Mission
The Change Lab for Engagement Capacity Building (Change Lab) is a resource hub and organizational innovation incubator co-created by university stakeholders and grounded in the principles of shared governance. Its mission is to foster institutional conditions that incentivize, legitimize, support, and enhance the visibility of diverse forms of scholarship, with a focus on Engaged Scholarship (ES) and Community Engagement (CE) across teaching, research, and service activities at UNO.
By acting as a catalyst for systemic change, the Change Lab works to strengthen the university’s ability to integrate and value CE and ES, ensuring that these transformative forms of scholarship are recognized and sustained.
Vision
Our aspiration is to build on what others (e.g., Service Learning Academy) have already achieved and take next steps that support UNO as a national leader in engaged scholarship. Key areas of improvement include reducing risk in pursuing CE/ES whether that is financial or due to limited impact; addressing challenges in documentation, evaluation, and academic freedoms to pursue CE or ES; among others.
Investing in these structural changes now will lead to long-term benefits such as fostering deeper partnerships, promoting social innovation, disrupting traditional barriers to engagement, and enhancing the university’s role as a catalyst for positive and lasting change in and within the communities that we serve.