Place-based Partnerships

M Partner is a community engagement effort that seeks to improve quality of life. M Partner offers a framework for community and university representatives to advance priority projects in partner cities across the state. M Partner affiliates with credit-bearing courses, offers community service opportunities, conducts research, facilitates internships, and provides technical assistance to advance community priorities. M Partner is a signature initiative of the Grisham-McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement and its work to empower campus and community partners to fight poverty through education, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

The City of Oxford is the current M Partner community. Initial priority areas include food security, outreach to the Spanish-speaking community, and public transit. Additional priority areas have emerged around local history, tourism, and the social determinants of health.

Click below for an overview of current projects in Oxford and in counties participating in the Communities of Excellence initiative. Contact Laura Martin, M Partner Director, (Pictured right) for more information.

Community of Excellence is a place-based community engagement effort of the CREATE Foundation, Tennessee Valley Authority, Appalachian Regional Commission, Mississippi State University, and the University of Mississippi to advance community and economic development in Northeast Mississippi.

Pictured left: Members and staff of the North Mississippi VISTA Project visit the CREATE Foundation to learn more about the Communities of Excellence Initiative and other projects of Northeast Mississippi's community foundation.

Oxford's population growth has created a shortage of affordable housing. The Grisham-McLean Institute is addressing this problem by bringing together campus and community stakeholders to develop sustainable solutions and strengthen local nonprofits supporting those facing housing and financial insecurity.

Laura Martin chairs the Oxford Affordable Housing Commission (OAHC). 

The United States Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $100,000 Environmental Education grant to Dr. Matteo D’Alessio and Dr. Grace Rushing of the Department of Civil Engineering and Dr. Laura Martin of the Grisham-McLean Institute. The grant provided a water resource curriculum and instrumentation to six local high schools. Students collected and analyzed local water samples and visited the UM campus to learn about community partnerships, citizen science, and water quality along with career and academic opportunities in engineering.

M.B. Mayfield, an artist from Ecru, has been recognized for his paintings of memory scenes that depict his community. In 1949, Mayfield attended art classes from the janitor's closet at Peabody Hall at the invitation of the department chair; this was due to the Jim Crow laws in effect at the time. Mayfield is significant for his paintings and sculpture, for his courage pursuing formal art training, and for a life in which he overcame discrimination and stereotype.

The Grisham-McLean Institute, in collaboration with numerous campus and community partners, including the NAACP, MississippiCare, the School of Pharmacy, and the Center for Community Engagement, has planned multiple health fairs in Pontotoc, New Albany, and Oxford.

These fairs have served hundreds of low- to moderate-income families and have broken the language barrier by translating forms and educational materials into Spanish and providing language interpreters.