Building Community
A centerpiece for PLACE is a program called Building Community. It brings together scholars, students, and community leaders to a year-long study of a social issue of great importance. Matters such as immigration, an increase in the poverty rate, land use, religious or cultural misunderstanding, and social control programs affect communities adversely when people act with incomplete or inaccurate information or knowledge. Conversely, an increase in supportive housing or health and recreation services can affect communities in extraordinary ways that help them prepare for the future.
Participants in Building Community study an issue from their own particular disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives, using the classroom as a site for enlisting the talents of curious, creative students to apply the analytical tools to community situations. The first phase of Building Community frames questions, gathers information and insights, and studies issues and problems, working closely with community groups to generate better understandings. The second phase of Building Community complies findings and discusses them with university and community groups. Often, policy or programmatic suggestions result.
To begin the work of Building Community, Liberal Arts faculty members submit short proposals to identify the courses in which community research can be conducted, describing the type of analysis that students will perform. Each instructor prepares a report in collaboration with student researchers and community partners. The reports provide a basis for discussing recommended actions, which can then guide service-learning courses the following semester.
The ideal Building Community programs lead to external funding to sustain a college-wide program that can servce as a model to other universities that intend to implement engagement programs.