Community Partnerships with our Senior Capstone Experience
Does your nonprofit or government agency address an important social issue and need skilled support in: Heading link
- community-based research
- program development, facilitation, and evaluation
- data entry and analysis
- diversity and inclusion programming
- community education and outreach
- grant research and proposal writing
- social media campaigns
The Senior Capstone Experience aims to provide a free, volunteer service to nonprofit, government and educational organizations whose mission meets a social justice need or addresses an important issue impacting the community. We seek manageable “projects” that are off-the-path of your organization’s typical intern or volunteer track. Projects must be completed in 10 weeks, with student teams engaging in about 30 hours of effort.
Service project ideas:
- Collect information or assist with evaluations of the activities, characteristics, and outcomes of programs and to inform decisions about future programming.
- Support, encourage, and promote equal access to services and resources
- Increase awareness of services, policies or programmatic initiatives
- Work with communities to promote action toward a common goal or purpose
- Assess an organization or a community’s needs as it pertains to pressing social issues
- Research, organize and mobilize action towards fundraising efforts
Propose a project or partnership by sending a brief email describing the opportunity to Monika Okitipi, Director of Service Learning.
Propose a project Contact Monika Okitipi
Community partnership success stories Heading link
Village Leadership Academy
How can we build young people into emerging leaders who create social change? How do we build bridges between universities and Chicago communities to inspire young people to use their skills to address real-world needs?
To address these issues, a service-learning partnership was arranged between the UIC Sociology department’s senior Capstone course and Village Leadership Academy (VLA). VLA is a K-8 school that utilizes a social justice teaching approach to engage students in uncovering the social, political, and economic systems impacting their lives and the lives of others. One way VLA does this is through their grassroots campaigns, which are service-learning projects that students design in order to reduce a social problem affecting their community, the nation, or the world. As part of this policy and social engagement project, UIC students spent two semesters working with VLA’s teachers and students on their grassroots campaign projects. Examples of these campaigns include: a “No to Tasers” campaign around police accountability, a voter engagement campaign, creating a coloring book that addresses sexual violence, organizing and hosting a Community Allies Fair, and a campaign to raise money to build a well in a village in Ghana. This mutually beneficial partnership offered a way for UIC students to connect the issues they learned about in college to social justice campaigns developed and executed by students at VLA. Through this service-learning partnership, VLA and UIC students were learning how to apply their academic knowledge to meet everyday challenges.
Learn more about our partnership with Village Leadership Academy here.
Community Partnership success stories: Dignity Diner Heading link
Dignity Diner
When the department was beginning to identify our first community partnerships, associate professor Amy Bailey suggested we consider Dignity Diner. The program director expressed her gratitude for our capstone students supporting their operations over the span of two semesters.
Without the Capstone students, the weekly “diner-style” soup kitchen would have been forced to close their doors.
It was a win-win. Our majors got the opportunity to utilize their research and writing skills to meet a practical, real-world need, by building their capacity to serve, developing donor materials, applying for grants, and creating a volunteer management system.
It was rewarding to see our students successfully secure a food donation from Chipotle and to receive a grant for backpacks designed especially for the homeless. Your work takes on new meaning when you interact with the everyday people who rely on the results of your work. Each Tuesday throughout the experience, students also served food to guests and helped to create a sense of belonging.
Community partnerships (past and present) Heading link
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Campus & community partners
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Village Leadership Academy
Communities in Schools
Dignity Diner
UIC Campus Recreation
UIC Engage
E-Team at Oak Park Library
GG+A Survey Lab
Girls, Inc.
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Campus & community partners (continued)
Chicago Teachers Union
American Indian Center of Chicago
PASO West Suburban Action Project
The Simple Good
UI Cancer Center
UIC Sociology
Partners in Community Building
UIC Office of Public & Gov’t Affairs
UIC Gender & Sexuality Center
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Campus & community partners (continued)
LINK Unlimited Scholars
Chicago Urban League
SGA Youth & Family Services
Erie Neighborhood House
Ladies of Virtue
UIC Fraternity & Sorority Life
Aerostar Avion Institute
Free Lunch Academy
UIC Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy