The most compelling stories are told with data.

Having data available about what you’ve done—how many hours, how many students, how many places, with what measures—that’s all critical. How it’s assessed both within the community and on campus and how it’s used to inform the deployment of our resources is very powerful. Collaboratory is a tool that I find can be very helpful.”

A robust repository that allows us to track and share our ongoing, collaborative initiatives helps to connect students, staff and faculty in community endeavors and to be mindful and respectful of existing community partnerships when developing new ones. We expect this to help in our efforts to attract students, faculty and staff who are committed to making a difference, connect and convene researchers across disciplines, and collaborate with community partners to address community-identified priorities for shared benefits.

At IUPUI, community engagement is a strategy through which we achieve our institutional mission and goals. Collaboratory enables us to systematically track engagement in ways that align with our strategic plan and analyze the information to advocate for institutional change, develop strategic and sustainable partnerships, and tell a story of how we are working in collaboration to address societal issues and contribute to a thriving community.

We are gaining a full appreciation of the power of Collaboratory to bring people onboard with making community engagement a priority at our institution. When you implement, be prepared to focus not just on the software as a tool, but also your strategy for how Collaboratory can help advance your conversation around community engagement. You will see so many benefits!