Equity-Based Service-Learning
This Knowledge Hub from Campus Compact allows students to delve deeper and enrich their service-learning experience by looking at larger issues, beginning with the question of “Why.” Why are these communities in need? Why are these communities similar in demographics regardless of where they are located across the country? Why have the needs been consistent for several decades? Asking these questions gives students the opportunity to understand the power dynamics within the communities they seek to serve. This element of asking difficult questions magnifies the service-learning experience and enables them to develop a critical lens and a sense of civic…
Building Local Capacity
One of the biggest challenges for universities seeking to be effective community partners is to identify partners and help those partners increase their own economic development capacity. This Knowledge Hub from Campus Compact contains links to resources on best practices, and models for effective, sustainable partnerships.
The Role of Libraries in Engagement Work
This Knowledge Hub from Campus Compact provides a compilation of examples showing the myriad ways that libraries can help deepen community relationships and further the ongoing engagement efforts of college and university campuses.
Publishing Engaged Scholarship
Peer-reviewed publishing of service-learning and community-engaged scholarship is challenging for a number of reasons. These include competing academic responsibilities, dedication to work-life balance, limited collegial support and mentoring, professional isolation, and lack of knowledge about where and how to publish service-learning and community-engaged scholarship. This Campus Compact Knowledge Hub provides an overview of interdisciplinary community-engagement journals dedicated to publishing rigorously reviewed scholarship. It also includes journal articles on the best practices for publishing this kind of scholarship and highlights national organizations that host special sessions on publishing service-learning or community-engaged scholarship. Finally, it offers book publishing houses and presses that…
Institutional Assessment
To plan for future action, it’s important to understand your starting point. This entails a self-assessment of engagement across a variety to indicators, putting tracking and monitoring into place, and utilizing national data and trends to inform future practice. An institutional self-assessment will include a comprehensive examination of the following themes and best practices of an engaged campus: institutional culture, curriculum and pedagogy, faculty roles and rewards, mechanisms and resources, and community-campus exchange. One of a wide range of Knowledge Hubs developed by Campus Compact, Institutional Assessment offers a variety of resources to support self-assessment, tracking and monitoring, and the…
Engaged Research
One of a wide range of Knowledge Hubs from Campus Compact, Engaged Research offers a vetted list of suggested readings and other useful resources on methods and principles for engaging in ethical and reciprocal research with communities.
Risk Management in Community Engagement
This knowledge hub provides resources and information for managing risk and ensuring safety in community-engaged learning experiences and campus-community partnerships.
Community Partnerships
One of a wide range of Knowledge Hubs from Campus Compact, Community Partnerships offers useful resources and readings to help campuses forge effective partnerships. Resources include suggested readings on campus-community partnerships and asset-based community development, sample Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), and useful web resources.
Addressing Student Housing Insecurity
As part of our efforts to address student housing insecurity, Campus Compact created the Student Housing Insecurity Mapping Tool (SHIM Tool), which is included in this resource. This tool serves as an inventory of the resources, programs, and services that institutions can offer to students facing housing insecurity and homelessness. By publicizing the resources and supports available for students experiencing housing insecurity, colleges and universities can (1) destigmatize the experiences connected with student housing insecurity and homelessness, (2) create pathways and institutional procedures for colleges and universities to support students, and (3) allow students to access the available resources more…
Strengthening 2- to 4-Year Transfer Pathways
Building coherent, smooth, and clear 2-year to 4-year transfer pathways can impact student access, persistence, and success. Transfer student success pulls on several areas of the institution including admissions, student support, housing, faculty, advising, and more. A comprehensive approach to creating transfer pathways and articulation agreements that incorporate staff, faculty, and administrators from both the 2-year and 4-year institutions is essential. One of a wide range of knowledge hubs developed by Campus Compact, Strengthening 2- to 4-Year Transfer Pathways offers resources, models, and information from across the country.
