How to Turn Your College Into a Community Partner

Many colleges talk about serving their communities. Fewer begin by asking what those communities actually need.

Effective community education requires a shift from provider to partner. Institutions that make it are often rewarded with deeper trust, stronger participation, and programs that endure.

Educating in Your Community looks closely at colleges that are building education with their communities, not just for them. Through detailed examples, this Chronicle report offers guidance for leaders who want community education to be about more than outreach — and more than optics.

Inside the report, you’ll explore:

• How colleges are identifying community needs without relying on assumptions.

• What listening looks like in practice and how it reshapes program design.

• Why trust-building takes time, but pays off institutionally.

• Where colleges stumble when engagement becomes transactional.