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Barry Volunteers Prepare Food Packages for Communities Abroad
Two groups of Barry volunteers participated in Feed My Starving Children’s South Florida Community MobilePack recently. One group represented the School of Social Work; the other consisted of service-learning students, Barry Service Corps fellows, and CCSI staff.
The Barry students, faculty, and staff were among approximately 30,000 volunteers who helped to prepare more than five million meals for distribution in communities abroad. Volunteering for two-and-a-half hour shifts, the Barry groups assisted with packing meals, preparing boxes of meals for shipment, and producing expiration-date labels to be affixed to packed meals.
“During our volunteer shift, along with several hundred other community volunteers, we helped to prepare more than 500,000 meals to be shipped overseas,” reported Ashton Spangler, a CCSI staff member.
Feed My Starving Children organizes MobilePack as an opportunity for the public to learn about hunger-related issues, raise funds to cover the cost of meals, and pack nutritious meals for hungry children. The South Florida MobilePack was a four-day event at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition
Feed My Starving Children is a nonprofit Christian organization committed to feeding hungry children. The organization ships hand-packed meals for distribution especially to malnourished children. Over the years, children in nearly 70 countries have received meals from Feed My Starving Children.
Barry’s participation in the food-packing event on January 30 was part of Barry’s 75 Acts of Service initiative. The university is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
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Community Partners Offer Service Opportunities to Campus
Community partners discussed direct service, mentoring, employment, and leadership opportunities with students, faculty, and staff at the Community Engagement Fair last month. The community partners offered opportunities in such areas as youth development, environmental preservation, human rights, public health, and animal welfare.
Diana Young, the community outreach and resource manager for Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department, spoke with students about opportunities to contribute to environmental preservation and health and wellness programs.
“I’ve really enjoyed talking with students and looking for potential ways to collaborate in the future,” Young said.
The Community Engagement Fair, a semiannual event, was held in the Landon Student Union on Barry’s main campus in Miami
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CCSI Administrators to Lead Workshop at National Conference
Dr. Glenn Bowen, director of the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI), and Courtney Berrien, the associate director, will lead a workshop at the 2016 IMPACT Conference this Saturday, February 20. Barry Service Corps (BSC) Fellows Asha Starks and Kevin Dalia will join them as workshop co-presenters.
Titled “Developing a Core Group of Student Leaders as Emerging Agents of Social Change,” the workshop will focus on the CCSI’s civic learning and leadership program.
Bowen created the Barry Service Corps and Berrien developed the BSC Fellows Program focused on civic learning and leadership. The program’s primary purpose is to prepare students for active roles as agents of social change.
Starks is a senior, majoring in applied sport and exercise science, with a coaching emphasis. On campus, Starks serves as the community engagement chair of the Black Student Union. Off campus, she participates in the Dream Defenders, “an uprising of communities in struggle, shifting culture though transformational organizing.”
Dalia, a junior and pre-law major, is actively involved in the Student Government Association as a senator and in MALES (Men Achieving Leadership Excellence and Success). He also participates in the Millennium Campus Network, a leadership initiative focused on global development.
The mission of IMPACT is to connect, educate, and mobilize college students, nonprofit professionals, and educators to strengthen their communities through service, action, and advocacy. The University
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Faculty Workshop to Focus on Community-Based Research
The next service-learning workshop for faculty is scheduled for Monday, March 2. “Community-Based Research as Service-Learning” is the topic of the workshop, which will be held from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the Center for Community Service Initiatives, Adrian 208.
The registration site is http://goo.gl/forms/uYaxSTXe5f
For further information, contact either of the service-learning faculty fellows – Dr. Ligia Mihut, lmihut@barry.edu, or Dr. Raul Machuca, rmachuca@barry.edu – or the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI).
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Social Work Group Goes to Tallahassee for Legislative Education and Advocacy Day
Nearly 50 Barry students, faculty, and staff participated in the Legislative Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) in Tallahassee earlier this month. Participants were drawn from the School of
The Barry University School of Social Work participates in LEAD annually at the Florida State Capitol. Organized by the National Association of Social Workers–Florida Chapter (NASW-FL), the event takes place during the Florida Legislature’s regular spring session.
NASW-FL’s legislative and policy-advocacy agenda for 2016 includes the promotion of “criminal justice laws and sentencing guidelines that are reasonable, equitable, free of bias, flexible to the situation, and protect the public.” It also includes support of “programs that reduce homelessness or assist those experiencing homelessness, and that enhance affordable housing options.”
Community Engagement Liaison Fabio A. Naranjo, reported: “This year, LEAD took place on February 1-2, and nearly 900 students representing the state’s 14 accredited schools of social work participated. On the first day, all participants attended a training session during which NASW-FL provided a summary of all relevant bills and those identified for lobbying. On the second day, the social work students met face-to-face with legislators, attended Senate and House Committee Hearings, and visited the Florida Supreme Court.”
The School of
Community engagement liaisons assist the Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) with planning, monitoring, assessing, and reporting community engagement activities. For further information on the contributions of the liaisons, contact CCSI Associate Director Courtney Berrien at cberrien@barry.edu or 305-899-4017.
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Human Rights Fellowship Opportunity for U.S. Undergraduates
The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation has announced The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation Fellowship for Human Rights, a summer fellowship in Prague for undergraduates in the United States. The fellowship includes a two-week, fully-funded opportunity to learn from and engage with organizations in the Czech Republic working to carry forward Havel’s legacy in the field of human rights.
Further information on Havel’s work and on the summer fellowship is available at http://www.vhlf.org/news/vaclav-havel-library-foundation-fellowship-for-human-rights-announcement/.
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CCSI Newsletter
Posted On : February 15, 2016
