The schools, departments, programs and groups at Washington University in St. Louis implement an impressive array of community service activities, both locally and internationally.
But the university’s decentralized nature makes it difficult to share effective practices, collaborate and assess the collective impact.
The Gephardt Institute for Public Service maintains the Community Counts database to track such activities, and it’s time to submit initiatives from the 2012-13 academic year.
July 25 is the deadline to provide information. Each new or updated initiative submitted will be entered into a drawing for a $500 grant to support the project.
Every year, the Gephardt Institute collects data about community engagement and service initiatives (defined as organized, programmatic initiatives performed by groups in service to an organization or community and undertaken by WUSTL community members). The data is used for national reporting and assessment, which influences WUSTL’s rankings. To tell the story, Community Counts collects data at an institutional level.
Visit here for further details and to complete the inventory.
The winning initiative from the 2011-12 data collection is the Clarendon Service Partnership. Students at Clarendon High School in Arkansas partner with WUSTL undergraduates to engage in efforts such as park renovations in the Clarendon community.
“This funding will allow us to make our efforts more sustainable,” said Peter Birke, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in Arts & Sciences in May. “For example, we will be able to implement our project with the students, and they will be able to continue using the supplies for things like their festival and basketball tournaments.”