Community Engagement Action Plan

Community Engagement Action Plan

The purpose of the Community Engagement Action Plan project is to help you critically think about and plan for your community engagement quarter. It provides an opportunity to reflect on what community engagement pathway best balances your interests with other demands and responsibilities that you may have. It will help you situate community engagement and community engaged learning with larger social/environmental justice issues. You will also be able to make connections between the themes of this course and critical practices for future community engagement experiences. At this point in the EST program, you may not exactly know what pathway you want to select to fulfill your community engagement requirement. That is okay. Use this assignment to explore a particular pathway of interest and write about your ideal scenario of fulfilling your community engagement requirement (Please know you are not obligated to use the particular pathway you select for this assignment to fulfill your actual community engagement requirement). There will be scaffolded check- in assignments and class activities to assist you in progressing with this project. 

Using the below structure for this assignment, the assignment should be in essay form. All the questions in each section must be answered thoroughly and in detail to receive full credit for this action plan.  

Section 1 [ 5 points] : Community Engagement Pathway [2 pages] The purpose of this section is to describe the particular community engagement pathway that you will choose, and to discuss in detail relevant information connected with this pathway. Please answer all the following questions:  

How do you plan on fulfilling your community engagement requirement? (Internship/EDUC 195; Course Work; Research/ EDUC 196XP ) 

Describe what the particular community engagement pathway entails

Why are you interested in this community engagement pathway? 

What proposed quarter are you planning on fulfilling the community engagement requirement? What are some key dates/deadlines in enrolling in the necessary coursework?

Do you need a course contract for this pathway? If so, explain the steps to creating and completing the course contract. 

What challenges do you foresee facing during this experience?

• What questions do you have?  Where can you seek questions to these answers? 
• Section 2 [ 5 points]: Explaining and Justifying the Social/Environmental Justice Issue [2-3 pages] The purpose of this section is to better understand the social/environmental justice issue in Los Angeles you will be engaged in at your community site. Issues can include: climate change; economic inequality; racial/ethnic justice; environmental degradation and pollution; labor rights; LGBTQ+ rights; housing and gentrification; immigration; poverty and housing insecure/houselessness; women’s equity; (dis)ability; public health etc.). This section must be supported with at least 5 academic resources. 
• What is the social/environmental justice issue that you are interested in engaged with during your community engagement experience?  
• Explain how your community engagement site is connected to this issue
• What are the structural factors that cause this issue? 
• Who/what/where does it impact? 
• What are key concepts and their definitions related to this issue? 

What are the consequences if this issue is not addressed, and why does it need to change?

Section 3 [ 5 points]: Evaluation of Community Organizations in Los Angeles [1-2 pages] The purpose of this section is to explore the services of a community organization in Los Angeles/ Southern California. Even though you will not be interning  at the community organization for your particular community engagement pathway, this section will help to familiarize you with community organization engaged in the social/environmental justice issues described in Section 2. 

Identity the organization and website 

• How does this organizations relate to the community engagement pathway that your chose? 

What rhetoric in the mission statement/organization philosophies demonstrates it addresses the social/environmental issue of focus? 

• What initiatives, programs, service activities address the social/environmental issue of focus? 

What communities does the organization serve that demonstrate the issue of focus?  

• What are your general impressions of these organizations? How does one become a volunteer/intern with these organizations.  

Section 4 [ 5 points]: Reflection and Action [ 2-3 pages] This purpose of this section is reflect on what you learned this quarter and to describe in detail how you plan to practice some of the main concepts of this course through your community engagement pathway. 

• What is social transformation and how do you envision the ways that your community engagement pathway will facilitate/facilitates social transformation? 

How do you plan on building reciprocal relationships at your particular community engagement site? 

• Choose one critical community engagement concept and describe in detail how you will practice it with/ at your community engagement site

What are the specific areas of learning/growth that you experienced this quarter, and how do you plan on incorporating what you learn into your specific community engagement site? 

• Section 5 [ 2.5 points] : Reference Section & Resources Section: 

Reference: Should include at least five relevant academic sources that support answering the questions in Section 2. 

Resources: Additionally, should include list of resources including community organization sites and media where people can find more information on this topic. Make sure the title/name of each site/source accompanies each link.