Community Partnerships
Flagship
Community Partner: Missoula County Public Schools
Institutional Partner: Office for Civic Engagement
Purpose: The Office for Civic Engagement partners with the Missoula County School District's afterschool Flagship program to engage UM students and faculty in mutually beneficial service learning partnerships. The program connects various UM academic departments with K12 schools to provide afterschool enrichment activities for youth that are fun and educational. Examples of Flagship activities include: UM students teaching dance and theater to public school students, public students conducting water sampling and aquatic surveys on local rivers with UM biology and environmental studies students, and UM health and human performance students introducing public school students to all sorts of physical activities and sports exercise.
Community Impact: Through Flagship, public school students gain positive alternatives to other non-healthy after-school activities. Flagship activities promote physical and mental exercise, increased learning and academic success, positive mentoring relationships, and exposure to new subjects through cost-free classes and activities. Public school teachers benefit through students' newfound interest and engagement in a variety of topics, and families benefit from the child's increased awareness and abilities.
Institution Impact: UM students demonstrate increased interest and investment in their area of study as they introduce concepts and activities to younger students. Faculty are able to offer their students a tangible way to practice new skill sets, and UM as a whole benefits from the a solid partnership with various other program partners including community members, stakeholders, and future students.
Length of partnership: 12 years
Number of faculty: 25
Number of students: 150 annually
Grant funding: Yes
The Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit
Community Partner: Wildlife Management Institute, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, US Geological Survey
Institutional Partner: Wildlife Biology Program
Purpose: The Cooperative Research Unit is a collaborative relationship between States, Universities, the Federal government and the Wildlife Management Institute. Coop Units conduct research on renewable natural resource questions, provide technical assistance and consultation to parties who have interests in natural resource issues, and provide various forms of continuing education for natural resource professionals in the community.
Community Impact: The Co-op Unit brings state and federal problems to the University, where faculty and their graduate students address the specific problems through applied research methodologies. Co-op studies provide new insights useful to wildlife management and conservation in the area, based on understanding the ecological mechanisms that underlie habitat requirements and demography of individual and coexisting wildlife species. The Unit provides essential resources and services to local, state and national organizations in the field.
Institutional Impact: This program provides unique education for UM graduate students destined to join the natural resource profession and provides technical and professional education on the graduate and professional levels in the fields of renewable natural resource sciences. Students encounter a unique learning experience as they bridge the gap between applied and basic wildlife science.
Length of Partnership: 58 years
Number of Faculty: 2 annually
Number of Students: 8 annually
Grant Funding: Yes
Farm to College
Community Partner: Local and regional farms
Institutional Partner: UM Dining Services
Purpose: The Farm to College program at the University of Montana is adding more locally produced food to the food offered by UM Dining Services. By allowing members of the campus community to ‘think globally and eat locally, the program helps them understand the social and environmental impacts of their food choices. By shrinking our foodshed (the area where our food is grown), we support local farms, re-circulate money in the state and local community, and reduce the energy invested in food. The program began as a result of a Local Food Assessment conducted by UM faculty members in Social Work and Environmental Studies with their graduate students.
Community Impact: Purchasing local food helps sustain Montana's natural and cultural heritage and economy. Our program illuminates the possibilities and benefits of local food purchasing and is paving the way for other large scale food buyers to purchase locally. UM Dining Services now incorporates a wide variety of foodstuffs in our regular menu offerings, such as poultry from ET Farms, beef from Montana Natural Beef and Ranchland Packing, pork from Farm-to-Market Pork, Montoya oils in all our fryers, plus as much fresh, locally-grown produce as possible. We also feature Hi-Country jerky, BrenTari Salsa, & Bausch Potatoes in the Food Zoo and UC Food Court. All our breads are from Wheat Montana, pasta from Pasta Montana, tortillas from Service Specialty and dairy products are local from MeadowGold. We are also encouraging our prime vendor to carry more local or regional food products.
Institutional Impact: The program provides local, fresh food to the campus community as a whole and educates UM staff, faculty, and students about the benefits of purchasing and consuming local food.
Length of Partnership: 5 years
Number of Faculty: 2
Number of Students: 20
Grant Funding: Yes
Online Program in Nonprofit Administration
Community Partner: Montana Nonprofit Association
Institutional Partner: Continuing Education, The Office for Civic Engagement, UMOnline
Purpose: Program coordinators for UM's Online Program in Nonprofit Administration have developed course proposals, course syllabi, and learning outcomes based on the Principles and Best Practices for Nonprofits document created by the Montana Nonprofit Association. The aims and goals of the program are in line with expectations for nonprofit managers as outlined by the Montana Nonprofit Association, and MNA has partnered with UM in promoting the program and recruiting instructors.
