The Office for the Community Agenda based at the Maricopa Community Colleges District puts a whole new twist on these models. Part community collaborator, part education reformer, part campus innovator the Office for the Community Agenda offers a distinctive example of campus support for community engagement.

The Office for the Community Agenda was founded in the spring of 1996 to directly advise Maricopa Chancellor Paul Elsner. Central to its founding mission was the support and initiation of community collaborations at the various community colleges overseen by Maricopa. Unlike most centers, however, the Office for the Community Agenda doesn t focus on maintaining programs. Instead, it works to generate new ideas and develop new collaborations which, once off the ground, can be sustained by other offices in the Maricopa District.

The office is regularly initiating studies and discussions with community groups to explore potential partnerships for the Maricopa campuses. In one case, through discussions with the mayor and city council of Phoenix and the Arizona Film Institute, the office initiated the construction of a multimedia/video production center. In another case, a study center was formed through a consortium of the Maricopa Community Colleges, the city of Phoenix, and the city s Fire Fighters Association to examine ways that Phoenix neighborhoods can be made or remain livable and viable. Another effort generated by the office focuses on ways to address the needs of Native American tribes in the Phoenix area.

A second aspect of the office s work is as education reformer. The office treats community engagement as an integral part of larger changes in education. Much of its initial work has focused on providing better educational service to urban and minority populations of youth and adults. This includes change both on and off campus. Off campus, the college has begun work with the community on projects such as an NFL Youth Education Training Center and the development of a proposed Urban Survival Program, both to be made available for all elementary and middle schools in Maricopa County. On campus, its work includes the creation of learning centers, and exploration of ideas like a College Without Cost, which uses volunteers and existing structures to deliver higher education at little or no cost.

The third role of the Office for the Community Agenda is as campus innovator. All of the work and ideas generated by the office are framed by its resolve to take a proactive and forward-thinking approach to education and community engagement. The Office for the Community Agenda bills itself, above all, as a medium for innovation to prepare to face and incorporate the paradigm shifts of the 21st century, planning change rather than accepting it, experimenting rather than waiting. Within this office, change on campus and in the community come together around an innovative attitude towards education.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Website: Office for the Community Agenda http://www.dist.maricopa.edu/comm/

1) the development of a Research Collection which documents the development of Los Angeles, particularly since 1900;
2) an Institute for Leadership Studies which coordinates student internships focused on public service;
3) a Lecture Series which brings to the campus Los Angeles leaders in politics, ethnic relations, real estate development, and education;
4) a Community Studies Program which conducts opinion polls on such issues as city charter reform, local ballot initiatives, public expenditure for sports, and neighborhood needs assessments.

Further information on the Center can be found online at http://www.lmu.edu/csla.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Website: http://nkla.sppsr.ucla.edu/

Stone Soup is a collaborative of dozens of area churches, schools, government agencies and nonprofits, all with the goal of improving the lives of the residents of El Dorado Park. California State University, Fresno joined this partnership in 1993 and has become one of the major contributors to the program.

Now a formal nonprofit, Stone Soup offers a vast array of year-round services to the El Dorado Park residents. There are dozens of academic enrichment and recreation activities, job training programs, a senior service center, medical and dental clinics, nutrition and parenting classes, and a number of other projects.

Approximately 70 faculty and staff and over 300 students volunteer with Stone Soup each year. Faculty and students come from a variety of academic disciplines, including: Counseling, Social Work, Sociology, Child and Family Studies, Gerontology, Liberal Studies/Education, Health Science, Nutrition, Criminology, Theater Art/Drama, and many more. Students participate at Stone Soup as volunteers or through dozens of different service-learning and internship courses. There are also a large number of students who work at Stone Soup as part of the Federal Work Study program and through different scholarship and grant requirements. Everyone involved has had the opportunity to enrich their own lives and enhance their level of civic engagement.

The university has also assisted Stone Soup with financial support through grant funding, and we have acted as the fiscal agent for other grants obtained by the nonprofit. The partnership between Stone Soup, California State University, Fresno, and the other cooperating organizations and agencies is a model for highly effective and efficient nonprofit partnerships. The organization has had a significant impact on the area, as represented by the greatly diminished crime rates, improved academic achievement of the area youth, and the steadily improving socio-economic status of the neighborhood.

