Community Partnership Awards
Stanford's Office of Public Affairs initiated this program to honor the valuable partnerships that exist between Stanford and its neighbors, and to celebrate community efforts that successfully tackle real world problems and advance the public good. Award winners are selected based on their initiative, leadership, and involvement in projects that embody the spirit of genuine partnership and benefit the overall community. In each case, the projects have resulted in collaboration and better understanding between Stanford and communities of the Mid-Peninsula.
Congratulations to the 2013 Award Winners
Stanford Academic Alliance for Global Enrichment (SAAGE)
SAAGE is a community-based partnership between Bay Area high schools and Stanford’s Center for Latin American Studies that brings motivated high school students to campus for a year-long multi-disciplinary academic program of mentoring and supervision by Stanford professors and graduate students. Students from East Palo Alto Academy, Pescadero High School, and Puente de la Costa Sur Community Resource Center focus on Latin American studies including culture and society, political economy, ecology and environment. This is intended to facilitate students’ future academic and community-based work while deepening the understanding of the importance of the Latin American region for the world at large.
Founded in 2003, Stanford at the Tech, a partnership between Stanford’s Department of Genetics and the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, educates and excites the public about science, encourages K-12 students to become scientists, and gives Stanford graduate students and postdoctoral fellows the skills they need to effectively communicate science both in person and in written form. Stanford students and fellows act as docents, run hands-on genetic activities and explain science to students and visitors in ways that are entertaining and understandable. Stanford at The Tech also holds an annual Genetics Carnival at Overfelt High School in San Jose and participates in the Bay Area Science Festival which attracts over 50,000 people to AT&T Park in San Francisco where they engage in a variety of hands on science demonstrations to inspire young audiences.
Stanford GOALS is a multi-year Stanford Prevention Research Center program to evaluate an innovative, community-based approach to addressing childhood obesity. Stanford’s partners, the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula, Redwood City Police Activities League and Redwood City Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, identify youth at risk for obesity and engage them in developing healthy lifestyles. Children enrolled in GOALS participate in a health education program or an active intervention, which includes a team sports program, home visits to reduce screen time and improve the home food environment, and primary care provider follow-up. The partnership builds upon existing after school programming and also partners with Stanford Athletics to provide site visits from the Stanford student-athletes, visits to campus for mentoring programs, and on-campus field days. The GOALS partnership seeks to develop best practices to serve community youth and exemplifies the positive, communal nature of a partnership based on social change.
2012 Award Winners
DreamCatchers is an afterschool program that improves the education outcomes and health behaviors of low-income youth in Palo Alto. Initiated a few years ago by Stanford students, students and recent graduates lead the programs and serve in capacities ranging from Tutors to Site Directors. DreamCatchers works through a network of local partnerships with the Palo Alto Family YMCA, Palo Alto Adult School, Palo Alto Unified School District, and Palo Alto Housing Corporation to provide programs tailored to the specific needs of the youth and families.
Canopy is dedicated to protecting and growing the urban forest in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, and neighboring communities. With a shared goal to expand the urban forest, Canopy has provided countless Stanford students, staff and alumni with the volunteering opportunity to plant trees and improve our local environment. Canopy’s Healthy Trees, Healthy Kids! Program is a multi-year initiative to plant 1,000 shade trees and fruit trees that engages children and volunteers in educational activities and the planting of hundreds of trees on school grounds.
InnVision/Stanford Project on Hunger (SPOON)
InnVision partners with Stanford University students engaged in public service through a number of programs. SPOON – Stanford Project on Hunger, collects, saves and prepares unused, leftover food on campus for distribution to the hungry. SPOON originally worked with the Urban Ministry but now provides this program through InnVision and the Opportunity Services Center. InnVision and the Opportunity Center serve the needs of the homeless and those at-risk in the Midpeninsula area by providing a primary gateway for homeless families and individuals seeking shelter and resources that lead to self-sufficiency.
2011 Award Winners
- Peninsula Family Advocacy Program
- Peninsula Family Advocacy Program (FAP) is a partnership among the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Ravenswood Family Health Center. The group provides free legal assistance, education and referrals to low-income families and pregnant women from San Mateo and Santa Clara counties whose children are receiving medical care at partner sites.
- Redwood Environmental Academy of Leadership
- The Redwood Environmental Academy of Leadership (REAL) grew out of a Stanford K-12 Initiative grant called "Ecology: Learning by Doing and Making a Difference." It has grown into a Sequoia Union High School District academy program for environmental science education and stewardship. REAL uses Cordilleras Creek, which runs through the campus of Redwood High School, to engage students in hands-on ecology-based learning, creek restoration and research.
- Project Safety Net
- Project Safety Net is a task force charged with implementing a comprehensive community mental health plan to improve the well-being of youth in Palo Alto. The task force has focused on education, prevention and intervention to create a safety net and a series of suicide prevention programs for youth and teens in Palo Alto. The task force includes parents and professionals from nearly 30 partner organizations, including health care professionals from Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
Students and program administrators from Redwood High School accept the 2011 Stanford Community Partnership Award and commendations from local elected officials for the Redwood Environmental Academy of Leadership.