Initiatives

Strive/Living Cities

Announcement:

ESTABLISHING URBAN UNIVERSITIES AS ANCHOR INSTITUTIONS IN DEVELOPING CROSS-SECTOR P-20 ACCESS AND SUCCESS PARTNERSHIPS

In partnership with the Living Cities, the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) is requesting proposals from urban universities and their partners seeking to create P-20 partnerships to redefine and improve the educational system in their communities. Living Cities is a unique partnership of philanthropic, corporate, and public sector leaders working to bring opportunities to the urban centers of our nation and empower those who have too often been left behind. As part of their recently released American City Agenda, Living Cities is focusing on reengineering education in order to meet the needs of an ever-changing workforce.

One core element of this reengineering process is further establishing universities as anchors of development and opportunity within their region. USU is partnering with Living Cities based on our shared interests and the common goal of developing a contemporary workforce, through an improved educational system to create a workforce ready to compete in the 21st century.

A primary strategy for achieving this goal is the creation of P-20 access and success partnerships that redefine educational systems within a community. These partnerships are founded on five principles:

Education must be redefined to ensure students have the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century.
Appropriate cross sector leaders seeking to drive and sustain educational improvements can have a more powerful impact by working together.
All interested stakeholders need to have a common forum to engage in developing solutions.
Local data and evidence should drive strategic and action planning.
Existing resources must be leveraged in order to create new programs.

Living Cities has identified a model P-20 access and success partnership based in Cincinnati for adaptation in up to five (5) additional sites among the USU member institutions. This model is called Strive: A Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Birth to Career Collaborative. More details on the partnership can be found on their website at www.strivetogether.org.

By becoming one of the selected sites, a member institution/city will:

Become a national demonstration site for innovation in educational improvements that lead to improved student achievement and economic development outcomes within their region.
Join a network of committed leaders focused on ensuring that universities serve as anchor institutions that drive innovation and reform of outdated educational models.
Develop a foundational partnership that attracts investors locally and nationally in evidence-based, collaborative solutions to complex issues that trouble urban centers across the country.

Through the Living Cities/USU partnership, comprehensive technical assistance and support will be provided to the selected USU member sites to establish a strong and sustainable partnership, identify levers in each community that drive action, develop evidence-based action plans around priority strategies, and develop over time a national network to share lessons learned and further develop models for collaborative partnerships in other USU cities.

Solicitation:

Living Cities RFP 9-4-08 Final

USU Member Institutions that applied:

Arizona State University
California State University – East Bay
California State University – Fresno
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
Portland State University
University of Houston
University of Memphis
University of New Mexico
Virginia Commonwealth University

Current Status:

Proposal are under review with final outcome expected in Mid-February