For a non-profit organization who has enhanced the quality of life in the community in meaningful and measurable ways and engaged in the development of sustained, reciprocal partnerships with a college or university.
Posters and certificates will be made available. Hover over image to see the recipient’s bio.
Through all of this, the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association (NHLRA) has been a lifeline to those in the industry. Throughout the past year, representatives from NHLRA have served on the Governor’s Economic Re-Opening Task Force and they have partnered with New Hampshire Travel & Tourism to create Rally for NH Restaurants, a grassroots campaign to promote restaurants and highlight ways the community could support restaurants through the winter months. They have been a critical intermediary to businesses, many of them small and independent, helping to identify and match those businesses to resources made available through myriad federal relief programs. NHLRA also launched the New Hampshire Hospitality Employee Relief Fund, raising nearly $350,000 and providing grant support to more than 750 individual employees affected by the pandemic.
None of these efforts comes as a surprise to us, because the NHLRA has long been a valued partner of Granite State College, teaming up to create professional development programs that strengthen the hospitality workforce and create opportunities for professional growth that can turn jobs into careers and that can strengthen the industry. Through this partnership, NHLRA has been an advocate for the restaurant and lodging industry in New Hampshire, sharing expertise to co-create industry-valued curriculum from management to leadership, customer service, and conflict resolution to human resources and managing operations.
Every day, the NHLRA strives to improve the hospitality industry, whether it's bringing new business to its door, raising funds to support the industry, or supporting the next generation of industry leaders. Throughout the pandemic, they have actively promoted and made visible the ways in which New Hampshire’s Hospitality businesses have adapted to the crisis, adopted safe practices, and found news ways to continue to support both their customers and their workforce.
For all of these reasons, Granite State College is proud to recognize the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association as our 2021 Campus Compact New Hampshire President’s Community Partner Award.
HFRD has gone above and beyond in what they do on a day to day basis, particularly in collaborating with many departments on campus. This year they have focused on working with the Wellness Center in responding to traditional medical calls, with a particular focus on Covid-19. The responders have placed themselves in high-risk situations when responding to both medical and mental health calls with high professionalism.
HFRD continues to work with the College's Emergency Response Team to enhance crisis protocols. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Henniker Fire and Rescue have provided trainings for Residential Life and have been active in an array of on-campus educational activities. They welcome conversations on how we can continue to improve collaborative care for our students. We are so grateful and appreciate for this important partnership that enhances the quality of life at NEC and Henniker.
Founded in 1994 by Deborah Shakespeare Thurber, the non-profit organization has taken student-actors to perform in London, in 2018, Romeo and Juliet at The Dell, the Royal Shakespeare Company's outdoor theater. They produce an annual holiday production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and staged readings. Locally, they collaborate with the Peterborough Children and the Arts Festival, the Jaffrey-Rindge Shakespeare Festival and the Fitzwilliam Fantasy Faire.
Project Shakespeare includes summer plays and year-round educational programs in both public and home schools as well as ````One Play in One Week```` programming during school breaks. The organization works with local Chambers of Commerce, schools, churches, Jaffrey-Rindge Rotary club, and others throughout the year.
In concert with Franklin Pierce University's Big Read grant in 2016, Project Shakespeare, first came to University's Rindge Campus for a staged reading. The success of that project resulted in the follow-up project of the week-long workshop ````One Play in One Week```` involves local middle and high school students and University faculty and staff who meet, practice, and prepare a full-fledged theatrical production over the course of a week, using our Yvonne Boice black-box theater for their preparation and performance. Past collaborations include staged readings of My Antonia, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Laramie Project, Let the Right One In, Of Mice and Men and Little Women. The University plans partner with Project Shakespeare to host a reading of Jane Eyre in the spring of 2021, health and safety permitting.
Right in line with GEAR UP's mission, they reached out to us at MCC to partner on a summer program for their Manchester audience who may now be academically behind due to the pandemic our nation has been facing for a year now. The Gear Up for Success Summer Program was born of a partnership between GEAR UP Manchester and MCC to accomplish 3 things: 1. assist students who are academically behind and in need of credit recovery, 2. Support the need for social and non-cognitive skills after kids being home bound for the last year, and 3. Expose students to the community college system and careers after high school.
GEAR UP Manchester is undoubtedly working towards increasing the quality of life in the community in meaningful and measurable ways and is engaged in the development of a sustainable, reciprocal partnership with our college. MCC is excited about this opportunity to partner with GEAR UP Manchester!
The Manchester School District has worked closely with Meelia Center staff to ensure that all tutors receive appropriate district training, access to the districts' learning platforms, and the ability to view all student assignments. Teachers, social workers, guidance counselors, and other staff from each school within the collaborative work closely with the college tutors to meet the needs of referred students. While the program is open to all, it targets students identified as having a substantial need and those from backgrounds traditionally considered underrepresented. What started as a small pilot has grown to 10 schools and 250 K-12 students receiving academic, social, and emotional support from 209 college students over the course of an academic year.
During such a challenging time in our community, the Manchester School District has worked tirelessly to help students and their families access essential resources and services. They have done this through collaborative partnerships with community-based organizations, students, and their families. This program is just one example of their efforts to remove barriers, increase access, and address inequities. Saint Anselm College and the Meelia Center are grateful and proud to be working so closely with the district on such important efforts.
The partnership continued when RVCC was recommended as a point-of-distribution for the COVID vaccine. Chief Burr has been instrumental in the planning and success of the distribution of the vaccine to the Sullivan County community from our Claremont campus. Chief Burr, the Claremont Fire Department, and Claremont Police supported the National Guard to ease the flow of on-site traffic at the drive-thru vaccine clinic which distributed up to 600 doses of vaccine per day.
River Valley Community College is proud to be a partner in Claremont's emergency response. We recognize Chief Burr for his skilled emergency planning, outreach efforts, and city-wide coordination throughout the COVID pandemic. He has been the key link for aligning vital resources to fight the pandemic.
Faros' street work team is combing the streets of Athens seeking, supporting, and bringing homeless unaccompanied refugee children to safety. Children on the streets are helped to our drop-in center that provides a safe environment, hot meals, and psychosocial support to about 100 boys and teenagers every week. Our shelter at the center of Athens has become home to 22 unaccompanied children. They have access to legal services, education, and vocational training. But Faros' vision goes even further. In 2017 the organization partnered with MIT D-Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a vocational training program. The Horizon Program has supported and equipped hundreds of young refugees to live full, whole lives and has provided opportunities to raise their self-esteem and empower them to take an active part in society.
Believing that education is key to the integration of unaccompanied minors, Faros partnered with the Hellenic American Union and the Hellenic American University in March 2020 in order to give all Faros' youth access to higher education. The beneficiaries have free access to educational material, free registration for all English language proficiency tests administered by the Hellenic American Union, and free-of-charge tuition for classes leading to a General Education Degree (GED) through Hellenic American University.