SCoRE is thrilled to announce that we have co-authored a chapter in the new volume, Navigating Dynamic Campus-Community Relationships: How Colleges and Universities Engage with Demographic Shift, published in September by Campus Compact and Routledge/Taylor & Francis. The book “explores how higher education institutions and their community partners adapt and reimagine engagement practices in response to shifting demographics.” Chapter 1, titled "Place-Keeping Amidst Erasure: Community Engagement in a Changing Atlanta,” was co-written by SCoRE’s senior director, Jennifer Hirsch, together with our associate director, Ruth Yow; SCoRE’s community partners – Darryl Haddock, special projects director at the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA), and Fred Stevens, president and principal consultant of ReGen Community Advisory Inc.; and two other Georgia Tech colleagues – Chris Burke, executive director of community relations, and Sarah Brackmann, director of Community-based Learning.
Our chapter explores the role of place-keeping initiatives in strengthening university-community relationships, specifically those between Georgia Tech and its westside partners. It unfolds historical dynamics of displacement and white flight in Atlanta, setting the stage for an examination of Georgia Tech’s community engagement efforts over the past fifteen years. Detailing two examples of place-keeping collaborations on Atlanta’s westside - an outdoor classroom designed and built with WAWA and an oral history project conducted with ReGen Community Advisory – the chapter describes elements that contributed to those successful collaborations and details several lessons learned.
Chapter 8 is another Georgia case study that may be of interest to our community. “Small City, Big Dreams: The Development and Growth of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Rural Georgia” is co-authored by Dominique Halaby, associate vice president for innovation at Georgia Southern University, and his community partner, Allen Muldrew, executive director of the Downtown Statesboro (Georgia) Development Authority.
Overall, the volume offers diverse and authentic perspectives on the challenges that universities face engaging in societal shifts of gentrification and displacement. We are eager for the book to be read, shared, and taught! If you are interested in using the book or our chapter in a class or for a discussion with colleagues, we are eager to support you! Feel free to get in touch: Jennifer Hirsch, Ruthie Yow.