University Service Initiatives
Integral to the University's mission is a commitment
to public service. The following University programs are instrumental
to the fostering of this commitment.
African American
Cultural Program
The African American Cultural Program serves as a vehicle for self-expression
and leadership enhancement to students of African descent through
the vehicles of workshops, seminars, and performing groups. It also
promotes campus-wide understanding of the unique contributions of
African-Americans to the life and culture of the campus, the nation
and indeed the world.
America
Reads and Counts
The America Reads/America Counts tutoring program offers tutoring
positions to those undergraduates who are eligible for Federal Work
Study. The target of the America Reads is to help children in Pre-K
through the 6th grade read independently and well. The America Counts
tutors work with children in pre-K through the 8th grade to help
improve mathematical and problem-solving skills.
East St.
Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP)
Faculty and students from several campus units collaborate with
each other and East St. Louis neighborhood groups on highly tangible
and visible projects that address the immediate and long-term needs
of some of the East St. Louis area's most distressed communities.
See http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/volunteer/
for more information.
La Casa
Cultural Latina
La Casa Cultural Latina is a cultural resource center at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Its mission is to: provide a supportive
environment in which Latina/o students can grow, develop and understand
their Latina/o identity; and encourage a more comprehensive understanding
of Latina/o issues experiences and values within UIUC and the extended
community. La Casa creates a link and partnership with academic
and non-academic organizations on and off campus. It is the intent
of La Casa Cultural Latina to draw on all the available strengths
and resources of UIUC and the community.
Partnership
Illinois
Partnership Illinois is a strategic initiative to promote, renew
and expand
the public engagement of the University. The initiative facilitates
collaborations between campus and external agencies, schools and
organizations that link the University to the critical issues in
society.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign initiated Partnership
Illinois in
1996 to help address the educational, technological, economic and
cultural
challenges facing Illinois and society in general.
University
of Illinois Extension
The University of Illinois Extension provides practical, research-based
information and programs to help individuals, families, farms, businesses
and communities in Illinois. Its mission in short, is to help the
citizens of Illinois put knowledge to work.
Urban
Exchange Center
The Urban Exchange Center seeks to connect individuals and organizations
in Champaign-Urbana to faculty with skills in areas that could prove
beneficial to these individuals and organizations. Likewise, it
seeks to connect faculty research and teaching to the real challenges
presented in today's urban communities. It is expected that such
connections will produce more useful and practical research results,
teaching that better equips students to apply information and skills
toward real life problem solving, and resources and expertise that
increase the effectiveness of community-driven efforts to address
community concerns.
Copyright 2002 Office of Volunteer Programs.
Send comments to
ovp@uiuc.edu | 
