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Category: National News and Events

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Collaboratory will be hosting a virtual summit on Thursday, October 20th from 2:00-3:30pm ET. Register here

The Summit seeks to foster a strong community of practice amongst institutions dedicated to advancing their community engagement.  It is facilitated by Community Engagement Professionals and is designed to assist institutional leaders, faculty, and staff build a data-driven culture of engagement on their campuses.
We invite everyone to join us for the following session which is open the public:
  • Collaboratory Administrator Panel
    • Thursday, October 20
    • 2-3:30pm ET
    • REGISTER
    • A panel of Collaboratory administrators will share how they are implementing and strategically leveraging community engagement data at their institutions.  Panelists include:
      • Dr. Elaine Ward: Associate Professor of Higher Education and Special Assistant to the President for Civic and Community Engagement, Merrimack College
      • Stacy Bluth: Collaboratory Program Manager, Office of Outreach & Engagement, North Carolina State University
      • Dr. Kelli Huth: former Director, Center for Civic Engagement, Binghamton University

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The HUD + Higher Ed Engagement Network, is a powerful new partnership that will foster renewed collaboration between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and campuses across the country to benefit communities.

Presented in partnership with the Anchor Institutions Task Force, the Coalition for Urban and Metropolitan Universities, and the University Economic Development Association, the network will create opportunities for new, high-impact partnerships between community engaged institutions, HUD regional and field offices, and community partners to tackle challenges facing communities.

Learn more

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The University of Michigan's National Center for Institutional Diversity is hosting a webinar Thursday October 27th 2022 from 3:30-5:00 pm ET on Academic and Community Collaborations.  Registration Link 

Universities have a long and storied history of collaboration with community organizations and organizers. Yet these collaborations are not without their challenges, as wealthy, predominantly white universities must address issues of power, privilege, and competing priorities for these collaborations to succeed. While decades of research and experience have illustrated some best practices in academic-community collaborations, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing politicalization of research, growing public support of advocacy movements like Black Lives Matter, and the increasing reliance on social media have forced community organizers to engage in new and creative efforts to support their communities. How can universities best evolve to collaborate with and support community organizations amid these new challenges?

On October 27, join Dr. William Lopez for a discussion with Gladys Godinez, Cecia Alvarado, and Karina Perez, three Latina organizers and creatives with decades of experience advocating with and for Latino communities. Together, they will share their experiences on academic collaborations, describing what they’ve done, when it’s worked well, when it’s gone wrong, and what academics can do to best support the communities with whom they collaborate. Co-Sponsored by the NCID's Anti-Racism Collaborative, Poverty Solutions, the Department of American Culture, the Latina/o Studies Program, and the Carceral State Project.

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Pre-conference workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5, from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) in room 157A. register via Eventbrite

APHA conference will be held November 6-9 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.  Link to registration and more information

The Community-based Primary Health Care (CBPHC) Working Group, sponsored by the International Health Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA), presents a workshop every year just ahead of the annual APHA meeting. It includes people in the field in the US and internationally working in and with communities. It is very student friendly. You do
not have to be a member of the APHA or to register for the annual meeting. We hope you will take this opportunity to learn and share about diverse partnerships in community health. The proposed topic this year is Community Health Workers at the Dawn of a New Era. The workshop will be in Boston, on Saturday 5 November 2022, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.

The CBPHC Working Group is excited to announce an opportunity for community health workers (CHWs) and students to submit abstracts for presentation at this year’s pre-APHA workshop. Presentations will be as a poster presentation.

 

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Campus Compact and Encore.org are excited to announce the launch of Campus Cogenerate, a new initiative developed by Encore.org and Campus Compact focused on the power generated when older and younger people come together to engage with communities in solving problems, bridging divides, and co-creating a better future—or what we call “cogeneration.”

Read the blog post →

Many community-engaged campuses already offer lifelong learning programs, provide intergenerational community service experiences, or connect age-diverse populations for mutual learning and exchange. Cogeneration takes this a step further, bringing generations together to solve pressing problems. During a time of growing civic discord, age divides, social isolation, and inequity, intergenerational collaboration on campuses and in the surrounding communities can produce a windfall of social capital along with much-needed generational and cultural understanding.
Learn more about our partnership

In this blog from Campus Compact President Bobbie Laur and Eunice Lin Nichols, Co-CEO at Encore.org, learn more about the importance of cogeneration and how you can get involved.

