Director's Note

As I sit down to write this, I’m just over two months into the amazing journey of being UNP’s new director, and am still continually amazed and challenged by the complexity of the partnership work that has grown over the 13 years since UNP opened its doors.

We joke as a staff about the number of times we’ve tried, with varied success, to come up with a concise ‘elevator pitch’ that conveys the heart of UNP’s work in a simple way. And ultimately we know that the work will always demand that our elevator pitch lead to a more lengthy discussion . . . at least as long as our audience will listen. But at the same time, we can identify the core aspects of UNP’s work and where our sights should be set right now.

The longer I’m part of UNP, and the longer I watch the work unfold between higher education and community partners, the more I think of webs of connections.

I look at the photograph of me pointing at my contribution to the swarm of painted hand-prints and bees on the hive that is part of the new Jordan Park mural, and I think of all the connections that had to be made to bring that mural to life: from neighbors across the street on 900 West to the Salt Lake City Planning Department to the U of U College of Architecture + Planning to the artists and the energy from the Sorenson Unity Center, and everything in between.

I can see these partnership connections building on each other, getting denser every year: connections between parents and kids in a Community Advocate family who get interested in college, between Hartland Resident Committee members and U of U faculty and students, among faculty and students themselves, between Westside Leadership Institute graduates and opportunities to change the future of the city through City Council positions or non-profit boards, and new faculty positions designed with an emphasis on communityengaged learning.

Connections are at the heart of UNP, and we are in an exciting period where those connections are beginning to reach up into the systems that influence the lives of people in west side neighborhoods -- whether at schools or the university or city government or other places -- and begin to see those systems change and adapt as they are influenced (or pressed) in new ways though those connections.

When partnerships create more effective ways for parents and schools to communicate with each other, both are changed. When connections between city government and resident voice become closer, new opportunities come to life, like the Community Improvement & Outreach grant that funded the Jordan Park mural—a grant that was created to encourage small resident groups to come up with ideas to improve their own neighborhoods.

As the examples build, the connections can lead to long-term system change from the ground up. None of these changes happen, though, without effort, intent, and investment of time and passion and resources. I hope that we will continue to push ourselves, all of us, towards these long-term changes.

Our success as a community depends on it.

I believe that UNP’s investment in connections is what makes our work so powerful and the impact of the partnerships so deep. It’s what sets us apart from others: we recognize that long-term community change is multi-directional. Reducing barriers to educational and other opportunities, which is part of UNP’s mission, is not only about connecting people to resources, it is about understanding why those barriers exist in the first place and engaging the experience and wisdom of the people affected by them to build a different future. Sarah has held nearly every staff position available at UNP since 2003. She became the director in July 2015.