PURPOSEFUL PARTNERSHIPS: COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION, & COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY

Abstract

The call for civic engagement has awakened renewed interest in promoting institutional citizenship, building new campus-community initiatives, and promoting a broad sense of civic responsibility in higher education. The relationship between the campus and the community is foundational to civic engagement, and all collaborative activities or projects stem from that relationship. The Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement (https://www.ecu.edu/csstudentaffairs/volunteer/) (CLCE) at East Carolina University (ECU) partners with nonprofits, schools or programs in the regional area that provides both services to community members and also provides service and learning opportunities for ECU students, faculty, and staff. Recently, the CLCE team made efforts to improve our partnership development process to ensure that these partnerships are sustainable, strategically focused, and nourished through consistent communication.