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University of Michigan

Overview of Community Engagement Initiatives

University of Michigan
Meeting on Engagement at Research Universities

UCLA
February 6, 2007

The University of Michigan is a large, decentralized, public, research university. Each of these factors influences the University’s community engagement activities.

Large means that there are innumerable community-based projects across all 19 schools and colleges that comprise the University of Michigan. Identifying all is near impossible. Nevertheless, the University supports a directory designed to help Michigan residents find information about the University of Michigan’s many outreach projects and services that can benefit their lives and communities. It is maintained by the State Outreach office in the Office of the Vice President for Government Relations. Each listing gives a description of the program, lists those areas in which it is available, and provides web site links and contact information for further details.

Decentralized means that there is a thriving entrepreneurial spirit that encourages faculty and students to assume leadership for creating, building, and sustaining community engagement initiatives. No one unit administers community engagement activities for all University units.

Public means that there is a strong incentive across the University not only to engage in community-based initiatives but also to understand and promote higher education as a public good (and not just an individual good).

Research means that there is a strong culture toward research in general, and basic research in particular. Nevertheless, there are scores of faculty involved in research with communities.

Sample of Community Engagement Initiatives

The Ginsberg Center is home to several community service and learning programs. Undergraduate and graduate students participate in Center programs in Michigan communities and nationwide. They serve meals in soup kitchens, tutor children in schools, rehabilitate abandoned houses, and revitalize urban neighborhoods. They also explore the connections between the service they perform and opportunities to create change through social and political action. As they serve, they learn from the experience and gain skills they will use throughout their lifetime.

America Reads Tutoring Corps — In this program, students tutor children in grades K-3 in elementary schools in Michigan’s Wayne and Washtenaw Counties with the goal of having them read well and independently by the end of third grade.
Arts of Citizenship — In this program, faculty, staff, graduate students and community partners collaborate to foster the role of the arts, humanities and design in civic and community life.
Michigan AmeriCorps Partnership — In this program, graduate and undergraduate students work in Detroit-based nonprofit organizations on projects such as program facilitation, business plan development, grant research and writing, and community organization.
Project Community — In this program, students enroll in sociology courses that combine formal academic learning with community service in the areas of criminal justice, health, education and organizing for social justice.
SERVE — In this set of programs, students develop leadership skills and address social justice issues through community service and social action. Our student-led programs include Alternative Spring Break; Alternative Weekends; Volunteers Involved Every Week; Issue Education and Awareness; North American Summer Service Team; and World Service Team.
The Ginsberg Center also works with faculty, students, and community partners. With faculty, the Center offers service-learning pedagogy workshops, grants, consultations, and publications, including complimentary subscriptions to the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning (published by the Ginsberg Center). With students, the Center offers fellowships, scholarships, graduation honor cords, student organization grants and consultations. With community partners, the Center offers workshops and consultations on working with student volunteers.
Prison Creative Arts Program (PCAP) helps U of M students collaborate with incarcerated adults, incarcerated youth, urban youth, and the formerly incarcerated to strengthen community through creative expression.

Spanish Language Internship Program links Spanish-speaking U-M students with community-based partner organizations in Ann Arbor and Southwest Detroit in order to provide students with unique service-learning opportunities, for which they may receive academic credit.

Lives of Urban Children and Youth (LUCY), based in the Michigan Community Scholars (living-learning) Program, provides courses and co-curricular activities that engage students in the study of the lives of children in urban settings. Both university students and community youth work to develop a service-learning project that will contribute to the cultural life of the community.

Community-Based Public Health (CBPH) program takes a partnership approach to public health practice by partnering practitioners and academics with community leaders and community members to solve local problems.

Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates Program sends small groups of undergraduates and faculty members to locations in the U.S. and around the world for three to four weeks of engaging intercultural academic studies.

Community Information Corps (CIC) provides students with readings, lectures, practical engagement service opportunities, research projects and social and professional networking connections to launch them into careers as public interest information professionals.

Community Based Research Fellowship Program (CBRFP) provides a stipend for undergraduate researchers to conduct three months of full-time, summer research in a community-based setting such as a non-profit organization. Fellows present their summer research at a symposium in the Fall term.

Michigan Community Scholars Program (MCSP), a “living-learning community” with a commitment to social justice, helps students transition from high school to college through smaller courses, service projects, leadership opportunities, social programs, and study groups.

Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life’s (IA) mission is to strengthen the public role and democratic purposes of the humanities, arts, and design. To fulfill this mission, we support publicly-engaged academic work in the cultural disciplines and the structural changes in higher education that such work requires. Our major task is to constitute public scholarship as an important and legitimate enterprise. This program was founded at the University of Michigan and is now moving to Syracuse University.

Here is an extensive list of community engagement initiatives by topic areas:

Arts & Culture

Children & Youth

Community Health & Wellness

Environment

International

Research & Design

Science & Technology

Social Justice & Public Policy

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I have always had a drive to serve others and work for the common good. But I never fully realized that I could go beyond volunteerism--that my opinion and hard work could influence policy decisions. My views changed when I sat in the office of one of my legislators in Washington, DC.

-Amanda Coffin, University of Maine at Farmington, Campus Compact student leader

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