Community Engagement Toolkit

Resource type: Google site and Digital Guidebook
Intended for: New faculty, emerging practitioners, seasoned educators, students

Contributors: Created by PSU staff, graduate students, faculty, interviewed students, and community partners

A Toolkit for Students

The Community Engagement Toolkit is designed to help students develop and practice skills used to engage with their community for social change. The toolkit will help students explore how and why they want to engage within the community, find the tools to make meaningful connections with communities, and build their sense of community agency to become a catalyst for change.

Community-engaged learning, also known as community-based learning or service learning, is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service or engagement with instruction and reflection to strengthen communities and expand the learning experience.

Go to the Community Engagement Toolkit

Get Started with the Faculty and Facilitator Guide

The Faculty and Facilitator Guide is a simple guide for faculty and facilitators supporting students’ use of the Community Engagement Toolkit. The guide includes learning objectives, sections, and sequencing support for the toolkit’s five modules. The guide also includes ideas for how to integrate resources and activities into your course or workshop as well as additional facilitation and faculty support resources.

Go to the Faculty Guide

What's in the Community Engagement Toolkit?

This module defines community engagement as collaborative work with communities on shared goals, emphasizing personal reflection, understanding issues, and making impactful contributions in various forms of social change.

You will explore three sub-topics:

  • Finding Your Issue
  • Determining Your Impact
  • The Continuum of Social Change

Module Two helps individuals identify their skills and capacities for community engagement, explore various opportunities that align with their values, navigate the communication process with potential partners, and overcome initial anxiety and imposter syndrome to foster meaningful connections.

You will explore four sub-topics:

  • Determining Your How
  • Finding Your Where
  • Starting Communication
  • Overcoming Anxiety

This module emphasizes the importance of ethical community engagement by exploring how identities, positionality, and worldview influence interactions, highlighting the need for awareness of these factors to prevent harm and promote authentic relationships, power redistribution, and social change.

You will explore two sub-topics:

  • Understanding Ethics, Positionality and Worldview
  • Applying Ethical Community Engagement Principles

Module Four highlights that effective and sustainable community engagement demands preparation, reliable communication, reciprocal relationships, and cultural sensitivity along with feedback and graceful transitions to ensure meaningful impact for all involved.

You will explore four sub-topics:

  • Preparing Yourself to Engage Effectively
  • Navigating Engagement with Your Community Partner
  • Giving and Receiving Feedback
  • What Next? Closure and Next Steps

Engaging others in community work amplifies impact but requires careful planning to ensure ethical participation; this section offers guidance on connecting with like-minded individuals and organizing accessible events.

You will explore two sub-topics:

  • Connecting With Others
  • Organizing Community Engagement Events