Faculty

Are you developing a course that uses service-learning or community-based research? Use our Handbook for Designing Community-Based Courses as a starting point, or contact Suzan Akin to discuss your ideas. We can also assist you with syllabus development, project development, sustainability of the course and/or project, and the campus experiential learning guidelines for Risk Management.

American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program

Cal Corps partners with the University's American Cultures Center and the Division of Equity and Inclusion to provide faculty selected as Chancellor's Public Scholars with a $3000 research grant, a $1500 grant for project needs, training, staff consulting services and paid student Fellows to support the development of new or revised American Cultures courses with community engaged scholarship components. Applications are released in January and are due in March each year.

Service-Learning Mini-Grants

For faculty who are interested in developing a new community-based component for an undergraduate or graduate course outside of the American Cultures program, there is potential for funding to cover the costs of your community project, as well as for faculty stipends and for paid student scholars to help you implement your course. Please contact Suzan Akin.

Cal Corps can help you identify the best placement sites for your students and set up agency partnerships. You can look at the current volunteer opportunities and agencies available on our Volunteer Opportunities Database, see our current list of projects from community agencies interested in working with faculty, or contact Suzan Akin at 510/643-0307 for assistance in identifying potential community partners.

Consider the principles of partnership in Section 2 of the Handbook for Designing Community-based Courses, which can help you in identifying your capacity and the type of partnership that will work best for you. In addition, we can assist you with the campus experiential learning guidelines
for Risk Management. 

We can help you connect to research, best practices and campus colleagues in the fields of service-learning, engaged scholarship, civic engagement and community-based participatory research (CBPR). See below for places to start, and contact Suzan Akin if you have specific requests.

Resources:

• Handbook for Designing Community-Based Courses: A guide to developing community-based courses created by Cal Corps Public Service Center and geared toward the UC Berkeley campus.
   
• Experiential Learning Guidelines: UC Berkeley's campus guidelines for credit-bearing experiential learning activities.
   
• Bay Area Service-Learning Network: A network of faculty and staff at local higher education institutions who meet 2-3 times per year to discuss issues relevant to the field. Contact Suzan Akin if you would like to be added to the listserv.
   
• Campus Compact: A national coalition of over 1100 college and university presidents who are "committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education." Offers resources to support and promote community-based work, including training, consultation, funding, recognition, and more.
   
• Community-Based Participatory Action Research Network: A network of Cal faculty who utilize CBPAR as their main research method. Contact Suzan Akin for more information.
   
• Community-Campus Partnerships for Health: A community-partnerships organization with many resources for course, research and partnership development that can be applied across all disciplines; also has resources for publishing and funding.
   
• Imagining America: Artists & Scholars in Public Life: A consortium of institutions and their partners which focuses on the role of the arts and humanities in taking action to improve communities.
   
• National Service-Learning Clearinghouse: Supports the service-learning community by providing resources, readings, sample syllabi, discussion lists and much more for higher education and K-12 institutions.
   
• TRUCEN: The Research University Civic Engagement Network is a collaborative of Research 1 institutions exploring the unique roles and responsibilities of research institutions in community engagement. In particular, note the "New Times Demand New Scholarship" report.
   
• Center for Teaching and Learning Grants: CTL offers grants that support course development. These grants may be helpful in doing the initial preparation and/or implementation of a community-based course.