Hart BOC Renews MOU with UGA’s Archway Partnership

Hart County Commissioners have voted to continue the County’s relationship with the University of Georgia Archway Partnership program.

The Archway Partnership empowers communities to address long-standing and critical community and economic development needs with the help of students majoring in degrees associated with economic development, education, workforce development, leadership, health and welfare, and more.

At their meeting last week, Archway Professional Rosanna Cruz-Bibb went over some of the many projects in Hart County over the past year they have been involved with.

One project in particular she said earned Hart County a silver medal in UGA’s Level Connected Resilient Community designation.

“That is a new program statewide that you guys are now Platinum certified,” she told the Board. “And you are one of only four communities in the State that have this designation. Last week, they were actually at the White House talking about this program. So, it’s a pretty big deal that you are Platinum certified as a Connected Resilient Community.”

Hart County earned the designation for their Agriculture Expo last September which was designed to educate residents about the value of agriculture to the state and showcase potential careers in agritourism.

Cruz-Bibb said Archway students worked with the Hart County Chamber to put the expo together.

“One of the big projects that we worked on this past year is the Agriculture Expo. We are super excited to be able to assist in the agricultural realm, basically and provide UGA resources to help your community in a lot of different ways,” she said.

Cruz-Bibb said over the past year in Hart County Archway helped with 24 projects throughout the County in the last fiscal year.

“We had over 37 students working in your community and 13 individual faculty members who were able to come and do research or help students do different projects in your community. We did 21 projects across the past fiscal year. So, that’s a pretty big deal for us and a lot of time and effort went into assisting your community,” she said.

Cruz-Bibb pointed out the County realized over a $500,000 return on investment over the past year for their annual fee to the Archway Program of $50,000.

After hearing from Cruz=Bibb the Board voted unanimously to renew their contract with Archway for another year.