The Community Change Collaborative (CCC) is an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty hosted by the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (IPG). The major components of the CCC are community-based research projects, scholarly forums, visiting speakers and an accompanying podcast series, a film/documentary series, and a student peer-reviewed journal. CCC members are interested in the social, political and economic forces shaping communities, approaches to community engagement, and strategies to build sustainable, cross-sectoral partnerships for community change. The CCC has sought to learn from both local and international case studies and to apply a variety of qualitative and mixed methods approaches to connect theory and praxis for the benefit of community partners, practitioners, and researchers interested in community change.

The Collaborative aims to act as a partner/facilitator to help communities reach out to diverse stakeholders and engage them in dialogue to develop a shared vision. What makes CCC different from traditional economic development projects is its holistic approach towards engaging multiple stakeholders and encouraging long-term, equitable solutions. CCC also emphasizes application of cultural/art-based community development methods (e.g. story circles community-based theater and arts-based dialogue), which is a creative and relatively new contribution in economic development. Along with building an extensive network of partners within Virginia Tech and beyond, another unique aspect of this collaboration is the constant process of learning it both seeks and embodies.To date, the CCC initiative has led to numerous academic publications, community workshops/ meetings, and tangible progress in community socio-economic development projects.