Community Impact: Students in the Online Program for Nonprofit Administration benefit from this collaboration in that they are receiving the most up-to-date knowledge and research regarding nonprofit administration through instructors and MNA influence over course content. The courses fill every semester and have extensive waiting lists, demonstrating the need for the program and its success in meeting student expectations.
Institutional Impact: The Online Program in Nonprofit Administration has benefited from this collaboration in the continuity of courses and the high quality of instructors. Because of MNA's expertise and input, we have been able to design a course of study for professionals in Montana that directly addresses their unique demographic, social, and geographical development needs.
Length of Partnership: 2 years
Number of Faculty: 5+
Number of Students: 240
Grant Funding: No
SENCER: Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities
Community Partner: Missoula County Public Schools
Institutional Partner: Chemistry department
Purpose: The UM SENCER team is training high school chemistry students to perform research on air quality, a topic highly relevant in western Montana. Called the Big Sky Model, this SENCER project provides an effective bridge to higher education and potentially to careers in science. The Big Sky Model is a science learning strategy to help young students apply science to their everyday lives. It is also a multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional partnership for enhancing science learning. Although originally designed for measuring and understanding the quality of local airsheds, it can be adapted to examine any number of issues relating to the nexus between environmental science and public health.
Community Impact: High school students experience what it feels like to be an active citizen and a useful resource within their community. They work individually and in small groups, coming together with other schools in an annual science symposium to present their research and inform their peers, the public, and policymakers of their findings. Whether or not they eventually choose careers in environmental or biomedical sciences is really beside the point. Their gain is a growing sense of civic engagement and responsibility as they face environmental public health challenges of the future.
Institutional Impact: College students also benefit by incorporating a meaningful service-learning component outside their standard classroom experience. NSF studies have documented that this contextual, cooperative approach is particularly effective for students who are traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. In this way all students are exposed to the ways of community-based participatory research. In fact, several former high school participants have stepped up to become college-level mentors involved in training younger students and assisting in their analyses.
Length of Partnership:
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding:
PEAS Farm: Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society
Community Partner: Garden City Harvest, Missoula Food Bank, the City of Missoula
Institutional Partner: Environmental Studies Department
Purpose: Since its inception in 1997, the Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society has combined traditional academics with hands-on work at an urban, organic farm, which produces tens of thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables each season for low-income Missoulians. Students take courses in sustainable agriculture for credit at the farm in all seasons. PEAS works closely with two Missoula non-profits who specialize in, respectively, hunger prevention and food security: The Missoula Food Bank and Garden City Harvest. Each growing season, the PEAS farm grows more than 52,000 pounds of produce for distribution to low-income families.
Community Impact: The Missoula Food Bank is better equipped to handle issues of food insecurity in Missoula because of the PEAS program. No longer does the Food Bank have to rely exclusively on donations from outsiders, which are often processed foods. Instead, the Food Bank is able to offer an abundance of local produce, meat, eggs, herbs, and more to its clients. because of the public awareness of the PEAS farm, the issues of food insecurity and the local foods initiative are on the minds of many Missoulians day in and day out.
Institutional Impact: Students learn about food distribution as well as organic agriculture methods and report that they never look at vegetables in the grocery store in the same way. The PEAS farm is a community center of sorts in Missoula, enhancing the University's image within the community as countless students can be seen each morning biking up the hill from the University to the PEAS farm. Each fall, the PEAS farm hosts a "Greens" party with free-range meat, salad, vegetables, fruits, and more all harvested from the farm. Hundreds of Missoula citizens attend the party each fall alongside UM students and faculty members in the PEAS program.
Length of Partnership: 12 years
Number of Faculty: 1
Number of Students: 1200
Grant Funding: Yes
Indian Law Clinic
Community Partner: All MT Native tribes-- Blackfeet, Flathead, etc.
Institutional Partner: UM Law School
Purpose: Tribal representatives approach the Indian Law clinic re. their needs in the field of legal resources and counseling. Students can choose to serve their law school internship in the Indian Law clinic and assist in providing education materials and providing legal counseling to individuals and groups.
Community Impact: Tremendous impact to the tribes over the years as members and groups receive cost-free legal expertise from students studying tribal issues.
Institutional Impact: The Indian Law clinic serves as a minority recruiting tool for the UM Law School and provides students with a direct, first-hand look into local and tribal legal issues. UM's Law School is one of only four institutions that requires its students to participate in internships.
Length of Partnership: 20 years
Number of Faculty: 1
Number of Students: 8 per year
Grant Funding: No
Intercultural Youth and Family Program
Community Partner: US Peace Corps
Institutional Partner: UM graduate school, Psychology, Sociology
Purpose: This collaboration allows qualified applicants to apply separately and simultaneously to graduate school at UM and to the Peace Corps and, if accepted by both, fulfill the program internship requirements through the 27 month Peace Corps service. US Peace Corps provides volunteers with an understanding of peace and the opportunity to assist with development as well as gain community development skills. In this program, students complete a year of academic study at UM and then 1-2 years "in the field" putting to work their academic knowledge regarding community building, stainability, and development.
