Programs
The Community Change Collaborative maintains a portfolio of programs to serve its membership, community partners, and the University. These programs include community-based projects with organizations in the region, a faculty Forum and speaker series, a peer-reviewed graduate student journal, and weekly discussions at membership meetings.
The CCC strives to partner with government, educational institutions, civic groups, non-profits, and local community stakeholders interested in collaborating on projects that enhance community vision, build capacity, and engage a more representative sample of the population. Our approach includes:
- Tailoring research, facilitation, and workshops for community development efforts in partnering towns;
- Conducting field tours exploring ways of knowing places within Virginia and neighboring states;
- Sharing and reflecting on those experiences to inform future research, community projects, and the development of relevant interdisciplinary curricula.
The CCC will facilitate conversation with visiting practitioners and faculty who conduct research or projects focused on some aspect of community development. Visitors’ research and project areas could range from improving access to health care and fresh foods in rural regions, investigating opportunities for sustainable tourism, or monitoring water quality for outdoor recreation and economic development.
The Forum sessions will enhance understanding of how research and projects in community development are structured, the role of the researcher and practitioner, what challenges arise, and what outcomes occur.
Community Change is an online, peer-reviewed, graduate student journal that seeks to explore multiple approaches to democratic community development and change. This interdisciplinary journal examines the practices, processes, and individual and collective struggles that produce change at all levels of society. Community Change adopts a broad definition of community development that includes issues relating to public policy, democratization, collective action, physical and social infrastructure developments, agency, and efficacy. Community Change aims to provide opportunities for graduate students to become acquainted with academic publication processes.
The Community Change Collaborative (CCC) is an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty hosted by the Institute for Policy and Governance (IPG) on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. We are interested in the methods, frameworks, and forces shaping community development, approaches to community engagement, and how to build sustainable, cross-sectoral partnerships. Our research interests range from local to international case studies, applying a variety of qualitative and mixed methods approaches to connect theory and praxis for the benefit of our community partners, practitioners, and researchers interested in community change.