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Question: I am a member of my university's task force on civic engagement, the work of which is based on principles in the Campus Compact 30th Anniversary document. My background is in clinical psychology, although I've gravitated toward critical and community psychology in recent years. My focus within the task force is on relationships with community partners, and I've organized a discussion group of campus and community members to talk about how the university has been doing at civic engagement and how we might improve. I found the tool box by way of teaching community psychology (for the first time this semester) using Kagan et al.'s (2011) textbook. I'd like to make as much use as possible of the task force efforts in improving my university's civic engagement, and am interesting in knowing which parts of the tool box might be most helpful in this regard. Any advice you might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Answer:

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. We agree that the University has a powerful role to play in civic engagement and in strengthening the community.  The Campus Compact provides some useful background principles.  You seem to have implemented some key principles on your own, for we believe that relationships here are key, and the discussions you mention between your university and community partners seem like a very strong idea.   

            Beyond that, there are many models and ideas that other universities have used that you can draw upon and adapt for your own university setting.  One good example  we have encountered comes out of Case Western Reserve University, at https://students.case.edu/community/resources/bestpractices/. A simple web search should turn up many more.

            How might the Tool Box undergird your work? As you know, the Tool Box covers a wide variety of community topics. But some sections that may be particularly relevant for you are those on planning (found in Chapter 8), and on starting a new community intervention (found in Chapters 18 and 19).  You can access these through the table of contents on our web site. 

            We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing, and all best wishes for success in your work.

Question Date: Sun, 03/04/2018