Our Mission
The Vic ’63 and Bobbi Samuels ’63 Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT) at Brandeis University brings together scholars, activists, students, practitioners, and community partners to work collaboratively to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.
Through this collaborative approach, the center seeks to make ethical and respectful community engagement a central pillar of a Brandeis education, to establish engaged scholarship and pedagogy as signature strengths of the university, and to create transformative social change through collective action.
Defining Community Engagement
The following definition is from the Carnegie Foundation.
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.
