University Placed-Based Community Engagement and Adult Learners: A Field Report in Mutual Flourishing

Although higher education increasingly focuses on both community engagement and adult learners, community-engaged research rarely considers them together. This article bridges the gap in the literature between undergraduate adult learners and community engagement. Providing one example of a partnership that considers adult learners as necessary partners for community engagement, Calvin University’s 49507 Initiative is a place-based community educational project in southeast Grand Rapids, Michigan, focusing on the goals and needs of adult learners in the 49507 zip code and adjacent neighborhoods. Through 12 focus groups in the community, adult residents discussed their interests in higher education, identified barriers to higher education, and presented solutions to those barriers. Findings from these groups played a key role in program development. This approach joining community-engaged research with program development has relevant implications for universities seeking to provide accessible and equitable learning opportunities in their local communities.