The Steans Center formed 20 years ago this month, bringing under one umbrella the Steans Center, Egan Office and ABCD Institute. We'll be taking time this year to look back at seminal events in Steans history. We start this month with a flashback to the original Steans Center Newsletter, which launched in 2005.
We are pleased to invite you to this year’s annual Service Speaks conference, at which we will hear from and honor our students who have been engaged in the community in a year like no other. Please take some time on Friday, May 28, from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. to learn about the work of our students through a dynamic roundtable, slide show, and sharing of our online Chapbook. Your support will mean the world to our students and to the community partners who will join the conversation that day as well.
Service Speaks is co-sponsored by the Steans Center and the Council on Community Engagement.
OCE Live: Prison Abolition
Justice for Keith LaMar, Death Row Inmate
On May 21, ASL hosted its final OCE Live event for the 2020-21 academic year, partnering with DePaul's Students Against Incarceration group and the Department of Political Science to focus on the story of Keith LaMar, a death-row inmate in Ohio who is fighting for a just retrial. Who is Keith LaMar? Keith LaMar is a death row prisoner who was wrongfully convicted in the State of Ohio. On November 16, 2023, the State intends to execute him, even though he has maintained his innocence for nearly three decades, all while being held in indefinite solitary confinement. With the help of his supporters, Keith was able to join the Zoom call.
A recording of this powerful event will be available in the coming weeks - stay tuned for more information.
For more information about Keith LaMar, click here.
OCE Live will return this summer with more online community engagement opportunities. For more information, please contact servicelearning@depaul.edu.
Chicago Elders: The Role Educational Institutions Have in Gentrifying Chicago
The Council of Elders is a group of individuals dedicated to social justice. Their experience and knowledge serve as a guide for the Egan Office and the work that we do. On Saturday, May 29th at noon, we'll be discussing how universities often have a role in gentrifying communities. When a university moves into a neighborhood, the relationship between the institution and the community should be mutually beneficial. However, the bond can become unrequited when higher education institutions invest in the community without regard to existing residents. Please join us via Zoom.
Egan Student Spotlight: A. Angela Guernica
This month our Student Spotlight is on A. Angela Guernica (she/they), an Egan School Community Organizer in Auburn-Gresham and West Englewood, and grad student pursuing a masters in social work.
"As the School Community Organizer, I aim to build authentic relationships within the community and schools to create transformative experiences for students. Our team of DePaul undergraduate tutors work closely with the students and administration at Henderson Elementary in West Englewood and have partnered this past year to facilitate holiday and Black History Month programming and celebration. We will be wrapping up the year with a College Week and STEM event!
Chicago Mosaics: The BLM Movement and Its Intersections with LBGTQ+ Movement
Pride Month is right around the corner! Join the Egan Office UECP at DePaul for a discussion highlighting points of connection between the BLM movement and its intersections with the LBGTQ+ movement while providing resources and a network of support. This quarter we welcome guest panelists: Lennex Cowan and Viggy Alexandersson. Access the Eventbrite here.
This speaker series is a quarterly event. These are conversations with community and movement builders, activists, and organizers in an effort to recognize the critical voices that give shape to The Chicago Mosaic.
Egan Explores: Life Science!
The Egan Office is celebrating our Great Big World. In this new YouTube series, "Egan Explores: Life Science!" tutor and environmental science major Sierra Mackiewicz leads a 7-part series exploring life science topics. The first episode is all about The Butterfly Life Cycle! To follow this series subscribe to our YouTube channel at The Egan Office. This series is produced by Sierra Mackiewicz.
Celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month with Collaboratory
Discover in the Collaboratory platform how DePaul is supporting the AAPI community through co-curricular service, academic service-learning, social philanthropy, project and research based community engagement. Explore how faculty and staff engage with the AAPI community on a broad range of activities and issues of public interest in Chicago communities. We invite you to add to the stories in Collaboratory, the university’s platform for collecting and communicating community engagement activities, enabling us to share all the good work we do across the university. Click here to login to Collaboratory using your CampusConnect userID. For more information about Collaboratory, please contact Steans Center Associate Director Barbara Smith.
ABCD Training: Discoverables, not Deliverables - How to Ignite Locally-led Action
Many of the current challenges faced by individuals and communities require
transformational change! How does asset-based community development (ABCD) build communities from the inside out by tapping into the gifts and strengths of everyone?
“Every single person has skills, abilities and gifts”. John McKnight
This is a workshop led by ABCDI Stewards Dee Brooks and Michelle Dunscombe. Join them on this journey of discovery as they offer a series of three (3) highly immersive and interactive sessions which will introduce participants to a range of asset-based community development (ABCD) practices and processes for creating powerful actions and outcomes.
Registration $100 per session; click here for details. The Steans Center will cover the cost of registration for any interested DePaul faculty or staff.
June Series: Mondays, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m., June 7, 14 & 21
July Series: Tuesdays, 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., July 13, 20 & 27
One-on-One Consultations for CbSL Courses
Steans Center Associate Director Helen Damon-Moore offers one on one consultations for Community-based Service Learning courses. In CbSL Workshop 101, we:
• Identify evidence-based best practices for teaching community-based service learning;
• Reflect on your beliefs about teaching and learning in the classroom and community;
• Consider the theoretical frameworks for community-based service learning;
• Discuss the types of service learning (direct service, project-based, advocacy, community based research, on-line, GLE);
• Consider the importance of reflection, cultural identity, and authentic partnerships of service learning; and
• Discuss a course or other teaching strategy that strengthens student learning and honors community partnerships.
June 9 & 10
ABCD in Action Global Gathering on faith-based communities. More information soon at the ABCD in Action Events page.
LAST DAY TO WATCH!
The Center for Latino Research is hosting a free screening of the film The Infiltrators, from May 24th until May 28th. Use this link to be taken to the streaming platform, click "Unlock for free," and enter the code "depaul."
Contact Us!
Have comments or questions? Please email Executive Director Howard Rosing.
