Building solidarity: Where community meets change
By John Kalogerakos
April 1, 2025
Surrounded by community and conversation, Brianna Davis started to see new possibilities, thanks to the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning.
Davis, a master’s student at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, attended the Ginsberg Center’s Building Our Solidarity Economy conference, hoping to gain skills, insight and inspiration to become a more informed and responsible leader in her community.
She left the event with a blueprint and the tools needed to put learned theory into action, both through her classwork and within her local communities.
Throughout the day, Davis and other attendees built their community organizing skills. In one session, participants first learned the art of framing funding requests, then tried to make the ask to those nearby using what they heard. In another, they explored how different leadership styles approached resolving conflicts that might arise when you bring together diverse groups of people to solve complex problems.
Equipping attendees with opportunities to practice what they learned was all a part of the conference plan—and the Ginsberg Center’s broader mission.
“We wanted to provide an environment where students, community members, and other U-M participants could learn from one another and make connections that would last far beyond the day of the conference,” said event co-organizer Gabbi Wassilak, the Ginsberg Center’s Student Outreach and Engagement Manager.
On campus, the Ginsberg Center is the university’s hub for community and civic engagement. The students who engage with the Ginsberg Center are connected by a shared desire to do good for, and with, others.
The Ginsberg Center gives them the knowledge, tools and connections to do just that.
A campus-community bridge
The Ginsberg Center works with students, faculty and staff across the university’s 19 schools and colleges to prepare campus community members for effective community and civic engagement, whether that’s within the greater Ann Arbor community or beyond.
Emphasis on “effective.”
And to be effective, says Ginsberg Center Director Neeraja Aravamudan, building mutually beneficial relationships is essential.
U-M students do not need to do this work alone.
In her role at the Ginsberg Center, Wassilak’s work with students and student organizations focuses on building connections. Some days her work leads to hosting an all-day conference to help students develop the skills they need to address the problems they are most passionate about.
Other times, she’s helping students find opportunities to volunteer within the Ginsberg Center’s network of 400 community partners across Washtenaw County and Southeast Michigan, including in the Detroit area.
“We want students to see themselves as collaborators with community members and organizations, who have a lot to teach them about the complex issues we face here in Washtenaw County and beyond,” said Wassilak.
Many of those skills, like how to build trust and work through discomfort, are as applicable inside the classroom as in local community settings.
There is no one way to work toward sustainable community-based change, said Aravamudan. That belief fuels the Ginsberg Center’s student-centered approach through its Pathways to Civic Engagement and Community Change—a framework that outlines diverse, interconnected routes such as community organizing, philanthropy, direct service, and social entrepreneurship.
These overlapping pathways highlight that positive social change depends on people contributing in various, evolving ways and prioritizing continuous involvement, rather than one-day opportunities.
Putting it all together
The Ginsberg Center may become a familiar name to U-M campus community members during election seasons, such as the 2024 presidential election. Encouraging citizens to vote is only a sliver of the Ginsberg Center’s broader, year-round civic engagement work.
Civic engagement is more of a practiced art than a passive activity, which requires a volunteer to be physically present.
“Civic education has been significantly reduced or taken out of many high school curriculums, so for us, the pathways model helps students visualize where they are already involved and how they can build on that,” said Wassilak. “It's about pulling together the pieces.”
The Ginsberg Center organized the one-day Building Our Solidarity Economy conference in collaboration with Resource Generation Michigan to equip attendees with skills for understanding diverse viewpoints and collaborating effectively on the issues that matter most to them.
At the Building Our Solidarity Economy event, and amid casual chatter about Michigan’s weather patterns, a deeper dialogue emerged: How to create a more inclusive community with opportunities for all.
But conversations, specifically about this event, began years ago.
Planning for the conference began in Fall 2023, when the center’s community partnerships team introduced their counterparts to Resource Generation, a national organization that helps young people align their financial resources with their values.
Recognizing shared goals, the Ginsberg Center’s student team collaborated with other U-M and community organizations to create an event focused on civic engagement and skill-building. They aimed to offer students hands-on opportunities to explore areas like social entrepreneurship, community organizing, and philanthropy.
Student organization leaders, including those from Not Rich at UMICh, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Community Action and Social Change Minor, helped shape the conference and encouraged student participation.
“We hope our students leave our programs with concrete skills that allow them to better consider perspectives different from their own and enable them to work more effectively with others on issues they care about,” said Aravamudan.
Currently located on the ground floor of the Michigan League, the Ginsberg Center will soon have more spaces for community and campus partners to connect, plan and learn.
In Fall 2025, the center will relocate to the Edward and Rosalie Ginsberg Building at 1024 Hill Street. The new 11,000-square-foot facility replaces the Ginsberg Center’s previous home at the same location, the 7,500-square-foot Madelon Pound House.