Welcome to this September issue of 2022 AITF News. As usual, feel free to share your thoughts on how AITF can be a useful resource.

These autumn months are always significant for AITF, as much of our work in a given year takes further shape. One of AITF’s newer traditions at this time of year is the unveiling of a new cohort of Anchor Fellows. This program, established a few years ago as a way of strengthening the pipeline of future anchor institution leaders sharing AITF’s values, is on its third cohort.  

We are excited and pleased to announce with new group.

Congratulations to our new Fellows! This cohort will begin their fellowship experience in January. Over the course of a calendar year, our Fellows connect with seasoned leaders of engaged institutions and are immersed in the internal and external considerations in building and sustaining effective mutually transformative anchor institution-community partnerships.  

This new cohort includes representatives of urban and rural communities, and includes our first Fellow from beyond the U.S. Some of these Fellows are already involved in AITF Subgroups. Our Fellows come to us through nominators. In this year’s group, all of our Fellows came to us through existing AITF members.  

Thanks very much to our nominators for your contributions toward a next generation of engaged anchor leaders. Thanks as well to our hosts/mentors, who are from our Advisory Council, the Higher Education Presidential Subgroup, other subgroups, and AITF’s broader membership. These anchor leaders and their partners have taken time out of their busy schedules to share their wisdom with Fellows. We would also like to express our continued appreciation to the Teagle Foundation, which continues to support the Anchor Fellows Program.

As we acknowledge the essential role that anchor institutions can play in strengthening local communities and solving pressing challenges through democratic collaboration with local partners, it is important to recognize the significant role of anchor leaders in enabling this kind of community engagement. With so many impactful and influential leaders in our field transitioning out of their positions, the need to forge a larger pool of future anchor leaders who support AITF’s values is as urgent as ever.  

Our Fellows Program is one, among a multitude of strategies required to sustain deeper anchor institution community partnerships going forward. We look forward to working with our prior, current, and new cohorts of Fellows during this pivotal period in our movement. Thanks to all of our Fellows for your current and future contributions to this work.

Guidebook: Raising the Bar

A new guidebook drafted by experts convened by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has set forward to provide actionable recommendations for how healthcare organizations can address health equity. The guidebook, Raising the Bar, outlines a set of five foundational principles that RWJF and partner organizations said can help healthcare organizations actually deliver on the promise of health equity.

CUMU 2022 Annual Conference 

The Essential Role of Urban and Metropolitan Universities

October 23–26, 2022 | San Diego, CA

The CUMU Annual Conference is highly regarded as a vibrant platform to explore and share new ideas. We invite you to join us in San Diego for knowledge sharing and networking opportunities with 130+ presentations, networking events, and community experiences.

University of Arizona Gets Funding to Support and Develop Native Entrepreneurs - from Arizona Mirror

September 7 - Entrepreneurs from Arizona’s tribal nations can develop their small businesses with help from the University of Arizona through a new program aimed at providing support for developing tribal economies. The program, dubbed Native FORGE, will provide and facilitate high-quality entrepreneurship development and support services to underserved communities in Tucson and the 22 federally recognized Tribes in Arizona, according to the University of Arizona.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Completes 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment to Help Understand and Strengthen Its Neighborhood - from businesswire

September 1 - Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) completed the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), part of the hospital’s continual commitment to better understand the health of its primary “neighborhood” – Los Angeles County – and the people who live there. 

Historically Black Colleges and Universities Play a Key Role in States' Digital Equity Plans - from Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

August 26 - Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are community anchors with the influence and expertise that states need as they prepare for unprecedented federal broadband funding to equitably close the digital divide in the United States. “HBCUs are bedrock centers of learning,” said Alan Davidson, U.S. Department of Commerce assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information and NTIA administrator. “Too often, HBCUs and MSIs have been left behind when it comes to having access to [broadband].”

A New Study Finds That Implementing Wireless Broadband Networks “to-and-through” Anchor Institutions Is Often the Most Effective Option for Connecting Students and Underserved Households - from GCN

August 23 - In an effort to close the digital divide for rural and underprivileged communities, the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) and New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) released an economic study that finds implementing wireless broadband networks “to-and-through” anchor institutions “is often the most financially sustainable and effective option for connecting students and underserved households,” the SHLB said in an Aug. 17 statement. 

How Can Institutions Play an Anchoring Role in Communities? - from University World News 

August 11 - South African universities are largely located in communities characterized by poverty, inequality, unemployment and social decay. While South African universities have adopted a broad, engaged scholarship approach, becoming an anchor institution seeks deeper, conscious and strategic endeavors towards more tangible local outcomes, without compromising national and international competitiveness.

Health Equity Relies on Healthcare Orgs as Anchor Institutions - from PatientEngagementHIT

August 8 - Experts at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston, UK have provided tailored support to hundreds of local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in recent years. Sue Smith, Professor of Innovation and Enterprise, says: “SMEs are the backbone of our country’s economy and universities like ourselves have much to offer across all sectors. Adding demonstrable value to the region’s SMEs and supporting student enterprise are key priorities that we are committed to as a civic university and anchor institution.”

Cleveland Library Helping to Create a Better Community - from Spectrum News 1

August 8 - Cleveland Public Library hosted a safety and health education event for kids. The goal was to get kids connected with Cleveland organizations

including Cleveland Water, Cleveland Metroparks and Cleveland Police Department. Whitney Johnson, a children’s librarian for Cleveland Public Library, explained the event. “We are having our CLE Connect program for kids and this program is to connect kids with just the different resources and things in their area,” she said.