Over the next six months, Campus Cogenerate will:
Identify, spotlight, and share promising practices related to cogenerational problem solving already happening across campuses and in our communities.
Host a visioning session to facilitate peer learning on how age diversity, social connection, and campus innovation can help bridge divides, solve problems, and co-create thriving, equitable, and just communities.
Support new and expanded opportunities for cogenerational collaboration across the Campus Compact and Encore networks.

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The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) today released The Effects of Community-Based and Civic Engagement in Higher Education: What We Know and Questions that Remain. This new report synthesizes existing research on a range of widespread teaching and learning practices whose effects on college student outcomes have been extensively examined and documented. Several of these practices, known collectively as “high-impact practices,” or HIPs, engage students in community-based experiences intended to develop their civic capacities. The report focuses primarily on the effects of various forms of community-based and civic engagement in higher education and identifies positive outcomes across six broad areas:

  • increased personal and social responsibility
  • development of positive mindsets and dispositions
  • improved graduation and retention rates
  • learning gains
  • improved intellectual and practical skills
  • increased career-related skills

Funded by a grant from Lumina Foundation, the report highlights empirical trends across studies that met a defined set of criteria for methodological scope and scale intended to speak to greater generalizability of findings. Though hundreds of studies exist with regard to outcomes related to community-based and civic engagement, relatively few studies (53) met the criteria for generalizability. Fewer still (11) specifically address findings for students from demographic groups historically underserved by higher education, and those that do are focused almost exclusively on retention and graduation rates.

 

Much of the existing research on community-based and civic engagement examines a single community-based practice, most commonly service learning. Far less is known about the effects of global learning and study away, internships, field experiences, and community-based research. Moreover, nearly all measures of outcomes associated with community and civically engaged high-impact practices rely on students’ self-reporting of outcomes.

 

“Despite the decades-long movement within higher education to develop students’ civic capacities through engagement in community-based experiences, polarization in the United States is worsening and the social fabric of democracy is weakening,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella. “If we’re to renew and reinvigorate our commitment to the civic and democratic purposes of higher education, we must begin by asking what we know—and don’t know—about our effectiveness in helping students develop the civic capacities needed to sustain our democracy. This new report does just that.”

 

“A healthy democracy depends on those it governs to be educated, engaged, and able to navigate new, unexpected challenges. The country needs colleges and universities to do this consistently and creatively, yet we have ruled our agendas with anecdotes and single-institution strategies,” said Terri Taylor, strategy director for innovation and discovery at Lumina Foundation. “This report provides essential insights into the national state of play and reveals a clearer path forward for broader and more equitable impact.”

 

The research synthesis was conducted by Jessica R. Chittum, director of assessment and pedagogical innovation; Kathryn A. E. Enke, secretary to the board and strategist for presidential initiatives; and Ashley P. Finley, vice president for research and senior advisor to the president—all at AAC&U.

 

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On September 28th 2022 from 3:00-4:30 pm ET on Zoom, the Texas Woman's University is hosting a free webinar on building climate resiliency in COVID-impacted communities.  Zoom Link. 

The SENCER Center for Innovation-Southwest and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas Woman's University will host a presentation by SENCER leader Dr. Bob Franco, Professor of Pacific Anthropology and Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Kapi‘olani Community College.

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The 2023 Continuums of Service Conference is collecting proposals for the conference in Honolulu, HI from March 14-17 2023.  Proposal deadline is October 7th.

Click here to see the proposal submission guidelines

Click here to see the conference agenda

Click here to see the information for accommodations

"In 2021, when we last hosted COS, we were focused on the broader context of social injustice and climate change. Honoring the work that has been done and recognizing that these long-term grand challenges persist at home and abroad, we now think and act within a broader and perilous context of COVID-19, the increased likelihood of new and varying infectious diseases, and new threats to democracy and equity in an even more uncertain world. How do we turn the tide on these tremendous challenges we face and renew our energy to ameliorate them – urgently and for the long-term?

How do we revitalize ourselves in the face of higher education’s challenges to explore power, privilege and positionality, and inspire and mobilize action and advocacy to tackle grand challenges -- social, ecological, and economic - that we are all facing?

