A Vision for Civic Engagement:

Civic and political participation are more critical than ever before, as our urban university continues to build its national reputation as a destination campus for service learning, leadership development and civic engagement. The Institute For Civic and Community Engagement and our partners share a concern about the future of the San Francisco Bay Area and the options it offers to our working class and minority students, many of whom come from the most disenfranchised communities.

Our mission is to bring faculty, students and specialized technical assistance from our premier urban university together with city and county agencies, nonprofit service providers, policy makers, other educational institutions, neighborhood residents and planning groups to address the most critical social justice issues of San Francisco and the Bay Area: equitable access to education, economic and community development, affordable housing, nutrition and health, workforce analysis and preparation, urban environmental issues, welfare reform, poverty, homelessness, disability and violence.

Already a leader in Service Learning statewide, our goal is educational and social transformation in the local, state, national and global arenas. We offer innovative, interdisciplinary university courses through our Urban Curriculum, leadership development, civic engagement opportunities, participatory research, specialized technical assistance and capacity building delivered by a dynamic mix of world-class faculty, researchers, students and public intellectuals, engaging SFSU's nine colleges-education, the arts, the sciences, the humanities, health, the social sciences, business, ethnic studies and lifelong learning (CEL)-in fields as diverse as the intellectual spectrum of the university and the communities with whom we work.