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County Coalition Continues to Prioritize Affordable Housing, Gun-Violence Intervention Students Put Pressure on Fast-Food Company to Support Fair Food Program Community Engagement Award Nominations: Categories Include Engaged Department Students, Faculty, and Staff Invited to Submit Symposium Presentation Proposals CCSI Calls for Proposals for Community-Based Research Incentives Two Service-Learning Fellowships Available to Faculty for Next Academic Year
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Barry Sends Group of 30 to PACT’s Annual Meeting
Affordable housing and the reduction of gun violence remain key issues on the agenda of a Miami-Dade County coalition whose “direct action organizing” strategy has won victories over the years. Immigration also has been identified as a problem area for attention.
PACT (People Acting for Community Together) held its annual meeting recently at the Greater Bethel AME Church in Overtown, where coalition members decided to continue pursuing affordable housing and gun-violence intervention as well as a municipal ID program.
Miami-Dade County is still experiencing a crisis in affordable housing, PACT leaders noted.
Gun violence is a long-standing problem, marked by a large number of shootings of young people. According to PACT, people below age 25 accounted for 37 percent of all gun-related deaths in the county.
PACT wants county commissioners to champion a plan for Miami-Dade to lower the number of persons detained and arrested for minor offenses.
Coalition leaders also noted that thousands of people do not have local identification cards or proof of identification. That’s why they are pushing for a municipal ID program, which would be beneficial to people who are homeless, undocumented immigrants, and ex-offenders.
PACT’s annual meeting is part of a countywide “listening process” that involves hundreds of people in small-group discussions that focus on stories of the problems they are experiencing. Public officials attend the meeting to hear the grievances – and then to be held accountable for finding solutions.
At the recent meeting, people shared stories about how the current issues have affected their lives. One man, for example, told a painful story of losing his young son to gun violence. Another attendee shared how a fellow congregation member was forced to stop pursuing an education because of an immigration raid.
A group of 30 – composed of mainly students – from Barry assisted the meeting organizers with parking, check-in, and ushering people to their assigned seating areas.
Earlier this semester, student leaders in the Barry Service Corps (BSC) and students taking service-learning courses supported PACT leaders by participating in Barry “house meetings,” which are part of PACT’s listening process. They also attended focus-area committee meetings in the community and organized notes from all house meetings held throughout Miami-Dade.
The student leaders are currently assigned to the civic health team as part of the BSC Fellows Program. Supervised by CCSI Program Coordinator Donté Roberts, team members are Erica Cruz, Jasmine McKee, Stephanie Nguyen, Shayna Ramirez, and Antonio Rodriguez.
The service-learning students, who were supervised by Experiential Learning Coordinator Liz James, explored “faith and justice” issues.
Formed in 1988, PACT is celebrating 30 years of "holding public officials accountable for fair and just practices in Miami-Dade County." The coalition consists of nearly 40 congregations – churches, synagogues, and mosques – and two universities, representing more than 50,000 people in Miami-Dade County.
Following the annual meeting, PACT kicked off its research-to-action process, which will continue through March and culminate on April 1 with its Nehemiah Action. Barry student leaders will remain involved with PACT throughout the process, over the next four months or so.
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Students Put Pressure on Fast-Food Company to Support Fair Food Program
Barry students helped to stage a protest action last month to call attention to The Wendy’s Company’s refusal to participate in the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food Program.
More than 100 students from Barry University and St. Thomas University turned out for the demonstration in North Miami Beach. They marched with CIW and Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) representatives from Uleta Park to the Wendy’s restaurant on 167th Street.
At the end of the mile-long march and picket, the demonstrators heard from student leaders and a CIW representative.
“Wendy’s has always had an attitude of avoidance of its social responsibility to not only its consumers, but to us as workers, and to all students and people who eat from its stores,” said Nely Rodriguez, a long-time CIW member.
Barry senior Paris Razor coordinated the demonstration. A Barry Service Corps Fellow, Razor serves on the SFA national steering committee.
Twenty-six Barry students enrolled in theology and sociology service-learning courses were among the demonstrators. Earlier this semester, 13 of those students, together with Barry Service Corps Fellows, traveled to Immokalee, Fla., to learn about the CIW and the Fair Food Program.
