student learning done in accordance with community-identified needs and.Service-learning courses are centered around: guest speakers from, or site visits to, community organizations designed to provide basic community understanding and/or community awareness.( Jacoby, Service-Learning in Higher Education, 1996)Ĭommunity-engaged courses include the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their local, regional/state, national, or global communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. Service-learning courses are experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities designed to promote student learning and development, including reflection and reciprocity. PUBLIC SERVICE: Expertise/resources/ services primarily designed by the university.ĬOMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Activities that are mutually beneficial and distinguished by collaboration and reciprocity.Ĭommunity-awareness courses are those that include content that facilitates an awareness about the multitude of factors that impact health and quality of life for individuals, families, societies, or overall community well-being. External entities may invite, host, attend, participate, and benefit from the activity, but the primary responsibility for the design, delivery, and assessment of the activity is shaped by the academic institution. Public service (sometimes referred to as community service or outreach) occurs when an institution provides expertise, resources, and services to or for community individuals, groups, organizations, and the general public. The exchange of expertise and ideas between academic and external community partners leads to the co–creation of knowledge and activities that generate benefits for the academic institution as well as community partners. Come with us.Community engagement is a process by which an institution works with community partners to co-create and implement mutually beneficial activities distinguished by collaboration and reciprocity. We’re reimagining everything a community foundation can and should be. We’re also here to have a Zoom conversation or an email exchange about any of the other things we do, from scholarships to grants to sending you an annual report. Our new Givers & Giving Department is ready to talk to you about anything you need at any time.

If you’re one of our cherished existing fundholders, our relationships are only going to get better. Want to know how you can get involved? Join us for an upcoming Explanation Session. Right now, we’re in the process of explaining what we’re up to, in-depth, to anyone who’s excited about it. Rather than long copy blocks and alluring pictures, it’s a tool to connect you to action. It will be the greatest community problem-solving initiative in American history. And we’re committed to building the infrastructure required to coordinate all of this at the scale and in the way NASA coordinated hundreds of thousands of people to get us to the moon in nine years. We plan to do this with the entire community working together including people of all ages, colors, abilities, beliefs, and imaginations across all five counties. We are committed to bringing Southwest Florida together to solve all of our major social problems on an eighteen-year deadline. We’re actually putting our name on the line for the change we seek to achieve.

But we’re up to something much bigger than a name change. You can see right off the bat that we’ve changed our name from the Southwest Florida Community Foundation to Collaboratory. Welcome to the greatest community problem-solving initiative in American history.

The collaboratory