In recognition of their outstanding achievements, Stone Soup of Fresno and the partnering organizations have been honored with several prestigious awards, including: the Herman Goldstein POP Award, the Youth Citizenship Award, and the John Martin Fresno Area Reading Council Award. One of the most prestigious awards received by the Stone Soup project is the President s Service Award, conferred by President Clinton in 1995. In recognition of the university s contributions to the collaborative, Stone Soup gave the award to the University for housing and display. The partnership between California State University, Fresno and Stone Soup has been one that greatly benefits everyone involved. Our faculty, staff and students have significantly increased their knowledge of, appreciation for, and involvement in the El Dorado Park neighborhood and the community at large. Stone Soup has benefited from the many resources, both human and otherwise, contributed by the University. First and foremost, however, the residents of El Dorado Park have seen a dramatic change in their neighborhood and their lives. This partnership with Stone Soup has helped provide residents with the opportunities and resources they need to improve and enrich their lives in many ways.

Students for Community Service web site: http://www.csufresno.edu/scs/

First, the project drew upon existing campus-based community service programs in the neighborhood to create research teams, which conducted in-depth interviews with neighborhood youth and other residents, neighborhood community leaders and activists, and local police officers in order to uncover perceptions and concerns about youth and youth crime. Information from these interviews will in turn provide directions for subsequent research. In this way, the project involved neighborhood residents in setting the research agenda; exposed and investigated perceptions and misperceptions about youth cultures and crime; and sought to open lines of communication.

The project concluded with a public forum on the Regis University campus, open to membersof the Regis community and the larger neighborhood alike. Here, the research teams presented the findings; neighborhood residents discussed the research and provided their perspectives; and all involved worked on possible solutions, and set agendas for further campus/community collaboration.

Contact: Jeff Ferrell at 303.458.4206

Economic Prosperity and Social Justice
– The New London Development Corporation (NLDC) was re-energized in 1997 when Connecticut College President Claire L. Gaudiani became its president. The NLDC s aim is to increase the city s tax base, increase the number of jobs in the city, and enhance the quality of life for all of New London s residents. NLDC was instrumental in securing a decision by Pfizer, Inc. to commit to building its $270 million Global Development Facility in New London. Pfizer’s commitment has been leveraged into other projects in New London. Projects under way include a state park at Fort Trumbull (a Civil War era fort adjoining Pfizer), an industrial pier development, downtown housing and retail space projects, and a dynamic new section of the city with a 200-room hotel, marina, health club, conference facility, and residences. The State of Connecticut has committed $60 million so far with a total of over $715 million committed from public and private sources. In December of 1998, the Connecticut College Board of Trustees voted $2.6 million from the College s endowment to be used as working capital.

In response to the economic development activities, Connecticut College has created the New London Social Justice Initiative. The broad goal for this initiative is to bring Connecticut College to a new level of engagement with its community leading to transformational changes for both Connecticut College and New London. This transformation yields an improved quality of life for New Londoners and an enhanced educational experience for Connecticut College students.

The philosophy behind the initiative is to ensure that the renaissance , which has started and will take place in New London over the next several years benefits all residents. Economic prosperity is only half of the equation. The other half is social justice, which must go hand in hand with economic prosperity. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. The work of the social justice initiative builds on the assets, strengths and experiences of our community to create a level of social transformation to match what is already occurring on the economic side.

A series of new programs in five areas health and wellness, early childhood development, K-12 education, the arts and public spaces, and economic opportunity — have been developed by the faculty in connection with this Initiative and the College s newest strategic plan. These programs will help to lead the transformation of New London and engage students and faculty in exciting elements of New London s emerging renaissance.

Contact person: Margaret Sheridan , Director, Holleran Center for Community Action & Public Policy,

Web: http://www.conncoll.edu/academics/centers/hollerancenter/index.html

In October 2000, The Center for the Advancement of Service Learning (CASL) was established to promote the insitutionalization of service learning at Howard by developing and promoting initiatives that integrate service learning into existing courses and curricula throughout the university. CASL also provides training and technical assitance to faculty and staff for infusing service learning pedagogy into existing courses and redesigning curricula to include a service learning component.

Website: www.howard.edu/CenterUrbanProgress/CASL.html

Excerpted from Diversity Digest Summer 2001

In 1990 Ken Reardon, an associate professor in urban and regional planning, became the director of the university s East St. Louis research project, and suggested one critical change. Instead of doing research on East St. Louis, as they had done for the last three years, the university would start doing research with East St. Louis. With that change, Dr. Reardon changed the nature of the project from a study in traditional research, to a national model in participatory action research.

