Leading Organizations
Higher Education Collaborative on Democratic Engagement Working Group
This group of organizations has committed itself to working on action strategies for renewing the civic mission of higher education. The collaboration grew out of the December 11-13, 1998 Wingspread Meeting on the Civic Responsibility of Research Universities, which aimed to create workable and concrete strategies for reinvigorating the civic mission of research universities, both by preparing students for responsible citizenship in a diverse democracy, and also by engaging faculty members to develop and utilize knowledge for the improvement of society. The conference was coordinated by the University of Michigan Center for Community Service and Learning, with sponsorship by the Association of American Universities, American Association for Higher Education, American Council on Education, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Campus Compact, New England Resource Center for Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania Center for University Partnerships, and the Johnson Foundation, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
American Democracy Project
The American Democracy Project is a multi-campus initiative that seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates enrolled at institutions that are members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The goal of the project is to produce graduates who understand and are committed to engaging in meaningful actions as citizens in a democracy. Focused on undergraduates at public colleges and universities, the American Democracy Project has created a collaborative network of 166 public colleges and universities, representing more than 1.5 million students that are member institutions of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The three-year project, sponsored by AASCU in collaboration with The New York Times, will provide opportunities for participating campuses to engage in activities and projects designed to increase the number of undergraduate students are committed to meaningful civic actions.
Campus Compact Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement
The Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement, founded in 2003, is the result of a partnership between the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the foremost leader of liberal education, and Campus Compact, the nationally known organization promoting service learning. Acting as a catalyst and incubator of new ideas, campus-based innovations, research, and collaborations, the Center seeks to deepen understandings of the relation of liberal education to service and civic responsibilities. In so doing, the Center links this new understanding to actions that address complex, urgent social problems.
Close Up Foundation
The Close Up Foundation is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan citizenship education organization. Founded in 1970, Close Up connects individuals of all ages to their communities and institutions through a variety of educational programs and products. By building partnerships with the education community, the private and philanthropic sectors, and all branches and levels of government, Close Up promotes civic participation in meaningful and dynamic ways. Close Up works with teachers and students on service learning initiatives, providing training workshops, program development seminars, curriculum-writing institutes, "training of trainers" sessions and materials, youth service summits, student guide books, and teacher manuals to help integrate service learning into the curriculum.
Compact for Learning and Citizenship
The Compact for Learning and Citizenship is an organization of chief state school officers and superintendents committed to linking school-based service and service-learning to K-12 curriculum and to organizing schools to maximize community volunteer efforts. The CLC was founded by and operates out of the Education Commission of the States (ECS), a national, nonprofit organization that helps state education and political leaders improve education at all levels. ECS is also the parent organization of Campus Compact, a program that involves college students in service to their schools and communities. The Compact for Learning and Citizenship provides school leaders with policy and programmatic leadership to assist school improvement efforts by integrating service into the core educational activities and by helping school systems deal effectively with community and business organizations that wish to volunteer services to students in the schools.
Campus Compact
Campus Compact is a national coalition of close to 850 college and university presidents committed to the civic purposes of higher education. To support this civic mission, Campus Compact promotes community service that develops students' citizenship skills and values, encourages partnerships between campuses and communities, and assists faculty who seek to integrate public and community engagement into their teaching and research. Its "Civic Engagement and Higher Education" program focuses on defining and mapping civic engagement, program models, and assessment models and its "Service-Learning and Faculty Development" program focuses on integrating service with academic study.
American Association of Community Colleges' Horizons Service Learning Project
Since 1994 the American Association of Community Colleges has promoted the value of service learning to the 1,200 associate degree-granting institutions in the U.S. According to two AACC national surveys, nearly 50 percent of all community colleges offer service learning in their curricular programs. Another 35-40 percent of colleges are interested in starting service learning programs. The goals of AACC's national project, Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning, are to build on established foundations to integrate service learning into the institutional climate of community colleges, and to increase the number, quality, and sustainability of service learning programs through an information clearinghouse, data collection and analysis, model programs, training and technical assistance, publications, and referrals. The Horizons project is supported by the Corporation for National Service and its Learn and Serve America program.
International Partnership for Service-Learning
The International Partnership for Service-Learning, founded in 1982, is a non-profit organization serving colleges, universities, service agencies and related organizations around the world by fostering programs that link community service and academic study. IPS-L initiates, designs, and administers off-campus programs in the Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, India, Israel, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, Scotland, and South Dakota (with Native Americans). In cooperation with affiliated universities in Britain, Mexico and Jamaica, IPS-L also administers a one-year British Master's Degree Program in International Service. Undergraduate programs are open to qualified high school graduates, college students and graduates, and in-service professionals. IPS-L also organizes conferences and publishes materials related to service-learning.
American Political Science Association's Civic Education Network
A project of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Civic Education Network provides materials for Civic Education teachers at all levels, and includes such resources as major reports on civic society and university centers working on civic education. Resources are divided into three areas: Scholarly Essays; Civic Education Organizations; and Teaching and Research Resources.
Center for Civic Education
The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to fostering the development of informed, responsible participation in civic life. The Center administers curricular, teacher-training, and community-based programs. The Center specializes in civic/citizenship education, law-related education, and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. Programs focus on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; American political traditions and institutions at the federal, state, and local levels; constitutionalism; civic participation; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Civic Learning Cluster Project - New England Resource Center for Higher Education
NERCHE's new Civic Learning Cluster Project works with a group of ten higher education institutions nationwide to strengthen civic learning. This project is part of a partnership among the American Council on Education, UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan, Alverno College, Olivet College, Portland State University, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, the University of Arizona, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Civic Practices Network (CPN)
Civic Practices Network (CPN) is a collaborative and nonpartisan project dedicated to bringing practical tools for public problem solving into community and institutional settings across America. Growing out of the movement for a "new citizenship" and "civic revitalization," and supported by the Surdna Foundation, CPN brings schooling for active citizenship into the information age. CPN is a pluralist and nonpartisan network of civic educators and practitioners who provide case studies, training manuals, "best practice" guides, and evaluative tools; map innovative projects around the country; and help connect people to other civic assets and partners. The Network's web site provides online, multimedia capacities to exchange a broad range of practical tools and diverse experiences, and to fashion these for use in many different settings: schools and professional training programs, community centers and public libraries, government agencies and private businesses, homes and churches.
CIVNET: An International Resource for Civic Education and Civil Society
Published by CIVITAS an international, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting civic education and civil society, CIVNET is a Web site for civic education practitioners (teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers), scholars, policymakers, civic-minded journalists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) promoting civil society all over the world. CIVNET includes such resources as textbooks, lesson plans, original journal articles and book reviews, historical documents and speeches, civic news headlines, events listings, and organizational contacts, and more.
Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program
The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program, an initiative of The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s Office of University Partnerships, provides 3-year grants for colleges and universities to join in partnerships with their communities in order to respond to the problems of greatest concern to the community. Community Outreach Partnership Centers play an active and visible role in community revitalization by applying research to real urban problems, coordinating outreach efforts with neighborhood groups and residents, acting as a local information exchange, galvanizing support for neighborhood revitalization, developing public service projects and instructional programs, and collaborating with other Centers.
Council of Independent Colleges Engaging Communities and Campuses Project
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) currently runs this project designed to support civic responsibility among private colleges and universities. Engaging Communities and Campuses is aimed at helping colleges to develop service learning programs and other sorts of partnerships with local organizations.
Learn and Serve and the National Service Resource Center
The federal government's Corporation for National and Community Service has established Learn and Serve to support service-learning projects in schools. The web site includes information about service learning, resources for programs, and research materials for both K-12 and higher education institutions. Learn and Serve provides grants to individual institutions and statewide consortia and sponsors a leading database on service learning, the National Service Learning Clearinghouse.
National Society for Experiential Education
For more than two decades, the NSEE has been active in promoting service learning and other types of experiential education at the K-12 and college levels. It provides consulting for faculty and administrators, runs conferences and workshops on service learning and civic participation, publishes resource packets and other materials, and runs special interest groups on various topics.
Partnering Initiative on Education and Civil Society
An initiative of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the Partnering Initiative on Education and Civil Society is a coalition of more than 40 leading education associations and organizations that is working on a plan to integrate civic values into all aspects of the educational and community experience. The plan emphasizes service learning, bringing more voices into educational policy-making, and incorporating civil society values in the curriculum.
Project Colleague, New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE)
As part of the Program on Faculty Professional Service and Academic Outreach, NERCHE has begun Project Colleague, a three-year endeavor which aims to create and strengthen team-building techniques and organizational change strategies crucial for faculty engaging in collaborative outreach projects. Project Colleague will create cadres of faculty from campuses around the country who will work with colleges and universities, as well as professional and disciplinary associations. Project Colleague trainers will offer workshops, consultations and presentations, in addition to publications, to faculty members and administrators. The goal is to strengthen the capacity of different groups, units, and individuals with different kinds of expertise to perform as teams.
Study Circles Resource Center
Study Circles are organized to advance deliberative democracy and to improve the quality of public life in the U.S.; the Study Circles Resource Center (SCRC), funded by the Topsfield Foundation, helps organize community-wide study circle programs, creates and distributes discussion materials, and provides technical assistance and discussion resources related to race relations, education, and other issues. SCRC is a nonprofit organization established in 1990 to promote the use of study circles on critical social and political issues.
The Kettering Foundation
The Charles F. Kettering Foundation is a non-profit research foundation dedicated to researching the relationships between democracy and the public. The Foundation administers programs in six areas: Citizens and Public Choice; Community Politics and Community Leadership; The Public and Public Schools; Institutions, Professionals, and the Public; The Public-Government Relationship; and The International and the Civil Order. The web site provides online purchasing of books, reports, journals, and videotapes that report on its research findings about strengthening democracy and public deliberation, in addition to a database of abstracts of articles, books and reports written over the past fifteen years by Kettering research staff.
Pew Partnership for Civic Change
The Pew Partnership for Civic Engagement is a civic research organization whose mission is to document and disseminate cutting-edge community solutions. Pew collaborates with local and national partners to empower diverse leadership for action, catalyze broad-based community partnerships to solve problems, and research successful community solutions and civic practices. The Pew Partnership tests strategies to address the toughest issues facing the nation--from affordable housing to at-risk youth to economic development--through three initiatives: LeadershipPlenty; Solutions for America; and Civic Engagement.
Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America
The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America is an initiative launched by Professor Robert D. Putnam at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. This multi-year dialogue focused on how to increasingly build bonds of civic trust among Americans and their communities. The web site includes descriptoins of the eight meetings and resource lists linked from each meeting page with more information on Civic Engagement and Youth, Government, Politics, Faith-Based Efforts, Work, and the Arts. "Bettertogether," the final report of the Saguaro Seminar, is available at www.BetterTogether.org.
Political Engagement Project
The Political Engagement Project (PEP), an initiative of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, addresses a serious problem facing American democracy-the growing disengagement of young people from politics. Colleges and universities are the institutions most involved with shaping the values, knowledge, skills, and motivation of those between 18 and 28 years old. But there are few attempts to help strengthen students' political engagement at these institutions, and those that do exist remain episodic and isolated from each other, and little is known about their effects. The PEP is an effort to address these issues through educational programs and research.
Journal of College and Character
The Journal of College and Character includes resources and information designed to encourage discussion, research, and educational strategies on character development in college.
Universities in Service to Communities, Prepared by Association of American Universities (AAU) and Tulane University
Begun in October 1996 in conjunction with Tulane University, this site offers a directory of community service and outreach programs in the Association of American Universities (AAU)'s member institutions. The directory has two sections: the first includes a sampling of the service and outreach programs of the AAU members. Each university's programs are organized into three categories: Education and Training, Health and Human Services, and Community Improvement and Economic Development. The second section is an index, containing contact information for the programs described, or a general address to where inquiries may be directed.
Wartburg College Leadership Certificate Program
The purpose of the Wartburg College Leadership Certificate Program (LCP) is to provide formal opportunities and acknowledge effective efforts by Wartburg students to demonstrate and reflect critically upon the Wartburg College definition of leadership, "taking responsibility for our communities, and making them better through public action." The normative assumption underlying this definition is the belief that leadership education, properly conceived and executed, connects students to a defined community for purposes of achieving a common goal, and that this can contribute to their civic, social, and personal development as well as to their cognitive development. All of these attributes are presumed to be essential to a liberal arts education and vital both to the private interests of the lifelong learner of the 21st century and to the public contribution s/he can make to the sustenance of a democratic society.
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