 

As these challenges will likely increase over time, a big focus for the conference this year will be on cultivating sustainability and resilience, keeping ourselves grounded in place, and bridging across multiple social, biophysical, energy and capital dimensions for whole systems thinking and relationship building. From the campus to the community, from the mountains to the sea, turning the tides requires embracing complex systems and nurturing the ability to bounce forward, not back, after crises. At our conference this year, participants will have a chance to put this into practice both virtually and remotely.

 

This year's conference will offer attendees an experience co-hosted by community organizations and nonprofits, centering local and indigenous knowledge, highlighting  transformational campus-community partnerships and allowing participants to think deeply while visiting and participating in projects."

 

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This article from GWtoday highlights eight journalism students who worked to collect stories from their neighborhoods with the goal of elevating stories from unheard communities.  Read more here. 

"Students were assigned communities to cover at the beginning of the semester and in the summer participated in a kind of travel program, with GW students joining their colleagues in West Virginia to assist their stories for two weeks, then vice versa. This extended engagement kept students from falling into the trap of “parachute journalism,” which can lead to misrepresentation and deepen the dangerous mistrust between journalists and the public."

 

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The Pennsylvania Council for International Education (PACIE) is hosting a conference from September 30th to October 1st at Haverford College, Haverford, PA.  More information and registration. 

Following an invigorating October 2021 Conference, Global Inclusivity, Justice, and Sustainability - From Pennsylvania, In Pennsylvania, PACIE is hosting its 2022 Conference on the theme of Building Belonging, with special attention to the ways in which global diasporas intersect with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, historically and today.

Educators at all levels, kindergarten through graduate study, are welcome. Participants will experience an inspiring and critical conference. Plenaries and sessions will be grounded in sharing our assets and insights across the state. Many of those same exceptional presenters will challenge our Commonwealth community to wrestle through the critical issues we must address to move forward together, connected with the rest of the world, in ways that advance justice, inclusion, and sustainability.

PACIE is steadfastly focused on advancing excellent global education for all Pennsylvanians. With this core mission in mind, PACIE will solicit proposals from K-12, college, and university educators on any of the following related topics and questions:

  • As travel resumes, how do I reconnect with the extraordinary experiences international education offers, while adapting toward what is needed in 2023 and beyond?

  • How does experiential learning - and travel - enrich and amplify learning for students as they work to grapple with critical questions related to global competence?

  • How can deepening understanding of the richness and complexity of Pennsylvania history and contemporary community support students’ understanding of global and transnational issues, while building more inclusive classrooms and schools?

  • How have online connections and online learning platforms - accelerated through the pandemic - enabled new international collaborations and how can that contribute to Pennsylvania students’ global competence?

  • What critical topics, lesson plans, and classroom strategies advance welcoming and inclusion while being attentive to the complexity of the world we live in, real differences, and real injustices?

  • How are schools and universities building global thinking across the curriculum, intersecting with diversity, education, and inclusion efforts, and moving beyond single efforts or programs?

  • How do international travel opportunities connect with students’ understanding of their home communities and opportunities for inclusion and respect in both places?

  • How are educators better including historically marginalized Pennsylvania histories, especially Black, Indigenous, and Latinx histories?

  • How does evaluation and assessment of global programming verify the relationship between intent and outcomes, building cultures of continuous improvement?

The conference includes meals from Friday breakfast through Saturday lunch. Registration rates begin at $160 for K12 educators and PACIE members.

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The Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation is hosting a virtual institute on "Teaching Social Action" from January 3-5 2023. More information and registration link. 

"This three-day virtual institute will introduce faculty and staff to an experiential learning approach for incorporating social action campaigns into either a semester-long course or co-curricular workshop series. In this transformative experiential learning model, students develop and launch a social actioncampaign of their choosing during the semester the course is taught. The student campaigns seek to change a rule, regulation, norm, or practice of an institution, whether on campus or in the community.

Our long-term goal is to mainstream this model for teaching active democracy. The world needs more citizens who have developed their knowledge and skills in bringing about positive change through real world experience. While not all of the student campaigns are successful, many have been and those that haven’t succeeded have still taught valuable lessons to those who led them and those who were engaged in one form or another."

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