Established in 2000 by the University of Alaska Board of Regents, the Center for Community Engagement & Learning builds upon the University’s community service mission. This Center serves as a clearinghouse for faculty interested in community-based learning and research; a front door to the University of community leaders with project ideas, proposals, and needs; a catalyst for students seeking academic engagement beyond the traditional classroom; and a promoter and generator of participatory action research to help meet applied research needs of the community.

The Center provides training, technical assistance, funding, and other resources to connect academic programs with community engagement. In creating this Center for Community Engagement and Learning, the University of Alaska Anchorage recognizes the historic commitment of higher education to citizenship building, civic responsibility, and justice, and reaffirms its own commitment to service as a core institutional value.

The Center will serve as visible point of focus for the University’s service mission and will provide support for practices that apply the expertise of our faculty and the energies of our students of the most pressing issues facing our communities.