Network hosts Wisconsin Idea forum for engagement practitioners, advocates

UW–Madison’s medical students are known for their service to the local community through long-standing and well-known programs like MEDiC and DOC. But they’re not acting alone. The medical students rely on Sharon Younkin, director of community service programs at the School of Medicine and Public Health, as their community partnerships and outreach expert. Working with an extensive array of community partners, Younkin spans the boundaries between campus and community on behalf of UW–Madison, giving life to the Wisconsin Idea.

These types of high-profile community engagement opportunities are often made possible by a UW–Madison staff member working behind the scenes with community partners. These engagement professionals maintain community relationships as students come and go, ensure that community needs are responsibly and respectfully met, and create new opportunities for UW–Madison to work together with communities to address complex issues.

Boundary-spanning engagement professionals like Younkin have organized across campus to form the Community Partnerships and Outreach (CPO) Staff Network. The CPO Staff Network offers professional development opportunities designed to help CPO staff improve quality and efficiencies in community partnerships and outreach work and advocates for the needs and interests of CPO staff with campus administrators.

To engage CPO staff and other interested members of the campus community in articulating values, identifying strengths and imagining opportunities around the Wisconsin Idea, the CPO Staff Network is hosting the Wisconsin Idea Forum for Community Engagement Practitioners and Advocates from 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, in the On Wisconsin Room of the Red Gym. Don Schutt and Harry Webne-Behrman from the Office of Human Resource Development will facilitate this participatory session, designed to examine the meaning of the Wisconsin Idea for individual practitioners, campus units, institutional systems and community partners.

Attendance at the event is free but registration is required at https://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/OHRDCatalogPortal/Default.aspx?tabid=29&CourseKey=27464.