CESP Blog

The Revolution is Personal RAP Session Reflection

2009-11-19T19:29:59Z

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer; it sings because it
has a song." Maya Angelou

In our RAP Session and hopefully after, we've explored telling our personal stories and why we may tell it, and why it's important to tell others our stories. Why do you think its important to tell your story? Is it because you have something to say? Something you need to let out? Or is there someone who needs to hear it? Why/When might it not be important to share our stories with one another and what could be the result of that?

november reflection idea.

2009-11-17T19:44:05Z

Read the article that is available after the jump and reflect on your thoughts when it comes to acts of civil disobedience that break the law. What would you do if your organization committed acts of civil disobedience? Would you participate? Would it change your views of the organization? Would you quit? Would you feel more committed to the work? Might it affect your community work philosophy?

Email your reflections to cesp (at) umn.edu to get credit for the reflection. Feel free to leave comments as well!

Click on "continue reading..." to read the article!

]]> Students interrupt Convocation
Demonstrators blew air horns and tossed fliers during Bruininks welcome speech

by Robert Downs from the Minnesota Daily, 9/3/2009

Four members of the University of Minnesota student group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) attempted to interrupt Thursday morning's first-year Convocation at Mariucci Arena by demonstrating during President Bob Bruininks' welcome speech.

The group blew air horns, threw down hundreds of fliers and unfurled two University of Minnesota banners that had been painted over with political messages.

The banners were dropped from the upper deck box seats, which weren't accessible to the public during the ceremony.

The demonstrators entered Mariucci a few days earlier in order to prop open doors and make sure they could bypass security, Grace Kelley , who organized the demonstration, said.

Each student had to present a ticket in order to get into the arena.

"We had to infiltrate the building," Kelley said.

Bruininks never stopped his speech, but did acknowledge the demonstration.

"The University does believe in First Amendment rights and free speech," he said, "but in an appropriate and respectful manner."

His comments were met with applause from some students, and the banners were removed by police within five minutes.

"It was intense," said first-year Ryan Noshay, who was at Convocation. "Nobody was really listening to [Bruininks] for like five minutes. Even the Regents were looking up."

The demonstrators will not be facing academic discipline, Bruininks said after Convocation.

"Free speech and differences in opinion is what makes this University great," he said. "I still feel that this Convocation is the best we've had in my eight years here."

SDS is using this demonstration to kick off their "Campaign to Save Our School," a public campaign designed to unite students against the current administration's financial policies, SDS member Tracy Molm said.

"Bruininks took a wage freeze, but at $750,000 that's not saying a lot," Molm said. "There are clerical workers that are paid $38,000. You can't support a family on $38,000."

One sign read: "We pay Bruininks $700,000 per year to lay off thousands of workers."

Despite the demonstration, Convocation was a great success, Beth Lingren Clark, director of Orientation and First- Year Programs said.

"It's a great kickoff to the Welcome Week experience," Lingren Clark said. "The disruption wasn't even worth mentioning, really."

Public Healthcare and Community Service RAP Session Reflection

2009-11-17T19:19:50Z

A lot of this RAP session revolved around brainstorming concrete actions we can take as students interested in health care and public health issues. Please write a paragraph response to this brainstorming- perhaps sharing your own ideas for action. Use this opportunity to share resources and information. Feel free to comment on other students' posts and take this discussion to facebook groups and other forums that might provide a way of organizing. If you do not want your response publicly available, please email us your reflection to cesp (at) umn.edu.

Act Your Age! RAP Session Reflection

2009-11-17T18:28:55Z

In our RAP Session we discussed what the ideal youthworker might look like and how to think critically about what we should expect from the role of a youthworker. We also reflected on our own experiences with community work, specifically moments where we felt powerful or powerless. We then discussed a critical essay on the politics of childhood and through that, brainstormed ways to give youth more power and create spaces of collaboration for adults and young people.

Thinking back to our discussion on working in collaboration with young people, since we ran out of time, what are some concrete ways you can work with and not for young people in your community work? If you don't work directly with young people, think about ways to give youth power in institutions, maybe specifically your organization. Please respond with about a paragraph in the comment section of this blog post. If you would rather it not be posted on the blog, please email us your reflection to cesp (at) umn.edu.

Resources used in the RAP Session for you to use:
Medicine Stories by Aurora Levins Morales. (almost the entire book is available on google books)
Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use it for Social Change by Karen Pittelman and Resource Generation. (available to check out in the CCLC's Resource room).

If you are interested in leading a future RAP session on youthwork, get in touch with the Scholars program! The outline used for this RAP session will be available if wanted.

Mapping Our Comfort Zones RAP Session Reflection

2009-11-03T17:52:43Z

In the Mapping Our Comfort Zones session we discussed how we want to expand our understanding of PLACE (specific, personal, geographic locations) to see SPACE (the abstract, the general). We thought about places in context of forces such as history, time of day, relative location, the 5 senses, etc in order to start to get at this larger idea of "space." We also looked as absolute, relative, and relational space.

