Community-Engaged Learning & UPLC Grants

The CFDE is pleased to announce the availability of the Community-Engaged Learning and University-Partner Learning Community Grants, under the direction of Director of Engaged Learning, Vialla Hartfield-Méndez. Anyone currently teaching at Emory is eligible, including graduate students, adjunct faculty, visiting faculty, lecturers, or tenure track faculty.

Grants may be used to support activities related to well-structured community-engaged and university partner learning experiences in courses or academic programs. Proposals should address how community-engaged pedagogy is leveraged to assist organizations with addressing critical community needs in the metro Atlanta area. Such organizations might include neighborhood groups, nonprofit organizations, public agencies or other similar organizations. Proposals may also be submitted for projects that are in the early stages of community partnership development (especially those that include students in the partnership development work) and/or learning experiences for students that prepare them to better engage with community partners.

Funding Guidelines 

Community-Engaged Learning Grants cover amounts up to $1500 and are intended to support both new or ongoing opportunities for faculty to incorporate community engaged learning (service-learning) into their courses or programs. In some cases, grants may be made to support ongoing or existing community engaged learning activities, particularly when those activities grow to involve more students, new partners or communities, or new strategies.

University-Partner Learning Community (UPLC) grants support ongoing work emerging from the Buford Highway UPLC or the S. DeKalb UPLC and are funded up to $2000.  Faculty members who participated in these learning communities are eligible to apply, in collaboration with their community partners and can also collaborate with additional faculty members who join the project. 

Specific Items Funds May Cover

Grant funds may be used to cover reasonable costs associated with the project, such as:

  • Transportation (mileage reimbursement, shuttle bus rental, MARTA tokens, transportation costs for vans) for students or for community participants,
  • Stipends for community participants in focus groups or for completing surveys
  • Refreshments for community meetings or community-based activities (refreshments may be for students and community participants),
  • Printed materials, project supplies, printing, and the like.
  • When reasonable and appropriate, grant funds may be used to support graduate assistants for teaching.
  • These funds may also be used in certain circumstances to fund other student work (especially for undergraduates), in cases in which no academic credit is involved.

What Funds May Not Cover

Computer equipment and other information technology devices and software generally are not approved expenses. Grant funds may NOT be used to pay Emory students for work conducted as part of a course and for which they will receive academic credit. Funds also may not be used to cover salary or consulting fees for faculty or other instructors.

Helpful websites for consultation regarding best practices for community-based learning and research include:

Please note

Applicants must either have their own Smartkey account or be connected to a department with a Smartkey account.

Applicants must also participate in assessment of the program, which may include online evaluations or focus groups.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Dr. Vialla Hartfield-Méndez, Director of Engaged Learning, by email (vhartfi@emory.edu) or by phone at 727-6392. 

Money will be transferred at the beginning of the new semester (January 2020).

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