The CSOs of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Southeastern Ohio were funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission in a partnership with Kellogg.

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1857 as a private training school for teachers. In over 100 years of existence the study body has grown from 100 to over 7,000 and the teaching staff has increased from three to more than 400 educators. Edinboro offers more than 100 associate, baccalaureate, and master's degree programs and is recognized as a leader in academic programming and support services.

As a MIRA CSO, Edinboro University's original goal was to offer training for the boards of non-profit organizations so they could better serve their organization and community. However, as a result of the first CSO conference held in Battle Creek, Michigan, the Edinboro team discovered a new way Edinboro could serve the non-profit organizations of the community. After a presentation on digital storytelling, the team realized that Edinboro could use its excellent art and communications programs to create a multi-media lab that would serve non-profits during and after the MIRA project.

They went about achieving their goal by first hosting a presentation on digital storytelling on their campus. This presentation captured the interest of faculty and students in art and communication. Next, the Edinboro team built interest in digital storytelling among the non-profits of their community. These non-profits were then invited to a digital storytelling workshop hosted on campus. The members of each non-profit were paired with faculty and students in the art or communication department. The outcomes of this workshop were an increased interest and competence in multi-media presentations and a new product for the non-profits. Six non-profit organizations created multimedia presentations.

Then, the Edinboro team ordered equipment and software for a multi-media lab located in the Speech and Communication Studies Department. The lab was staffed by two graduate assistants. Furthermore, a set of instructional videos on the equipment and software was obtained so the lab could be kept functioning after the original graduate assistants left. So far, one website and one digital story have been created for non-profit organizations at this lab.

In the future, a community school and a YMCA will be working in the lab to create their own multimedia presentations. There are also plans for future workshops on multimedia presentation creation for area non-profits. These workshops will give the organizations the skills they need to create their own multimedia presentations.

"The university has benefited from this venture by increasing knowledge and interest in multimedia presentations. Indeed, the two groups of faculty involved in MIRA--graphic artists and communication studies professors-each won grants in the 2000-2001 academic year to purchase multimedia equipment and attend workshops that will help them learn more about making multi-media presentations. These grants together amount to more than $280,000. Only now as I write this did I realize that the ultimate provenance for these two successful grants was participation in MIRA."-Terry Smith, Dean of Liberal Arts, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (05/22/01)