New online community resource guide

Every day, local residents call the campus Office of Community Relations with questions: How do I sign up my child for the Academic Talent Development program? Can I reserve campus facilities for a meeting or event? Where are the Lunch Poems held? Where can I park when visiting the campus?

Soon the answers to these and many more questions will be a click, or two, away. Cal in the Community, a revised and updated guide to more than 200 UC Berkeley community partnerships and campus resources available to the public, will be on the internet starting Feb. 15. Visitors to the site will find a myriad of campus public offerings and public-service programs, and how to access them. Catalogued in the guide are children's summer recreation programs, educational outreach and public health programs, cultural events, libraries and museums, lectures, research projects, employment information, and meeting facilities, to name just a few.

For months, Cal's Office of Community Relations has been collecting information. With hundreds of campus programs and thousands of UC student, faculty, and staff volunteers, the task of collecting and organizing the data has been daunting, but rewarding. "We learn about new community service programs every week, said project manager Doreen Moreno. "The website will help us keep this information up to date and accessible to the public."

The new Cal in the Community website makes it easy to locate information. Programs are listed alphabetically and by geographical area, subject, and population served. There is also a search feature. Users will also find profiles on campus programs and individuals who are "making a difference" in the community.

"This guide will help parents, teachers, and local residents connect with the university in many different ways," says Irene Hegarty, director of Community Relations. "We also hope it will encourage new partnerships to develop between the campus and the community."

Visit Cal in the Community at http://calinthecommunity.berkeley.edu