The CARES Project seeks to achieve three goals:
- Routinely assess and describe Pennsylvania residents’ priorities, quality of life, as well as their perceptions of and preferences for university-community engagement using a multi-stakeholder needs assessment survey;
- Make the anonymous data (residents’ priorities, perceptions, and preferences) accessible to Penn State educators, researchers, and community practitioners through an online database and mapping tool; and
- Encourage Penn State educators, researchers, and practitioners to respond to residents’ priorities through university-community engagement projects that are tailored to their preferences
The CARES Project is meant to show that Penn State cares about the people and places of Pennsylvania. Penn State can uphold its land-grant mission and demonstrate its public value by responding to residents’ needs through responsibly designed university-community engagement projects. Ultimately, the hope is to strengthen the public support for Penn State by addressing local and statewide priorities through:
- Educational degree programs that train graduates capable of tackling current and emerging challenges
- Applied research that informs practice and policy with valid and reliable data
- Professional service/outreach/extension that extends university expertise and resources to enhance local knowledge and action
Once successfully implemented, The CARES Project could go on to serve as a model for other public, state, and land-grant institutions across the country.