The University of Santo Tomas-Legazpi (UST-Legazpi) is an advocate and catalyst for the highest educational goals of Christian social transformation and total human development. Through the UST-Legazpi’s Center for Community Involvement (CCI) under the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA), the university extension service provides community development program through integration of the three pillars of learning: instruction, research and community extension. It is an avenue where instruction (teaching) and research go beyond the classroom setting through community extension service. The service involves the physical and human resources of the university which includes professional and technological expertise.
The center is the implementing or social arm of the university in building community awareness through its programs, projects and activities involving administrators, faculty, non-teaching personnel, students and alumni.
The center as an integral part of the university is committed to pursue sustainable extension programs through comprehensive community extension development programs to integrate concepts of community development which focuses on health and wellness, education and literacy, livelihood, physical, infrastructure, environment and spiritual development within the foundation of the university and the partner communities in Albay specifically Legazpi City.
The center is committed to generating collaborative and consultative relationship with other stakeholders to efficiently and effectively improve the lives of partner communities, to prepare leaders which promote positive outcomes and effectively improve the lives of partner communities. It also aims to facilitate the exploration of the political, legal, social, cultural ethical and economic factors which influence the present and the future. The center envisions to expand partnerships with the community through an extension program in a voluntary basis to improve the lives of the community. In this way, the institution makes its extension program, structures and resources consciously, deliberately, and practically responsive to the needs of the community.
OUR VISION
We, the Center for Community Involvement, envision ourselves to be a catalyst for collaborative partnership with the internal and external communities in providing instruction-and-research-based extension programs empowering the marginalized sector of our society toward Catholic Christian social transformation.
OUR MISSION
We, the Center for Community Involvement, responding as servant-leaders of the University, commit ourselves to contribute to UST-Legazpi as a deregulated university through:
1. the witnessing and preaching Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, through loving service to the communities, especially the poor
2. the fostering of the socially responsive Legazpi Thomasian community with a deep sense of service and commitment
3. the building of partnership with communities and stakeholders responsive to the needs of the marginalized and underserved
OUR OBJECTIVES
1. To instill among Legazpi Thomasians a culture of charity borne out of gratitude through active participation in community development;
2. To participate in spiritual, moral, and emotional formation programs of the University;
3. To offer and coordinate relevant, responsive and comprehensive community involvement program thru HELPS and other community service initiatives;
4. To design a research-based system of data-gathering, documentation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of institutional community involvement programs, projects and activities;
5. To engage all stakeholders in community development and extension programs through solidarity with the less privileged and stewardship of creation;
6. Identify, establish and maintain strategic networks and linkages with the church, institutions, agencies, and support groups for a more efficient program implementation;
7. To establish and sustain institutional development of CCI in terms of program development, resource mobilization.