With our discussions in mind, please respond to the following prompt with a paragraph of writing:

Show how the PLACE where you do your community work is actually SPACE. (think about any connections to your "comfort zone").

We would also like you to include a visual with your post (a picture, or drawing, etc). Please include the visual in an email to cesp (at) umn.edu since posting the picture in a comment can be difficult without knowledge of HTML code.

Cedar Riverside Neighborhood Tour RAP session reflection.

2009-10-20T18:10:51Z

The Cedar Riverside tour took us from the U of M campus, around Cedar Ave, to the Riverside Plaza and ending at the River Bluffs. It is amazing to me, how in such a small geographical location you can have some of the states largest institutions (U of M and Fairview), a National Park, and one of the densest housing complexes west of Chicago home to thousands of new immigrants and refugees. Given the diversity of the neighborhood and the often competing interests, is it possible to create one unified identity of Cedar Riverside? Is that important for a neighborhood? What identity have you associated with Cedar Riverside in the past and did the tour and service work change your perspective? How can the diverse communities of Cedar Riverside work together to enhance the quality of life for all residents while simultaneously protecting a unique natural resource like the Mississippi?

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you leave us your response in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032 (at) umn.edu.

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

reflective writing workshop reflection.

2009-10-20T17:37:14Z

In our Reflective Writing Workshop, we tried out a variety of methods for getting started on a piece of reflective writing. These included: free writes, making lists, time lines, outlines, diagrams, maps, etc. We also explored two different approaches to the content of a reflection: 1) Starting with an experience you'd like to "unpack" and using the "what, so what, now what?" model, and 2) Starting with a meaningful "big question" and brainstorming what you know about that question, what you don't know, and how your community work might fit in to finding out more about the answer to that question. To wrap up this RAP session, do some kind of pre-writing that you might use to write a reflection in the future. This pre-write can take any of the forms that we tried out in the RAP session, or any other that has come to mind since then.

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you leave us your response in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032 (at) umn.edu.

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

October Reflection Idea - GLBT history month.

2009-10-05T15:06:04Z

October is GLBT history month as the video above explains. For this month's reflection idea we want you to think about the contributions GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) people have made to the community work you have done. Are GLBT issues discussed at your community organization? Is harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression challenged? If you are working with young people, is GLBT history discussed? If so, how are GLBT people portrayed? If not, what can be done to incorporate and make visible the contributions of GLBT people?

For more information, visit the GLBT History Month website for more videos and biographies on GLBT historical icons.

If you would like to turn in a reflection on this topic, you can submit it via email to cesp (at) umn.edu or drop it off in our 345 Fraser office.

Reflection, Action, Partnership (RAP) Sessions - Fall 2009

2009-09-30T19:11:29Z

RAP sessions are a space where students in the Scholars Program can get together and discuss challenges, inspirations, and goals in your community work.

Attending a RAP session and writing a short summary on the Scholars blog will count as one of your six required reflections for the Scholars Program.

Fall 2009 Schedule and Descriptions after the jump.

]]> Preserving the Mississippi River Bluff: Learning about the Cedar Riverside Neighborhood and our Parks
Friday, September 25th 1-4 PM, meet in the Atrium of Humphrey
The purpose of this session is to learn about and contribute to the preservation of the area known as Bluff Street Park as an open space resource for the UMN and the Cedar Riverside community. The park, situated along the edge of the bluff and descending the bluff to the West River Parkway, is a critical component of the Mississippi River Valley, and contains one of the few remnant Bedrock Bluff Prairie ecosystems in Minnesota. In 2000, residents of the Cedar Riverside Neighborhood saw the need to preserve the Site as open space and they continue to voice this need today.

We will lead a walking tour from the UMN West Bank Campus through the Cedar Riverside neighborhood and to the Bluff Street Park Site. At the site, participants will help prepare the site for planting and hear from CHANCE student researchers and neighborhood residents about current efforts to preserve this space as a park.

Please wear comfortable clothes that can get dirty. Gloves and tools will be provided as necessary.

Public Health Care and Community Service
Friday, October 16th 3-5 PM Location TBD
This session will focus on how individuals can make a lasting impact on the lives of an entire community through public health work. Participants will work on translating their knowledge of health care problems into a hands-on experiences that serves the specific needs of the community.
Students that have been involved in this type of work are strongly encouraged to attend and share their experiences with the group. For those who are interested in getting more involved, there will be a list provided of nonprofit agencies involved in public health along with other resources.

