Student CE core competencies and training resources

Core Competencies and Training Resources for Community Engagement

The University of Washington believes students should develop their knowledge, skills, and attitudes around the following core competencies as part of their community-engaged work. We’ve shared the competencies here, including our recommendations for when each competency might be addressed and with resources to support student learning in each area.

This is not a comprehensive list of training resources—it is a short list intended to spark ideas and inspiration for instructors, staff educators, and student leaders who are developing content to support community-engaged learning in UW courses or programs.

It is worth noting that many units, schools and departments across the UW also have discipline-specific resources that may be of use.
Academic advisors are also content area experts that may have great resources to share with students or instructors!
We also recommend perusing additional resources offered by professional networks, centers and conferences.

As a complementary effort, the UW is working on a E course designation for community-engaged courses. Learn more here.

Risk Management and Safety

This category covers health and safety issues for both students and community members, as well as travel, logistics, and intellectual property considerations. This competency area should be part of planning for community-engaged experiences, and students should receive information and resources related to risk management and safety as part of their preparation and orientation process.

A few existing resources for risk management and safety:

Office of the Youth Protection Coordinator

OYPC is dedicated to advancing the wellbeing of youth (under 18) across the University of Washington. UW students, staff and instructors engaging in community work that involves youth should reference the tools, trainings, and best practices of this office.

Environmental Health and Safety

EH&S can help ensure that on campus activities related to community engagement maintain high standards for health and safety.

Intellectual property advising and protection

Innovation managers at UW Comotion can advise around questions of intellectual property related to community-engaged learning and research projects.

Civil Rights and Title IX

Support for access and civil rights compliance questions connected to UW community-engaged activities.

Logistics

One of the most challenging aspects of community engagement can be supporting students in navigating the urban landscape and planning transit to and from community engaged activities.
UCar Vehicle Rental

Navigating personal safety

Identity and Community

This category aims to help students understand their position in societal systems—including how their own identity might impact their work in community. Topics might encompass DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging), social justice, recognizing and addressing bias, developing intercultural fluency or humility, and addressing student’s own identity development. This competency should be addressed throughout a community-engaged experience—and it is imperative to begin this conversation before students embark on their work with community.

A few existing resources for Identity and Community:

Cultivating Community Training

In roughly 70 minutes, this self-guided training introduces University of Washington students to our core values of diversity and inclusion. Students who start at the UW in fall of 2026 and beyond will be invited to complete this training as part of their advising and orientation sessions. (Please note this is related to—but different from!–the similarly named training for staff that is included in required UW HR trainings.)

DEIB Training Program Resources

The recommendations on this page were compiled by a tri-campus committee in 2021. They include both resources on UW campuses as well as resources in the community and from other universities. Some resources are free, while others come with a fee. Recommendations on this list may not be a perfect fit for your purpose, but organizers encourage users to adapt the training as needed to best fit your needs.

Ethics of Engagement

This category is best addressed throughout the community-engaged learning experience; some items within this competency might be talked about pre-engagement, while others can be woven throughout the experience. Topics in this competency area include asset-based community development, community-engaged research practices, capacity building work toward sustained change, principals of reciprocity and mutual benefit, dialogue across difference, or specific ethical considerations/implications for working with Tribal Nations or Indigenous Peoples.

Check back soon!

Career-Connected Learning

This competency area can be addressed throughout a community-engaged experience, but may be most pressing during the beginning (i.e. preparation and orientation) and ending (meaning-making and forward looking) phases. Skills or themes included in this competency area may include communication, professionalism, career-readiness (both general skills and field-specific competencies), technical project management, interprofessional collaboration, and the translation of experience to one’s resume, cover letters, and/or personal statements.

A few existing resources for career-connected learning:

Career & Internship Center – Build Career Competencies

This page centers career competencies as defined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and features videos, documents, and self assessment tools that can support instructors in teaching or students in recognizing or developing career competencies.

UW Bothell Career Services – LinkedIn Learning

This page features links and student-oriented guides that can help students from any UW campus navigate the course resources accessible on LinkedIn learning. Many students choose to navigate these resources as part of their independent career development processes; the LinkedIn Learning resources are also well suited for use in courses.

Reflective Learning

This competency area can be addressed throughout an experience, but is often concentrated toward the end of an experience and/or continues after the experience concludes. Competency in reflective learning may draw on a number of themes and tactics but is focused on meaning-making and the integration of learning across experiences (often bringing together the academic and the experiential). Facilitating learning in this content area may draw on mindfulness, body work, reflective writing, and other dialectic techniques.

Teaching Strategies: Reflection in Service-Learning

While this site uses the language of service-learning, the approach and activities are applicable to many kinds of community-engaged learning. This page is hosted by our colleagues at the University of Indiana at Bloomington.

Reflection in Community Engaged Learning

This resource from colleagues at Utrecht University in the Netherlands offers research-grounded frameworks for reflection activities throughout the experiential learning cycle.

Reflection Toolkit – Northwest Service Academy

This resource has been preserved by our colleagues at University of Michigan and is a lovely guide to some classic reflection frameworks used in the community-engagement field. Developed by grassroots community partners that were training young people entering the non-profit service field, each activity is well outlined with resources and time needed.

Additional context for these competency areas

These core competencies were developed in 2024 as part of the project to Build Tri-Campus Capacity for Community Engagement and refined in 2025 as we collated existing resources and developed pilot trainings. See the report on Student CE Training (PDF).

Learn more about community engagement and UW students.