Academic Community Engagement

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CCE supports all types of community-engaged learning that take place with community organizations, like internships, client-based class projects, volunteerism, service trips, and/or field experience.

We also provide support for faculty and students conducting community-engaged research. 

Students, visit our Student Page for USM Community-Engaged Learning. The below information is geared toward faculty. 

The CCE:

• Provides suggestions and connections to community agencies (some are online)
• Offers community-engaged course design assistance, project ideas, and training
• Coordinates connections to faculty in other disciplines doing similar work
• Provides information on student community engagement and service opportunities
• Can help with event logistics
• Provides funding for service-learning projects and community-engaged research
• Collaborates on research, manuscripts, and funding proposals
• Assists with risk management

Service Learning 

Service-learning is distinct from other community-engaged learning practices. It embeds service into academic classes and meets USM's criteria for service-learning. CCE provides curricular support for service-learning at USM. 

Community-Engaged Research (CEnR)

Community-engaged research involves university and community members working collaboratively to conduct research for “the purpose of solving a pressing community problem or effecting social change” (Community-Based Research and Higher Education, Strand et al., 2004, p.3). 

USM Faculty Mentor for CEnR:
Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, charkarra.andersonlewisFREEMississippi
Dr. Anderson-Lewis serves as a resource for faculty who may have questions about conducting community-engaged research at USM.  

Faculty Success (formerly Digital Measures)
Faculty Success allows faculty to identify research and creative activity artifacts as “community-engaged.”  This information is used as evidence for the Carnegie Foundation to maintain our Community-Engaged elective status. It will also help identify possibilities for collaboration and funding, measure collective impact on critical community issues, and demonstrate USM’s broader impacts.

The Presentations, Publications, and Creative, Artistic, and Professional Writings, Performances, and Exhibits panels all have a checkbox titled “Is this work the product of a community-engaged research process?” Checking that box indicates that the artifact is a product of a community-engaged research process. There is also a help question mark symbol to define community-engaged research.

CCE Support for CEnR
CCE offers funding to support CEnR, suggests faculty or community collaborators, and collaborates on research, manuscripts, and funding proposals. Contact christy.kayserFREEMississippi%20for more information.