The Center for Nonprofit Advancement is pleased to announce a partnership with INDEPENDENT SECTOR in its 25th Anniversary Conference, "Reshaping the Social Compact," in Washington, DC.

This conference gives you an opportunity to join 1,000 CEOs and senior-level executives of America's foundations, corporations and national, regional, and local nonprofit organizations, as we focus on the social compact, particularly the charitable community's role in its definition and fulfillment. Theme tracks for 2005 include: Engaging the Community, Shaping Public Sector Responsibilities, and Embracing Ethics and Excellence. In addition, there is a CEO track, including the CEO Summit featuring Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA).
If you are a member of the Center for Nonprofit Advancement you will receive the INDEPENDENT SECTOR member rate. Simply enter the code CNA on the registration form.

INDEPENDENT SECTOR is the leadership forum for charities, foundations, and corporate giving programs committed to advancing the common good in America and around the world. Our nonpartisan coalition of approximately 500 organizations leads, strengthens, and mobilizes the charitable community in order to fulfill our vision of a just and inclusive society of active citizens, vibrant communities, effective institutions, and a healthy democracy.

QUESTIONS? If you have questions about registration, call MRA Services at 425-636-1640 or send an email to: info@mra-services.com for assistance. If you have questions concerning membership status, please call INDEPENDENT SECTOR at 202-467-6161.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has released a new guide from its Making Connections program. Engaging Resources in Higher Education discusses the opportunities and challenges related to partnerships between communities and higher education, as well as promising approaches to supporting strong social networks, connecting communities to economic opportunity, building responsive services that work for families, and leveraging data, information, and technology.

Since 1948, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) has worked to build better futures for disadvantaged children and their families in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's vulnerable children and families.

DC Action for Children is collecting backpacks and supplies such as paper, pens, pencils, markers, rulers, crayons and other items, in hope of filling 200 backpacks for DC students. They need your help.

Lets make sure the DC children and youth have everything they need to be successful this school year!

DC Action for Children (DC ACT) is an independent, non-profit, multi-issue advocacy organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children living in the District of Columbia. DC ACT's work is guided by its vision that each child in the District of Columbia should be afforded the opportunity to reach his or her potential.

Call Kim at 202-234-9404 for more information.

This conference brings together a wide range of scholars to discuss critical issues for the future of service-learning in higher education.

Keynote speakers will be Amy Cohen, Director of Learn and Serve America, Corporation for National and Community Service, and Ira Harkavy, Associate Vice President and Founding Director of the Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania.

The conference is structured as a ?working session? around chapters in the forthcoming book Service- Learning in Higher Education: Critical Issues and Directions (Palgrave, 2005). Three trands*theoretical discussions of service-learning, exemplary models of service-learning, and future directions for service- learning*will run concurrently. Book chapter authors, discussants, and attendees will have the opportunity to engage in substantive dialogue on issues of social justice, student resistance, student voice, institutionalization, and community engagement and reciprocity.

CPS provides the resources and support for faculty who are interested in incorporating service as part of their curriculum. A variety of disciplines (Psychology, Music, Education, Spanish, Computer Science, Philosophy, to name a few) have integrated service into their classes and faculty report that class discussions and students? written work are richer, more informed and thoughtfully constructed as a result of the service experience.

If you would like to share any announcements from your organization or campus with the CoRAL Network community, send a brief blurb to kcarter@coralnetwork.org by close of business each Thursday for inclusion in the following Monday's Newsbits.

Please note that submissions MUST be about local events, news, opportunities and activities that are related to community affairs in the District of Columbia, Maryland, or Northern Virginia.