This new approach had a ripple effect. Initially, research had focused on large-scale improvements within the city. University planners had developed enormous projects to encompass whole neighborhoods. When they began working with the community, faculty realized that residents didn t want lofty plans for changing their whole city. They wanted to take on problems one at a time, fixing East St. Louis piece by piece. Small-scale change replaced sweeping proposals.

The way the research itself was conducted also changed. Initially, the university had followed academic research models regularly used in urban planning. Once they began working with residents, they realized that no single model could be applied to East St. Louis. They picked pieces from here and there, and put together their plans as they went, modifying projects to fit the new ideas brought by residents. Reports written to fit academic specifications have had to be reworked and rewritten to be effective for community residents to use them with policy makers and funders.

The outcomes of the action research have been significant. In 1994, through regular meetings with urban planning faculty and students, the Emerson Park neighborhood association, representing the poorest neighborhood in East St. Louis, developed a five-year community development plan. In 1998, after completing the plan one year ahead of schedule, they initiated new discussions with faculty and students for a second five-year plan, which will include a $20 million project to develop 300 homes in the neighborhood. Another typical achievement came earlier in 1998 when the collaborative research team produced sufficient data on housing, transportation, and zoning to convince the St. Louis Bi-State Development Corporation to locate a new stop on their light rail system in Emerson Park a move that is expected to bring new revenue to the neighborhood and make jobs more accessible to residents.

The burgeoning relationship between the University of Illinois and various neighborhoods in East St. Louis continues to grow. A new Neighborhood Technical Assistance Center, opened in East St. Louis and staffed by the University of Illinois, augments action research with training and technical assistance in areas like computer literacy and grant writing.

Through action research that is truly collaborative, constructive, and community-focused, the University of Illinois has helped East St. Louis to build on their assets and increase their social capital as a community. Collaborative efforts and collaborative successes have re-energized neighborhoods and begun a process of transformation. When the university arrived in 1987, East St. Louis residents could think of no reason for faculty to stay. In a recent community retreat in 1998, faculty had a different problem. After asking residents to discuss future directions, and current strengths and weaknesses in the action research they were doing together, residents came up with a list of strengths, and a host of new ideas, but even after much prodding, they couldn t come up with any weaknesses.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: East St. Louis Action Research Project: http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/

A community needs and resouces assessment carried out in the fall of 1994 formed the basis for developing a strategic plan to meet communtiy goals. The focus was issues of community building and safety, especially concentrating on the needs for youth. In addition to producing realistic implementation plans for community action, the project emphasized a planning process designed to engage a broad spectrum of the Riverside community, thereby increasing visibility, membership and effectiveness of the Riverside Community Neighborhood Watch.

Contact: Marie Kennedy at 617.287.7262

I) Improving service to the Worcester community through enhancing outreach from WPI faculty, graduates and students, specifically through locally-sponsored interactive projects relating science, technology and society (which is a unique nine-credit-hour reqiurement for graduation for all WPI students)

II) Improving the academic quality of interactive projects performed locally, by adapting best practices developed at distant residential project sites to enrich learning in projects sponsored by local agencies and carried out by students living on campus.

The mission of the group is to assist local organizations in addressing and solving policy issues where contributions from WPI’s scientifically -oriented students and faculty are especially helpful.

Projects have included assisting the City of Worcester in marketing itself, re-developing industrial areas for new uses, implementing a pre-engineering curriculum in the local high schools, and assessing playground safety.

Website: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Projects/worcester.html

What Is Action Research?
Action research involves students, faculty and community members to work collaboratively on research that has been requested by a nonprofit, government or neighborhood organization. A unique characteristic of action research is that the community serves as an active contributor and agent of change by participating in the design, execution, evaluation, and dissemination of academic research. Action research also provides faculty with an opportunity to synthesize their mandate for excellence in teaching, research, and service.

Why Concentrate On the East Side?
The neighborhoods on St. Paul’s East Side were selected because of the community’s demographics, problems, and opportunities. Of the 30,000 people living on the East Side, one third experience serious poverty, one third are struggling, and one third are solidly in the middle class. Neighborhood-based organizations face incredible challenges: high mobility of residents; deteriorating housing stock and business infrastructure; and depleting economic resources. Although the community has been economically impaired, the possibilities for financial reinvestment and the capitalization of human resource assets are tremendous.

