Archway Partnership Highlights 2006

Introduction
The University of Georgia’s Archway Partnership Project in conjunction with Moultrie/Colquitt County continues to show great promise as a model for effective university/community partnerships. Not only have University of Georgia faculty and students provided service to the community in reference to meeting needs for community and economic development resources, the partnership has provided a solid platform for encouraging additional dialogue on campus regarding the intersections of teaching, research, and public outreach; for building stronger working relationships between the University and federal, state, and local partners; for enhancing the scholarship of engagement; and for demonstrating the valuable role that institutions of higher education can play within community and economic development efforts.

During the past year, the Moultrie/Colquitt County community has expressed interest in continuing work beyond the pilot phase of the project and interest in establishing Archway Portals has been expressed by other communities within the state. Additionally, the project has expanded its footprint in southwest Georgia, growing to serve as a regional portal in an organic manner consistent with the project’s design.

To date, the Archway Partnership Project has completed 24 substantive projects, involving 52 faculty members from 13 schools, colleges, and institutes within the University. Furthermore, the project has involved 23 students at both the undergraduate and graduate level through service-learning projects, and has worked collaboratively with two other University System of Georgia institutions on projects.

Project Highlights
Enhancing Wastewater Capacity. As a result of rapid growth and development, the Moultrie/Colquitt County Community’s once ample municipal wastewater capacity was rapidly utilized leaving the community with perplexing challenges as to how to meet the needs of continued industrial/commercial/residential growth. University of Georgia resources including Engineering Outreach Service and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government were utilized to help the community to identify alternatives. This included mapping out options for land applications systems, evaluating feasibility of options for municipal reuse of treated water for irrigation purposes, and overall assessment of plant capacity and location options. Not only was UGA involved in the technical work related to this effort, it played a critical role as a community convening partner and in public education related to the need to enhance wastewater capacity as a critical part of the community’s overall economic development strategy. The Chairman of the Moultrie/Economic Development Authority has been quoted as saying that UGA’s efforts played a major role in identifying options that would allow the community to double its wastewater capacity at a savings of 30 to 40 million dollars over initial plans. Additionally, public education efforts contributed heavily to the successful passage of a local SPLOST to support enhancement of wastewater infrastructure in the amount of 12 million dollars. This SPLOST passed with just over 88 percent of voters supporting passage. In assessing UGA’s involvement with this effort to date, it is apparent that efforts were well targeted, and that few, if any changes, were needed in regard to the process.

Land-Use and Planning. One of the challenges identified for the community in the visioning process preceding the establishment of the Archway Project was in the area of land-use and planning. As one of the state’s strongest counties in agricultural production, the community was struggling between the incentives toward a more diversified economy and continued support of its traditional agriculturally based economy. Interesting discussions ensued regarding how and where residential, commercial, and industrial growth should occur and how agriculture might be preserved in the face of rapid development. Colquitt County had no zoning or land-use plan, which was in contrast to surrounding counties. The debate centered on the issue in Colquitt County was extremely strong and a number of preceding attempts to establish zoning ordinances had failed. UGA was asked by Colquitt County to provide facilitation for a commission appointed committee tasked to develop a draft ordinance. This request was supported by the community committee that provides guidance to the Archway Partnership and thus the effort was undertaken. The process involved over five months of substantive meetings with the commission developed committee and educational activities related to options and alternatives relating to prospective ordinances which involved close working relationships with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the Southwest Georgia Regional Development Center and which also involved drawing upon resources provided by the land-use clinic at UGA’s School of Law, Fanning Institute, and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. The draft ordinance developed by the citizen committee was formally adopted by the Colquitt County Commission. In assessing the project and UGA’s capacities to support land-use planning education and activities, it is apparent that the institution has excellent resources, however, there is a need for greater investment in this area of work as demand for services and assistance outstrips current capacity. Further investment in the land-use clinic and in strengthening the Alliance for Quality Growth are recommendations that would allow UGA to better position itself to assist communities in the future as the demand for such services will only increase as Georgia’s population continues to rise in accordance with current trends.

Affordable Housing. With the landing of the Sanderson Farms economic development project and its resultant 1,500 jobs, as well as the expansion of existing companies such as National Beef, the community readily identified workforce housing as one of its greatest challenges. Engaging UGA’s Housing and Demographics Research Institute, a housing study was conducted with workers entering the Sanderson workforce to assess their housing needs and interests. From this body of work emerged a strong core of work related to housing issues. The community has developed, with UGA assistance, a strong housing task force and is a member of the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH) effort that is jointly sponsored and conducted by the Georgia Department of Community Affair, the Georgia Municipal Association, and the University of Georgia. The strength of UGA Cooperative Extension has been highly leveraged in housing efforts, drawing on the collective talents of College of Family and Consumer Sciences specialists and the local extension office in programming related to homebuyer education, consumer credit, and working with the Latino population to increase homeownership. Two housing fairs have been conducted, one a community-wide fair for Latinos and the second an in- plant fair conducted at Sanderson Farms. The Archway Partnership Project has been highly leveraged in working with local financial institutions and with developers and contractors. These relationships have resulted in strong relationships between local institutions and the United States Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs in offering first-time homebuyer programs that have helped to move eight families into homes of their own to date and that have substantive numbers of families currently in the process leading to homeownership. Implications of this work have extended well beyond the Moultrie/Colquitt County Community and have impacted communities throughout south Alabama, north Florida, and Georgia. Working in partnership with the Georgia Appleseed not-for-profit organization, $20,000 in grant funding has been secured as a match to support a bilingual financial literacy position within Cooperative Extension to support financial literacy efforts in Colquitt and Tift Counties. The Archway Project has also been highly engaged in the City of Moultrie’s effort to revitalize a section of northwest Moultrie, an area highly impacted by blight. Not only has workforce housing been a critical issue, but demand for new residences spans the socioeconomic profile. As such, a research project is currently underway with UGA’s Housing and Demographic Research Institute to assess housing needs for the middle income tier in order to provide much needed data for developers and planners. Looking forward, housing continues to be an area for active UGA involvement and support. The community continues to express interest in planning to attract retirement communities and opportunities abound for increased involvement of UGA’s College of Social Work, and potentially the Terry College of Business, as well as for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences in this body of work.

