The Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) invites you to join our Research and Evidence webinar series. This webinar series is one of many ways ORE is sharing current research on civic engagement, volunteering, and national service.
This month’s topic is:
Participatory Health Research: Challenges and Approaches
Date and Time: Wednesday, Apr. 8, from 2-3:00 p.m. ET
Provost Blake recently announced that the university has adjusted the option for most undergraduate courses to be taken pass/no pass for this semester only. Students have been contacted to explain this option and how they go about electing it for their courses.
Many other institutions are going this route as well. What does this mean for the service expectations in your course? If students plan to not complete their service expectation because they can pass the course without it, how are you discussing with them the responsible conversation they should have with their community partner (if their partner organization is open).
We have learned that many CES course instructors (adjunct faculty in particular) are not receiving all of the latest information about courses and resources for shifting to distance learning. Given that, I'm sharing the following message from Kimberly Gross, of Columbian College with some related information/resources.
...continue reading "Adjustment to Allow Students to Select Pass/No Pass Option"
[Updated April 2, 2020]
Please note, in response to the increased calls to commit to physical distancing, we ask that you instruct students to NOT engage in any direct service activities at this time. We are continuing to seek opportunities for distance/online service for your students. I also recommend some of the assignment alternatives provided in the "Teaching distance community engaged scholarship courses" link below.
We recognize that for some courses, continued service projects will not be possible. If you need other ways to engage students in deeper critical reflection work, we offer these readings, podcasts, and other resources.
We will use this space to continue to share ideas and examples of ways to engage students in thoughtful reflections about civic responsibility and social/environmental justice. If you have your own examples to share here, please email them to Wendy Wagner, wagnerw@gwu.edu.
...continue reading "Resources: Materials to Stir Critical Reflection"
[Updated April 9, 2020]
We will use this space to share ideas and examples of ways to support the local community while maintaining responsible physical distance. If you have your own examples to share here, please email them to Wendy Wagner, wagnerw@gwu.edu
Here we provide resources for:
...continue reading "Resources: Opportunities for Service During COVID-19"
[Updated March 29, 2020]
We will continue to update this post with additional resources. If you have assignment alternatives or approaches, tips on facilitating reflection conversations through distance learning, or plans for continuing to support your community partner remotely, please share them (wagnerw@gwu.edu) and they will be added to these resource lists.
While we all recognize it is much better to have time for proper distance-learning course design, teaching a community engaged scholarship course from a distance CAN be done. Recognizing that some of our community partner organizations will be closing or restricting voluntary service in order to practice physical distancing, we recommend providing 1-2 alternative assignments for students who will still have service requirements to fulfill for your course.
...continue reading "Resources: Teaching Distance Community Engaged Scholarship Courses"
Unfortunately, the GW Research Showcase event has been cancelled for this year. However, the Nashman Prize for Community-Based Participatory Research will still be awarded. Students who have already submitted abstracts for this prize will be notified by the end of this week if they have been selected for consideration. Students under consideration for the prize will be invited to present at the Virtual Symposium on Community Engaged Scholarship (see above) at the end of the semester. Judging for the prize will occur the week of April 27th. Please let me know if you are interested in serving as a judge.
As you consider options for students to complete service projects remotely, be sure to START by examining how many students still need to serve. The good and great Rachel Talbert has made a helpful video reviewing how to get a summary of service of all students in your course and how many service hours each has already reported. For students who still have service to do, the next step is to remind them to report their service on GWServes, which you can do directly from the GWServes platform itself. This will help you determine the extent to which alternative service options are needed. Link to tutorial video.
The need for responsible physical distancing is creating as much chaos for our local community partners as it is for ourselves. Some, like DC Public Schools and the public libraries, have closed entirely. Some, like those who serve the aging population, are continuing operations but are not working with volunteers for the time being. Others still accept volunteer support. The Nashman Center is keeping track of local service organizations as best we can, so reach out if you have questions about our local partners. We are also encouraging our partners to use GWServes to report their status as well as any needs they have that could be addressed by volunteers or service-learners from a distance. If you are in your own communications with community partners, please also encourage them to use the platform as a way to get their messages out to our whole community. If they need support using the platform, they can reach out to Tereese Smith (tereese_smith@email.gwu.edu).
For trustworthy real time updates about the virus and response in Washington, DC, visit: https://coronavirus.dc.gov/
As you move forward with course re-design in the COVID-19 era, please continue to plan on creating an opportunity for your students to present their community engaged scholarship projects and reflections at the Symposium. This event, held at the end of every semester, is an opportunity for students to share and learn from each other about important issues in community engagement. This year, students will be invited to participate virtually, by preparing brief (1-2 minute) video or multi-media presentations. These presentations will be due on April 24th, the original date of the planned in-person Symposium, and made available for viewing and comment the week of April 27th. In the coming weeks, we will share platforms, tutorials, and recommendations for creating engaging virtual presentations. As is true for the traditional in-person Symposium, students should be prepared to not only present their own work, but also review and learn from the work of other students.
GW recently joined the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. This organization, "connects leaders and scholars of urban and metropolitan universities to share, discuss, and debate important issues facing our unique institutions and the cities we serve."
The association distributes relevant news, facilitates conversations across member institutions, holds an annual conference, and publishes a journal.
Stay tuned for more information on the connections and professional development benefits you can take advantage of given our institutional membership.
You are invited to attend the following talk:
The Violence of Dis/Investment: White Flight, Black Displacement and Gentrification in Washington, DC
Friday, Feb 21, noon-1:30pm, Corcoran Hall, Room 103
Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza, Sociologist, University of California, Merced
The Community Works Institute announces early bird rates for their 2020 Summer Institute on Place Based Service-Learning and Sustainability.
June 22-26, 2020, Brooklyn, NY
Who Should Attend
Institute participants are diverse and inspiring K-16 teachers and leaders, from schools large and small, rural and urban, independent and public, along with environmental and community based educators. The Institute is the ideal opportunity for individual educators or teams to begin or advance projects and programs, within classrooms or across grade levels.
2020 CWI Summer Institute Outcomes
participants will learn new skills and strategies that build capacity for
• The community as the classroom.
• Designing projects around students’ personal passion and interests.
• Connecting social emotional learning goals to learning projects.
• Designing project based learning with compelling civic and public purpose.
• Focusing on students as active contributors to sustainable communities.
• Integrating student voice, reciprocity, and reflection.
• Using ethnography to explore human connection and and social justice.
• Employing strategies for program growth, team building, and buy in.
• Inspiring and advancing a collective vision and practice as a leaders.
The annual Points of Light Conference will be June 10-12, 2020, here in Washington, DC.
The Points of Light Conference is a global convening of nonprofit, government, business and civic leaders who connect, collaborate, gain and share the knowledge and resources needed to galvanize the power of people to create change. This year’s event will be the centerpiece of a yearlong celebration to mark Points of Light’s founding by President George H.W. Bush 30 years ago.
Civic life today requires that we look beyond traditional labels like “volunteer,” and empower people to express their desire to do good in ways that are meaningful to them: through the purchases they make, how they vote, in what they share on social media, where and how they choose to work, and what causes they support with their time or money.
