Universities partnering with the community through initiatives like the Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion (CSJI) enable them to make meaningful contributions to society.
These collaborations foster mutual benefits and create positive social impact through shared resources, expertise, and work-integrated learning experiences for students.
When universities act as ivory towers that are open to only a select few, they are not able to serve their community in meaningful ways. By opening our doors to community partners through the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion (CSJI), UTS has made significant contributions to the public good.
Social impact-oriented work should be part of every university’s mission, says Mitra Gusheh, CSJI Executive Manager for Social Impact.
It is critical for universities to recognise their role and responsibilities as public institutions. The reality is that no matter what universities choose to do – or choose not to do – they’re contributing to social change.
So, it’s really important for us to ensure that what we do is actually directed towards something that has intent and can make a positive contribution to society.
Fostering long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships sits at the very heart of such work because only by really listening to community partners can projects respond to community needs.
“It is about enabling, empowering, and supplementing, where we bring different knowledge sets together and it makes that valuable contribution,” says Gusheh.
One such partner is Oscar Sanchez, Coordinator at the Uniting Harris Community Centre, who works with individuals, families, groups, workers and students in Ultimo, Pyrmont and surrounding areas. The partnership between UTS and the Harris Centre has stretched over several decades and has been invaluable for both organisations.
“We strongly believe in the power of collaboration and sharing resources. We have had a mutually beneficial partnership with UTS that is centred around one aligned goal: community and connection,” says Sanchez.
Our partnership with UTS has had a huge impact. It helps us with fundraising, better engage with our community, building capacity in our staff and volunteers, and it helps us utilise the university’s assets and strengths.
The benefits of such partnerships are not only visible for professional projects, but also make an impact on students who gain access to work-integrated learning experiences through Shopfront, a CSJI program aimed at connecting students with community projects as part of the curriculum.
“We find that teaching is richer because students learn so much more when they work on real life projects and make a valuable contribution. What they are learning means so much more to them when it is something real and situated in society,” says Gusheh.
This is echoed by Sanchez, who has worked with Shopfront students as part of his collaboration with UTS on many occasions.
“We love working with Shopfront, it is a huge asset in our community. It means we have the expertise and knowledge from UTS, we have the students with their creativity and energy, and we have the connection with the community.
“We see that together we can do so much more, and we can see that the impact we have in our community is only possible when working together and believing in each other," Sanchez concludes.
The Uniting Harris Community Centre or the Harris Centre has been partnering with UTS for
many years, and the partnership even started before I came about. It extends beyond the
individuals to an institutional partnership.
The partnership with UTS helps us in many different ways. It helps us with fundraising. It helps
us to better engage with our community. It helps us by building capacity in our staff and
volunteers.
The centre manages a program called Shopfront and the work of Shopfront is really to act as a
gateway between the University and community. The then lead of Shopfront spent a lot of time
establishing relationships with community organisations, and I think what's really rich about this
program is that it begins its work by really listening to community and beginning to set an
agenda for what projects might look like based on community needs.
We love working with Shopfront. Shopfront is a huge asset in our community. It connects
students to community projects. We work in projects that benefit both the community and the
University. We strongly believe in sharing our assets and resources. We value collaboration very
highly, and I can see that UTS believes in that.
Through the relationship, we have managed to build trust and the social capital to do the work
that we do in society. Without that relationship with the community centres and with community
organisations, we simply would not be able to do this. Ultimately, it really enables us, as in UTS,
our institution, to fulfil its mission in terms of its contribution to social justice and social impact.