High Impact Partner Initiative
The HIP initiative is an effort to recognize, elevate, and deepen mutually beneficial relationships with community partners in order to strengthen the impact of Colorado College in the city of Colorado Springs. Designated "high impact partners" share organizational values with the college and engage in deep, reciprocal, multifaceted, sustained institutional partnerships with students and faculty in areas of need identified by these community partners.
The initiative seeks to unite campus and community stakeholders in the work of co-creating partnerships: (1) in which students and faculty meaningfully contribute to organizational missions, (2) that provide developmental pathways that cultivate in CC students the habits and skills needed to be effective change makers in their post-graduate lives, and (3) that support the educational mission of the College though connections to teaching and research.
High Impact Partner Values
The Collaborative for Community Engagement at Colorado College identifies community partners in the Colorado Springs community around the values listed below. These values reflect best practices in the fields of community engagement in higher education, and are also intended to establish the foundation for partnerships between the college and community grounded in mutuality and integrity.
- Deep - Organizations that engage in transformational partnerships with Colorado College where they seek to create change while being changed.
- Reciprocal - Organizations that engage in partnerships with Colorado College that are mutually beneficial, capacity-building for the mission of the organization and the educational mission of the college, balancing student learning and community impact.
- Multi-faceted - Organizations that offer diverse opportunities and connect with multiple areas of the college (e.g. academic departments, cocurricular programs, etc.).
- Sustainable - Organizations in the Colorado Springs community that support long term opportunities for students, have committed staff or representation to maintaining relations, and are open and adaptable.
- Shared Values - Organizations that share a commitment to honoring the life of the mid, valuing all persons and seek to learn from diverse experiences and perspectives, practice honesty and integrity, serve as good organizational stewards, cultivate ethic of sustainability and social responsibility and see excellence.
How are High Impact Partners Identified?
Annually, the CCE collects data from partners across the campus of community organizations CC has partnered or collaborated with that academic year.
That information is reviewed to identify community organizations who have engaged with multiple areas of the college or in diverse ways. The CCE then gathers additional information from campus partners on the nature of the partnership with these organizations to further assess their alignment with the core values of the HIP initiative.
View our current list of High Impact Partners!
For more information, please contact the Assistant Director for Community Partnerships, Niki Sosa Gallegos (nsosa@coloradocollege.edu).