LTC 077-2019 2019 Gulf-South Summit Award Notification MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
LTC # 077-2019 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Dan Gelber and Members of t e City Com ission
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: February 8, 2019
SUBJECT: 2019 Gulf-South Summit Award Notif ation
The purpose of this Letter to Commission is to announce that Florida International
University, in partnership with the City of Miami Beach, has been selected as the recipient
of the 2019 Gulf-South Summit (GSS) Award for Outstanding Service-Learning
Collaboration.
The Gulf-South Summit Award for Outstanding Service-Learning Collaboration is given to a
team of practitioners, faculty, and community partners who have demonstrated success in
achieving a mutually beneficial collaboration that has successfully addressed a genuine
community need.
FIU and the City of Miami Beach will be recognized at the GSS meeting with a plaque and
a cash award of $1,000. The GSS annual meeting will be in Huntsville, Texas from April 3-
5, 2019.
Florida International University & The City of Miami Beach Partnership
Florida International University (FIU) and the City of Miami Beach (the City) have forged a
dynamic partnership leveraging our unique assets — geography, history, demographics, and
intellectual capital — to address both of our most pressing challenges. The partnership,
facilitated by FIU's Office of Engagement and the City's Office of Organizational
Development Performance Initiatives, began in February 2014 with three workgroups and
has flourished into a robust partnership with five workgroups focused on education,
transportation, history and culture, coastal resilience and adaption, and messaging. A brief
description of each workgroup follows.
Youth & Education Development Workgroup
Together, the Office of Engagement and the City of Miami Beach's Chief Learning and
Development Officer have worked to leverage FIU resources to advance the
competitiveness of students attending Miami Beach public schools. The partnership has
addressed key needs in Miami Beach's schools, including dual enrollment course offerings,
afterschool enrichment programs, and math and reading intervention. The opportunities
have allowed FIU students to engage in service-learning activities as afterschool instructors,
and math and reading interventionists. FIU students have benefited from experiential
learning in the City's internship program.
LTC - 2019 Gulf-South Summit Award Notification
February 8, 2019
Page 2
In March of 2015, the Office of Engagement and the City signed two MOUs in support of a
formalized internship program for FIU students and the municipality, and dual enrollment
course offerings for high school students at Miami Beach Senior High School. The Office of
Engagement has assisted in recruiting 80+ FIU students to participate in the internship
program, eight of whom have gone on to find full time employment within the City.
In collaboration with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the dual enrollment agreement has
allowed FIU professors, Miami-Dade County Public Schools teachers, and even the City of
Miami Beach's city manager and police chief to teach college courses to students at Miami
Beach Senior High School. The course offerings have saved parents and students an
estimated $850,000. With the costs of books included, parents and students have saved
over $1 million. This year, there are 14 courses, which translates into 25 classes for more
than 500 high school students.
While some City of Miami Beach schools offer dynamic afterschool programs, not all schools
have the means to support programs after hours. In August of 2018, the City of Miami Beach
and FIU entered into an agreement to use FIU resources to provide elementary students in
Miami Beach equal access to afterschool enrichment. FIU undergraduate students from the
School of Information and Computer Sciences commute to Fienberg Fisher K-8 Center and
Biscayne Elementary five times a week to teach 14 classes to more than 220 Miami Beach
elementary students. The classes include MIT Scratch, JavaScript, 3D Printing, Robotics,
Virtual Reality, and others.
To support Miami Beach public school students who fall in the lower 25% in math and
reading testing, FIU has entered into an agreement with Miami Beach to provide math and
reading intervention. Starting in August 2018, 10 FIU Learning Assistants, trained through
FIU Teach, provide one on one math intervention to students at both Nautilus Middle School
and Miami Beach Senior High. FIU Education students, who are in their third or fourth year
of reading courses at FIU, provide one on one intervention to students at Fienberg Fisher K-
8 Center, Biscayne Elementary, South Point Elementary, Nautilus Middle, and North Beach
Elementary.
Arts, Culture, & History Workgroup
Through the Arts, Culture, & History workgroup, FIU and City of Miami Beach partners have
created programs and opportunities for FIU students, faculty and staff, and the Miami Beach
community to stimulate their knowledge of arts, culture, and history in Miami Beach. Key
initiatives include the annual South Beach Wine and Food Festival, the digitization of the
Miami Beach archives, and hundreds of other year-round cultural programs.
