By Julie Plaut
With contributions from Christine Cress, Elaine Ikeda and Piper McGinley (January 2013)
Social Innovation Generation: California Recovery and Renewal Initiative (SIG:CARE) was part of California Campus Compact’s three-year initiative from 2009 – 2012 which focused on catalyzing and mobilizing colleges and universities to aid in the state’s recovery and renewal through service, service-learning and inventive solutions embedded in social entrepreneurship, microfinance and social investment. With support from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America, six California universities received two-year grants to serve as lead institutions. Each developed service and service-learning projects themselves and engaged other colleges and universities in their local area related efforts. Together these campuses collaborated with more than 300 community organizations. This paper provides a perspective on civic engagement and economic well-being by focusing on the results and lessons of the SIG:CARE initiative.
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