What can community-based learning do for you? Simply, you can tap into the enthusiasm, energy, and intellect of Princeton undergraduates who are interested in working with you to research community issues. Working closely with Princeton faculty members, you can help design and supervise research projects on issues that are of importance to your own goals and projects in the community. Students and faculty members benefit through their partnership with you, your practical expertise and knowledge of the community, and the opportunities for community research you can help provide. You benefit by having students work with you to help address community needs.

The benefits of community-based learning include:

gathering much-needed data and information about your clientele, the effectiveness of your programs, the demographics of the community, etc. supplementing your own limited resources to accomplish such evaluation and planning goals establishing closer ties to Princeton University, its students who often spend many hours volunteering in the community, and its faculty members with research interests that match your own goals taking advantage of the creativity, intelligence, and talents of Princeton students modeling, for students, the values of community commitment and leadership that will influence their career choices

CBLI is very conscious of the fact that the community-university partnership must be mutually beneficial to work at all. We believe our model, and the close working relationship we encourage between faculty members teaching courses and leaders of community organizations, can accomplish that goal. Please let us know in what ways we can improve our efforts by contacting us at cbli@princeton.edu, or by contacting Trisha Thorme at (609) 258-6986.