Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI)

Barry University

Center for Community Service Initiatives About the CCSI

The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) is Barry University’s clearinghouse for community engagement information, resources, and opportunities. Offering a variety of programs and services, the CCSI organizes, coordinates, and promotes community engagement activities among students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community partners. The CCSI also plays a major role in promoting personal and social responsibility through experiential learning.

Specific functions of the CCSI are as follows: Community engagement program development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation; coordination of service-learning, including service-learning designation; faculty professional development in service-learning and community-engaged scholarship; student civic learning and leadership development; coordination and development of University–community partnerships; and coordination of community engagement awards and public recognition.

About Us Frequently Asked Questions

72% of Barry students are currently involved in community engagement programs such as service-learning, community-based research, and community-focused capstones.

Community Impact

Barry students have been helping to create community impact—many through the Barry Service Corps (BSC). Some of the students have been featured in Community Engagement News, the newsletter produced by the CCSI. The BSC fosters civic leadership and commitment to service by providing meaningful opportunities for students to support local agencies and institutions working to address social concerns. 

BSC members become acquainted with issues affecting neighborhoods and gain experience implementing projects based on approaches used by community partners. “Students Contributing to Community Impact.” the feature stories, may be downloaded for each student:

Read Student Feature Stories

Service-Learning

Definition of Service-Learning

Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates relevant community service with coursework and critical reflection to enrich the learning experience, foster social responsibility and civic engagement, and strengthen communities.
coursework (academic content) + collaborative service + critical reflection = service-learning

Designated Service-Learning Courses

For Students: As part of some courses you are taking, you may be required to provide service to the community, most often through community partner organizations. You will reflect on your service experience in the context of the coursework. An increasing number of courses carry the service-learning designation in the catalog and course schedule. The designation will be indicated on your official transcript.

For Faculty: The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) is inviting faculty members whose courses include a service-learning component to apply for the “SL” designation. Applications may be submitted at any time throughout the academic year. Sections of courses, internships, practicum assignments, field education, capstones, community-based research, and similar community-focused or community-based experiences may be designated as service-learning. For detailed information on the service-learning designation requirements, contact Dr. Glenn Bowen in the CCSI via email at gbowen@barry.edu. For a current list of SL-designated courses, click “Learn More” below.

Learn More

Collaborative Service Opportunities

Collaborative opportunities for direct and indirect service benefiting the community at large, or specific community organizations, may be found via GivePulse, the community engagement portal. Please log in with your Barry username and password.

GivePulse

GivePulse

Community engagement platform: Opportunities for volunteer service, service-learning projects, and other community engagement opportunities! Click here

Events & Programs

Newsletter

  • Community Engagement News August 25, 2023

    Five major days of service are on the community engagement calendar for the 2023–2024 academic year, and an advocacy project is planned for the Saturday immediately preceding Thanksgiving Day.

  • Community Engagement News May 15, 2023

    The Barry Service Corps – a civic learning and leadership development program – is being revitalized and the recruitment of members for the 2023–2024 academic year is in full swing.

  • Community Engagement News May 08, 2023

    Barry students prepared more than 50 tax returns for local community members as part of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program administered on the university’s Miami Shores campus during the 2023 tax-filing season.

  • Community Engagement News May 01, 2023

    Barry student leader Imani McClammy has received national recognition by being listed on the 2023 Student Voting Honor Roll created by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

  • Community Engagement News April 24, 2023

    A small group of students and staff recently removed invasive plants from the public beach park at Virginia Key in Miami-Dade County. The “Sustainability Saturday” project ushered in Earth Week activities at Barry.

  • Community Engagement News April 17, 2023

    Barry Service Corps Fellow Valentine Thomas has been named a Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact, the national coalition of colleges and universities that advances the public purposes of higher education.

  • Community Engagement News April 10, 2023

    The plight of displaced people, children’s battles with cancer, and conditions that may negatively affect young people’s academic or social progress were among the issues that students and faculty addressed recently through community engagement projects.

  • Community Engagement News April 03, 2023

    Barry University has again received the “Voter Friendly Campus” designation from Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project and NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

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