RWU reaching out to inner-city residents

MOVING FORWARD: Kobi Dennis, left, speaks with Rhode Island Midnight Basketball League participants Juan Rodriguez, Darren Camacha, Michael Akinsulire and Andre Williams at East Providence City Hall. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
MOVING FORWARD: Kobi Dennis, left, speaks with Rhode Island Midnight Basketball League participants Juan Rodriguez, Darren Camacha, Michael Akinsulire and Andre Williams at East Providence City Hall. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Kobi Dennis says he’s dedicated his career to boosting educational and employment opportunities for those most in need in Providence.

The downtown resident’s work as co-founder of Unified Solutions, which finds education, employment and workforce-development opportunities for young people, involves neighbors and friends; their battles are his battles.

He thinks the group’s efforts will get a boost with the opening of Roger Williams University’s new city campus at One Empire Plaza.

A partnership was forged between RWU’s School of Continuing Studies and multiple community organizations, including Unified Solutions, to address the lack of higher education and employment opportunities available to inner-city residents.

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These partnerships, said Dennis, can help “improve the quality of life for our people who are being left behind.”

RWU signed a 12-year lease for the 75,000-square-foot facility on Empire Street, which will open for student use at the start of the fall semester. Its schools of law, continuing studies, business, education and justice studies will be housed there, with room for 18 multiuse, high-tech classrooms.

Additional partner organizations open the space up to members of the community through various collaborations.

For example, RWU provides classroom space to Unified Solutions for a six-week summer adult-education course.

“To the community, this is one of the most important events to happen in decades,” said Dennis.

For RWU President Donald J. Farish, the new Providence campus is a return to the school’s roots, but on a larger scale.

Originally Roger Williams Junior College, the school was founded in 1956 as a two-year institution aimed at educating working adults. Soon after, the bulk of operations moved to the Bristol campus, but the Providence campus never closed.

“We’ve been [in Providence] a long time, but not as engaged as we might have been,” said Farish.

He said it was “easy” to reignite the school’s original mission of providing programs to a broader demographic of Rhode Islanders. But, if RWU offered the same services in Providence as in Bristol, Farish said, it wouldn’t fix the inherent problems in the system.

“It’s time to shake up the model and look at how higher education works directly with the community we’re in,” he said. “If we bring the mountain to Mohammed we’re going to be that much more effective.”

Enter RWU Dean of Continuing Studies Jamie Scurry, who has devoted the past two years to building these partnerships.

“Not just to be new and different, but because what educators have done [prior] hasn’t worked,” she said.

Scurry said by making connections between young people and colleges early on, reinforcing the possibility of higher education, she hopes to improve opportunities for a future generation.

“The entire adult-learning demographic has changed. It’s not only [those in their] 30s and 40s – it can be the 18-year-old who didn’t have access to education,” she said.

Another organization taking advantage of RWU’s renewed presence is Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex, a public Providence high school now offering college-credit courses in conjunction with RWU.

Doris De Los Santos, executive director of development, partnerships and engagement for Providence Public Schools, knows the importance of higher education’s engagement in the community. A former student of RWU’s community-development program, De Los Santos now wants to pass on what she learned.

“To earn college credits in high school is a unique opportunity because it’s not only about economic impact, but instilling a desire to aim higher and see college as a reality,” she said.

De Los Santos wants other colleges to see the way RWU has engaged the community and follow suit.

“We have a big presence of colleges and universities in Rhode Island, and Providence especially. … May this serve as a challenge for [them] to increase their collaboration with the Providence public school system,” she said. “We continue to be open for business.”

Dennis said there are more than 50 organizations looking to partner with Rhode Island colleges and universities.

It’s not charity they are looking for, he said, “We’re asking for a hand up, not a hand out.” •

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