The University of San Diego gauges community impact in the most direct way possible: they ask the community. The San Diego Organizing Project recruits potential community leaders from churches, baseball leagues, and community-based organizations and asks them how to shape efforts at community building. To date, a group of 75 community members has met three times in the Holy Family Church and identified safety and landlord-tenant relations as key community issues. In response, the group has developed a neighborhood watch, and university law students offer mediation services in housing disputes. Community members are able to offer their assessment in future meetings.
From
Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy
Website: http://www.sandiego.edu/csl/
