Civic University
CIVIC UNIVERSITY
Our mission towards Civic University is built upon the foundations of the Queen’s University Social Charter, and ensures our local community is a priority and part of our purpose. This mission commits us to work strategically, collaboratively and with integrity to ensure we can successfully serve our place.
Forward South Partnership is an independent charity that works with community, schools, business, public and private sector partners to help regenerate and sustain a healthy and prosperous South Belfast.
We sit on the Forward South executive board and help steer the engagement in the area. We are also part of a citywide structure known as the Belfast Area Partnerships who have led community regeneration initiatives for over 20 years.
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Together with the Greater Shankill Partnership, a community-led regeneration agency in the Greater Shankill area of Belfast, we have a shared commitment to the framework that is the Greater Shankill Children and Young People Zone (the Zone).
The origins of the relationship between the University and the Greater Shankill Partnership lie primarily in the Zone, but engagement between our two organisations over the last decade has been high in volume and output across a number of areas and community groups.
The Market Development Association (MDA) was established in December 1995 to promote the well-being of all residents living in the Market area of South Belfast. It aims to develop the Market community into one where people want to live, work and socialise.
The Market Community is working with Queen’s Communities and Place (QCAP) as a pilot community to test interventions and trial solutions.
RCITY Belfast is a key partner committed to providing lasting opportunities in personal and social development, leadership learning and employability.
This continues to be implemented through collaborative work with the University’s Graduate School, and more recently in the delivery of Queen’s University Belfast Level 4 Certificate in Youth Leadership and Community Action (30 CATS).
Our research, teaching and engagement often takes us beyond our established partners, to work with a range of other collaborators in response to local needs.
Find out more about some innovative collaborations with community organisations, through programmes of work with:
CIVIC STRATEGY
Times Higher Education (THE) was commissioned by Queen’s University Belfast to undertake stakeholder research. This research focused on the university’s civic engagement with its partners, both locally and regionally, and had a number of key aims:
To understand general perceptions of Queen’s reputation
To explore how stakeholders perceive the contribution of Queen’s to the local / regional economy and society
To understand stakeholders’ perceptions of Queen’s brand and its communications
To understand how collaborators with Queen’s perceive the experience of engagement
To test elements of Queen’s strategy in the civic space
CONTEXT
Generally, civic engagement in higher education is agreed to be a university’s undertaking of the mission to make its local community a priority and part of its purpose. Understanding this, engaging the groups that form its local community – industry, government, education and the general public, amongst others – and working with them facilitates contribution that protects values and enables change.