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Stronger Together!

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Around 80 people attended the Stronger Together workshop on May 21st, at the University of Utah. The event was hosted by the U of U Nonprofit Network of Campus Community Leaders in partnership with the Mellon Foundation, the University of Utah School of Public Affairs, and University Neighborhood Partners (UNP). This was a follow-up to a similar workshop put on in November of 2025.

Attendees included a combination of community members, university faculty and staff, and nonprofit professionals. As the name suggests, the Stronger Together workshop provided a space for networking, learning, and reflection among peers in order support effective community engagement and ultimately build stronger communities for us all.

Overhead shot of participants networking at the Stronger Together workshop event.     Portrait of panelists Rian Liew, Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, and Mayra Sanchez. Jennifer is speaking through the microphone.     Photo of participants engaged in the panelist presentation.

This year’s workshop featured a panel on the new Eccles Health Campus, a healthcare facility that is being constructed in West Valley City, projected to be fully completed and open in 2029. Panelists Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, Mayra Sanchez, and Rian Liew talked about the importance of campus-community partnerships in making this possible. Effective community partnership was a key theme throughout the workshop. It showed up when Kimberly Schmit and Dr. Miguel Trujillo talked about the model and impact of University Neighborhood Partners (UNP), as well as in conversation with Dr. Melissa Hall about a series of community-based research projects being conducted by the Huntsman Cancer Institute.  Keri Taddie, from the Mountain View Glendale Community Learning Center and Dr. Adrienne Cachelin provided a continuum of campus-community partnership examples born from fifteen years of ongoing relationships.

Portrait of panelists Rian Liew, Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, and Mayra Sanchez. Mayra is speaking through the microphone.     Photo of participants engaged in the panelist presentation.     Portrait of Kimberly Schmidt, UNP Director of Community Praxis, Tanya Flores, College of Education Associate Dean, Dr. Jesus Valero, School of Public Affairs Associate Professor, Kiona Osterlin, Social Work Practicum Student, and Cosette Robinson, Social Work Practicum Student.

Attendees of the Stronger Together event gave feedback that the workshop was engaging, inspiring, and hopeful. As well, the opportunity to network with a wide variety of other community leaders was appreciated. One participant said, “I loved getting to connect with so many great people. I even made connection that will now be part of our LAS Practicum Program!” It is our hope that they will carry this message that we are “stronger together” into their research, organizations, university classrooms, and communities.

If you are interested in attending the upcoming UNP Community Partnerships Course, which dives deeper into some of the themes of the workshop, contact Kimberly to register or get more information at k.schmit@partners.utah.edu before July 1st.