Community Impact: The Peace Corps receives highly-educated members from a top-notch institution of higher education who likely demonstrate additional incentive and investment in their international projects and initiatives.
Institutional Impact: The International Youth and Family Development program raises the university's international and national profile by providing intercultural competency and community development training and also facilitating the placement of students in the Peace Corps.
Length of Partnership: 3
Number of Faculty: 3
Number of Students: 10 per year
Grant Funding: No
Crow Reservation Partnership
Community Partner: Crow reservation in Montana
Institutional Partner: Health and Human Performance department
Purpose: This partnership fosters collaborative relationships to address pressing health needs on the Crow reservation in Montana.
Community Impact: This work has encouraged more students from the reservation to develop an interest in studying health science at the University and has already attracted some Native American students to pursue careers that tribal members had not followed previously. The partnership Has also developed a long-term commitment on the reservation to projects that improve health outcomes in the community with regard to heart disease and diabetes. The partnership has resulted in the development of community members' health knowledge and capacity to improve the health of their community. The partnership has also generated data that increases the possibility of obtaining funding for the interventions.
Institutional Impact: This partnership demonstrates that the University is successful at conducting research with the Native American community in Montana. It has succeeded in building trust and relationships between the reservation and the university.
Length of Partnership: 3.5 years
Number of Faculty: 4
Number of Students: 25 per year
Grant Funding: No
Swan Ecosystem Center and Northwest Connections
Community Partner: Bolle Center in Swan Valley, Montana
Institutional Partner: College of Forestry and Conservation
Purpose: As the interface between wilderness and urban areas becoming increasingly closer in Montana, community members are compelled to learn more about wildfire response and planning. This partnership provides the community with multiparty monitoring for wildfire planning and investigates and explores community responses to corporate timberland divestment.
Community Impact: The partnership involves the development of cooperative management plans and of increased capacity of land owners to participate in multi-stakeholder processes. It enhances the development of the capacity of conservation organizations, and the strengthens the relationship among conservation groups, land owners, a major timber company, federal and state land management agencies, and the University.
Institutional Impact: This program enhances the reputation of the University and provides valuable services and expertise to communities transitioning from local economies based on resource-dependent industries to service and tourism based economies.
Length of Partnership: 7 years
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding:
Partnerships for Diversity
Community Partner: The Rural Institute
Institutional Partner: The University of Montana, Montana State University
Purpose: To prepare teachers at the Master’s level to work in inclusive settings with students who experience severe disabilities. In the two decades, the expectations for and optimism about educational outcomes for students with disabilities, particularly those with the most significant challenges (students considered to experience “low incidence” disabilities), have improved exponentially. The initial emphasis on access and entitlement to services has shifted toward programmatic concerns focused on maximizing the likelihood of meaningful post-school outcomes in the areas of employment and community living. There is a growing awareness that what, how, and where students with severe disabilities are taught during their school years has a direct bearing on how they are perceived by others and what opportunities are available to them as young adults.
Community Impact: Community teachers already working with students with disabilities receive tuition discounts and waivers. Their learning can be directly applied to the field and classroom almost right away.
Institutional Impact: UM is able to recruit and attract high-caliber students in education due to the online, distance education nature of the program and remain on the cutting-edge of research and practice regarding early education for students with disabilities.
Length of Partnership:
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding: Yes
ECOS: Ecologists, Educators, and Schools
Community Partner: Missoula County Public Schools
Institutional Partner: Biological Sciences department
Purpose: ECOS is a partnership program for enhancing teaching skills of graduate students in the sciences and promoting hands-on science education in K-12 schools. We use the schoolyard and adjacent open areas in western Montana as outdoor laboratories for learning about the environment.
Community Impact: K-12 students and their teachers learn science skills and techniques that are site-specific to local environments. They learn to see an ecological laboratory filled with organisms with interesting adaptations and interactions. The ECOS teams model what ecologists do by immersing themselves in ecological investigations in their schoolyard and classroom laboratories.
Institutional Impact: Ecology and environmental sciences graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Montana are showing K-12 students and their teachers how to use an ecological lens for viewing their schoolyard. This program provides students with an invaluable interdisciplinary experience as they combine learning teaching skills with learning teaching science skills.
Length of Partnership: 6+ years
Number of Faculty: 2
Number of Students: 20-50 per year
Grant Funding: Yes
Reznet: The Online Newspaper for Native America
Community Partner: The American Indian Journalism Institute
Institutional Partner: UM School of Journalism, other universities in the US representative of staff writers
Purpose: Reznet is a project of The University of Montana School of Journalism. Founded in 2002, reznet hires about 30 Native American college students nationwide as reporters, editors, photographers, copy editors and multimedia journalists to cover their tribal communities or colleges during the academic year. With few exceptions, staff members are graduates of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute, an intensive three-week training and internship program each June at the University of South Dakota.
