Publications
25th Anniversary Report
This report includes the inspirational remarks made by Goodwin Liu, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court at our 25th Anniversary Celebration in November 2013; as well as essays by many of our member presidents highlighting vivid examples of how, as members of California Campus Compact, they are educating students to change our world.
CESF Impact Report
The Community Engagement Student Fellowship (CESF) connects college students with their communities through community-campus partnerships that address pressing social needs. While working to improve the lives of others, these students awaken to the root causes of complex societal problems and to their own ability to work toward solutions—both now and into the future.
LEAD California, a statewide coalition of higher education leaders, established the CESF program in 2013 as part of its mission to educate students for civic and social responsibility. Since that time, we have deployed more than 150 CESF Fellows on campus and in the community. These students work to address issues affecting California and beyond, ranging from health disparities to poverty and homelessness to college access and success.
Community Voices
Community Voices grew out of a conversation among service-learning practitioners at a retreat hosted by California Campus Compact. “What do our community partners think about service-learning? We think they are benefiting, but how do we know? Why do they choose to partner with us in the first place?” To help our member campuses begin to answer these questions, California Campus Compact collaborated with four individuals who are deeply familiar with service-learning theory and practice and had experience in focus group facilitation. They implemented a process to better understand the diverse perspectives of long-term community partners who are collaborating with institutions of higher education, and to identify recommendations to strengthen well-established community-campus partnerships. The study involved 99 experienced community partners of a diverse mix of colleges and universities in California. As part of this study, community partners participated in 15 focus groups. This report highlights the results of the study — the largest study of community partner perspectives that we are aware of in the literature to date. Funding was provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America Higher Education.
Faculty Engagement Survey
- how faculty are involved in service-learning and/or community-based research
- the nature of service-learning and community-based research practices, such as teaching and reflection strategies
- the specific elements that faculty members identify as challenging to and supportive of their use of service-learning and/or community-based research
- student learning and development outcomes that faculty expect
- the personal and professional impacts faculty experience due to their use of service-learning and/or community-based research.
Funding was provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America Higher Education.
Partnering in Tough Times: Service-Learning for Economic Vitality
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.
Thriving in Uncertain Times
During spring 2009, California Campus Compact sponsored five regional dialogues across the state focusing on the past, current and future involvement of California higher education institutions in the service-learning and civic engagement movement. More than 85 students, community partners, service-learning directors, faculty and senior administrators from non-profit organizations and colleges and universities throughout California participated in these conversations. During the dialogues, which were facilitated by California Campus Compact senior staff members, participants identified trends in the field as well as many of the challenges they face in doing this work. Time also was devoted during each dialogue to discussing strategies to address these challenges. The dialogues provided participants with an opportunity to share lessons and insights regarding where the service-learning and civic engagement movement has been, where it is heading and how those involved can continue to advance and strengthen the work in the face of the current economic climate and other challenges. Funding was provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America Higher Education.
Ideas
California Campus Compact designed the Community/University Initiative on Diversity, Equity, and Service (IDEAS) program,which focused on the integration of diversity and service-learning in higher education. The goal of the program was to encourage collaborative efforts between and across institutions around diversity and service-learning. By achieving this goal, we hoped to:
- build the capacity of the independent sector of California higher education to increase focus on and integration of diversity and service-learning education.
- prepare all students for participation and leadership in a diverse society.
One major component of this project was a research study designed to examine issues of collaboration and how service-learning and diversity work might be more closely connected from an institutional perspective. Although this research project concentrated on four independent colleges and universities in California, we believe that the information gleaned from this study is informative for a variety of institutions. Funding was provided by the James Irvine Foundation.