On May 8, 2026, 76 people from the University of Rochester and Greater Rochester community gathered at Staybridge Suites for the second annual community-engaged learning summit, “Action in Concert: Summit for Collective Impact.” Co-sponsored by the Center for Community Engagement, Partners for Campus-Community Engagement, and RASE (the Commission on Racial and Structural Equity) led by Urban League of Rochester, this summit was intended to gather across the sector of community-university partnerships in the spirit of joining our efforts to address issues of mutual concern.
The day began with a keynote panel about collaborative leadership, facilitated by Dr. Hank Rubin from the Institute for Collaborative Leadership and featuring the lived experience and reflections of Brian Lewis from Roc the Future Alliance; Dr. Shaun Nelms, Vice President for Community Partnerships at the University of Rochester; and Aqua Porter from Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Alliance. Following the panel, attendees disbursed to attend breakout presentations facilitated by community leaders, community-engaged learning faculty, and students. Breakout presentations included how to embody motivation-to-action; immigrant farmworkers advocacy efforts; redistributing surplus medical supplies and equipment to promote health equity; how to build impactful teams; creating sustainable pathways from homelessness to leadership; and leveraging cross-sector workplace collaboration to improve financial stability of community members. Attendees came back together to enjoy lunch catered by Foodlink Community Café and debrief on themes from the day, including identifying changes that they wanted to bring back to their own work and community. As one attendee reflected, “Sometimes it takes multiple conversations to get to action – great to keep momentum high!”
This year’s attendee demographics reflect the growing capacity of the summit to facilitate community-university partnerships. Of the 76 people who attended, 75% came from our Greater Rochester community and 25% were connected to the University of Rochester by employment. For comparison, the inaugural summit saw 53% coming from our Greater Rochester community and 47% connected to the University of Rochester by employment. Furthermore, 28% of the breakout presenters and panelists this year self-described as being from the Academic sector, and 72% from the Nonprofit/NGO sector.
The reach of this year’s summit was highlighted by one attendee, who shared, “It was special to see so many community partners and community engaged community members present. I was so happy to see other schools present and students as well – picking up the mantle. The sessions spoke to our collective values – and it was refreshing to see an open embrace of equity-centered conversation. I thought the sessions were capacity-building – happy to see how presenters were developing their voice as leaders through this process (and happy to see new leaders coming into the pipeline from lived experience!).”
Highlights from the day, including photographs, group debriefings, and a copy of the program, can be found in a public folder here.
written by Megan Lovely, Program Manager of Community-Engaged Learning
