Students and representatives from Madison-area nonprofits.
Photo by UW-Madison, University Communications

The word community in CUE is defined as any individuals who are a member of a civic organization working for a specific cause. CUE welcomes a variety of civic organizations to collaborate on any community issues. It is the goal for CUE to connect community and academic resources.

Based on existing CUE partnerships– therefore it is possible that these will expand in the future–the way CUE works can be identified into three different categories.

• Facilitating a community group to connect with university resources. Community issues can fall into a number of different ‘buckets.’ After considering the scope of the issue, CUE will connect a community partner to faculty members or a graduate student who might have interest and appropriate expertise. CUE will then facilitate the early partnership building and then will leave the decision to the partners whether CUE’s assistance is still needed.
• Collaborating on a community project. When a community group approaches CUE, they may have a few different questions in hand. Among the potential follow ups are:
  • to put together a grant proposal for conducting a collaborative research project.
  • to offer a community-based learning course. The process would be similar to the facilitation of partnership building earlier. The difference is that CUE will actively engage in the efforts of both securing a research grant to support the project and coordinating activities of the project.
  • to help with organizing the issues as research questions or project ideas. Many times community priorities transcend disciplines and methodologies. Community-based research might be appropriate for some elements of service learning for others.
• Facilitate community connections for faculty that are teaching a community-based learning (e.g. service-learning) course. For example, CUE can make a match between faculty learning objectives for their students and existing CUE projects that have capacity to utilize additional student time and energy. Please  contact CUE to discuss tentative learning goals for the course and what skills the students have or hope to develop.
• Developing curriculum for a community-based learning (CBL) course. CBL pedagogy differs from a traditional course, and CBL course preparation, syllabus, and execution can require additional processes that cannot be found in a traditional course. For faculty members or teaching assistants who would like to set up a CBL course, CUE will provide assistance through the stages of preparation until execution.

For any individuals who have a potential interest in collaborating with CUE on any of these possibilities, or if unsure that any of these categories seem like a perfect fit, please contact CUE and let’s have a discussion! Please also visit the ‘How to get involved” page to learn  how CUE might be of assistance. In addition, please browse CUEBox as it is a place where CUE’s past and current activities can be viewed, including who and what organizations are involved.