New Project: Community Development from Within

Posted by on February 13, 2004

[posted from National Service-learning listserv]

Community outreach has become a recognized and entrenched part of the agenda for higher education. Thus far, the concept of community development has only been applied to reaching out to the community beyond the campus. Colleges and universities can do a lot of good looking outside their campuses; however, they need look no farther than into their own campuses for members of the external community – many of whom are employed in the lower paid service jobs. They clean our classrooms, prepare and serve food in our cafeterias, manicure our
grounds, and process our paperwork.

With a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE)is charting the domain of the “civic microcosm” within the university in a project called Reversing the Telescope. We are seeking campus examples of programs and activities that support community development within our own campuses. Please forward program descriptions and, if you can, an explanation of why the program was started.

If you would like to see our work to date, please feel free to download the report: “Reversing the Telescope: Community Development from Within – Taking the First Look” Summer, 2003 from the NERCHE website