Quad Innovation Partnership Announces Latest Client as Organization Approaches Complete Financial Sustainability

USA - English

• USA - English

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Jan. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Quad Innovation Partnership(QIP), the only higher education partnership of its kind in the United States, is pleased to announce its latest client agreement with El Paso County Public Health in addition to work the Quad completed for El Paso County last year.

Beginning in February 2019 QIP will be extending work which began as a county-wide food system assessment in 2017. Now QIP will leverage data collected through the assessment to develop and test viable programs to increase access to healthy food at the neighborhood level and empower further understanding of needs within food access.

QIP is comprised of students, staff and faculty from Colorado College, Pikes Peak Community College, University of Colorado Colorado Springs and the US Air Force Academy. This diverse group delivers professional-grade recommendations, tactics and solutions for its clients covering a wide range of initiatives that impact the lives of people in southern Colorado and the nation, including:

• Research and recommendations to streamline future activities within Colorado Springs Utilities
• Creation of new social enterprise for Silver Key to increase funding for services impacting lives of the regional senior population
• Longevity research and recommendations for Venetucci Farm the oldest urban farm in Colorado
• Strategic research for the city of Colorado Springs and El Paso County for improving access to social services among high-need populations

"Our student-led teams tackle hard initiatives that directly impact the lives of people living in our region. We are very excited to hit the ground running with El Paso County Public Health, our second project with an El Paso County organization" said Jake Eichengreen, Executive Director. "Over a short period of time, we have built a strong track record developing, delivering and sustaining transformational learning opportunities for students that result in valuable, actionable solutions for our partners. We are now a "go-to" resource to meet the community's workforce, research and innovation needs. We are closing important gaps between campus and community and between student preparedness and professional expectations. The proof of our impact is visible. Almost 60 percent of our clients are engaged in their second or third projects with us, and we now have a long list of student-alumni who are using what they learned at the Quad in their careers. This success is mirrored by our trajectory to realize complete financial sustainability by 2020, well ahead of our original business plan."

Aubrey Day, Healthy Environment Planner for EPCPH, says, "We're thrilled to be able to tap into local talent working alongside neighborhoods to generate ideas that have the potential to significantly improve access to nutritious, affordable food and community well-being."

About the Quad Innovation Partnership: In 2014 Colorado College, Pikes Peak Community College, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and the United States Air Force Academy announced a joint initiative to deepen the ability of graduates to innovate within professional settings in the Pikes Peak Region. As the only partnership combining the capacities, students and faculty of a private liberal arts college, a regional community college, a state research university and a US service academy in the United States, the Quad's value is built on the diversity of institutions it represents. All projects the Quad facilitates leverage the combined capacities of these four institutions in order to work together to discover, validate and initiate solutions to their diverse pool of individual client needs.

SOURCE Quad Innovation Partnership