Transform Mid-Atlantic

COLLECTIVELY ADVANCING JUSTICE, EQUITY, DIVERSITY, and INCLUSION through COLLEGE, CAREER, and CIVIC READINESS: As the largest higher education association in the Mid-Atlantic region, TMA initiated and leads a regional conversation about higher educations collective capacity to move the needle on racial justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI), by increasing college, career, and civic readiness. TMAs ~40 member institutions (public, private, 2- and 4-year) have committed to collectively increasing college readiness, career readiness, and civic and community readiness. Through bi-weekly and monthly meetings and workshops with community engaged practitioners, TMA fosters skill development through reflective practice thereby developing meta-cognition and and nurturing self-empowerment. Serving as the backbone organization for this systems change initiative, TMA convenes institutional research specialists together with civic and community engagement practitioners in order to identify indicators of development, and assess and measure student learning gains together with community improvement. TMAs Equity Taskforce and Community Equity Conversations Series (Zoom) provided practitioners space to co-create their vision for theTMA network and region.

DEVELOPING GLOBAL CITIZENS BY PROVIDING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and RECOGNITION: Through numerous professional development institutes, workshops, retreats, awards and recognition ceremonies, mini-grants, surveys, and support to member institutions, TMA shifts the culture of higher education to embrace the vision of being a partner in and with their communities, locally, regionally, and globally. TMA offers series of webinars demonstrating the connection between civic and community engagement and equity outcomes, Carnegie classification, accreditation, etc. attracting 500+ registrants from the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as international institution. TMA coordinates a Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Conference for 300+ faculty and students, annual Practitioner retreats, and numerous workshops on service-learning, course design, grant-writing, team-building, volunteer recruitment, professional writing, federal reporting, and linking civic and community engagement with accreditation. TMA awards recognize exemplary leadership in advancing equity, social justice, service-learning and global citizenship through civic engagement in the region.

BUILDING CAMPUS COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS to ADDRESS POVERTY and EQUITY: TMA provides 35-40 full time AmeriCorps VISTA sub-grants to member institutions~ together with their community partners. Through this grant, TMA develops and expands anti-poverty partnerships between higher education institutions and community-based organizations, non-profits, local schools and/or school systems in the region. The VISTA grant is valued in excess of $2,000,000 through the value of services provided to TMA member institutions and community partnerships. Through annual survey data, TMA estimates that member institutions' students contribute a minimum of $600,000,000 in services to the tri-state region annually. Projects include: financial literacy, workforce development, mentoring, veterans' initiatives, ESOL/ELL programming, college access, college completion, and food security. TMA provides leadership development to VISTA members and supervisors ranging from volunteer management, grant writing, strengths-based work styles, Appreciative Inquiry, Myers-Briggs, to community-organizing. TMA VISTA capacity building grants empower first-generation college students, community members, and K-12 youth through civic and community engagement (service learning) opportunities.