BACKGROUND The Washington University Community Counts inventory is an ongoing effort to capture the breadth of civic engagement and community service initiatives undertaken in the name of Washington University in St. Louis.
ADD Your Initiative!
Please help us to make this a more complete inventory by providing information about civic engagement and community service undertaken in the name of Washington University.
Data collection for the 2012-2013 academic year has begun. To have your data included in our next report, complete the inventory by July 25, 2013.
Click here to enter your initiative. To prepare your answers before beginning the survey, you can download a sample of the survey questions here.
PRODUCTS
Data from Community Counts can be used to generate a number of useful products.
Reports about specific data are available upon request. For example, data can be categorized by a school (e.g., Engineering), an activity (e.g., tutoring), or a geographic area (e.g., zip code). Contact gephardtinstitute@wustl.edu for further information.
FAQ
Why is Community Counts important?
Administered as an electronic survey, Community Counts identifies the incidence, nature, and scope of civic engagement, community service, and community outreach sponsored by schools, departments, programs, and groups.
This information is critical for Washington University’s national benchmarking efforts, which increasingly require metrics regarding our community engagement. Internally, this information is used to gauge the scope and depth of our community partnerships, and inform opportunities for collaboration across the schools and departments.
WHAT activities COUNT IN COMMUNITY COUNTS?
Initiatives included in Community Counts meet ALL of the following criteria:
- are completed in the name of the University
- are organized, programmatic initiatives (having their own goals and objectives)
- provide services to the organization or community for free (including sliding scale). Please include paid staff/faculty time; the emphasis is on recipients not having to pay for the service.
- performed by a group of 2 or more people from Washington University (not individuals)
- partner with an organization or community external to the University
WHAT QUESTIONS ARE ASKED IN COMMUNITY COUNTS?
This inventory includes questions about:
- who was involved
- how many people were involved
- how much time they spent on the initiative
- addresses for community partners
OLDER PRODUCTS
A 2008-2009 report of findings from the academic year provides information about service activities, participants, issues, community partners, and more.
A 2008-2009 geographic map opens to a street view of the St. Louis region.