Messiah College (Grantham, PA)
The
Harrisburg Institute
Summary
Messiah College’s current strategic plan—the Centennial Plan—calls
for a renewed level of active community involvement in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
as an extension of the College’s institutional mission. Through
the School of Education and Social Sciences, Messiah has established an
Institute for Community Research and Collaborative Partnerships, known
as the Harrisburg Institute, located at the foot of the State capitol
building. The Institute houses offices, conference and lecture space,
and residential facilities for 45 students who are interested in a significant
urban experiential learning opportunity. The Institute serves as a vehicle
for academic departments to engage student/faculty teams in long-term
service research projects within the community. Partnerships have been
established in Education, Health, Community Revitalization, Justice, and
Family Systems.
The Practice
In the creation of the Harrisburg Institute, the leaders at Messiah learned
many valuable lessons about the process of creating effective, long-term
community partnerships. Below are a few of the areas that were critical
to the success of the Initiative.
Communicate Senior Administrative Support: At the outset the
president and provost communicated the vision of community engagement
in a way that prepared and encouraged the campus community to imagine
opportunities for working with the community. This explicit level of administrative
support licensed academic departments and institutional committees to
incorporate the Harrisburg Initiative into their respective curriculum
changes, workload reallocation of faculty, co-curricula activities, as
well as the overall institutional planning process.
Listen and Learn about the Internal and External Communities:
The Institute leaders conducted two comprehensive listening tours to ascertain
the support for the Initiative at the College and in the local Harrisburg
community. Interested faculty and staff were identified and invited into
a listening and planning process. Potential community partners were identified
and interviewed to identify critical community issues, and explore what
role the College might play in assisting with those community concerns.
A year later, a more formal Listening Tour was conducted to formalize
the feedback from the community. An advisory council emerged from these
discussions, which included representatives from Messiah and the external
community.
Demonstrate Long-term Commitment to the Community: Early in
the listening process College representatives recognized that the community
was looking for a sign of Messiah’s long-term commitment to the
community. In response, the College invested in creating a residence for
the Institute in a strategic area of the city, central to the two principal
communities targeted by the partnership. The location and the investment
communicated, both to campus and community constituents, the College’s
long-term commitment to urban partnerships.
Model the Benefits of Partnerships: Several initial projects
were selected strategically to model the value of joining college and
community assets to address critical community issues in a way that engaged
students, faculty, and community partners. Administrators and faculty
visited established programs to observe how six different programs were
able to integrate community-partnering activities into the College curriculum.
The positive feedback from these visits were communicated back to faculty,
students, and department heads in a strategic manner.
Effectiveness
Institutionalize the Effort: The Initiative has integrated its
work into already established projects, initiatives, programs, and activities
at the College. The dean overseeing the Institute meets regularly with
department chairs and key faculty members to explore options to further
integrate the work of the partnerships into the curriculum. The director
of service-learning, the Development Department, the Public Relations
Department, and the Student Service Center all continue to be involved
as the Institute evolves.
Resources
For more information about the Institute, please visit its website.
Contact Information
Joseph Jones
Dean
School of Education and Social Sciences
Messiah College
P.O. Box 3045
One College Avenue
Grantham, PA 17027
Phone: 717-796-5068
jjones@messiah.edu
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Effective
Practices Exchange