Action Research at Macalester
Led by the Director of Community Service and by a former St. Paul Mayor who is now a Visiting Professor of Urban Studies, the initiative works with residents to look at issues such as housing and employment and to identify priorities for future economic development. Faculty and students pursue action research projects as part of Macalester courses or senior honors projects with the expectation that the results will have broader community impact. For instance, an Urban Geography Field Seminar class recently produced an 80-page book on the economic potential of the main business district of the East Side neighborhood; the book is being used by the current mayor to secure funding for the area from the state legislature. To date, faculty and students from Urban Studies, Sociology, Geography, Economics, Political Science, Education and Mathematics departments have participated. Faculty teams focused on the natural sciences and health care issues are developing. The efforts are supported by college funding, a federally funded HUD grant, and a grant from Minnesota Campus Compact and Minnesota Higher Education Services Office through the Corporation for National Service Learn and Serve America Program.

Community Service Office web site: www.macalester.edu/cso/

The mayor obliged this unusual request, and identified twelve Brainerd residents. Central Lakes staff promptly contacted these residents and invited them onto campus, where they met and watched a brief film about asset-based community development. That night, inspired by the film and the discussion that followed, the group of twelve voted unanimously to form a residents association. With that, SEBRA South-East Brainerd Residents Association was born.

South-East Brainerd is the oldest part of Brainerd. Few residents own their own homes, incomes are low, and crime is high. In 1995, most neighbors didn t know one another, and there was little communal activity. Working with the college, SEBRA set out to change all that. The result is a neighborhood transformed not in grand ways that will put Brainerd on the map, but in small ways that highlight the vitality of human relationships. SEBRA began holding monthly meetings, which now bring together 65 or more community members each month. The association began printing a quarterly community newsletter, which Central Lakes work-study students help to write and distribute. They established an annual neighborhood clean-up day, which brings the whole neighborhood together once a year.

Students in a sociology class helped the neighborhood to develop an asset map, documenting residents skills and talents, which they can use to exchange services. The association brought in the local police to conduct crime prevention workshops in the neighborhood, and residents have volunteered their homes as safe houses for youth on the way home from school. Students from Central Lakes published oral histories of the community based on interviews with elderly residents.

Community members report that since the founding of the association three years ago, they know more of their neighbors, speak out more frequently, and find the town cleaner and safer. Indeed, since 1995 crime in the neighborhood is down 40%. Since that pivotal day three years ago, Central Lakes has played an integral role in the community. It has furnished Brainerd residents with the tools for reform, and manpower in the form of students and faculty to help facilitate their efforts. But perhaps the greatest contribution of college constituents has been their insistence that the association set its own agenda, and mine the resources of its own community, so that residents can accomplish change on their own. We know we ve done our job well, staff at the college s community service office explain, when we re no longer needed. Even if they say they are no longer needed, Central Lakes students, faculty, and staff continue to share ideas, advice, and work with the neighborhood. Through the relationships they have built, they have done more than serve South-East Brainerd; they have become a part of it.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

The Great River Greening Project: http://www.greatrivergreening.org/

Website: http://www.mctc.mnscu.edu/utp/index.htm

By following a semester of one of Dr. Hesser s courses entitled, Urban Communities, we can draw a picture of a high-quality curricular service-learning experience.

In order to learn about urban communities, Professor Hesser tells students on their first day of class, you will use the community as your laboratory. Students are pleased to hear this, many of them having enrolled because they were intrigued by the fieldwork component, and the chance to engage in actual observation that brings their classroom theories to life.

But then the professor adds a twist. There is an ethical problem with this kind of observation, he tells students. If you are going to take these observations from the community, you also must give back to them. Your relationship must be reciprocal. In fact, Dr. Hesser has already spent many weeks before the beginning of the semester contacting neighborhood organizations to see if they are in need of student volunteers. From this, he develops a list of organizations from which students may choose ensuring that the organizations that get student volunteers are organizations that need student volunteers. In the Urban Communities class, 25 students are split into five groups of five and sent to neighborhood organizations, where they will provide service over the course of the semester.

Tying students work in the community into academic theory is the major thrust of curricular service-learning. Dr. Hesser achieves this through a carefully constructed combination of observation, reflection, discussion, and presentation. Students are given a field journal to record observations from their experiences with the neighborhood organizations. Rather than being asked simply to free-write in their journal as they might do if the experience were not connected to academic learning students are asked to write one entry each week based on the course readings for that week. For instance, students study the concept of horizontal relationships in the class the ways different organizations work together within the boundaries of the community. For the corresponding journal entry, they are asked to write about any experience in their time at the community organization that reflects theoretical elements of horizontal relationships.