The South Beach Wine and Food Festival has become a staple event for FIU's Chaplin
School of Hospitality and Tourism and the City of Miami Beach. In its 18th year, the festival
featured 65,000+ attendees, 90+ events, 400+ chefs, winemakers, and culinary
personalities, and 1,200+ student volunteers. Since its creation, the event has raised more
than $28 million for the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism.
Beyond educating the Miami Beach community on food and wine, the annual event has
assisted homeless members of the community. The festival collaborates with the Miami
Rescue Mission to provide leftover food to those in need. In 2018, the event helped serve
2
LTC- 2019 Gulf-South Summit Award Notification
February 8, 2019
Page 3
more than 20,000 meals.
In 2015, FIU students and faculty partnered with the City to digitize more than 45,000
documents in the City's archives. The project, completed in 2018, allows open access to the
City's digitized documents.
FIU's Miami Beach Urban Studios (MBUS) has provided more than 120 programs for the
Miami Beach community, funded by the Miami Beach Cultural Anchor Grant. For the third
year in a row, MBUS has hosted Growlight/Breakthrough Miami, a three-week summer
camp focused on design, art, technology, urbanism, and public policy. Nearly 1,300 K-12
students throughout Miami-Dade County, including Miami Beach students, have benefitted
from the program.
Transportation Workgroup
To address the City of Miami Beach's needs regarding transportation and infrastructure, the
Office of Engagement has connected the City of Miami Beach Transportation Department
with FIU student and faculty researchers. FIU helps the City facilitate data collection and
develop performance measures for both the City's traffic monitoring and management
efforts, and the City's trolley program.
In the Fall of 2018, the two organizations entered into two agreements to assist the City with
pavement assessment and red light traffic enforcement assessment. FIU engineers will
assist the City's Transportation Department as they determine the condition of pavement
stripping throughout the City, allowing the Transportation Department to proactively address
deficiencies. Through the red-light traffic study, FIU engineers assessed traffic volumes,
crash data, red light cameras, and more, to assess the current state of red light
enforcement.
Florida Coastal Resilience and Adaptation Workgroup
In 2015, FIU launched the Sea Level Solution Center (SLSC), a department dedicated to
designing and implementing short and long-term adaptation strategies for a prosperous
South Florida. Since its creation, the City of Miami Beach has served as a key practical
partner and real-life laboratory. The SLSC and the City have worked together to hold
thought-provoking lectures and collaborative meetings; developed applications that educate
the community on the effects of climate change; and applied for joint-grant funding
opportunities.
Throughout 2016, FIU researchers participated in studies impacting Miami Beach, one of
which allowed FIU researchers to participate in a public design charrette for the future of
North Beach. In March of 2016, FIU conducted a Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) training for more than 20 City of Miami Beach employees in preparation for
the City's new green building ordinance.
In 2017, FIU and the City worked together on the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability
Research Network grant, holding regular meetings to advance projects related to the
effectiveness of green infrastructure adaptations. In June of 2017, FIU's School of
Environment, Arts, and Society (SEAS) entered into an agreement with the City to further
the collaboration.
3
LTC - 2019 Gulf-South Summit Award Notification
February 8, 2019
Page 4
This year, SLSC faculty members and City of Miami Beach partners will apply for a planning
grant for an Industry University Cooperative Center. The center will serve as a mechanism
for universities and cities to partner with industry, specifically FIU and the City of Miami
Beach. The center will leverage federal funding to better utilize funding from industry to
coproduce materials for the science of adaptation.
With funds from the Miami Foundation, the SLSC has been able to host a series of lectures
discussing multi-sector issues when developing resiliency plans. Students from the SLSC
will present resiliency plans developed from the lecture series to the City of Miami Beach.
Messaging Workgroup
With many projects and collaborations positively impacting the City and FIU, the partners
found a need to create a cohesive message when spreading the word. In 2017, the
messaging workgroup was created to promote and highlight the City of Miami Beach and
FIU partnership. Since its creation, the partners have highlighted all workgroups in their
efforts to better the community, while providing opportunities to FIU students, faculty, and
staff to partake in engaged scholarship.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Leslie Rosenfeld, Chief
Learning and Development Officer at extension 6923.
c: Kathie G. Brooks, Assistant City Manager
Dr. Leslie D. Rosenfeld, Chief Learning and Development Officer
KGB/
i/
4