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Each
year Outreach programs serve more than 8,000 people engaged in active learning.
Our audiences range from youthful summer campers to Learning in Retirement
devotees and everybody in between — health and human services professionals,
government employees, K-12 educators, small business owners and other business
people, high school students taking college courses and busy working adults
pursuing their lifelong dream of earning a UW bachelor’s degree. We know, from participant program evaluations and from our numerous community advisory boards, that Outreach-sponsored learning experiences have made a difference in the lives of the people of our region and state and brought about a growing appreciation for UW-Green Bay from our community. Examples of programs that we have been told have made a difference include several major conferences early on for teachers and professionals about the culture of the then newly arriving Hmong population, Spanish for Educators, Diversity Circles, Critical Issues for Faith Communities, Bridges Out of Poverty, and a whole array of efforts designed to contribute to our area’s economic development, including the well-received H.Y.P.E. initiative for young professionals downtown. Another difference-maker has been our Small Business Development Center, which is part of the Business Assistance Center partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, NWTC, Urban Hope and others. In addition, students in our revitalized Interdisciplinary Studies Adult Degree Program, which makes earning a bachelor of arts degree possible for busy working adults, tell us how thankful they are for the access this program offers. Partnerships are the cornerstone of Outreach. Each year we partner with 50 or more organizations and groups and form planning committees and advisory boards to help us make our offerings relevant and useful. Faculty expertise and advice underpin everything we do. Our programs reflect our institutional mission and our faculty’s intellectual passions. Our best program ideas have come from faculty who approach us with an idea, which we always embrace when we believe the community will support the economic viability of the idea. Examples of these programs include the Dying, Death and Bereavement Institute and many related successful conferences and workshops, Brain-Based Learning, Infant Toddler Caregivers conferences, Spanish Language and Mexican Culture for Business, the Emergency Management Certificate Program, Digital Art, Cancer and Nutrition, Teaching American History for school teachers, many courses for teachers from the Space Grant Consortium, the burgeoning Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Institute, and the Spanish Immersion Summer Camp. TOP OF NEXT COLUMN |
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Outreach
program managers are the engine that drives Outreach. These talented people
stay in touch with their respective audiences to continually assess needs
and, in partnership with UW-Green Bay faculty, design and deliver learning
experiences to meet these needs. Program managers nurture relationships
and partnerships with their constituents and faculty. They are able to see
the possibilities in the landscape and, most importantly, they know how
to follow through to take a good idea and make it happen. They take risks and aren’t afraid of failing, and when they do fail, they learn from the experience. They are comfortable starting out the year with zero dollars at their disposal, knowing that they must generate enough revenue to pay for part if not all of their salaries and the salaries of others who support them. They work hard. They say, “yes.” In other words, program managers are the heroes of Outreach. When they find the intersections between faculty interests and community need, it’s like finding gold, especially when the audience is able to pay for the programs and services offered. That’s good because all of what we do needs to be supported through fees that people are willing to pay. All in all, the Division of Outreach and Adult Access receives just under 12 percent of its budget from UW-Green Bay’s state resources. We leverage these monies to bring in UW-Extension funds, federal funds and program revenue from participants to pay for Outreach salaries and other considerable expenses associated with supporting and maintaining the Division and program delivery including faculty salaries, speakers’ fees, and promotional materials. The resulting $3 million in additional educational programming is a huge gain for our region. People on campus enjoy the results, too. Outreach contributes more than $700,000 to UW-Green Bay’s economy each year in the form of additional income opportunities for faculty, revenue shares with faculty units, increased business for campus auxiliaries, and support for community initiatives on behalf of, and giving visibility to, UW-Green Bay. When Chancellor Shepard talks “entrepreneurship,” or Provost Sue Hammersmith describes her vision of the role Outreach can play in helping the campus achieve its community goals, they’re speaking our language. For more information about Outreach, I invite you to peruse the Web site http://www.uwgb.edu/outreach/PlansAndReports.htm where we have posted our annual reports. These reports detail all of the programs and initiatives we have offered, the partnerships we have forged, and the faculty with whom we have worked. Outreach staff looks forward to continuing to work with faculty to make a difference in the lives of the people of our region and state and to helping UW-Green Bay achieve its goals with the community while making an economic contribution to the campus. Thank you for this opportunity to share our story. Jan Thornton |
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