As part of the university’s successful Carnegie Community Engagement Classification application process, the Office of Research and Engagement has compiled a list of fifty of UT’s best community-campus partnerships. The university will be celebrating its status as an engaged institution throughout the coming year by featuring these individual examples in articles that highlight their unique contribution to the community. This week two partnerships are in the spotlight.
Habitat for Humanity and UT
Students participating in UT Housing’s Habitat Build and Habitat Blitz Build make a difference in the lives of Knoxville families by building houses together with community partners, including the future homeowners. As a direct result of this partnership, twelve families in the Knoxville area now own their own homes.
Related Feature: Building Towards a Better Community
“They start with a slab of concrete and by evening the roof is on the house.”
For the Kids at UTK
Approximately 400 students partner each year with East Tennessee Children’s Hospital for For the Kids at UTK. The program has been in operation since 1995, originally under the name Dance Marathon. The event has raised more than $1 million over the last eighteen years in support of the hospital. Read more about For the Kids at UTK on their website.
Related Feature: Choreographing Relationships to Benefit Young Patients
There had not been much direct contact between UT students and hospital staff. “Then Macy came in and said ‘let’s make this more of a partnership.'”