ITGA Core Competencies

The four core competencies below promote ITGA's vision of being a premiere resource for addressing challenges, emerging issues, and opportunities between and amongst institutions of higher education and the communities in which they reside. The work of ITGA is intrinsically linked, in these ways, with deep sustainability and resiliency for people, communities, and their intermingled natural and manmade environments.

Through professional association in ITGA, members gain greater appreciation for shared responsibility and develop active commitment to energetically engage and serve as a champion for positive town-gown relations.

Core Competencies: Community, Relationships, Wellbeing, and Resiliency

Building Community: Strengthening, adding, and growing diverse, equitable and inclusive opportunities for all members of the community

Community dimensions that contribute to the whole content area are:

  • Leading and managing stakeholder engagement
  • Assessing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the physical environment
  • Recognizing historic and current inequities in communities and collaboratively leveraging assets that reduce trauma and  support town-and-gown recovery
  • Facilitating placemaking and cultural recognition with design indoors/outdoors, programming, and events
  • Promoting civil speech, civic engagement, and community spirit 
  • Building a sense of community and honoring and accepting diverse heritages and practices 
Transforming Relationships: Creating collaborative partnerships to foster economic growth and success of the community

Relationship dimensions that relate to the core competencies are: 

  • Promoting community-engaged and applied academic programs, curricula, learning environments, apprenticeships, and research
  • Defining and applying partnership development frameworks and best practices
  • Fostering financial management, budgeting, and capital planning policies that encourage collaboration
  • Shaping policies, programs, and spaces for “making,” entrepreneurship, and innovation
  • Developing distinct goals, objectives, and key performance indicators for YOUR campus/community partnership 
Wellbeing: Creating a balanced approach to the health, safety, and wellness of our faculty, staff, students, and community members

Wellbeing dimensions that relate to core competencies are:

  • Identifying best practices and programs for intergenerational support
  • Managing campus/community open space and shared access to nature for physical and mental well-being
  • Incorporating best practices that can be guideposts for town and gown partners that are less far along on their journeys while promoting integrity and inspiring change with our established town and gown partners
  • Developing strategies to address food, housing, transportation scarcities
  • Integrating on- and off-campus housing policies that impact culture, civility, demand, and supply 
  • Employing a race/gender/accessibility/equity lens; that is inclusive; aware of privilege; and reflect the diverse needs of students and town-and-gown partners in shared spaces
  • Defining the components of pioneering Live, Learn, Work, Play Neighborhoods and Health/Wellness Districts
Resiliency: Responding to environmental challenges

Resiliency dimensions that relate to core competencies are:

  • Facilitating shared support networks for economic disruption
  • Coordinating and leading shared responses to environmental degradation and climate change
  • Crafting resilient / regenerative strategies for aging facilities, infrastructure, and utilities
  • Identifying evolving best practices