AmeriCorps Education Awards Program and in collaboration with the Department of Social Work Fall PSC-FLC, OCOP coordinated the integration of service-learning into the curriculum. In addition to the academic curriculum, students actively participated in organized service activities that met the needs of selected communities.

Projects

Service-Learning Initiative. OCOP coordinates a Service-Learning Program, sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service: AmeriCorps Programs. Through this experiential learning process, students apply classroom studies in community settings, addressing genuine community needs. Participating students represent virtually all academic majors and course of study at the University, such as Art, Biology, CIS, International Business, Journalism, Marketing, Public Administration and Urban Studies, Political Science, Social Work, Sociology and Spanish. The Education Award Program enables Georgia State University students to participate in a service-learning experience while earning an education award voucher at the end of their service. 100 Georgia State students participated in the 2001-2002 project year. Anticipated education awards are in the amount of $118,500.

AmeriCorps*VISTA Program. Extended existing GSU program to include a volunteer station. The Neighborhood Collaborative/The Atlanta Project became the volunteer station under the umbrella of OCOP, the sponsoring Program. This expansion brought 6 full-time VISTA Volunteers to the University to support community outreach and partnership activities.