From the Annual Report: Much of the Ginsberg Center’s work with students is dedicated to providing education and opportunities to practice civic engagement, with the hopes of instilling lifelong habits of democracy (such as voting, education, and engaging in dialogue) that will, in turn, impact social change for the greater good.
From the Annual Report: The Covid-19 pandemic meant greater need for support for many community organizations, and more students eager to provide it. However, health restrictions due to the pandemic meant there were fewer in-person opportunities to do so. Those factors all required the Ginsberg Center’s Connect2Community team to adapt adapt our tool’s functionality and function and content to provide community support and service opportunities in a time of crisis.
From the Annual Report: The Ginsberg Center provides multiple forms of financial resources for student groups and organizations to engage in positive change through social justice education, leadership development, and meaningful service experiences with the community. In particular, our Community Engagement Grants allow us to deepen partnerships between student organizations and community organizations or agencies who are working together to address a community-identified need.
From the Annual Report: Ginsberg Center’s partnership with the University of Michigan Public Design Corps (UM-PDC) offers a key example of how work shifted during this pandemic year. The summer program connects U-M students in Architecture, Urban Design, and Urban and Regional Planning with mission-driven organizations to tackle pressing economic, environmental, social, and spatial challenges that have been made more acute by the ongoing Covid-19 health crisis. Studentfaculty teams and community partners explore ways architecture, urban design, and planning tools can be used in community-focused, community-led projects
From the Annual Report: Establishing and fostering long-term relationships with academic partners allows the Ginsberg Center to support them along a number of different pathways—including those that directly impact the work of community organizing and activism. Our relationship with Dr. Odessa Gonzalez Benson, Assistant Professor at the U-M School of Social Work and a member of the U-M Detroit School of Urban Studies Faculty Cluster, is one such example.
