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Community Engagement Awards to Coincide with Symposium
The third annual Community Engagement Awards will coincide with the luncheon session of the Community Engagement Symposium on March 30, 2016. Awards will be presented to community partners, students, faculty, and staff/administrators for their participation, contributions, and achievements in community engagement.
The award categories are Community Impact (for students), Community Partnership, Community-Based Research, Engaged Scholarship, Community Engagement Educator, Service-Learning Faculty, and Engaged Department.
The nomination deadline is the last Friday of January.
Details of the Community Engagement Awards, as well as the nomination forms, are available in the Community Engagement Management System (CEMS), accessible from the CCSI homepage.
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Campus Donates 200 Food Items During Hunger Action Month
Hunger Action Month food donations on Barry’s main campus totaled more than 200 items. Staff, faculty, and students placed mainly canned foods in the collection boxes.
The collection box with the most items came from Kelley House, home to the Division of Enrollment Management.
CCSI staff member Liz James, the project coordinator, delivered the collection of 209 food items to Feeding South Florida’s main warehouse in Pembroke Park on October 6.
A member of the Feeding America network, Feeding South Florida is the leading domestic-hunger relief organization serving Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties.
The Food Drive was a community service project for Barry University’s Peace Month as well as Feeding America’s Hunger Action Month.
In support of Hunger Action Month, Barry staff, faculty, and students also participated in Feeding South Florida’s 3rd annual Sort-A-Thon on September 12.
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Student Leaders Organize Campaign for Fair Food
Two Barry student leaders participated in the Student/Farmworker Alliance’s (SFA) 11th annual Encuentro in Immokalee, Fla., last month.
Barry Service Corps Fellows Paola Montenegro and Quayneshia Smith were among scores of students and youth from around the country gathered for a weekend primarily to make plans for the SFA’s Campaign for Fair Food. They took part in workshops and campaign planning, which focused on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food Program and the worker-driven social responsibility model that CIW promotes.
The energized Encuentro participants traveled to Naples, where they took to the streets for a dual Publix-Wendy’s protest. Publix and Wendy’s are among major food retailers that do not support the Fair Food Program.
The Student/Farmworker Alliance is a national network of students and young people organizing with the CIW to eliminate sweatshop conditions in the fields and build a food system based on justice and dignity for farm workers.
The CIW’s Fair Food Program has been described as “a unique partnership among farmers, farm workers, and retail food companies that ensures humane wages and working conditions for the workers who pick fruits and vegetables on participating farms.” The value of the program stems from both the standards outlined in the Fair Food Code of Conduct – backed by binding agreements between CIW and some of the world’s large buyers of tomatoes – and the multilayered approach to monitoring and enforcing compliance with those standards.
Acclaimed as the most comprehensive and sustainable social responsibility program in U.S. agriculture, the Fair Food Program provides for legally binding Fair Food Agreements. Participating buyers in the program commit to paying the Fair Food Premium on top of the regular price they pay for tomatoes. The small premium has helped to alleviate the economic hardship faced by farm workers for decades.
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CCSI Hosts Workshop for Community Partners
The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) hosted a two-hour workshop on Effective Partnerships for Community-University Engagement as part of the recent Community Engagement Fair.
CCSI Director Dr. Glenn Bowen made an introductory presentation titled “Creating and Maintaining Partnerships for Community Engagement,” after which Experiential Learning Coordinator Liz James conducted a workshop activity in which participants identified elements of effective partnerships.
The workshop activity was followed by a presentation focused on partnerships for community engagement in Barry University’s School of Social Work. Dr. Sharron Singleton, director of field education, referred to the Office of the Public Guardian, the Service-Learning and Social Work course, and the Neighborhood Technical Assistance Project as exemplars of community engagement. She also highlighted the work of the Student Social Work Association and faculty leadership in community-based projects.
Dr. Roxanne Davies, associate vice president for mission and institutional effectiveness, delivered opening remarks in which she drew attention to Barry’s 75th anniversary. She said the anniversary “offers us the perfect opportunity to reflect upon our heritage and what this means for today’s world, especially in terms of our community engagement and outreach.”
Davies said: “As we explore the transformational power of working together to effect positive change at the community level, we are mindful that Barry’s Dominican heritage has always called us to go forth into the communities we serve to challenge systems of inequity. This call to action inspires us to look for new opportunities to engage with the community, particularly those groups that are traditionally underserved.”
She added: “Catholic, Dominican colleges and universities express their unique and distinctive culture through the education of their students to serve others. In true Dominican fashion, building community … means furthering Barry’s institutional mission toward serving the common good, creating greater opportunities for community service, and supporting diversity initiatives.”
Associate Director Courtney Berrien, who coordinated the fair, gave an overview of the CCSI’s co-curricular programs and events. She thanked community partners for their collaboration with Barry staff, faculty, and students.
Twenty-seven community members and four Barry Service Corps fellows represented 23 community partners at the fair, which took place in the R. Kirk Landon Student Union.
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Constitution Day Forum Draws Attention to Voting Rights
Barry University celebrated Constitution Day,September 17, by bringing attention to current and historic issues concerning voting rights. Activities included a forum on “Voting Rights and the U.S. Constitution,” a Constitution trivia, and the screening of “Selma.”
Dr. Charles Zelden, professor of history, law and politics at Nova Southeastern University, delivered the keynote address at the forum. An expert in Florida voter registration laws, he spoke about long-standing barriers to voter access in Florida.
“Limiting the right to vote undermines the concept of democracy,” Zelden said. He told students, faculty, and staff that they could promote democracy and demonstrate good citizenship by helping to increase voter turnout.
The forum panelists were Christopher Riker, a Barry Service Corps fellow and president of the College Democrats; Rebecca Leppert, a political science major and Stamps scholar; and Jesse Orshan, a graduate student. Dr. Sean Foreman, associate professor of political science and co-chair of the Campus Democracy Project (CDP), was the moderator.
The Constitution trivia included questions about the three branches of government. Each winner received a pocket-sized U.S. Constitution, the American flag, or a similar prize.
Nearly 40 students gathered in Dominican Hall to watch “Selma,” the 2014 historical drama that depicts the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, to secure equal voting rights. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis, currently a U.S. Congressman, were leaders of the march.
Donté Roberts, a BSC fellow, introduced “Selma” by speaking about his experience, in the summer of 2013, interviewing Congressman John Lewis about the 1963 March on Washington. Roberts was then an intern with the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.
In the discussion that followed the film screening, the participants identified contemporary civil rights and social issues that contribute to low rates of voter participation among minority groups. Issues include negative stereotypes and racial profiling, systemic racism and institutionalized oppression, and lack of civic education.
Constitution Day commemorates the September 17, 1787 signing of the United States Constitution. Barry University’s Constitution Day program was organized as a Campus Democracy Project (CDP) event supported by the Student Government Association, the Department of History and Political Science, and the Center for Community Service Initiatives.
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Community Leader to Participate in Engaged Scholarship Seminar
Community leader Elaine H. Black will make a presentation as part of the Faculty Learning Community’s Engaged Scholarship Seminar on Wednesday, October 28. Black is president and CEO of the Liberty City Community Revitalization Trust.
The Liberty City Trust seeks “to empower those who live, learn, work and play in Liberty City to reclaim, transform and rebuild our community.”
Open to all faculty members, the FLC is an interdisciplinary group of faculty members who engage in an active, collaborative program focused on community-engaged scholarship (CES). The Engaged Scholarship Seminar is scheduled for 2–3:15 p.m., in Adrian 208.
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CCSI Newsletter
Posted On : October 12, 2015
