Community Partnerships, Planning, and Research

Ignite brings local preschool through sixth grade students to Grinnell College, focusing on providing elementary and middle school students with a meaningful, educational experience and exposure and comfort on a college campus.

Grinnell College will stream Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin” on March 18 as part of the Met’s 2022-23 Live in HD season.

The funding will help GEP broaden their focus from exclusively youth-based projects to economic empowerment interventions aimed at the whole family. The mission is to support youth and families in Grinnell by aligning community efforts and infusing support for early literacy enrichment activities, equity and inclusion, family engagement, workforce development and financial literacy to interrupt intergenerational poverty.

On display at the Grinnell Area Arts Council from February 27 to May 27, “Observing With NASA” features a range of NASA’s most iconic images of planets like Jupiter and other galaxies to explore and opportunities for visitors to put their own artistic spin on these images through image analysis and processing. 

The Community Education Cooperative’s Bucket Courses are weekly, 90-minute classes taught by Grinnell College faculty members at the Drake Community Library. These courses are free, open to the Grinnell community.

The Grinnell College Micro-Grant program provided funding for the Grinnell Historical Museum's Textile Preservation Project and the Stew Makerspace's equipment upgrade.

Among the many ways the College supports community education is through support of community-wide youth literacy initiatives. 

Over 250 participants engaged in the Grinnell College Golf Course Visioning Workshops this past summer. Over the course of two full days, these workshops sparked conversations, invited the sharing of history, and cultivated new ideas.

This December, Grinnell College awarded community mini-grants totaling $21,724 to three local initiatives and a fourth through the smaller donation grant program. Since 2002, the mini-grant program has directed over $528,000 to 209 community-driven initiatives. 

Tilly Woodward, curator of academic and community outreach, and Karen Neal, director of Drake Community Library, were honored by the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation last month with the Spirit of Giving Award for “contagious enthusiasm.”