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Impact Report

Impact Report

From the Director

Dear friends, partners, and colleagues,

I am pleased to present the 2022-2023 Annual Report for the West Virginia University Center for Community Engagement (WVU CCE). As the director, I have had the privilege to witness firsthand the remarkable dedication, passion, and hard work that our team and partners have put forth to make a positive impact in the lives of those we serve.

This past year has been a time of growth and transformation for the WVU CCE. We joined the Extension family under the leadership of Dean Atiles, which has allowed us to leverage resources and tap into the wealth of knowledge that the Extension community offers. This strategic move has enhanced our ability to support community engagement efforts and develop innovative solutions to address the needs of West Virginians.

In this report, you will find stories that highlight the impact of our engagement in the community. From supporting local businesses in revitalizing downtown areas to collaborating with non-profit organizations to address social and environmental issues, we have seen the power of collaboration in action. Our partnerships with community members, organizations, and fellow WVU faculty and staff have been instrumental in shaping our initiatives and ensuring their success.

We are grateful for your continued support and partnership as we embark on another year of collaboration, innovation, and impact. Together, we will Go Beyond.

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63,451 hours served in the community.

300+ organizations that use student volunteers.

$1.6 Million impact value.

4,000+ active student volunteers.

80 service-learning courses taught.

662 community needs met by students.

87 campus and community partners.

23 students placed in Purpose2Action.

2 AmeriCorps VISTAs placed throughout the state.

Other Notable Events

WVU-OSU Meal Packing Event

With over 700 volunteers participating, our universities packed 300,000 meals to be distributed throughout our states.

2022 Welcome Week Service

Honors activities, Monday Night Lights, and more! Readabout it on page 9.

2023 Week of Engagement

With over 700 volunteers

Engaged Scholars Institute

With over 700 volunteers

Service Spotlights

The recorded Impact Value of Service from WVU students for the 2022-23 Academic Year is $2,635,742.76, which comes from the Independent Sector’s annual assessment of value of labor. For 2022, labor in West Virginia was valued at $26.67 per hour. While iServe collects hour-for-hour service, there are many projects, programs, and units across campus that do not perfectly fit this collection system, but the projects are equally as important. We discuss some of these events below.

98,828

hours served in the community

AmeriCorps VISTA

AmeriCorps is the federal agency for national service and volunteerism. AmeriCorps provides opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds to serve their country, address the nation’s most pressing challenges, and improve lives and communities.

The WVU VISTA program serves to better connect the social service, healthcare, childcare, veteran service, food pantries, and other community organizations with resources, create streamlined and consistent communications that become the foundational infrastructure for collaborative teamwork, and through lasting sustained relationships, our program can build capacity of community partners in order to better meet anti-poverty outcomes. We have members working in all areas of higher education and building sustainable partnerships in areas of recruitment, academic success, service-learning, data collection, equity and more.

The WVU VISTA program brought on its first member in 2015 and has since had over 50 members serve year-long placements. These members have supported programs at WVU that provide innovative experiences for students that enhance the land grant mission. WVU VISTA currently supports 17members each year and has come together to promote days of service and social action.

Week of Engagement

Each year the Center for Community Engagement hosts a Week of Engagement in the Spring semester. In partnership with the City of Morgantown, this week hosts volunteer opportunities, highlights exceptional volunteers, and celebrates the accomplishments of our community. On April 11th,2023, the City of Morgantown proclaimed August 16th-22nd as Week of Engagement. That Thursday, we celebrated together at our annual Community Engagement Awards Banquet.

Academic Community Engagement Series

Organized by the Center for Community Engagement, the A.C.E. virtual speaker series invited national and local renowned community-engaged scholars to discuss the theory and practice of community engaged scholarship. Topics during the 2022 – 2023 academic year included:

Foundations of Community Engaged Scholarship
Engaged Scholarship and Promotion and Tenure
Scholarly Outreach and Equitable Collaboration for Sustainable Impact
Community Engaged Research: Honoring Community Relationships and Upholding Social Justice Values
Building Outcomes Around Engagement Experiences

229 colleagues registered for the ACE sessions, with additional viewership through the Center’s youtube channel.

Purpose2Action

Purpose2Action (P2A) helps students find their purpose through community engaged experiences. Understanding that many students need to have jobs outside of their course work, P2A opens the opportunity to experience a high impact learning experience while receiving payment for their efforts. We place undergraduate students with public sector organizations to complete mission-critical projects. Students interested in community engagement and public service get the chance to explore, contribute and grow as they work in, with, and for local communities. In return for their service, students will complete the program with a reinforced academic commitment, improved mental wellness, and opportunities to explore purpose in terms of career pathways. This program presents guidance on the impact of intercultural awareness and its effect on community service and transfer knowledge of self when working with others.

Community Engaged Scholarship

The Center for Community Engagement uses the term community-engaged scholarship to describe any scholarly endeavor – courses, research, service, or other learning experiences – that puts community-defined needs at its center. Community-engaged scholarship describes a hands-on experience within a community that has several key components:

Addresses unmet societal needs
Produces reciprocal benefits for community partners, campus partners, and students
Intentionally integrates community-based needs and academic learning objectives
Prepares students for engagement and encourages ongoing reflection
Cultivates a lifelong commitment to civic engagement

Community partners are active participants throughout the engagement process with faculty, staff, and students, including identifying needs and developing interventions.

Community-engaged teaching is when “students engaged in activities that address human and community needs, together with structured opportunities for reflection designed to achieve desired learning outcomes” (adapted from Jacoby, 1996, 2014).

The Center for Community Engagement works with WVU instructors to tailor courses to meet both the needs of the community and the needs of WVU students through meaningful experiential learning opportunities. Some instructors submit an application to receive the Service Learning designation. Applications and syllabi are reviewed by the service learning faculty committee. During the 2022 – 2023 academic year, five new service learning courses earned the service learning designation and one new service class earned the service designation.

DENT 715 - Dental Public Health
DENT 767 - Rural Community Dentistry Experience
NSG 411- Nursing in Complex Community Systems
CE 493A – Sustainable Development Engineering
CE 593C – Sustainable Development Engineering
HN&F 472– Community Nutrition (received the service designation)

80 SL COURSES TAUGHT

35 WVU INSTRUCTORS

This number reflects the WVU service-learning instructors who utilized CCE’s services this academic year, including iServe User Groups and consultations.

116 ORGANIZATIONS IMPACTED

This number reflects the service-learning partners recorded in iServe.

850 STUDENT PARTICIPANTS

This number reflects the students who utilized iServe for their service-learning classes.

Community Partner Program

300+
organizations have utilized iServe to recruit students.

87
organizations have become official CommUNITY Partners.

The CommUNITY Partner Program (CPP) pledges to create an inclusive network of community leaders that utilize innovative collaboration through reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationships to meet community needs, locally and globally. The CPP commits to support community leaders' engagement and partnerships through employing university and community resources to realize West Virginia University's land grant mission of advancing education, healthcare, and prosperity for all.

View all CommUNITY Partners on the Our Partners page.