This paper contrasts two types of university partnerships: first, the Colorado Partnership for Educational Renewal (CoPER), between six higher education institutions and 12 school districts in Colorado; and, second, 10 separate community-university partnerships (CUP). Each CUP was based on an asset (as opposed to a deficit) model and developed and used various strategies classified as either: (1) professional (upgrading job-specific skills of human service professionals); (2) community (increasing the capacity of community residents to address their own needs); or (3) community-professional collaboration (re-educating human services professionals in community-oriented practices while concurrently empowering community residents to advocate for themselves). In contrast, the CoPER programs implemented only the professional strategy. Analysis of each of the three strategies in terms of participants and educational content is provided. The paper suggests that CoPER programs could extend their work by incorporating the perspectives of the community and community-professional collaboration strategies. An appendix briefly describes some examples of community-university partnership work. (DB)