2006-10-20 Engaging with a Community
Today's StarTribune had a good front-page story on the burgeoning alliance between the University of Minnesota and the North Side of Minneapolis. The article focuses on the work of Prof. Dante Cicchetti to set up a family center at which "children and adults from across the Twin Cities will receive research-based treatments for child abuse, depression and other problems that tear families apart." However, it notes that the family center is part of a broader partnership "that will also [bring] a business incubator, child development center and other projects to the area."
This proposed partnership, which also includes Hennepin County, has provoked more than a little controversy in the North Side community, some of whose residents viewed the center as "a white institution experimenting on black children". However, as more efforts were made to explain the concept and scope of the project to the community, and to work not just with community leaders but also with groups of concerned citizens, most attitudes have shifted to being strongly supportive.
This is a remarkably ambitious project, which might have had a smoother start had the ground been prepared more carefully, but which now seems on a good path. If approved by the University of Minnesota Regents it will be a long-term venture, which will stretch financial, academic, and community resources to their limits; but which has the promise of great returns to both the community and the university. As Robert Jones (Senior Vice President for System Academic Administration at the U) said, "...we're an urban university and we need a stronger urban agenda."