Working with People and Building on Experiential Knowledge

The work I did as a student with University Neighborhood Partners put my life on a trajectory that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

My first interaction with UNP was when I was working on my master’s degree in Public Administration and was a research assistant for Luke Garrott. He taught a neighborhood governance class in partnership with UNP. What we did as part of the class was to learn about how neighborhood governance works, specifically through community councils on the west side.

Part of our research was on how to support greater resident participation, and the other part was on how to plan a community festival, which is what the Rose Park Community Council had decided it wanted to do. The class divided in half, and I worked with the group that worked to develop the festival. That’s where I really learned about permitting and all the steps you need to take, and we did it working hand in hand with the community.

It was through this class that I found out about what UNP does: working with people and building on experiential knowledge. Trying to not only use that knowledge to inform academic research, but to translate theory into the practical world to inform problem-solving.

As a result of that neighborhood work, I later geared my dissertation research around neighborhood governance. It was that experience that let me entertain the idea of running for office, and it helped me win. My whole philosophy when I ran for office was “boots on the ground,” talking to people and interacting with them in a real way.

I moved to the west side around 1999. I first fell in love with the Rose Park area while working for the City as a constituent liaison for the west side.

The philosophy of UNP is the appreciation of people’s knowledge, whether it’s from working with people, studying with people, or living in their neighborhood. It’s researching in the midst of the community. It’s not putting people behind glass and studying them.

So now I’m the director of the Office of Community Empowerment for the Mayor of Salt Lake City. That means seeking out citizen-based knowledge to inform policy in the city. Part of this is allocating resources. So we’re working with UNP and others to gain an understanding of the community.

We do have formalized community councils, which are important. But people gather in other ways, too. UNP has helped us identify those groups and begin working with them. When it comes to local government, people are going to be engaged depending on their interest. But it’s important to maintain the ethic of going to where the people are at.

For me, this is the new standard, the way things should be.

Jen first worked with UNP as a University of Utah graduate student in 2004 and later served for eight years on the Utah House of Representatives. She is currently finishing a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Utah.