Congratulations to Dr. Patti Coffey and Dr. Mike Koenigs, along with community partners Aaron Hicks, Frank Davis, and Ben Trolinger, recipients of a Community University Partnership Award! Their project, Best of Both Worlds: Partnership between Academia and Lived Experience for Youth Empowerment, received $5000 for Patti’s fall Issues in Prisoner Reentry capstone. The Community University Partnership Award provides recognition and support for exemplary and impactful collaborations between community organizations and UW-Madison faculty, staff, or graduate students.
Community-university collaborations, whether connected to research, teaching, or ongoing projects or initiatives, are a clear embodiment of the Wisconsin Idea and demonstrates UW’s interest in advancing research and knowledge relevant to Wisconsinites, as well as global communities. UW-Madison appreciates the continuous role community partners play in advancing such collaborations and shaping effective impacts.
Best of Both Worlds: Partnership between Academia and Lived Experience for Youth Empowerment
This project’s primary goal is to create a mentored experience for GROW Academy, a youth-focused program of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, that builds community connection, belonging, empowerment, and preparation to contribute and lead within their communities. A second goal is to build capacity within a community organization, The Voices of Power, to support at-risk youth, develop scalable models to transform communities, and partner with university educators and researchers to better understand and grow such models.