Back in class, students return to their groups of five and exchange journals, often coming across new discoveries, which they are asked to discuss with the rest of the group. Through this exchange, students recognize the variety of ways their theoretical lessons from class can be applied to the neighborhood organizations where they are working. During other class sessions, students are mixed into groups of five with one from each neighborhood organization. Here, students are able to learn from the very different experiences that others have had in very different neighborhoods. Once again, students are exposed to the great variety of ways that a theory, always the same on paper, can look very different in practice.

At the end of the semester, the teams of five students collaborate to produce an oral and written report. In the report, they use the basic theories of the course to describe the neighborhood association where they worked and to discuss the service that they have performed. By the time they have completed their curricular service-learning experience, students in the Urban Communities class are able to discuss these theories with the rich background of real experience and the understanding of how these theories can be used to help communities.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact person: Dr. Garry Hesser, Sociology Dep.’t, hesser {at} augsburg(.)edu

The program combines a year-long internship of twenty hours a week in a public or non-profit agency with two seminars on issues important to the future of New York City. Special events such as tours, guest lectures, and career workshops enhance the program.

Over the year, Scholars gain:

Firsthand experience of the institutional, economic and political forces that shape public policy.
An opportunity to work directly with public servants on issues that confront them daily.
A generous stipend.
Eighteen credits in Urban Studies.
A mentor from the Hunter College Alumni Association who has similar career and/or personal interests.
A competitive edge in seeking public service careers or admission to graduate school. With the program director, scholars review job descriptions provided by agencies, selecting several at which to interview. Internships are matched as closely as possible with students’ interests and skills.
Scholars take on specific projects, conduct research and analysis, attend staff meetings, and become involved in the functions of their agencies.
Public Service Scholars also participate in two weekly seminars each semester:
– An in-Service Seminar which encompasses the work in the internship and provides an introduction to skills that promote a successful internship.
– Seminar on the City which focuses on the problems of New York City and possible solutions.
Internship placements are available in over 200 public and non-profit agencies and offices of elected officials.

For more information, contact the Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, urban {at} hunter.cuny(.)edu

The Initiative is a partnership that strengthens the relationship between Union College and the City of Schenectady now and into the future. For the City, a Schenectady neighborhood receives a much-needed infusion of capital; and the College benefits by enhancing student, staff, and faculty housing, as well as by improving the environment outside our gates.

The US Initiative attacks the ever-worsening problem of urban decay at its core. By offering a number of incentives attractive mortgage programs, full-tuition scholarships for neighborhood residents, the construction of a community center, the creation of a neighborhood association, and the establishment of a security office in the neighborhood the US Initiative encourages home ownership, a crucial factor in stabilizing and strengthening a community.

As part of the effort, the College has acquired 40 properties in the initiative area that will be completely renovated for student, staff, and faculty housing by Fall 2000. Many of the properties in the USI area were absentee-owned residences; houses were neglected, tenants paid unreasonable rents. The US Initiative addresses that issue by providing tuition-free scholarship funds, which gives prospective buyers an incentive to turn absentee-owned properties into family homes. Today, the neighborhood is transformed. With the vast majority of Union s work on houses complete, and with major streetscape improvements underway, the neighborhood is now considered one of the more striking areas in the entire City of Schenectady. And, USI incentives have generated more than ten home purchases in the Initiative area, which reverses an ongoing trend of slumping home sales in the City of Schenectady.

Another benefit that resulted from Union s Initiative is improved town/gown relations, which represents a significant measure of the overall success of the program. The key to this success is keeping the lines of communication open. Public meetings with Union s neighbors and the City of Schenectady to both provide information and seek feedback enabled the College to move forward as a community to better the neighborhood.

Finally, in addition to the community benefit, students gain from being engaged in Union s revitalization efforts. Within the target neighborhood and beyond, Union students participate in such activities as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, tutoring in Schenectady schools, mentoring, neighborhood watch programs, and community work projects.

Gretchel Tyson, director of affirmative action and community outreach, ysong {at} union(.)edu
Union-Schenectady Initiative web site: http://www.union.edu/News/CollegeNews/USI/

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: Diana Lynn Anderson-Brush, Director of the Community Service Learning Center, at (814) 393-1865 Fax: (814) 393-2707
E-Mail: anderson {at} clarion(.)edu