Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund announces new awards

Every Bear Goes Home is a collaborative effort of public-safety personnel, students and administrators, seeking to reduce injury and loss of life in the campus community.

The Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund has announced the 2014-15 award recipients for projects focused on education, arts, math and sciences, economic development and community safety.  Entering its ninth year, the fund will award a total of $202,264 to 11 partnerships between local community members and UC Berkeley students, faculty and staff. The fund has awarded $1.86 million since 2006.

UC Berkeley created the Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund to strengthen the campus’s support of the Berkeley community. Grants are awarded in two categories: community service programs that enhance the economic, social or cultural well-being of Berkeley residents, and neighborhood-improvement projects that enhance the physical environment of the city’s neighborhoods.

“The fund builds bridges by connecting the campus and the community through research, public service and engaged scholarship — and we all benefit,” said Chancellor Nicholas Dirks. “It is with great pride that I support all of the work we do to strengthen relationships and partnerships with our local Berkeley community.”

This year’s 11 winning projects were selected from a pool of 59 proposals totaling nearly $2 million in funding requests. Among them:

• AP/IB Berkeley High Study Group Leaders is a collaboration between Berkeley High and UC Berkeley undergraduates who serve as study-group leaders for a diverse group of Berkeley High students. This project seeks to address the current underrepresentation of black and Latino students from low-income backgrounds in AP and IB courses.
• Bay Area Book Festival, the first annual event isJune 6-7, 2015, in downtown Berkeley and at selected campus venues. It will feature 150 of the world’s leading authors on panels and stages, coupled with an outdoor fair showcasing independent bookstores, literary nonprofits, arts organizations and businesses.
• Every Bear Goes Home is a collaborative effort of public-safety personnel, students and administrators, seeking to reduce injury and loss of life in the campus community. A partnership between Berkeley Fire and Police, and UCPD and the IFC, this program delivers an honest, hard-hitting and aggressive presentation on ways to stay safe during students’ college years.
• Making Local History: Student Collected Oral Histories of the Free Speech Movement will pilot curricular materials in CAL Prep’s ethnic-studies class on the Free Speech Movement to be developed by UC Berkeley’s History Social Science Project.
• Partnership for STEM in Berkeley Middle Schools: “Be a Scientist” will engage UC faculty and students in guiding seventh-graders through the process of designing, conducting and presenting a scientific investigation, consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards.

“I congratulate UC Berkeley and Chancellor Dirks on their ongoing commitment to strengthening partnerships between the university and the community through the Partnership Fund,” said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. “By working together, we can continue to make Berkeley a stronger, healthier and more vibrant community.”

“I am thrilled and proud to be a partner with ‘Every Bear Goes Home,’ a program created by Berkeley Fire Department firefighter Kristin Tucker designed to educate and reduce alcohol-related harm,” said UCPD Chief Margo Bennett. “The potential impact of this partnership is invaluable, and I look forward to working with Kristin to bring about cultural change and awareness on the Berkeley campus.”

More information on the 2014-15 community partnership grant recipients is available as a PDF, and the 2006-2014 Community Report about the fund is available for download at the fund website.