A perennial highlight of June at the Harward Center is our annual Community Partner Appreciation & Feedback Lunch – an opportunity for our staff to hang out with the people who are at the heart of the community engagement ecosystem, express our appreciation for the way they welcomed Bates students into their work, and listen deeply to their experiences and ideas from the past year. 

This year we welcomed dozens of friends from a range of partner organizations to the Bates Dining Commons for lunch. Among the many guests were leaders from Lewiston Public Schools, YWCA of Central Maine, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Androscoggin Land Trust, Reentry Sisters, Lewiston Student Resource Center, Healthy Androscoggin, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Services, Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, Tree Street Youth, College Guild, Rosati Leadership Academy, Riverside Cemetery Association, Montello Heights, ArtVan, Drop-In Center, and Auburn Public Library. 

One of our favorite things about this annual event is how eager our partners are to spend time with each other – catching up, learning about each others’ work, debating which Bates dessert was the best that day (soft serve ice cream is always a contender).

Another thing we appreciate is the chance to hear from our partners about how the year went from their standpoint. This year, we asked attendees to take a look at some of the results from our annual Partner Feedback survey, completed by fifty-one partners, and to comment on what may have been missing or what merited further explanation or discussion.

An item that drew a lot of interest was a partial list, submitted by survey respondents, of the ways Bates students had contributed to the organizations in the past year. Reactions from partners ranged from “Impressive!” and “Interesting!” to “I think we’ve been underestimating what we can ask Bates students to do.”

Other data from the survey highlighted partners’ ideas for improving our future collaborations with them. In addition to the suggestions below from the survey, we brainstormed other possibilities together, with Harward Center staff furiously taking notes for future consideration.

Whether we opted for soft serve, raspberry squares, or a chocolate pastry, the event was a wonderful way to end the school year – with good friends, food, and shared learning!