Project Overview
Project Goal
Create a centralized, coordinated community engagement network at USU, powered by GivePulse, that connects campus and community partners, streamlines collaboration, and captures the university’s collective impact across Utah.
Project Coordinator
Erin Jensen
erin.jensen@usu.edu
Why Do We Need a Community Network?
Community engagement is happening across Utah State University in many forms, but the systems supporting that work are often disconnected. Information about partnerships, opportunities, activities, and impact is spread across units and platforms, making it difficult to connect efforts and understand USU’s collective impact. The Transforming Communities Institute (TCI), in partnership with the Analytics Solutions Center (ASC), is developing the USU Community Network to create shared infrastructure that connects people, opportunities, partnerships, and information across the university and with community partners.
Background & Approach
Project Background
The USU Community Network grew from efforts to better connect and support community engagement across the university. The project is creating shared infrastructure to strengthen coordination, collaboration, and understanding of USU's collective impact.
Approach
TCI and ASC are working with a multidisciplinary team of students, faculty, staff, and community partners to build the Network through a collaborative, evidence-informed process. Findings and stakeholder feedback are guiding platform design, training, and phased rollout.
USU
Faculty | Staff | Students
Programs & Centers
USU Community Network
Connecting people, opportunities, partnerships, and impact
Community
Nonprofits | Government | Businesses
Schools | Community Groups
Supporting research, teaching and learning, internships, service, outreach, programs, and community partnerships.
Who Is the USU Community Network For?
Faculty
Find partners, opportunities, resources, and information to support research, teaching, and community-engaged work.
Students
Discover internships, service, research, and other opportunities to learn and gain experience.
Staff & Programs
Coordinate opportunities, manage partnerships, and track activities and impact.
Community Partners
Connect with USU people, programs, expertise, resources, and opportunities.
University Leaders
Understand engagement happening across USU and use shared data for planning, reporting, and decision-making.
Public & External Stakeholders
Learn how USU is working with communities and contributing to Utah.
How the Network Will Support Engagement
Find
Discover community engagement opportunities, projects, resources, and people across USU.
Connect
Find faculty, staff, students, programs, and community organizations with shared interests, expertise, and needs.
Collaborate
Build partnerships around research, teaching, internships, service, programs, and other community-engaged work.
Track
Document engagement activities, partnerships, participation, outputs, and outcomes more consistently across USU.
Understand Impact
Bring information together to better understand and communicate how USU and its partners are making a difference in communities.
What We Learned: Assessment of Community Engagement at USU
From April–July 2026, the project team conducted a university-wide assessment to understand how community engagement is currently supported and coordinated across USU and what stakeholders need from a centralized network.
Top Assessment Findings
Strengths
Leaders and units across USU actively support and embed community engagement.
Visibility
Neither USU nor its stakeholders can see the whole picture of who is doing what, with whom, and to what effect.
Relationships
Units have strong relationships within communities, but they are sustained by individuals rather than institutional systems.
Outputs & Outcomes
USU engagement is changing lives, though there are no shared definitions, records, or methods for measuring impact.
Needs
People want ways to share opportunities, connect with others, track data and relationships, produce reports, and share stories.
Adoption
The most common reaction was enthusiasm. Units want to consolidate, not add systems, and many are already paying for duplicate tools.
Form Assessment to Action
We're taking a phased, collaborative approach to develop and implement the USU Community Network. Each phase builds on the last, with ongoing input from faculty, staff, students, and community partners.
Phase 1
Assess
Understand engagement across USU and identify stakeholder needs.
Completed
April - July 2026
Phase 2
Build
We Are Here
Translate findings into the Network’s structure, tools, workflows, and training.
August-December 2026
Configuring the platform
Phase 3
Launch
Roll out the Network while configuration continues in phases, with training and support tailored to different user groups.
October 2026 - March 2027
Phased rollout and onboarding
Phase 4
Evalute
Gather feedback, evaluate use, and continually refine the Network.
Ongoing
Monitor, learn, and grow
Designed With Our Community
Feedback from faculty, staff, students, and community partners will continue to shape the Network throughout development and rollout.
Stay Connected
The Network is currently under development, with phased rollout beginning during the 2026–27 academic year. Sign up to receive project updates, learn about upcoming training, and find opportunities to help shape the Network.
