Program Impact
Colleges and Universities are home to the best, and the brightest, the newest ideas, some of the best role models, and all types of skills from the social sciences to the physical sciences, from business to art, from information technology to medicine. All of these reservoirs of knowledge have vast potential as partners with community groups and institutions like schools, action agencies and others.
The programs of the foundation are part of a movement to enhance the college and school experience by using service as a mechanism for learning and contributing. The award promotes its goal of academic service by recognizing significant service accomplishments of students and faculty and their community. The grants for innovative student led community service projects allow students to experience social entrepreneurship. The students gain invaluable experience in social responsibility.
The winning programs have partnered students with community groups under faculty supervision, to teach parents how to care for their children with asthma, tutor inner-city youth, renovate homes for the elderly, provide training to small companies, caring for the environment, conduct health testing, and many more academic-connected service activities. Student community service projects come from across the academic disciplines.
Large and small schools alike, who have embraced the programs of the foundation, are positioned as taking academic service-learning seriously by their community and by prospective students. They have received press and media coverage, attracted sponsorships for their work in civic engagement and serve as inspiration for others.
The Award for Campus-Community Collaboration has sharpened the focus of this vision of education and has widened its scope of influence. As the value of granting credit for academic service-learning becomes better understood, learning while serving others will become more of an integral part of an education. President Carter calls the program of the foundation a "sterling jewel" in education".
A C2P program evaluation by University of California Berkeley showed that by participating in CASE competitions the students became more aware of the positive social impact they could have on society. The hosts for CASE found the recognition received by students and faculty for their work as very encouraging.
"It reinforced the importance of mutuality in working relationships between campuses and communities by establishing collaboration as their basic focus by highlighting the positive process of functioning as a collaborative".
Social Entrepreneurship: Integrates social impact with business objectives. CASE Social Entrepreneurs bring positive social change by implementing ideas that solve the most pressing problems in the world such as poverty, education, health, justice, and other millennium goals through entrepreneurial solutions. C2P provides training and funding to innovative student leaders for sustainable implementation.
A few Examples of CASE Projects: