Nationally, there has been a resurgence of community service involvement by college students, businesses, K-12 youth, and senior citizens. In Brevard County, we have witnessed this return to community through our Brevard Community College students, the United Way Volunteer Center volunteers, and Brevard County School District youth. The key ingredient that binds and unites these separate but similar citizen enclaves is the web of mutuality between volunteer and recipient, community and institution, and need and resources. At Brevard Community College, our vision and support structures have led to an expectation of service as an integral part of the collegiate experience. This involvement is intentional, central, and vital to the college, the community, and most of all, our students.

Now is the time to extend these prodigious benefits of community service to another key constituent of the college – its employees! Several businesses and organizations have developed creative and far-reaching projects to help the community and their employees through systemic efforts for service to the community. Chrysler Corporation, Levi-Strauss, the former NCNB Bank, Timberland, and the Body Shop are good examples of business commitments to helping surrounding communities and workforces.

Brevard Community College is in an advantageous position to do likewise. Our name is community; our students are models of citizen participation; our closeness to community is evident through many initiatives across the institution. We have the apparatus in place to logistically coordinate and support a significant project. BCC employees have the opportunity to volunteer at Center for Service-Learning specified service sites for 1 1/2 hours per week in lieu of the 1 1/2 hours presently allowed for exercise. All sites would be selected by the CSL, taking into consideration city need and possible positive impact on the employee. Service hours would be documented on appropriate forms, and all employees would inform their direct supervisors when they would be serving their community.

This opportunity is a real catalyst to demonstrate that BCC cares enough to commit resources to the most important resources that we have – our community and its citizens. The project would be a definitive statement of the seamless web of mutuality, which binds all of us. If the community becomes healthier, the College benefits likewise!

During a time when colleges and universities across the country are pondering about what an engaged institution should be, and are talking about becoming community citizens. Brevard Community College will be a more committed institution for civic and personal development.