Mission
The Ginsberg Center is a community and civic engagement center that connects communities and the University of Michigan to deepen the knowledge, capacities, and relationships necessary to address pressing social issues through collaboration.
Based on this mission, our vision is a more just and equitable society where every person can contribute to thriving communities.
We accomplish our work by:
- Strengthening campus-community connections between local social sector partners and U-M students, faculty, and staff
- Enhancing community capacities through matching community-defined priorities with relevant skills and resources through U-M coursework, research and programs.
- Developing students' civic learning and leadership skills through meaningful community-based experiences
- Supporting faculty and academic program staff who also offer community-engaged learning opportunities
The Ginsberg Center’s mission and purpose are premised on spanning organizational and institutional boundaries in service to social change. Recognizing our three strategic areas of focus, the Ginsberg Center is positioned within Student Life, reflecting our commitment to student education and development; we are formally connected to the Office of the Provost, reflecting our focus on faculty and academic partners, and Government Relations, reflecting our community engagement beyond campus.
Principles of Community Engagement
We use the following principles to guide our work:
Connecting Civic Learning Across Contexts
We support students’ integrative learning across classroom, co-curricular, personal, and community settings so that students are equipped to actively participate in our communities and our democracy. Reflection is a critical component of this integration throughout the partnership process to ensure connections are made across these domains before, during and after civic engagement experiences.
Starting with Community
Our approach centers around community-identified priorities and how we can most effectively match University of Michigan resources and expertise to those of community partners working to address these priorities.
Centering on Equity
We strive for balanced impact, where both university and community partners get their fair share of benefit. Giving faculty, staff, students and community partners the opportunity to share their interests, values, and expectations creates a strong foundation for true reciprocity and positive impact.
Fostering Long-term Partnership
We focus on stewarding long-term relationships with community partners that last beyond a particular project or engagement. As a project or partnership with an academic partner concludes, we connect community partners to additional university resources so other relationships and partnerships can flourish.
Acknowledging Power
Cultural humility requires a recognition of power differences and conscious attempts to balance these differences through reflection and learning. Community members are recognized as active agents, who are experts in their own right, with deep knowledge about their communities and practices, rather than as sites of academic exploration or the passive recipients of university expertise.
Moving from Individual to Collective Action
We support coordination, collaboration, and increased coherence by bringing together parties with shared interests to amplify positive community impact. We leverage networks and illuminate multiple pathways of connection to allow students, faculty, and staff to contribute, throughout various levels of preparedness, career stage, and expertise
Want to know more? Check out our past Annual Reports.
