Charlotte’s urbanCORE Initiative Is Exemplary Says APLU

August 30, 2024 CStandard

UNC Charlotte urbanCORE’s Community Innovation Incubator initiative has been named an Exemplary Program by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The grant-funded initiative supports community-engaged projects in six identified “Corridors of Opportunity” throughout Charlotte, which will be showcased later this year at the 2024 Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s Annual Conference. The recognition is part of APLU’s annual W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship.

urbanCORE (Community-Oriented Research and Engagement), the hub of UNC Charlotte’s engaged scholarship ecosystem, assesses and advances efforts that connect the University’s interdisciplinary, urban research resources to community assets to coproduce transformative solutions to societal issues and challenges. Through the first Corridors of Opportunity project, Charlotte faculty joined community leaders to create a blueprint for a for-profit, cooperative grocery store along Charlotte’s West Boulevard, an historically Black neighborhood that has not had a grocery store in more than 30 years. Its success prompted Bank of America to invest $1 million to support the five remaining innovation incubator projects.

“UNC Charlotte thanks the APLU for recognizing urbanCORE’s engagement with our community to drive economic growth and opportunity throughout Charlotte through the Community Innovation Incubators Initiative,” said UNC Charlotte Provost Jennifer Troyer. “Receiving national recognition is a testament to the University’s role as North Carolina’s urban public research university.”

Other institutions noted by APLU for exemplary programs are Purdue University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Member universities announced as regional winners of the 2024 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award are East Carolina University, the University of Minnesota, Oregon State University and West Virginia University. These institutions will compete for the national C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award to be announced in November.

“Participatory action research, a bedrock approach to convening community partners used by many Charlotte faculty and facilitated by urbanCORE, holds promise for creating lasting community transformation,” said Byron P. White, associate provost for urban research and community engagement. “As work in the Corridors of Opportunity continues, we look forward to sharing results that will make a difference to communities everywhere.”

Since 2007, APLU and the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, have partnered to honor the engagement scholarship and partnerships of four-year public universities. The award recognizes programs that demonstrate how colleges and universities have redesigned their learning, discovery, and engagement missions to deepen their partnerships and achieve broader impacts in their communities. The national award is named for C. Peter Magrath, APLU president from 1992 to 2005.

A team of community engagement professionals from public research universities judged this round of the award. A second team will pick the national winner following presentations at the 2024 National Engagement Scholarship Conference.

“Congratulations to the regional winners of the Kellogg Community Engagement Scholarship Awards and exemplary projects,” said APLU President Mark Becker. “Community engagement is a critical part of public universities’ mission and we’re pleased to highlight the work of institutions that are instrumental to solving the most pressing challenges facing their communities through partnerships with other stakeholders.”

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