Consult with CCE staff
Many individual students and student groups on campus participate in community service
or volunteer on their own time each year. While we encourage students to take the
lead on collaborating directly with community partners, the CCE does provide support
for students who would like to talk about their ideas or aren't sure where to start.
CCE staff members are available to meet with students throughout the year. Email us
at cce@binghamton.edu, call us at 607-777-4287
or stop by our office (UU-137) to set up an appointment.
Develop a service project
Identify an issue
- What are you passionate about?
- What problems have you seen on campus or in the community?
- Is there a local need that correlates with your national philanthropy?
- Identify and LISTEN to stakeholders.
Find partners
- Who has a stake in the issue?
- Who can help move the project forward?
- Community organizations (check the Community Opportunities Directory for organizations that may have missions aligned with addressing the issue you have identified)
- Student groups (SA-chartered organizations can be contacted through )
- Faculty
- Campus offices
- Community members
- Your chapter advisor
Develop a project/initiative
- Link your passion and skills with a real community priority or need
- Identify and understand the problem first
- Listen to stakeholders
- Don't assume you know the solutions
- Recognize the complexity of social issues — try to link short-term solutions to systemic causes (hunger results from food insecurity which is caused by underemployment)
- Acknowledge that you can't "solve" the problem in one semester
Implement
Planning
- What resources do you need? Who can provide those?
- Set goals and a timeline
- Identify tasks, assign to team members and set deadlines
- Communicate with stakeholders throughout
At event/program:
- Assign day-of tasks, including timeline
- Communicate details (directions, assignments, contact information)
- Don't forget about assessment! Make sure you're tracking quantitative outputs or gathering qualitative feedback in real time.
Assess and share outcomes
How do you know if you were successful?
- Outputs (attendance, dollars raised, pounds of food distributed, number of children tutored)
- Written evaluations
- Quality of discussion
- Verbal feedback from partners, participants, etc.
Share your great work!
- Publicize results and tell your story! The University and the CCE can help if you share your project and results with us.
Reflect
- What did you learn about the community? Were any of your assumptions about community needs/assets challenged?
- What did you learn about yourself? Did you develop or strengthen skills? What made you uncomfortable?
- Did you consider a new career path or course of study?
- How did you apply knowledge from your coursework?