Reflective Writing Workshop
Monday, October 19th 5-7 PM
Reflection is consistently seen as an essential element of engaged work, and writing is one of the most common ways in which people take on reflection. This workshop will explore different approaches to reflective writing for different contexts and purposes. Participants will gain insight into their own attitudes towards reflection and will have opportunity to consider how they might use writing to facilitate their own reflection.

Mapping Our Comfort Zones
Monday, October 26th 2:30-4:30 PM Location TBD
Why is it that we feel comfortable in some places and not others? In this RAP session we will expand personal spatial awareness from a physical geography (based on map making) to a more general discussion of "space". We will define space together and question how spaces are connected/disconnected. Some questions we will ask may include: How can space be imagined, constructed and perceived? How do we locate ourselves and others? What is the potential for universal space (a space for everyone)? We will explore these questions through looking at maps and creating our own maps.

The Revolution is Personal!
Tues Nov 3 4-6pm Location TBD
Does your voice matter? Why should you tell your story? Do you even have a story? We'll explore the power our personal stories have on changing the world. We will delve into the issues that face our communities and creatively challenge them using poetry and performance. Come share, come spit; come take a stand.

Act Your Age!: Working with Young People Across the Spectrum
Thursday, November 12th 3-5 PM Location TBD
How do we work with young people from a place of authenticity and justice? How do we create safe spaces for a diversity of young people, especially when we, as youthworkers, are outsiders? In this rap session, we will explore questions of privilege, outsider status, and working with, not for, young people. Some questions we might look at include: how do white people work in spaces that are predominantly youth of color? can white people work in these spaces? why are young people viewed as a population to work for or to work over, instead of to work in collaboration with? These questions will be explored through visuals, discussion, and activities. Even if you do not currently work with young people, anyone interested in discussions of working in communities not your own or anyone thinking about working with young people are also encouraged to attend.

Change Through Business
Friday, November 20th 3-5 PM Mapps Coffee Shop
How do you integrate a business education and community work? How can we use our business knowledge to improve the world? We will share experiences of skills based volunteer work, comparing behind-the-scenes indirect volunteer work to directly serving others. We will exploring different ways to help your community while enhancing your business education. All students with a passion for both business and community work are encouraged to participate.

"Development:" Ethical Implications and Justifications
Time, date and location TBD
What is "development?" How do we do ethical "development" work locally and internationally? This will be a discussion-based session inviting Scholars to share and discuss their personal impressions of community development projects as individual entities. We will also reflect on the implications of these projects on the larger community. Broader goals of development will be discussed and scholars asked to reflect on how their projects ultimately support (or not!) these ends.

Integrative Community Engagement Project (ICEP) Workshop
This workshop will happen 4 times this semester:
Thursday October 15th 4-6 PM
Friday, October 30th 1-3 PM
Tuesday, November 17th 2-4 PM
Friday, December 4th 10 AM -12 PM
The Integrative Community Engagement Project (ICEP) is the capstone experience for the Community Engagement Scholars Program, and a great chance to use your past community work and academic experiences to meet a need or build capacity within a community organization. In this workshop, we will hear from alumni of the Scholars Program about how they developed and implemented their ICEPs. We will also participate in activities meant to begin the brainstorming/planning process for your ICEP.

This workshop is open to all CESP students, but is especially recommended for those planning to do their ICEP in the Spring of 2010.

Registration coming soon!
Questions? Call 612-626-2044 or email cesp@umn.edu

A CHANCE Tour of Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood RAP Session Reflection

2009-04-26T17:20:42Z

Sometimes it feels like there is more than a road dividing the University of Minnesota from the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. My sense was confirmed as we went around the group of students to ask what brought them to this RAP session. Most of the students expressed an interest/curiosity in the neighborhood but just haven’t taken the time to explore. How is it possible that most students can identify the restaurants, stores and other assets of Dinkytown or Stadium Village but have very little sense of the community just across the street from the West Bank Arts Quarter, Carlson School of Management, and the Humphrey Institute? How have U of M students, staff and faculty been acculturated to understanding our bordering communities? Is there a difference in the imagery, language, and marketing that you see for Dinkytown, Stadium Village, and Prospect Park, versus Cedar Riverside?

Reflection Questions
One of the most important aspects of CHANCE is that it is tied to a place. It is intentional that our partnerships and work are tied to the neighborhood where Humphrey is located. Thinking of your own community experience: What draws you to the place where you do your community work? Does it matter that the organization you work with is based in a particular neighborhood? Is it a conscious choice for you to work in that neighborhood? Is it a conscious choice that the organization works in that neighborhood? Do you participate in the neighborhood beyond that community work with an organization? If your relationship with the neighborhood goes beyond your community work, how does that impact your experience?

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you leave us a summary with how it went, what you learned, etc in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032@umn.edu.

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

Hope you all enjoyed the RAP session and come to some more next fall!

