Tag: West Dallas

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Office of General Education

The Call for Proposals deadline has been extended for the Place-based Community Engagement Symposium

Once again, we are excited to extend you and your colleagues an invitation to the 4th Annual Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium hosted by Engage Dallas, in collaboration with Residence Life & Student Housing, the Office of Social Change and Intercultural Engagement, the Office of General Education, the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility, and the Center for Teaching Excellence. This year’s theme is Thriving Together: A Place-Based Approach to Combating Isolation through Connected Communities.

Our theme explores how intentional, place-based community engagement fosters meaningful connections and a sense of belonging. By centering relationships, collaboration, and local contexts, we aim to address social isolation and strengthen the ties between campus, city, organizations, and community. Through shared learning and action, we seek to build more engaging, resilient, and connected communities where everyone can thrive through community engagement.

This two-day event will occur on November 5th, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (Bishop Arts Theater Center) and November 6th, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm (SMU Campus)

RSVP Today!
***New for 2025*** Call for Proposals  |  Deadline Extended!

We welcome session proposals from community leaders, nonprofit professionals, Faculty, and students interested in sharing innovative place-based engagement strategies. Our symposium will consist of the following session types:

  • Breakouts 
    • Breakout sessions provide an opportunity for smaller, in-depth discussions, fostering learning and discussion. Sessions last 50 minutes and feature a 40-minute presentation and a 10-minute question-and-answer period.
  • Champion Talks
    • Champion Talks are quick, impactful, fast-paced stories intended to educate, uplift, and inspire our audience. Sessions last 20 minutes and feature a 10-minute presentation and a 10-minute question-and-answer period.
  • Posters

Poster sessions will feature visual presentations on both research and sharing topics. Student posters are highly encouraged.

Focus Areas

Our focus areas are designed to provide a structured yet flexible framework for presenters to begin thinking of possible presentations and our attendees to map a curated symposium experience. This year, our focus areas are:

  1. Campus-Community Connections: Fostering Meaningful Partnerships 
    1. Focus: Strategies for building sustainable, reciprocal relationships between higher education institutions and local communities to combat isolation.
    2. Example Topics: Service-learning initiatives, community-based participatory research, university-community resource sharing, and cross-sector collaborations.
  2. Improving Connection: Building Belonging on Campus and Beyond
    1. Focus: Creating physical, digital, and social environments that cultivate connection and reduce loneliness.
    2. Example Topics: Engaging pedagogy, student-led engagement initiatives, the role of campus design in fostering belonging, and digital communities for remote/hybrid learners.
  3. Personal and Collective Well-being: Strengthening Social Resilience 
    1. Focus: Approaches to enhancing individual and collective well-being through community engagement.
    2. Example Topics: Mental health initiatives, intergenerational engagement, the impact of storytelling on social connection, and grassroots efforts for social support.
  4. Reflective and Experiential Sessions
    1. Focus: Sharing experiences of loneliness, overcoming organizational and interpersonal isolation, and community building.
    2. Example: Interactive Workshops, activities that model community-building practices, guided reflection circles, embodied connection activities, creative expression for connection, civic reflection discussions.

Proposal Deadline

The new proposal submission deadline is May 11, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Acceptance decisions will be sent by May 16, 2025.

Categories
Office of General Education

2nd Annal Place-based Community Engagement Symposium a success

The 2nd Annual Place-based Community Engagement Symposium was a success last week. Participants engaged around the theme of “Listening, Learning, and Leading: A Place-based Approach to Promoting Public Responsibility and Community Engagement in a COVID-impacted World.” 114 registered for the two-day symposium.

The conference planning committee chose this theme due to their observation of the challenges posed by COVID-19; our community engagement landscape has evolved significantly, from decreased volunteer participation to heightened community needs.

Conference registrants helped shape this year’s symposium. The planning committee had over 60 questions submitted for our opening session and panel discussion. Plus, questions were arranged as discussion topics at the networking event on Thursday evening.

Audryanna Reed, Associate Director for High-Impact Practices, Co-initiative Manager of Engage Dallas, and Chair of the conference planning committee, shared, “Engage Dallas is grateful for the opportunity to bring together non-profit and civic leaders in Dallas as well as staff and faculty across SMU and Dallas College. Such inspiring words, cultural context, and critical challenges posed by our keynotes Latosha Bruff and Jerry L. Hawkins, M.Ed., as well as our panelists and workshop hosts!”

A copy of the program booklet is included below.

Reed and the conference planning committee are underway with year three planning. Building off the dialogue from this year’s conference, the theme will likely incorporate the concept of “under-championed communities,” which was prevalent in this year’s sessions. Reed says to expect a save the date soon for the November 2024 symposium.

This Engage Dallas symposium collaborated with Residence Life & Student Housing, The Budd Center, The Office of General Education, the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility, and The Center for Teaching Excellence.