University Neighborhood Partners

WHAT IS UNP?
UNP builds university-community partnerships focused on resident-identified issues and opportunities. We do not run programs. Rather, we are a convener, bringing partners to the table to share ideas, identify common goals, and create their own initiatives. We are proactive in including voices that have historically been unheard in the decision-making that affects west side communities. Our work is to support those partnerships by encouraging active communication, relationship building, resource sharing, and capacity building.

OUR VISION
The University and west side neighborhoods share a vision of a community woven together through partnerships based on mutual empowerment, discovery, and learning rooted in diverse life experiences. By addressing systemic barriers to educational success, these collaborative partnerships foster increased access to higher education for community members, a University enriched by its involvement in the community, and an enhanced quality of life for all involved.

OUR VALUES
1) UNP is committed to mutual respect, empowerment and learning rooted in diverse life experiences.
2) Understanding and knowledge are furthered by the open, active and mutual sharing of information and resources.
3) Multiple kinds of knowledge and life experiences are central to address social, community, and University issues.
4) Knowledge is power and must be available to everyone.
5) It is the right of all people to have access to the greatest range of opportunities; it is the choice of each individual how to utilize these opportunities.

FEATURED PARTNERSHIP
If you choose to support UNP through Love UT Give UT, your donation will support our Youth Voices partnership. Youth Voices is a collaboration between UNP, the University of Utah Honors College, and the University of Utah Office of Engagement. Participants receive college credit for their involvement, and are supported in accessing higher education and career opportunties.

Youth Voices specifically engages young people as leaders in their communities. It is a diverse collective of high school aged students who use personal experience and community-based research to understand and address issues faced in west side communities. This is accomplished through facilitated meetings of youth participants that are held at UNP's Hartland Partnership Center.

These youth-led meetings help students from different cultural backgrounds connect and engage with one another around shared experiences of injustice in their neighborhoods, schools, and/or communities. Participants work collaboratively to understand and address social issues, empowering one another, to break down barriers of race, class, gender, sexuality, language, and culture. They develop creative solutions to these issues through collaborative action as community leaders promoting social change. Participants also start seeing these social issues, passions, and research interests as potential career and education opportunties, exposing them more fully to the realm of higher education.