Public Health Department Conference Room #2
Eastmont Mall, Oakland California
April 12, 2003

I. List of Attendees: (in Adobe pdf.)

II. Agenda: Lunch for early arrivals; Opening remarks by Councilmember Desley Brooks; Opening remarks, updates and review of first workshop action items by co-facilitators, David Glover and Emery Roe; Presentation on Trinity College partnership and outreach programs in Hartford by Jim Trostle; Workshop discussion and summary.

III. Introductory Points.
A. After introductions, Councilmember Brooks welcomed the group and provided background information on the initiative. David Glover and Emery Roe also provide updates and review of items raised from the first workshop and its minutes. Roia Ferrazares went over the packet of background material for the workshop, including an updated fact sheet on Mills College (a copy of which is attached to the email version of these minutes).

B. Review of first workshop recommendations:
1. Item: Invitation list should be widened for second workshop. Action: PROCESS BEGUN.

2. Item: Second workshop agenda and resource person should give attention to governance and funding issues of community partnerships along with other issues. Action: DONE (Trostle presentation for second workshop)

3. Item: Consideration should be given to attending the COPC—Community Outreach Partners Conference, April 25-27. Action: DONE (Brooks, Mayberry, Hanson, Workman and Ryan to attend).

C. Other activities arising out of the first workshop:
1. Emery met with Prince Solomon concerning the continuing campus/community efforts addressing the Mills campus’s closed back gate on Seminary Avenue.

2. Margo and Emery submitted a proposal for funds to develop a course in participatory action research involving Mills students and District 6 community participants.

3. Emery along with Mills development office have developed a project proposal for a District 6/Mills College community partnership website. Funding is being sought.

4. Siobhan Reilly had identified a book which addressed community partnerships and which Emery made available to any attendee interested: David J. Maurrase (2001), Beyond the Campus: How Colleges and Universities Form Partnerships with Their Communities, Routledge, New York. The book reviews four case studies and its forward is by Angela Glover Blackwell, a Mills alumna. David Glover took the lead in trying to arrange her attendance at the next workshop to discuss the book and other matters. Anyone interested in receiving a copy of Beyond the Campus should contact Emery or Roia.

IV. Presentation by James Trostle, Trinity College, Hartford, CT.
A. Jim gave a detailed presentation on Urban Initiatives at Trinity, including answering a variety of questions raised in the course of the presentation and afterwards. For ease of reference, his expanded version of overheads has been attached to the email version of these minutes.

B. Points raised during and after his presentation include:

• Trinity College did not have just one, but a variety of points of entry into the Hartford community, which he felt was a strategy to be recommended.
• He had been appointed to bring a greater degree of coordination and coherence to one set of programs, now coordinated under heading Urban Initiatives.
• He felt that college/partnerships require very strong and active support by the relevant college presidents or university chancellors. Commitments to such partnerships were best demonstrated through “hard money” lines in the college’s budget, including endowment funds. [This finding is supported in Beyond the Campus as well.] Foundation support had been helpful in the early stages of Trinity’s partnership efforts.
• An important part of the success of the Urban Initiatives is the extent to which community learning becomes core to Trinity courses taught and research. The goal was to ensure more and more courses included a community learning component/project.
• Sensitivity and understanding that “community” is really a plural noun, i.e., always communities.
• He thought that the proposed “empowerment model” for a District 6/Mills College partnership was closest in concept to the mission of the Trinity Center for Neighborhoods. More details can be found at the Trinity website, http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/ocir/program/neighborhood_revitalization.htm
• He recommended that one way of showing community support was to ensure new job announcements were released early to the neighboring communities, before being announced more widely.

V. Action Items for Third Workshop
A. Reports on the COPC conference should be presented by those who attended. Angela Glover Blackwell should also be invited to the third workshop.
B. Efforts to consolidate stakeholders involvement in the partnership should continue.
C. The next workshop should focus on specific projects which could be undertaken, so as to get the process started rather than wait for finalized planning of the overall partnership. Ideas included:
? The Mainstreet initiative
? Assets inventory
? A market analysis of student interest in and potential use of commercial development along the backside of campus
? Mills should investigate the option of early job listings for adjacent community members and having them posted at the Neighborhood Job Referral Center at Eastmont Town Center
? Potential student tours of Oakland should be investigated, thereby expanding student's community involvement and understanding of the larger city
? Mills should pursue having a future faculty meeting at the Eastmont Town Center facility
D. Based on information provided by Junious (which is attached) and work done by OCCUR, it was suggested that the next workshop have a presentation on the socio-demographic features of District 6
F. Mills should also undertake an inventory of what faculty and students are already doing in District 6 and prepare a handout summarizing this for the next workshop