2+4=Service on Common Ground
(Funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service)

The Campus Compact National Center for Community Colleges' 2+4=Service on Common Ground project is supported by the Corporation for National Service (CNS). The goal of the project is to advance service-learning through faculty development for two-year and four-year institutions. It is designed to maximize the applied curricular assets of two-year colleges and the research orientation of four-year institutions so that faculty can more effectively integrate service-learning opportunities that improve student learning and contribute to community development.

The 2+4=Service on Common Ground project engages faculty from 14 postsecondary institutions, in two- and four-year pairs to:

develop faculty through service-learning;
create common community service-learning projects;
assess student learning, faculty skills, institutional expectations, and community improvement;
provide technical assistance to faculty on their campus and nationally; and
develop and disseminate resources that highlight the benefits of service-learning for the institution and community.

The following represents the diversity of institutions and issues addressed in the 2+4=Service on Common Ground project.

Partnership	Community Need/Issue
ARIZONA: Mesa Community College and Arizona State University	Welfare Reform
COLORADO: Community College of Aurora and the University of Colorado at Denver	Housing and Community Development
FLORIDA: Brevard community College and the University of Central Florida	Literacy and America Reads
HAWAII: Kapi'olani Community College and the University of Hawaii, Manoa	Immigration and Ethnic Community Development
MASSACHUSETTS: Middlesex Community College and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell	Immigration
OHIO: Hocking College and Ohio University	The Environment
RHODE ISLAND: Community College of Rhode Island and Brown University	Health and Wellness

Mesa Community College and
Arizona State University

Mesa Community College has developed Women of Courage, a student-to-student peer mentoring program designed to provide an informal support network for returning students, particularly women, who are survivors of homelessness, domestic violence, and/or poverty. As individuals who have successfully entered or returned to education, MCC students involved in this project seek an opportunity to give back to their community by supporting and encouraging others who are beginning their entry into higher education. Project students are anxious to be on the "giving" end, and to decrease the stigma that sometimes accompanies the "receiving" end in our society. They can do this through the mentoring project which will recognize the needs of nontraditional students through providing the understanding of someone who has walked this road.

Center for Urban Inquiry - Arizona State University: Each semester 12 undergraduate students 1) become familiar with literature and local policy regarding homelessness, low-income housing, poverty and social welfare policy, 2) interview persons who are or have been homeless, and 3) conduct community action research in cooperation with homelessness-experienced persons and homeless services providers, including the Phoenix Consortium to End Homelessness. Several homelessness-experienced persons are recruited to enroll in the course each semester. Recruitment of homelessness-experienced students as well as development of service provider contacts for student interviews relies significantly on collaboration with faculty and students at Mesa Community College.

Community College of Aurora and
University of Colorado at Denver
As part of the 2+4 grant, the University of Colorado and Community College of Aurora have been coordinating some activities involving UCD and CCA students. As in the past, we have had students work with NEWSED (an economic development corporation) on neighborhood organizing and low cost housing development. Although each school has its own programs and priorities, we have found common bonds in housing, child care, and worker-owned businesses. We will continue to exploit these challenges as we continue to push our schools beyond simple academics to the real world of poverty and the devastation it visits onto the working poor in the Denver/Aurora area.

Brevard Community College and
University of Central Florida
Brevard Community College and the University of Central Florida, Brevard Campus have collaborated on a literacy project, America Reads Brevard Deeds. Students from both institutions receive training as tutors and then work with children in elementary schools throughout the area.

Kapi' olani Community College and
University of Hawai'i Manoa
The University of Hawai'i Manoa and Kapi'olani Community College have collaborated on a variety of service learning projects. The Chinese Citizenship Education program has students from both schools (and an additional institution, Chaminade University) serving as tutors and coordinators for immigrants in order to help them pass the Immigration and Naturalization Service citizenship exam. The Adopt an Ahupua'a program involves students with organizations and agencies concerned with the history of the ahupua'a land use system and current issues of environmental protection and cultural practices of land stewardship. Celebrating Teen Reading involves students from English composition and literature courses at both KCC and UH in literature circles. These circles are either school-based or community-based. At the end of the academic year, teens and mentors are invited to attend the Celebrating Teen Reading Festival, at which time they meet and interact with several of the authors of the books they have been reading, as well as with other teens from all over the island who have been reading the same books.

Middlesex Community College and
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
A new partnership with the University of Massachusetts at Lowell's Center for Family, Work and Community has been established. Our work focuses on the theme of immigration; Lowell, Massachusetts has historically been a city of immigrants. We have targeted sixth graders in several middle schools in Lowell that have extraordinarily high percentages of students who are immigrants or children of immigrants. Projects include having English as a Second Language students at Middlesex Community College practice their language skills by working with the sixth graders on reading projects. They also work with university graduate education students (who are taking a required Diversity course) to plan a career orientation program for the sixth graders and their families. By telling their own stories, and demonstrating the struggle and triumph of the journey into higher education, they hope to inspire the children to seek to attend higher education. The work with the parents was designed to inform them about how to support their children in school.

Hocking College and
Ohio University
The Monday Creek Restoration Project seeks to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of residents in a southeast Ohio watershed severely affected by water pollution from abandoned coal mines and other extractive industries. Project participants seek to:

Develop protocols to measure water quality,
Retrace and understand past decision-making,
Educate the public concerning watershed restoration, and
Develop and implement restoration strategies to improve water quality.
Over the past three years, Ohio University students have worked with community members to clean and staff a railroad museum which highlights the transportation history of the area. Additionally, OU students, members of the Monday creek Project, and local school children have conducted biological sampling to provide the project with indications of watershed health. This information also helps educate students about the causes and implications of water pollution.
Hocking College Learn and Serve America students participate in a wide variety of activities. Major projects include water quality monitoring in the Sunday Creek Watershed Area, historical interpretation and programming for the Little Cities of Black Diamonds (former coal mining towns in southeastern Ohio), America Reads tutoring in Nelsonville Elementary School, and after-school and summer programming for Kids on Campus, a community partnership that provides nourishment, educational enrichment and recreational activities for underserved children of southeastern Ohio.

Community College of Rhode Island and
Brown University
2+4=Service on Common Ground was initiated as a partnership between medical students from Brown University and nursing students from the Community College of Rhode Island. It was created to assist students in developing their capacity to work as part of interdisciplinary health teams, to enhance their knowledge of different health professions' healing traditions and roles, and to understand the non-biological factors that affect health and access to health care.
The group has committed to two community based health projects:
The Environmental Health Action Project was launched in response to the challenges encountered in efforts to improve the health of asthmatic children and families who are patients of Providence Community Health Center.
Finding the Words is a program in collaboration with Hospice Care of Rhode Island. This partnership explores cultural perceptions about grief and death and more fully integrates these issues into the education of health care practitioners.