Frequently Asked Questions

Community Engineering Corps provides pro bono engineering support for underserved communities across the United States and its territories. We operate in a variety of disciplines within the civil engineering sector, including drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, structures, energy, agriculture, and other civil works. Projects tend to focus on preliminary engineering needs, enabling communities to pursue funding opportunities for projects.

Community Engineering Corps was established in 2014 through a partnership between the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works Association, and Engineers Without Borders USA.

Community Engineering Corps’ services are provided free of charge to qualifying community partners. Services are provided by volunteers who donate their time and expertise pro bono.

Most of our community partners fall within five categories: (1) nonprofits, (2) municipalities/districts, (3) tribal entities and nations, (4) home and property owner associations, and (5) private utilities.

Projects are assessed on an individual basis, with consideration given to the fact that all communities are different, with unique challenges. As general guidelines, communities must:

• Meet our underserved criteria (click HERE for our underserved criteria)
• Be in need of a technical or engineering deliverable
• Have no resources to otherwise complete the technical scope of the project

Community Engineering Corps provides pro bono engineering services, divided into two phases:

Investigation and Evaluation

• Surveys
• Soil and water quality testing
• Energy audits

Engineering services

• Preliminary Engineering Reports
• Preliminary Design Documents

These are completed with the intention of providing community partners with the documentation necessary to pursue funding sources to implement the project.

We understand that engineering projects, and the processes associated with such, can often be overwhelming. If your community’s project is accepted, part of the project process with Community Engineering Corps includes discussing your project’s needs, and having the project assessed by professional engineers to better understand what the project will actually require.

The first step to apply for Community Engineering Corps is to apply through the Community Engineering Corps Community Application. After this, your initial application will be reviewed by the team, and you will receive an update shortly after on next steps. If your project is a potential fit for the program, you will then be sent a detailed secondary application.

Our impact, including raw data and community highlight stories, can be found on our Impact page

There are multiple ways to get involved:

• Join your nearby Engineers without Borders chapter, American Water Works Association section, or American Society of Civil Engineers section, develop a Community Engineering Corps team within that chapter or section, and submit a team application for an open Community Engineering Corps project.
• Recruit folks within your company or industry to join you, develop a project team, and apply for an open Community Engineering Corps project.
• If you have a Professional Engineering license, you can also join the Technical Review Committee where you'll review project work plans and deliverables for existing Community Engineering Corps projects.

Two good first steps you can take to get involved are to express your interest through the
Volunteer Interest Form, and register to volunteer through Volunteer Village.

All available projects are listed on Volunteer Village. Also, projects that we are actively recruiting for are listed on the Community Engineering Corps website.

We encourage engineers of all disciplines to get involved. However, our projects are civil works, and our greatest volunteer need is for civil engineers involved in water (drinking water, stormwater, wastewater), structures, agriculture, energy, and other civil works. Individuals who wish to support projects through other skill sets, such as project management, fundraising, and other non-technical roles are also encouraged to get involved, and can support their respective chapters or sections.

Volunteer Village is a platform run through EWB-USA, and serves as the hub for all things related to volunteering. Here, volunteers can learn about project opportunities, keep updated on their project’s status, and apply for projects. Volunteers can also use the site to receive updates on EWB-USA, as well as Community Engineering Corps.

For all inquiries pertaining to donations, either through time or money, please contact us directly via our
 Contact Us page.

Yes, Community Engineering Corps has a robust network of corporate partners. To get your company involved as a corporate partner, we encourage you to reach out directly via our Contact Us page. We would be very happy to discuss this further, and identify how we can best collaborate with your company.