Item Description:
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Work Order PR00005374 under Principal Cooperative Agreement No. 18-0274/A188951 with the U of M for joint funding of the Hennepin-University Partnership program, 01/01/24-12/31/25, NTE $257,202
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Resolution:
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BE IT RESOLVED, that Work Order PR00005374 under the Principal Cooperative Agreement No. 18-0274/A188951 between Hennepin County and the University of Minnesota for joint funding of the Hennepin-University Partnership program from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2025 with a total not to exceed amount of $257,202 be approved; that the Chair of the Board be authorized to sign the Work Order on behalf of the County; and that the Controller be authorized to disburse funds as directed.
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Background:
Hennepin County and the University of Minnesota launched the Hennepin-University Partnership (HUP) in 2005 to catalyze and support innovative County-University collaborations. Since then, county departments have engaged in hundreds of collaborations including research on key policy questions, sharing of faculty and practitioner expertise, and employment of students on short-term projects.
HUP is a program of the University’s Center of Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) and is staffed by 2.25 FTEs. The HUP director reports to both the CURA director and Hennepin County administration. HUP also works closely with Hennepin County’s Strategic Planning Department to ensure strategic alignment.
The University and the County share HUP office costs. The budget is done on a biannual basis and includes funding for staff and events. This Work Order represents the County’s share of the HUP office budget for the 2024/2025 funding period. The NTE amount of $257,202 is a 0% increase over the 2022/2023 funding period.
In 2010 the Hennepin County Board adopted a Principal Cooperative Agreement to provide streamlined contracting for collaborations between the County and the University. In 2018 the County Board approved a new Cooperative Agreement (A188951) and in 2021 this agreement was extended through June 30, 2026.
Individual collaborations are executed through Work Orders under the Principal Cooperative Agreement. Work Orders are reviewed by the HUP Director, the Strategic Planning Department, and the Director of the department where the work is occurring. Work orders over $100,000 require County Board approval.
HUP receives oversight from a leadership team and collaborates with an advisory committee to set and execute strategy.
2023 HUP Leadership Team Members:
Hennepin County: Commissioner Marion Greene; County Administrator David Hough; Deputy County Administrator Jodi Wentland; Assistant County Administrator Lisa Cerney; Assistant County Administrator Jodie Wierimaa; Assistant County Administrator May Xiong.
University of Minnesota: Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, Robert McMaster; Associate Dean, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ryan Allen; Director, Minnesota Design Center, Tom Fisher; Executive Director, Institute on the Environment, Jessica Hellmann; Director, Center for Urban & Regional Affairs, Edward Goetz; Interim Associate Vice President for Public Engagement, Heidi Barajas.
HUP Advisory Committee Members:
Hennepin County: Director, Strategic Planning, Maggie Mesaros; Director, Data & Analytics, Erik Erickson.
University of Minnesota: Associate Vice President for Public Engagement, Heidi Barajas; Faculty Director, Academic Planning and Programs, Office for Public Engagement, David Weerts.
In 2021 and 2022 HUP hosted 24 events and catalyzed or supported 59 projects. Nearly all HUP-related activities directly support the county’s disparity reduction and/or climate action goals. Project highlights from the 2021 and 2022 program years can be found at z.umn.edu/HUP2021 <https://z.umn.edu/HUP2021> and z.umn.edu/HUP2022 <https://z.umn.edu/HUP2022>.
Many HUP projects stem from requests for university expertise. HUP supports these partnerships while also working proactively in three areas: student research & evaluation, information sharing, and strategic research.
Student Research & Evaluation:
The HUP Collaborative Research Assistantship provides paid summer positions for seven graduate students to conduct applied research while partaking in learning opportunities as part of a multidisciplinary cohort. Projects include:
• Expanding Access to Weatherization and Energy Retrofit Opportunities
• Developing Best Practice Models for Youth Substance Use Prevention & Intervention
• Building Coordinated and Integrated Access to County Services
The HUP Evaluation Assistantship provides paid year-long positions for two graduate students to plan and design evaluation frameworks, processes, and tools that will build internal capacity for future evaluation work. Projects include:
• Evaluation of internal programs and initiatives related to violence prevention
• Evaluation of the Affordable Housing Incentive Fund
Information Sharing:
HUP sends a bi-weekly email and quarterly newsletter to 700+ county staff. These include event and engagement opportunities, briefs on relevant UMN research, and HUP project outcomes. HUP also hosts well-attended monthly webinars featuring novel faculty research. Recent topics include:
• Child Care Challenges and Opportunities (Professor Elizabeth Davis)
• The Whiteness Pandemic Behind the Racism Pandemic (Professor Gail Ferguson)
• Happy Cities: The Role of Transportation (Professor Yingling Fan)
Strategic Research:
To generate strategic research activity, HUP holds an annual Mixer that brings together faculty and county staff in a facilitated format to encourage joint research proposals on topics of critical interest to county leadership. HUP also works directly with faculty to resource strategic research requests.
The 2022 HUP retreat confirmed guaranteed basic income (GBI), climate action, and housing as the 2022/2023 HUP strategic research focus areas. Subsequent activities in these areas are listed below. For 2024, HUP’s strategic research focus will be guided by the Strategic Planning Department:
• GBI: the 2022 Mixer grant recipient evaluated the health impact of the county’s GBI pilot, and a 2023 summer research student is supporting MMB’s quantitative evaluation of the pilot.
• Climate Action: a summer 2023 convening will bring together local governments and academics to identify and develop metrics that measure progress on climate resilience.
• Housing: CURA led a 2022 project examining barriers to home ownership, and HUP is planning a 2023 Mixer to generate research proposals on topics of interest to county housing leaders.
recommendation
Recommendation from County Administrator: Recommend Approval