Supporting Retention through Food and Housing Security
While civic engagement traditionally looks at the issue of hunger outside of the institution, these initiatives can look inward to the campus community to support work addressing issues of campus food and housing insecurity. These issues can have a major impact on student retention and success. Community and civic engagement offices can work to align themselves with on-campus efforts to support at-risk students and the wider community of the campus. These efforts include raising awareness of the challenges many college students face regarding food and housing insecurity and working to address those issues. One of a wide range of Knowledge…
Creating a Service Year on Campus
The incorporation of a year of service into the post-secondary education experience helps prepare students to complete their degrees, secure meaningful employment, and become lifelong engaged citizens. Service years in higher education have the power to attract students, enliven education, and put graduates on pathways to careers. This knowledge hub provides resources for campus stakeholders interested in supporting alumni of service year programs on their campus, creating a service year connected to academic credit, or providing opportunities for faculty and staff to support service initiatives. One of a wide range of knowledge hubs developed by Campus Compact, Creating a Service…
Building Interfaith Cooperation through Civic Engagement
Religious and ethical convictions are a driving force behind people’s motivation to serve others. Ignoring these convictions misses a valuable opportunity to connect values to action. As America continues to diversify, opportunities for conflict around religious difference abound. However, there is also ample opportunity for students to engage in cooperative and healthy ways by exploring the shared values between traditions–– specifically through service to their communities. This knowledge hub provides resources for civic engagement and service-learning professionals interested in fostering opportunities for students to engage their religious, spiritual, and secular values in their service work. One of ten knowledge hubs…
Comprehensive Neighborhood Revitalization: Community Economic Development through Corporate Investment
Universities can support local neighborhood revitalization in many ways. In addition to the hiring, procurement, investment, and real estate, this might also include support for local schools and local business development. This Knowledge Hub from Campus Compact contains resources and best practices to guide your campus in developing your strategy to support comprehensive neighborhood revitalization.
Applying STEM to Real-World Issues through Service-Learning
Students in the United States are often found to underperform academically in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As a result, they are not choosing to pursue careers in STEM fields at a rate needed to meet expected demand in the labor market–thus creating a skills gap. One way to address the STEM skills gap is for higher education to work with K-12 schools to get children more interested in STEM fields by linking STEM learning to real-world issues. This approach can also help struggling students perform better in STEM areas. This will, in turn, create better-performing students who are…
Building K–12/Higher Education Partnerships
K–12 / higher education partnerships are perhaps the most pervasive form of community partnerships in higher education. In the early 1900s, for example, educational philosopher John Dewey created laboratory schools at the University of Chicago as a place for pre-service teachers to learn teaching by actually doing it. For many years, universities have placed pre-service teachers in classrooms across the United States. A call for increased university involvement grew out of the concerns raised by the A Nation at Risk report (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and the subsequent Holmes Group Report (1986), which specifically called attention to…
Increasing Student Political Participation
While many parts of fostering civic engagement in a campus environment are hard to measure, the rate of student voter registration and student voting are two very easy variables to quantify, and are in fact publicly available data if you know where to look. And of course, if you’re not registered, you can’t vote. Different inputs that affect the rate student voting at a given institution highlighted in this guide are more complicated, and will vary substantially from campus to campus depending on the student population type. To increase the rate of student voter registration and student voting on your…
Building Deep and Sustainable Connections among Sport, Academics, and Community
Most colleges and universities believe athletics to be a critical part of the academic experience. Sport programs enhance the college’s reputation and teach student athletes important life lessons about perseverance, cooperation, and leadership that complement the academic mission. However, the significant demands of sport can isolate athletes from the larger student population and contribute to a disparaging stereotype of athletes as less engaged in the life of the university and in the community. The response of many colleges and universities is to develop separate service initiatives for athletes. However, these service programs tend to place more demands on the limited…
Assessment of Students’ Civic Learning and Development
One vital responsibility of higher education institutions is to prepare students for lives of engaged citizenship, with the motivation and capacity to deliberate, act, and lead in pursuit of the public good. Being able to measure and share the outcomes your students achieve due (in part) to the community engagement activities they participated in through your institution is something we hope all of our partner institutions aspire to accomplish. We are all familiar with the adage that students receiving a degree should learn something and develop into prepared graduates—typically focused on learning and preparation for the workforce or a career….
Civic Engagement and Sustainability Education
The term “sustainability education” refers to a teaching approach that uses innovative pedagogy to encourage students to think critically and take action toward a sustainable future. Service-learning and project-based learning are both useful strategies for exploring this topic. Sustainability education is receiving increasing attention on college campuses. In New Hampshire, CCNH’s Campuses for Environmental Stewardship grants have helped campuses develop courses that incorporate sustainability education. Educators and administrators interested in integrating sustainability into their courses and departments may consider civic engagement as a mechanism for creating meaningful experiences at the intersection of sustainability and their respective disciplines. For example, a…