The Ginsberg Center's mission is to engage students,
faculty, and community members in learning together
through community service and civic participation
in a diverse democratic society.

University-Community Partnership Programs

Ginsberg Center Programs and Initiatives
Other University programs and Initiatives

The Ginsberg Center is home to several community service and learning programs. Undergraduate and graduate students participate in Center programs in Michigan communities and nationwide. They serve meals in soup kitchens, tutor children in schools, rehabilitate abandoned houses, and revitalize urban neighborhoods. They also explore the connections between the service they perform and opportunities to create change through social and political action. As they serve, they learn from the experience and gain skills they will use throughout their lifetime.

• America Reads Tutoring Corps -- In this program, students tutor children in grades K-3 in elementary schools in Michigan's Wayne and Washtenaw Counties with the goal of having them read well and independently by the end of third grade.
• Arts of Citizenship -- In this program, faculty, staff, graduate students and community partners collaborate to foster the role of the arts, humanities and design in civic and community life.
• Michigan AmeriCorps Partnership -- In this program, graduate and undergraduate students work in Detroit-based nonprofit organizations on projects such as program facilitation, business plan development, grant research and writing, and community organization.
• Project Community -- In this program, students enroll in sociology courses that combine formal academic learning with community service in the areas of criminal justice, health, education and community development.
• SERVE -- In this set of programs, students develop leadership skills and address social justice issues through community service and social action. Our student-led programs include Alternative Spring Break; Alternative Weekends; Volunteers Involved Every Week; Issue Education and Awareness; North American Summer Service Team; and World Service Team.
• Faculty Initiatives -- The goal of this initiative is to build faculty capacity for research and teaching in order to strengthen service learning. Our OCSL Press publications of the latest research on community service and learning, funding for research on best practices, and grants and handbooks to aid faculty in developing courses incorporating community service are a central component of faculty initiatives. Service-learning courses engage students in community-based research and enable them to gain a practical understanding of a field of study. Courses now exist in five colleges (Architecture and Urban Planning; Engineering; Literature, Science and the Arts; Residential College) and eleven schools (Art and Design; Dentistry; Rackham School of Graduate Studies; Music; Natural Resources and Environment; Nursing; Public Health; Social Work; Education; Information; Public Policy).
• Student Initiatives -- The goal of this initiative is to provide outreach, leadership training and funding to students and student organizations that design and carry out their own service projects.
• Community Initiatives -- The goal of this initiative is to assist community organizations in working with student volunteers and to involve community partners in preparing students for community service.

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Other University programs and Initiatives:

• Community Service And Learning Programs Through University Departments
• Professional Projects with academic departments
• Student-Run Social Justice Groups
• 6th Annual Symposium of Community Based Work: Learning through Partnership

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