Primary Units and Collaborators at UGA

Primary Units: Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach; Cooperative Extension
Collaborators: Other UGA Schools/Colleges as well as local USG Colleges/Universities, DTAE schools, local governments and state agencies (i.e., Department of Community Affairs, Department of Economic Development, Department of Labor, etc.).

Program Goals

The UGA Archway Initiative will further USG goals by: promoting community economic development; better meeting citizen (customer) needs; providing wider access to higher education resources; and providing leadership by partnering with other higher education institutions, state agencies and local communities.

What will the UGA Archway Initiative do?

The UGA Archway Initiative leaders will work within their regions to identify problems expressed by communities within the region. They will then develop plans to connect resources from UGA, USG schools, DTAE schools, local governments and state agencies to assist with community issues.

The UGA Archway Initiative, based in the two cities-counties listed below, will be a regional portal to improve public access to UGA and USG resources:

• Moultrie/Colquitt County Region – (change agents: Sanderson Farms, growth)
• Sandersville/Washington County Region – (change agents: Kaolin Industry shift, diversifying economy)
• Other communities across the state are being considered as future sites.

What are the issues being addressed?

The proposed Archway Initiative will have the ability to assist with the expressed demand of community needs by providing leadership in the development of collaborations. The proposed Archway Initiative will have the expertise to adapt to each region’s unique issues and problems. Currently, the Archway Partnership Pilot Project in Moultrie/Colquitt County has shown that it has the capacity to assist with worker housing; increased enrollment in the school system; preserving neighborhood schools; land-use planning and zoning; increased stress on roads and main arterials; blighted neighborhoods; increased consumption of water and disposal of wastewater; and an increasing Latino population with unique challenges related to language, healthcare, housing, financial literacy, child-care, after-school care, and food safety.

Outcomes

• Increase the number of multi-university collaboratives;
• Increase the number of USG responses to community-defined issues through applied research, service-learning projects, research projects generated, training, technical assistance requests, completed projects, and contract dollars generated;
• Increase USG involvement (number of faculty, students, departments, schools, etc.);
• Streamline access to UGA and its resources, reducing response time and increasing efficiency of personnel in the field; and
• Increase the number of local community partnerships developed with USG institutions.