volunteering – Engage Dallas

Love to serve? Consider new individual service opportunity, solo service

As a new initiative, Engage Dallas is consistently seeking feedback and insights on ways to innovate our work, improve our processes, and reaffirm mutual benefit between SMU and the South and West Dallas communities.

Student cleaning classroom Here’s what we discovered since our modest beginning in October 2020: While our community partners enjoy having Engage Dallas groups come on-site and serve alongside them, sometimes they need only one or two students — not an entire group.

Engage Dallas also knows SMU students have varied schedules and may not always be available to serve with their Residential Commons during scheduled group service.

So, what’s the solution? A new form of individual service called solo service. Solo service launched to students on February 14, 2022.

Student and faculty planting vegetables While Engage Dallas still offers monthly, group service through the Residential Commons, solo service is a type of Engage Dallas Individual Service. Solo service provides semi-structured opportunities for students to volunteer and provide direct service on an individual basis. Engage Dallas curates these individual service opportunities for students, based on their Residential Commons affiliation, to volunteer as their schedule and the community need align. 

Solo Service is characterized by:

Individual, or sometimes a pair, of students participate in service
Students organize their own transportation to and from the service site
Students sign-up or schedule directly with the Community Partner representative 
An Engage Dallas Student Director is not present during service
Students must register and respond to monthly check-in emails from Engage Dallas until complete
Students track their individual service hours via the Community Partner process or on their Engagement Hours Log

Students can learn more and find out how you can get started with solo service today.

Plus, recognized Engage Dallas community partners can submit solo service opportunities via our online form.

Engage Dallas announces 16 new community partners

Engage Dallas is excited to announce our newest community partners as we continue our work to address community needs in South and West Dallas via SMU’s Residential Commons.

In Fall 2021, the Engage Dallas Offsite and Risk Management Committee noticed that as Engage Dallas grew, the needs of our students and community partners started to vary. Engage Dallas strives to facilitate a mutually beneficial relationship between the campus and SMU community. To ensure that community partners have volunteer support at various times and that students had opportunities to serve outside of their class schedules, the need to expand our network of community partners surfaced.

Audryanna Reed, Offsite and Risk Management Committee co-chair, shared “interviewing and onboarding new community partners has been an exciting process. Our new partners are energetic and are anticipating serving our students. I think expanding our number of community partners was a great idea so that our students can have consistent opportunities to serve throughout the community.”

Our community partners offer a combination of monthly, group volunteer opportunities and individual opportunities such as solo service, individual pathways, and internships for SMU students. Service opportunities for the spring semester will kick off in February 2022 with monthly, group service through the RC and solo service to support community partners with limited volunteer capacity.

Jin Ae, Volunteer and Operations Association for Readers 2 Leaders, noted that “Readers 2 Leaders is so grateful to partner with Engage Dallas and have SMU students serve with us to support student learning, especially during this challenging time. As an SMU Embrey Human Rights Program alumna, I am so inspired to see the university taking an active approach in connecting with and serving the Dallas community.”

SMU is excited to announce the following organizations as the Spring 2022 community partner cohort for Engage Dallas. Each Residential Commons is listed with its chosen community need and new partner(s).

Armstrong Commons | Homelessness

The Stewpot

Boaz Commons | Food Insecurity

CitySquare
Mission Oak Cliff

Cockrell-McIntosh Commons| College Access & Preparation

LNESC
Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas

Crum Commons |Arts as Social Impact

Remembering Black Dallas
Bishop Arts Theater Center

Kathy Crow Commons | Environmental Injustice

Trinity River Audubon Center

Loyd Commons | STEM Education

Crowned Scholars
Jubilee Park

McElvaney Commons | Community Wellbeing

Brother Bill’s Helping Hands

Morrison-McGinnis Commons | Childhood Poverty

Vogel Alcove
Behind Every Door

Virginia-Snider Commons | Childhood Literacy

Readers 2 Leaders

Ware Commons | Community Rebuilding

Empowering the Masses
Frazier Revitalization

For more information on Engage Dallas partnerships, visit the Engage Dallas website. Inquiries by community organizations or suggestions for partnership can be submitted via the Engage Dallas Community Partner Information Form.