Democracy and Civic Engagement

We conducted a study involving nearly 500 veterans in more than 400 nonprofit organizations in 42 states. 

We develop an instrument that allows service and volunteer organizations to assess the impact of their programs.

We partner with the Brookings Institution to research avenues for meaningful participation in international volunteering and service. 

We assess activities and recommended performance measurement indicators to organizations aiming to increase asset ownership among low-income groups.

In partnership with the University of Ottawa, we surveyed more than 300 volunteer partner organizations operating in more than 80 countries in the Global South.

We test intercultural competence and the impact of international youth service programs on Swiss and British volunteers and their Ecuadorian hosts. 

Our research finds that informal and formal civic service traditions in Lesotho are primarily a response to social necessity.

We support innovative research on civic service in countries all over the world from a multinational network of scholars and researchers.

We designed a randomized clinical trial measuring the impacts of volunteer-based health trainings on behavior in central Uganda.

This collaboration with the University of Ottawa and an international team of researchers has collected and analyzed data from partner organizations in 10 countries to examine the roles international development volunteers play in advancing gender equality and empowering women.

We analyze national policies in France, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland to investigate how national frameworks can expand international voluntary service. 

We assessed community partner perceptions of student volunteers, their preferred attributes and perceived impact from 2011-2013 survey data. 

Our project examines challenges and emerging perspectives in international volunteerism in Asia through an online survey and in-country interviews.

We investigate the impact of service learning on environmental awareness and civic engagement.

Experience Corps  is an inter-generational tutoring program that places older adults in public schools to help students who experience trouble with reading. 

We assess the forms, purposes, activities, servers  and operations of all civic service programs worldwide.

Led by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford College, we surveyed students from multiple institutions of higher education who participated in global service learning.  

We study the impact of the service experience on participants in two programs for voluntary national service in Israel. 

Our project determines which features of voluntary service have the greatest impact on volunteers, host organizations, and community outcomes in Peru and Costa Rica. 

Our partnership with Volunteer Organization and Service Enquiry Southern Africa examines the impact of international service in South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania. 

We compare American youth service programs City Year and Teach for America with French programs Unis Cite and AFEV. 

Our project identified factors that discourage or encourage older adults in voluntary service to society through 22 organizations in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

In collaboration with researchers at the University of Ottawa and the University of Technology Sydney, we investigate volunteering as a pathway to more effective foreign aid development policy, exploring how international volunteers engage in alternative public diplomacy roles.

We aim to advance knowledge and practice of international service in the context of higher education through summits and collaborations. 

CSD is leading a global research agenda to study volunteerism as a strategy for meeting global sustainable development goals.

We explore the general characteristics of schools in Argentina that run service-learning programs.

We study the impact of the service experience on participants in two programs for voluntary national service in Israel. 

We explore the language, measurement tools and impetus for a broader and more balanced discussion of elder volunteerism and service.

We evaluated a pilot project in transnational youth service and its impacts involving Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. youth.

We develop a measurement tool to assess institutional capacity to engage older volunteers and collect data on volunteer programs and older adult volunteers.

We investigate the characteristics of civic service programs in Uruguay that most effectively recruit and retain older adults.

China’s growing older population includes many who are healthy and who want to be engaged. Their contributions are crucial for China’s social and economic development.

We analyze the level of engagement of older adults in productive activities and their impact on the adults’ physical and mental health.

We analyze civic service and volunteering initiatives in five Southern African countries and examined their implications for social development in the region.

We examine the effects of embedding a yearlong service learning program into existing school curricula for students in a middle school setting. 

Our research investigates the impacts of service on the health and well-being of older adult volunteers and their potential to address critical social development needs.

Washington University and Duke University held a think tank about the relationship between social innovation and civic engagement in higher education.

We investigate social innovations in the voluntary sector at the intersection of nonprofits and social enterprises

We explore the nature of service and citizenship in the National Youth Service Corps program in Nigeria and how political forces have affected the program. 

We explore the impact of participation in a service-learning program at the college level on participants’ civic engagement following graduation.

We investigate the potential of youth civic service programs to serve as effective development tools for transitional countries through focusing on Mongolia. 

We investigate corporate volunteering and its association with various dimensions of corporate philanthropy. 

We use the Social Network Analysis as a tool to measure the community-level impacts of the work accomplished by AmeriCorps volunteers in three U.S. cities. 

We investigate the Technical Aids Corps Scheme in Nigeria to examine participation, its effects on servers’ civic nationalism and its impact on communities. 

We examine whether Nepal’s National Development Volunteer Service enhances civic engagement, especially among the nation’s youth. 

We examine the scope and nature of service learning in urban and suburban schools and across socio-economic levels.

We investigate the characteristics and motivations of youth who serve in Germany’s voluntary cultural year. 

We explore organizational factors promoting long-term civic service engagement at Habitat for Humanity International programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

We use our expertise to assess and test innovations that remove barriers to voting and enhance voter participation.

We investigate youth civic service worldwide and measure its impact on volunteers and the individuals and communities they serve.