Flourishing Communities Collaborative
Flourishing Communities Collaborative (FC2) is an academic lab, committed to community engagement and social outreach. We engage in educating, leading, and serving by working with the community in a range of different settings. We are a multi-disciplinary laboratory whose vision is to leverage the resources at Georgia Tech for the city by building upon the strengths of its neighborhoods.
Leadership and Service
FC2 seeks to lead and serve by:
- providing opportunities for community outreach and engagement
- fostering interdisciplinary work in design, construction, and engineering
- supporting student interaction with the professional community
- educating leaders for current and future local and global urban landscapes
We are committed to provide an excellent and unique educational experience grounded in design, technology, and professional practice. FC2 seeks to enhance leadership capacity while producing sustainable and creative projects.
We see the Flourishing Communities Collaborative as an innovative 21st century educational model blending the academy and practice.
Program Structure
FC2 is fundamentally rooted in community engagement, social outreach, and education. We offer a platform for students to learn alongside faculty and professionals, much like a teaching hospital. Our students learn the valuable skill of creative listening which leads to creative thinking and making. By bringing the resources we have at Tech to underserved and under resourced communities, we support neighborhoods by providing design services and bringing realizable ideas to them. We engage in educating, leading, and serving by doing urban community projects.
Our outreach efforts are offered via design studios and workshop seminars so our students can earn course credit while gaining invaluable experience working with a larger community. We look forward to establishing internships for students to earn AXP credit while building critical skills in practice.
Participants and Community Involvement
Participants include:
- Undergraduate and graduate students
- Georgia Tech faculty
- Professionals
- Community
The specific role of the non-faculty practitioners is to manage, design, and mentor as a consulting professional partner. Paramount to the objectives of our proposal, practitioners help students develop and hone their abilities in clear communication and effective collaboration. These valuable skills build our students’ capacities to be leaders in the profession.
Community involvement is critical. FC2 is committed to working with those communities who would otherwise not have access to professional design services. Past community groups include Better Living Together, and, most recently, the First United Methodist Church in College Park.