March 27, 2025
The Ginsberg Center is pleased to announce that the President’s Year of Democracy, Civic Empowerment, and Global Engagement initiative has given $20,000 to support the Building Our Solidarity Economy Conference and an additional $100,000 to fund community-based internships supported by the Center.
Solidarity Economy Conference
On March 28, the Ginsberg Center and Resource Generation Michigan will host the Building Our Solidarity Economy Conference, which brings together students and community members to learn about the solidarity economy and the importance of cross-class movements for economic justice. The conference's focus on skill-building, reflection, and action are all integral to civic empowerment, and exemplifies the Center's core mission: putting principles into practice in service to building communities where everyone can thrive. Funding supported the guest speaker honorarium, catering for attendees, and promotional materials.
Community-Based Internships
The center’s existing matchmaking infrastructure allows us to ensure impactful, equitable experiences for students and community partners alike. The internship funding will allow us to fund up to 60 community-based internships during Winter, Spring & Summer 2025. We will place students through our matchmaking process with local community organizations, schools and civic agencies focused on a range of issues. We will also use the funds to support internships through our existing Center programs: America Reads Tutoring Corps, Community Leadership Fellows, Community Technical Assistance Collaborative, and Storytelling for Social Change.
Community-University Matchmaking
- The Ginsberg Center’s matchmaking process connects community-identified needs and priorities to knowledge, skills, and expertise at the University of Michigan.
- Internship funding will support up to 30 community-based internships for undergraduate, graduate students, and Master of Social Work field placement interns with local organizations to respond to community-identified needs.
- Community partners will be able to select their own interns to support a range of issues, including education, health & well-being, arts, and environment & sustainability.
Community Leadership Fellows (CLF)
- Fellows are matched with a community organization where they work in a 9-month internship that balances the Fellow’s interests and skills while meeting the organization’s needs. Fellows participate in ongoing leadership development training and mentorship, connect as a cohort, and engage in critically reflective practice throughout the program.
- Internship funding will support extending 10 Fellows’ placements with partner organizations over Summer 2025 to allow Fellows to have a 12-month experience and further contribute to their partner organizations.
Community Technical Assistance Collaborative (CTAC)
- CTAC enhances the data and evaluation capacity of community organizations through graduate student-led and staff-supported community-engaged projects
- Internship funding supported 8 Winter 2025 CTAC interns who led focus group design and facilitation, qualitative or quantitative data analysis, data visualization, and evaluation planning for local nonprofits.
Storytelling for Social Change (SFSC)
- SFSC helps community organizations capture and share stories that illustrate the heart of their work while creating skill-building opportunities for students, including community engagement best practices, data visualization, and content creation for social media, blog posts, and other web applications.
- Internship funding will support 7 Summer 2025 Semester interns.
- America Reads Tutoring Corps seeks to help all children read well and independently by the end of the third grade through in-person tutoring sessions between elementary school students and University of Michigan students.
- Internship funding will support 4 Winter 2025 AR interns placed with local schools to develop curriculum to support future literacy efforts.
Through these internships, students will have a direct impact on building thriving communities in Southeast Michigan while building their civic learning skills.