Community Engagement News

August 27, 2018

In This Issue:

Barry Student Support for Refugees to Continue Throughout

2018–2019 Academic Year

Barry students’ support for the resettlement of refugees will continue throughout the 2018–

2019 academic year. Students, together with faculty and staff members, will roll out the welcome mat for recently arrived refugees and help them settle into their new community.

The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) will host Church World Service (CWS) Miami Family Day activities on October 20 and February 9. Barry Service Corps Fellows and other students will facilitate sports and recreational activities for children of refugee families and provide parents with information about the American higher education system.

A global humanitarian nonprofit organization, CWS is a U.S. refugee resettlement agency. The CWS Family Day activities will be the main feature of the CCSI-organized Saturdays of Service planned for the fall and spring semesters.

Since 2015, Barry students, faculty, and staff have intensified their support for immigrants and refugees. In October 2015, some students wrote members of Congress urging them to support an increase in the number of Syrian refugees admitted into the United States.

During the 2016–2017 academic year, students in a Visual Storytelling for the Web course produced three instructional videos for CWS Miami. The videos were designed to help newly arrived refugees acclimate to the U.S. social and cultural environment.

Supported by faculty and staff, students have assisted with CWS Miami Family Days and Thanksgiving celebrations for refugee families from such countries as Afghanistan, Colombia, the Congo, Eritrea, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia. In addition, students have helped newcomers move into homes and navigate Miami area bus routes.

Immigration is one of the key issues that the Adrian Dominican Sisters, Barry’s sponsors, address by taking a corporate stance. As a congregation, they welcome immigrants, as do their sponsored institutions.

Sister Patricia Siemen, O.P., prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, emphasized support for immigrants during a presentation at Barry University’s Opening Assembly on August 16.

“Welcoming and including the stranger, the other, is a litmus test of the gospel and of being Dominican,” Sister Pat said. “That’s why our Catholic, Dominican institutions can and do stand clearly on welcoming immigrants, for example. For us, this is not a political issue; it is one of the very foundations of our faith tradition.”

Academic Year’s First Major Day of Service Commemorates 9/11 Anniversary

The first major day of service on this academic year’s community engagement calendar is the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance.

On September 8, Barry volunteers will support military veterans and area residents by engaging in neighborhood revitalization projects. The community service activities will mark the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and will be Barry’s contribution to the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“The September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance is the culmination of efforts originally launched in 2002 by the nonprofit 9/11 Day with wide support by the 9/11 community and leading national service organizations,” says the Corporation for National and Community Service. “This effort first established the inspiring tradition of engaging in charitable service on 9/11 as an annual and forward-looking tribute to the 9/11 victims, survivors, and those who rose up in service in response to the attacks.”

Three other major days of service are on the calendar: International Coastal Cleanup Day; Make a Difference Day; and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.

The International Coastal Cleanup project will take place on September 15. Barry volunteers will collect trash and debris at Historic Virginia Key Beach Park. The volunteers will gather in the Landon Events Room at 7:45 a.m. before heading to the park, where they are expected to complete their service by 2 p.m.

Make a Difference Day is observed on the fourth Saturday of October – the 27th this year. Volunteers will participate in several service projects in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Barry marks the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on the Saturday preceding the King holiday, the third Monday of January. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni will take part in various local community projects on January 19.

Deliberative Dialogue Series Begins with Forum on Felons’ Right to Vote

This academic year’s Deliberative Dialogue Series will begin on September 20 with a forum focused on the proposed Florida Amendment 4, Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative (2018). The 90-minute forum will be held in the Andreas 112 conference room, beginning at 4 p.m.

The other forums in the series will focus on hunger policy in the United States, the opioid epidemic in Florida, and global warming.

The CCSI organizes the Deliberative Dialogue Series as an approach to civic learning and engagement. The series brings together campus and community stakeholders to weigh perspectives on social issues of current concern and to work toward practical solutions.

For additional information, contact CCSI Associate Director Courtney Berrien at cberrien@barry.edu or 305-899-4017.

Campus Invited to Community Engagement Fair on September 26

The annual Community Engagement Fair will be held on September 26, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., on Barry’s Miami Shores Campus.

A workshop for community partners will precede the showcase segment of the fair. During the showcase, community partners will provide students, faculty, and staff with information on opportunities for volunteer work, service-learning, community-based research, and community-focused internships.

Additional information on the Community Engagement Fair is available from the CCSI at service@barry.edu or 305-899-3696.

Annual Report Highlights Service Provided to Communities Last Year

Barry students, supported by faculty and staff members, gave their time, talents, and energies to a wide range of community-based programs and projects last year. They logged 67,400 hours of service, according to the 2018 Annual Report of the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI).

Both service-learning and co-curricular or volunteer service hours are included in the tally, with service-learning accounting for approximately 45 percent of the hours recorded. Service-learning students in theology, sociology, nursing, social work, and communication racked up impressive numbers of hours.

The university made considerable progress on the implementation of its Civic Action Plan. Other highlights of the report include the statewide recognition of the university as a recipient of Florida Campus Compact’s Engaged Campus of the Year Award; students’ demonstration of the social responsibility outcomes of the Quality Enhancement Plan; and the celebration of outstanding achievements at the Community Engagement Awards.

The theme of the CCSI Annual Report is “Implementing Civic Action to Create Community Impact.” The main sections of the report are Awards and Accolades, Community Partnerships and Projects, Service-Learning, Co-curricular Programs and Participation, Other Community Engagement Activities, and Community-Based Research and Scholarship.

CCSI Seeks New Members for Community Engagement Leadership Groups

Faculty and staff members interested in joining one of Barry’s community engagement leadership groups are asked to contact the CCSI as soon as possible.

The groups seeking new members are the Community Engagement Awards Committee, Community Engagement Liaisons, Community Engagement Symposium Committee, Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship, and Major Days of Service Committee.

The memberships of the five other community engagement leadership groups have been finalized.

For further information on the community engagement leadership groups and to volunteer for membership, contact Dr. Glenn Bowen at gbowen@barry.edu or Courtney Berrien at cberrien@barry.edu. 

Variety of Community Engagement Literature Available in CEMS

A variety of community engagement literature is available through CEMS – the Community Engagement Management System. Among the literature are monographs, full-text journal articles, manuals, and fact sheets on community-based research, community-engaged scholarship, service-learning, civic engagement, and related topics.

The literature may be accessed directly from the “Resources” section of CEMS.

One of the available monographs is titled At a Glance: What We Know about the Effects of Service-Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions, and Communities.

Articles in CEMS include “Assessment of Service Learning: An Often Overlooked Vital Link”; “Canton Connections: A University-Community Partnership for Post-Disaster Revitalization”; “Civic Engagement in the Field of Psychology”; “Community Partner Perceptions about Community Engagement Experiences for Nursing Students”; “Designing Effective Reflection: What Matters to Service-Learning?”; “Peace in Every Relationship: Building an Interdisciplinary, Holistic Domestic Violence Program on College Campuses”; “Service Learning in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Effective Practices”; and “Situating Civic Engagement in a Global Context: A Review of Higher Education and Civic Engagement.”

“Engagement and Related Concepts in Higher Education” and “Indicators of Engagement” are two of the fact sheets in CEMS. A Corporation for National and Community Service issue brief, “The Impact of Service-Learning: A Review of Current Research,” also may be accessed in CEMS.

To access CEMS, visit the CCSI home page, www.barry.edu/service, and log in with your Barry user ID and password. For further information, contact the CCSI at service@barry.edu or 305-899-3696.