History

The CoRAL Network started off as a project at Georgetown University with a five-year grant awarded by the Bonner Foundation in 1997 to the university's Volunteer and Public Service Center (which is now the Center for Social Justice, Research, Teaching, and Service).   The project goal was to help encourage the use of Georgetown's resources and research abilities to further the social change efforts of local community-based organizations and thus strengthening university-community ties. 

Spearheaded by Professor Sam Marullo (Sociology), then-Director of the Volunteer and Public Center, the first year of community-based projects included:

• Ellen Wilson Public Housing Project: This project focused on the redevelopment of the a public housing project-which was converted through Hope VI funding to become a mixed income housing development-which had Georgetown students working as scribes, policy researchers, and participant observers during the community-organizing efforts surrounding this HUD-sponsored initiative.
  
• Youth Action Research Group (YARG) Project:  One outcome of this project included the development of a research and popular education model, which has now been integrated into Bell Multicultural High School's social studies curriculum.
  
• Project DC: Community Based Research Seminar Course: Developed and co-taught by Professors Sam Marullo (Sociology) and Mark Rom (Government), the course engaged fifteen students in undertaking CBR projects within the framework of a year-long service-learning course. This course has since become the senior capstone course of the Social Justice Analysis Concentration (Sociology).
  
• Faculty Development: Several initiatives were launched to introduce faculty to community-based research, including half-day workshops, site visits to the community, a monthly brown bag lunch series, a learning circle, course development mini-grants, and a year-long bi-weekly seminar including faculty and community partners to develop joint projects.

The success of these projects prompted the growth of CoRAL.   In the 2000-2001 academic year, the development of a D.C. CBR/SL Network was initiated by intentionally reaching out to other universities to support their faculty and students to undertake CBR projects.  In the Fall of 2000, a call for proposals was announced and from this solicitation, seven independent collaborative projects were supported that engaged faculty and students from five universities and eight community-based organizations throughout Washington, D.C.   Four sub-grants were awarded to Trinity College (now University), Marymount University, George Washington University, and the University of the District of Columbia to advance their own campus centers. A learning circle was also created to further faculty development of service-learning initiatives and a steering committee was formed.

The promising models that existed at the different universities soon made it a desired notion among campus leaders of having a centralized communication hub and support center geared towards promoting community-based research and service-learning.  By the Spring of 2001, the groundwork to create the Network was developed by the steering committee and two key efforts emerged:

1. To develop the network infrastructure internally by creating a program coordinator position, establishing a formal steering committee, and by developing a website to support partnership development and information sharing functions of the network.
   
2. To develop the network externally by supporting the development of campus community-based/service-learning centers at other DC area universities.

These intiatives were soon implemented.  Jason Willis, a student at Catholic University was brought on-board as staff, and the steering committee was constituted and met regularly.  In August of 2001, the official name of the Network became the Community Research And Learning (CoRAL) Network.  Throughout the rest of 2001 and 2002, the network's internal and external infrastructure were further developed.

In March of 2003, the Community Research and Learning Network was officially incorporated as an independent nonprofit by Sam Marullo, Ph.d, Deanna Cooke, Ph.d, and Jason Willis.  The network's 501(c)(3) status soon followed in July.   The incorporators along with Paul McElligott, Roxana Moayedi, Embry Howell, and Margaret Morgan-Hubbard constituted CoRAL's founding Board of Directors.

A generous Learn & Serve grant awarded to CoRAL by the Corporation for National and Community Service in October of 2003 launched the Network into its next phase as an independent non-profit.    In December of 2003, Elizabeth Shrader was brought on-board as CoRAL's first full-time Executive Director, and in January of 2004, Cristina Benitez joined CoRAL as the Network Coordinator.   Sub-grants were awarded to seven institutions of higher learning to further community-based/service-learning intiatives at their respective campuses and to support their CBL/SL office or center.  The seven universities in the CoRAL Network's consortium are:

• American University
• Catholic University of America
• Georgetown University
• George Washington University
• Trinity University
• University of the District of Columbia
• University of Maryland-College Park

Today, the CoRAL Network continues to lead in fostering collaboration on community research and service-learning projects among university faculty, students and community based organization throughout the DC metropolitan region.  

To learn more about our current programs and intiatives, please browse our website.