The Fair Food Program is a partnership among farmers, farmworkers, and retail-food companies, which aims to ensure that humane wages and working conditions are provided for the workers who pick fruits and vegetables on participating farms.
Corporations such as Taco Bell, Burger King, Walmart, and McDonald’s participate in the program.
Since early 2015, the SFA has led a boycott of Wendy’s restaurants, demanding that the company sign on to the Fair Food Program.
Addressing the college students and other supporters of the demonstration, Rodriguez, the CIW representative, said: “Exploitation, rape, sexual harassment of women, forced labor, and low wages have all existed for countless generations within the agricultural industry. … We are living this exploitation. You all have the opportunity to support and be that voice we have been lacking.”
Rodriguez explained: “We have put a lot of pressure on Wendy’s. As a result, and thanks to many people in different states and countries who have been supporting the Fair Food Program, we have succeeded in getting Wendy’s to agree to stop buying from Mexico and to return to purchasing from the United States and Canada. But this is not what we asked for. They announced that they would purchase from greenhouses, where we know that conditions for farmworkers can be equal to those on any farm outside the Fair Food Program. What we are asking is that Wendy’s stop abandoning human rights protections for farmworkers, that they don’t tolerate sexual harassment of women, and that we all move forward with this new day for farmworkers under the Fair Food Program.”
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Community Engagement Award Nominations: Categories Include Engaged Department
“Engaged Department” is one of the seven categories in which Community Engagement Award nominations are being accepted. Students, faculty, staff, and administrators are invited to submit nominations by January 28.
The other award categories are “Community Impact,” “Community Partnership,” “Community-Based Research,” “Engaged Scholarship,” “Community Engagement Educator,” and “Service-Learning Faculty.”
The Center for Community Service Initiatives will host Barry’s sixth annual Community Engagement Awards on March 27, 2019.
The nomination forms are available in the Community Engagement Management System <http://web.barry.edu/service/ProgramView.aspx?ID=1494> and via email from the CCSI.
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Students, Faculty, and Staff Invited to Submit Symposium Presentation Proposals
Students as well as faculty and staff members are invited to submit proposals for oral (podium) and poster presentations at Barry’s sixth annual Community Engagement Symposium. The submission deadline is February 1.
The theme of the symposium is “Bringing Learning to Life through Community Engagement.”
Community engagement includes experiential learning practices such as service-learning, community-based research, fieldwork, study abroad, capstones, and internships.
Proposals should address the theme of the symposium and identify the experiential learning practice that was implemented. Successful proposals will specify the course or co-curricular project, the social or community issue addressed, the related activities undertaken, and the actual learning outcomes. Proposals should also emphasize how learning “came to life” – that is, how learning was enhanced or enriched and made meaningful for the student.
Scheduled for March 27, the 2019 symposium will highlight student learning outcomes of community engagement practices in the context of Barry’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) titled “Fostering Personal and Social Responsibility through Experiential Learning.”
For additional information on the symposium, contact the CCSI at service@barry.edu.
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CCSI Calls for Proposals for Community-Based Research Incentives
The Center for Community Service Initiatives has issued a call for proposals for community-based research incentives.
CBR incentives are awarded through a competitive process to full-time faculty members who teach undergraduate and/or graduate courses. Up to three CBR awards are currently available. Applicants may request $500–$1,000.
A document with a detailed description of the Community-Based Research Incentive Program, the application form, and the rubric used by the Review Committee for assessing applications are available in CEMS – the Community Engagement Management System.
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Two Service-Learning Fellowships Available to Faculty for Next Academic Year
Two service-learning fellowships will be available for the 2019–2020 academic year to full-time faculty members who teach undergraduate or graduate courses.
The Service-Learning Faculty Fellows Program is designed primarily to increasing the number and quality of service-learning courses and faculty who use the pedagogy effectively.
The service-learning fellows attend seminars organized by the CCSI. They also participate in the Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship.
Faculty members interested in the program are asked to contact Dr. Glenn Bowen in the CCSI.
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