Campuses around the country are currently creating a new normal as we continue to address the impacts of COVID-19. Institutional priorities are shifting, financial models are unstable, and teaching, learning, research, and service expectations are in flux. As institutional leaders begin to make difficult resource decisions, our communities require even greater levels of research, knowledge, leadership, and civic action from higher education to address the current public health crisis. Our work is more important than ever. During this webinar targeted to faculty, staff, and administrative civic and community engagement leaders, we will hear best practices from about how to talk about their work to senior administrators and articulate the value of being an engaged campus. Participants will have the opportunity to join breakout sessions to discuss tools, experiences, and ideas. Presenters: David Potash, President of Wilbur Wright College (City Colleges of Chicago) Abe Goldberg, Executive Director of the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement at James Madison University Leslie Garvin,...

This webinar will share and discuss aspects/issues for community engagement professionals and faculty to consider when establishing risk management guidelines for online service-learning and volunteerism. What are the questions that should be considered in risk assessment? What are the added factors to consider in the pandemic? Hear from a panel of risk management professionals and a community engagement representative representing different institutions.

In the context of service-learning and/or internship programs during the COVID-19 era (and beyond), what does it mean to support participation and voice amongst community partners? How can global educators push students to be more critically reflective about their own positionality as it intersects with their aspirations for participatory development? This session uses case studies of student and host partner experiences to spur reflection and discussion about these crucial questions. We will discuss these cases in Zoom breakout rooms and work to brainstorm optimal responses to each situation. The session draws upon the work of Omprakash (www.omprakash.org), a Seattle-based nonprofit working to help universities build ethical global partnerships and support students with critically-reflective training and mentorship. The session will also include details about the free, open-access online learning programs that Omprakash is offering in response to COVID-19—see https://www.omprakash.org/facing-pandemic—to help universities a) engage with the pandemic from a critical, intersectional lens attentive to issues of power and inequality; 2) attend to crucial...

In this interactive webinar, we will highlight promising practices in building community-engaged experiences and courses online. Webinar presenters will comment on a range of topics, including: reimagining face-to-face civic and community engagement in an online environment incorporating effective learning design, digital tools, and assessments engaging community partners, students, and other stakeholders through online platforms naming and addressing barriers to access including how racial disparities and bias are encoded online a Q&A with participants related to community-engaged learning online in the context of COVID-19 Several of the participants contributed to E-Service Learning: Creating Experiential Learning and Civic Engagement Through Online and Hybrid Courses edited by Katherine Nordyke and Jean Strait (Stylus, 2016), and participants in the webinar will receive a discount code for the book.

webDemocracy works best when all perspectives are included, but college students face unique barriers to participating in civic life. This panel will present how the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement and Dukes Vote are building the capacity of students as they lead 2020 Census and voter engagement initiatives. Presenters will discuss how students developed and implemented a campus civic engagement plan and what they’ve learned as best practices and strategies for achieving full participation even in a time of global crisis. Nonpartisan campus-wide student-led civic engagement initiatives are central components to lifelong participation in democratic self-governance. The presentation will consist of a panel of JMU students that have first-hand experience building and implementing a campus civic engagement action plan. Participants will be introduced to best practices for conducting census outreach (deadline for response extended to October 31, 2020), and voter education and mobilization, and developing and advocating contingencies during a time of global crisis that prevents in-person social interactions....