Housing and Homelessness in the Twin Cities RAP Session Reflection

2009-04-16T21:18:12Z

Imagine working full-time for minimum wage with no benefits and not being able to afford to pay your rent. Imagine paying a damage deposit and first and last months rent on a home and two months later being evicted because the owner of the home had been foreclosed upon. In this RAP session we participated in a dialogue about some of the many complicated issues facing individuals and families in the Twin Cities homeless population.

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you leave us a summary with how it went, what you learned, etc in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032@umn.edu.

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

Hope you all enjoyed the RAP session and come to some more, the next is A CHANCE Tour of the Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood on Friday, April 24th from 10am-12pm at Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood. Sign up at www.servicelearning.umn.edu/trainings!

Home is Where the Help is: Site Visit to Project for Pride in Living

2009-04-06T19:14:52Z

Helping people help themselves is the philosophy in which guides Project for Pride in Living (PPL). This nonprofit agency works with lower-income families and individuals in numerous ways such as housing assistance, employment training, education resources, and family support services. With these services PPL encourages people to become self-sufficient and achieve stability with their housing, finances, and family. PPL also coordinates the College House Program, a tutor and mentoring program which serves the needs of children directly from the community. All the individuals who live in these houses tutor two children and serve as healthy adult role models. For this RAP session we visited PPL’s various programs in the Seward Neighborhood, meet with students living in the College House, and discussed how the work of PPL addresses community issues present in all of our community work.

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you leave us a summary with how it went, what you learned, or respond to the following question in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032@umn.edu.

What are some things that you learned about "helping people help themselves" that are useful for you in your community work at other Twin Cities organizations?

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

Hope you all enjoyed the RAP session and come to some more, the next is Housing and Homelessness in the Twin Cities on Thursday, April 16th from 2-4pm at CSOM 1-122. Sign up at www.servicelearning.umn.edu/trainings!

Grants and Other Fundraising Tools RAP Session Reflection

2009-04-02T22:06:54Z

The word, "grant" tends to represent a big and scary document that any undergraduate student would feel nervous about approaching, but there are a variety of grants and key elements that can increase the success of a grant. This session was a hands-on approach to researching for grants, as well as writing them, so bring your past community work experiences to the table because you could find them very useful during the grant finding/writing process. There was also some discussion about other fund-raising methods which can be found if we "think outside the box."

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you leave us a summary with how it went, what you learned, or respond to the following questions in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032@umn.edu.

Questions to comment on from Samone!
If you plan on writing a grant in the future, what factors will affect your
grant writing/searching process the most?

After the session, what kind of grants (federal, state, mini-grants,
community) interested you the most and why?

helpful websites:
http://www.technologygrantnews.com
http://www.uncg.edu/soe/trc/docs/Grantwebsites.pdf

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

Integrative Community Engagement Project (ICEP) Workshop RAP Session Reflection

2009-03-31T15:51:33Z

The Integrative Community Engagement Project (ICEP) is the capstone experience for the Community Engagement Scholars Program, and a great chance to use your past community work and academic experiences to meet a need or build capacity within a community organization. In this workshop, we heard from alumni of the Scholars Program about how they developed and implemented their ICEPs. We also participated in activities meant to begin the brainstorming/planning process for your ICEP

From Laura:
Thanks for a great workshop last week. Here is a question for reflection:

What do you think it means to "meet a need" or "build capacity" at your community organization? How will you know that your ICEP plan does this?

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you respond to this question in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032@umn.edu.

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

Reflective Writing Workshop Reflection

2009-03-10T21:03:39Z

From Mitch:

Thanks again for a great conversation and discussion. We put together some insightful and provocative ideas about how reflection works and how we accomplish reflective writing. I came away with several new ideas and a lot to think about. Monica's facebook status after the session was right on: "Monica is reflecting on reflection. It's all about the meta."

We did spend most of the time together talking about reflection for reflection's sake -- or as its own outcome, purpose, or assignment. We didn't have much chance to discuss how reflection and reflective writing can support and extend other kinds of thinking and writing -- how it can move other projects forward. So please respond to the following questions:

What are some specific larger projects or goals that you have before you (e.g. writing a capstone paper, writing a proposal, teaching or training on a certain topic, applying for a career-track job, etc.)?

How can you imagine reflective writing being a productive part of your process towards those larger projects?

How might you structure your reflective writing in these projects -- which might not require reflective writing at all, leaving your use of reflective writing entirely up to you? How will you design your reflective writing assignments for yourself?

To get credit for this RAP Session please make sure you leave us a summary with how it went, what you learned, etc in a comment on this entry or shoot Laura an email at damm0032@umn.edu.

If commenting, please put your full name and umn.edu email address so we know who to give credit to!

Hope you all enjoyed the RAP session and come to some more, the next is Grants and Other Fundraising Tools on Thursday, April 2nd from 3-5pm at Akerman Hall 225. Sign up at www.servicelearning.umn.edu/trainings!