Community Impact: Reznet intends to produce more Native Americans for mainstream daily newspapers. "Reznetters" attend state, tribal and private colleges, ranging from major journalism schools to those with no journalism course. The 27 "reznetters" on this year's staff are members of 19 tribes located in 15 states, and they attend 16 colleges in 11 states. In the 2006-07 academic year, more Native American journalism students were picked for summer internships at top-echelon newspapers than ever. Five of reznet's May 2007 graduates were offered their first jobs in journalism. Since January, nine reznet grads have gotten jobs. That number represents three percent of Native Americans working at mainstream papers around the country, as counted each year by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Former reznetters work as reporters, photographers and copy editors at papers including The Kansas City Star, the Omaha, Neb., World-Herald, the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, the Tulsa World, The Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y., the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, The Forum in Fargo, N.D., Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, the Billings (Mont.) Gazette, the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., The Navajo Times and the Cherokee Phoenix.
Institutional Impact: This highly-renowned online newspaper attracts top-notch minority students to UM's school of journalism and places The University of Montana as a fore-runner in issues of investigative reporting on tribal issues.
Length of Partnership: 6 years
Number of Faculty: 1
Number of Students: 27
Grant Funding: Yes
Business Plan Competition
Community Partner: 50 businesses across Montana
Institutional Partner: UM Business School
Purpose: In this program students create business plans after interviewing and discussing local and regional business practices with business representatives.
Community Impact: New businesses formed, a sense of giving in the business community
Institutional Impact: UM provides advice to business community, helps economic development, creating a forum to showcase education in the community
Length of Partnership: 19 years
Number of Faculty: 1
Number of Students: 50
Grant Funding: No
BudBurst
Community Partner: National Citizen Science Project
Institutional Partner: Biological Sciences department
Purpose: In this partnership, participants record signs of spring in their own backyards and help track the early onset of spring and other signs of climate change on a national level.
Community Impact: Creates national citizen involvement in issues of climate change
Institutional Impact: UM receives national media attention for commencing this awareness program
Length of Partnership: Brand New
Number of Faculty: 2
Number of Students: 3,000+ across the country
Grant Funding: No
International Wildlife Media Center & Film Festival
Community Partner: Roxy Theatre
Institutional Partner: Environmental Studies Department and DBS
Purpose: Our mission is to promote awareness, knowledge and understanding of wildlife, habitat, people and nature through excellence in film, television, and other media.
Community Impact: Missoula is known for this international film festival and is visisted by numerous international visitors each year. Many Missoula businesses and non-profits support the IWFF/MC --helping to build a sense of a shared community effort.
Institutional Impact: UM faculty and students participate in the year round media center -- students take film classes through the media center, and faculty make use of the film library in their courses. Students gain experience in making films and putting on film festivals.
Length of Partnership: 30 years
Number of Faculty: 20
Number of Students: 100s
Grant Funding: Yes
Missoula Urban Demonstration Project
Community Partner:
Institutional Partner:
Purpose: The Missoula Urban Demonstration Project (MUD) is a nonprofit organization that envisions an engaged community of empowered and aware individuals enjoying sustainable living through both community interdependence and self-reliance. MUD fosters sustainable living practices by providing a tool library, educational and outreach programs, and a community-focused demonstration site to residents of the Missoula urban area.
Community Impact:
Institutional Impact:
Length of Partnership: 30 years
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding:
Watershed Education Network
Community Partner:
Institutional Partner:
Purpose: WEN is the watershed education hub of western Montana, offering monitoring instruction to citizen scientists, professional workshops, and experiential education programs to local schools.
Community Impact:
Institutional Impact:
Length of Partnership: 12 years
Number of Faculty: 33
Number of Students: 531
Grant Funding: Yes
MT Natural History Center
Community Partner:
Institutional Partner:
Purpose: The mission of the Montana Natural History Center is to promote and cultivate the appreciation, understanding and stewardship of nature through education.
Community Impact:
Institutional Impact:
Length of Partnership: 18 years
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding:
SpectrUM
Community Partner:
Institutional Partner:
Purpose:
Community Impact:
Institutional Impact:
Length of Partnership:
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding:
Easter Eggstravaganza
Community Partner:
Institutional Partner:
Purpose:
Community Impact:
Institutional Impact:
Length of Partnership:
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding:
Information Systems (SOBA)
Community Partner:
Institutional Partner:
Purpose:
Community Impact:
Institutional Impact:
Length of Partnership:
Number of Faculty:
Number of Students:
Grant Funding:
