Communities of Practice (CoPs) provide a unique opportunity for community engagement practitioners to join peers across the country to dig deeper into specific areas of engagement practice. Through discussions, joint activities, resource sharing, and relationship building, participants develop a repertoire of resources, skills, and knowledge to use in their practice. Above all, the CoPs provide a great space to communicate and share strategies with like-minded individuals from all across the country!
This Fall's CoP Offerings
- Community Colleges preparing to apply for the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement (Special topic offered in partnership with the American Council on Education)
This Community of Practice will focus on community colleges that are in the process of applying or preparing to apply for the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement. How does the mission, role, and scope of community colleges influence how community engagement is enacted? The discussion will focus on aligning the mission, role, and scope of community colleges with best practices for supporting networks of community engagement across campus, capacity considerations for enacting community engagement and preparing the Elective Classification for Community Engagement application, and communicating community engagement practices on the application.
- Community-Engaged Learning & Teaching
Focuses on effectively facilitating curricular community-engaged learning experiences that are beneficial to students and community.
- Community Engagement Fundamentals
Focuses on the foundations of the field and the breadth of community-engaged work
- Community Partnerships
Focuses on effectively cultivating, facilitating, and maintaining high-quality partnerships with community organizations and representatives.
- Equity & Inclusion
Focuses on the practice and promotion of diversity, equity, anti-racism, and inclusion in one's engagement work.
- Institutionalizing Engagement
Focuses on the knowledge, skills, and critical commitments to advocate for and garner support for civic and community engagement as an institutional priority in your context
- Supporting Engaged Faculty Development
Focuses on effectively supporting and facilitating professional development related to community-engaged learning and research.
- Tenure and Promotion (Special topic offered in partnership with the American Council on Education)
This Community of Practice will focus on how engaged scholarship is supported in the tenure and promotion processes at institutions. This Community of Practice will create space to share successes and challenges of engaged scholarship and how that can be communicated in the Elective Classification for Community Engagement application. Participants are invited to share Promotion & Tenure language, structures in place to review scholarship, and ideas on how to create a more supportive environment for the recognition of community engagement beyond the service category.
- Third-Time applicants for the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement (Special topic offered in partnership with the American Council on Education)
This Community of Practice will focus on campuses that are submitting a re-classification application for the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement for a second time (i.e. the campus is applying for a third time). How has community engagement evolved and been (re)prioritized since the initial classification, despite potential changes in leadership, strategic initiatives, and local/national events/contexts? The discussions will focus on best practices for campus coalition building to continue stakeholder investment in community engagement, promoting the work campus-wide, sustaining community partnerships, and lessons learned from the transformational process of the Elective Classification self-study.
What to expect
Communities of Practice will be convened between early October and early December 2022 and will typically consist of six, 90-minute virtual sessions. The specific dates and times for each of the CoPs will be found on the application form.
For more information about co-facilitating, contact Clayton Hurd, director of professional development and engaged scholarship, at churd@compact.org.