Assessing Community Need and Interest To Address City-Wide Sustainability Issues: A Tri-Part Collaboration between Local City Government, Community Partners, and a University

This article highlights results of a needs assessment study that gauged extending a sustainability-based university service-learning program on a community-wide scale. A drop-off survey (response rate 88 percent) was administered to selected community organizations (N=40) within five different disciplines ranging from natural resources to engineering, in Logan, Utah. Results revealed that the majority (91 percent) of community organizations surveyed desired a working partnership with the university for current and future sustainability-related issues. While the survey population sample was purposely small to ascertain the general background of potential partnerships among major community organizations, the results provide insight into major community concerns and how a coordinated, cross-discipline service-learning program would be beneficial to all parties in addressing these issues