Changing Demographics. Following the brutal bludgeoning deaths of six Latino individuals in Tift and Colquitt Counties, the Archway Partnership Project was asked to assist with community response and planning. These crimes were, at their essence, crimes of opportunity based on the fact that many of the Latino residents within the community kept large sums of money on their person and in their homes. While the murders were the most extreme examples of these crimes, other less brutal crimes occurred on such a routine basis that it constituted a widespread community problem. The Archway Partnership Project played a critical role in working with local financial institutions, and enlisted the support of Georgia Appleseed and the Georgia Bankers Association in developing and conducting a “Banking the Unbanked” seminar targeted toward financial institutions, their boards of directors, and their legal counsel. This seminar involved the Mexican Consulate, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and a bank executive from Memphis who had extensive experience in banking the population. This work resulted in a number of banks that previously had not accepted the matricula consular card making a decision to accept the documentation as a means of establishing a bank account. The seminar was widely attended, not only by representatives from Moultrie and Tift Counties, but by institutions from Savannah, Atlanta, Hazlehurst, and other communities as well-reflecting the depth of the issue across the state of Georgia.

In addition to the “Banking the Unbanked” seminar and related efforts, the Archway Partnership Project has worked extensively in extending leadership development programming to under-served populations in conjunction with Cooperative Extension, the Fanning Institute, College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the local Chamber of Commerce. Efforts to support increased community dialogue with local law enforcement have also been fostered, as evidenced by recent work in tandem with a citizen’s group, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the City of Moultrie targeted toward the development of a human relations commission that would be a formally recognized unit of local government. Such commissions have been implemented by many metropolitan communities, but are a rarity in communities the size of Moultrie/Colquitt County. Also noteworthy, are efforts related to poverty education. The Archway Project provides critical support to the local Family Connections Partnership which has established a poverty task force. A research project is currently being conducted with support from the OVPPSO and involving College of Family and Consumer Sciences faculty and a graduate student in establishing critical local benchmarks for planning and programming efforts. In the area of poverty education, over 400 members of the local community have participated in poverty simulations conducted by Cooperative Extension, FACS specialists, and the Archway Coordinator, with additional sessions scheduled. These simulations have proven to be very valuable in educating the public about issues related to poverty and played a substantive role in the establishment of the local poverty task force. A critical partner in the changing demographics body of work is the Colquitt County Board of Education. The Superintendent of schools works actively with the Archway Partners, and is a leader in educating the public about the impact of changing demographics and poverty upon educational attainment. UGA has provided sheltered instruction training for the school system through the College of Education’s Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE) and continues to have an active partnership with the Colquitt County School System. Efforts to support greater economic prosperity across the demographic profile through entrepreneurship education and support have highly leveraged UGA’s Small Business Development Center.

In assessing efforts related to changing demographics, there remains great opportunity for larger and more wholesale involvement, including (but not limited to) involvement with the School of Social Work, and there is great potential for involving many faculty and students from across the many disciplines encompassed by the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Improving Public Health. An emerging body of work under the Archway Partnership is a need for higher education involvement in the area of improving public health. A project is currently in progress working with a local industry that has long been established in the community, employs over 1,000 workers, and is diligently working to remain competitive in an industry that has been significantly impacted by offshore competition. UGA’s College of Pharmacy and College of Public Health are actively working with the company in launching a Medication Therapy Management program that meets multiple objectives-improving worker health, reducing cost of healthcare for the company, and providing a critical vehicle for UGA research, service- learning, and outreach efforts as the project will involve all three elements. While work in the area of public health via the Archway Partnership Project is in its infancy, it is mentioned here due to its tremendous potential. Colquitt County Regional Medical Center, an active partner in the Archway Partnership Project, has engaged UGA resources within its planning efforts to meet the demands of a rapidly increasing population within its service delivery area and in response to overwhelming issues related to indigent care. The Archway Coordinator has recently been asked to serve on The Georgia Department of Public Health’s strategic planning Task Force, a request that emanated from the agency’s desire for greater higher education involvement in projects relating to public health. Looking forward, it is evident that Public Health Issues are an area in which the Archway Partnership, via the College of Public Health, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, and a multitude of other campus and University System of Georgia partners find substantive and meaningful engagement with local communities.

Conclusion
Mentioned here are but a few of the activities and focus areas encompassed by the Archway Partnership Project. It is truly difficult to articulate the depth and breadth of this effort. Though the project remains in its relative infancy, it has had significant impact upon both the host community and upon the University of Georgia Community. As UGA and Kennesaw State University were searching for a site that would showcase the very best on rural community development practices for a group of Chinese officials, they elected to bring them to Moultrie/Colquitt County and to share with them the work that was being done via the Archway Partnership Project. In assessing the success of the project, its most noteworthy accomplishment is the establishment of an effective conduit for communication and partnership that links the University to the public that it serves. Clearly, a close and effective working partnership is transformative in nature for both Georgia’s communities and for the University itself. It is hard to imagine how UGA can fully accomplish its land-grant mission without such a vehicle for two- way learning and communication.