The Center for Community-Based Learning
The Center for Community-Based
Learning (CCBL) builds upon UNF’s history of community engagement that began
when the University was founded in 1972. Community-Based Transformational
Learning is the backbone of UNF’s community engagement efforts as it provides
students with rich, real world opportunities that enhance student learning,
personal development and civic involvement while also contributing to the
enrichment and well-being of the greater Jacksonville community and beyond. While the University has always had a
commitment to the community, the Center was founded in 2009, in support of
UNF’s first Quality Enhancement Plan focused on Community-Based Transformational
Learning (CBTL).
Mission
The Center
for Community-Based Learning facilitates the adoption, diffusion and
institutionalization of community-based learning and community engagement
practices throughout the academic and co-curricular divisions of the University
of North Florida.
Vision
The Center for Community-Based
Learning wants every UNF student to meaningfully engage with the greater
Jacksonville community through mutually beneficial partnerships. The center of
choice for community engagement initiatives, CCBL will provide distinctive
programs to develop faculty and staff’s expertise with community engagement
pedagogy and practices as well as leadership and enrichment opportunities for
students committed to community. Community organizations and members view CCBL
as the gateway to connecting with potential collaborators on CBTL courses and
other community-engaged efforts.
Values
- Partnership and Reciprocity
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Ethical Education
- Service for the Public Good in greater
Jacksonville and beyond
- Building Strong Communities
UNF is proud of its distinction as a
Carnegie Community Engaged Institution (2010, 2020) and adopts the Carnegie
Foundation's definition of Community Engagement:
Community engagement
describes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their
larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually
beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and
reciprocity.
The purpose of community engagement is the
partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the
public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative
activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged
citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address
critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.