Building Civic Capacity

Current and Ongoing Efforts

• A Campus-Wide Community Building Day is scheduled for Saturday, March 23, 2013 at sites in neighborhoods and along the York Road Corridor.
• We are thrilled to announce a partnership with Rebuilding Together Baltimore, a local non-profit that provides free home repairs to low-income senior citizens and families with children, which voted Mid-Govans as their 2013-2014 focus neighborhood.  Volunteers will be needed for a large-scale effort on Saturday, April 27th, 2013.  In addition to over 20 home repairs, DeWees Recreation Center will be the recipient of much needed investment.  
• Habitat for Humanity’s investment in Woodbourne-McCabe is moving forward.  Over 25 formerly vacant or demolished homes are in the process of being repaired, and asbestos removal is underway.  
• Nick Jacobsen joined the York Road team as the AmeriCorps VISTA for the York Road Partnership.

Efforts to Date

• Since the fall of 2010, students in an Introduction to Rhetoric class taught by Allen Brizee, Ph.D., professor of writing, have worked each semester with Richnor Springs Community Association on compiling neighborhood stories and histories. In the fall of 2010, the students met with the association to develop a plan and flyers to support it. During the spring of 2011, they updated the bylaws of the project and in the fall after, developed a website for it. During the spring of 2012, the site was finished and communications efforts continue to be updated.
• In honor of Earth Day, Loyola’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety offered free community electronics recycling on April 16, 2011, saving four large containers of items from the landfill. Those involved plan to repeat this event in the Spring of 2012.
• An intern from the Sellinger School of Business and Management works with GEDCO Cares Food Pantry and Emergency Financial Assistance Center to expand the Cards for Cares Program.
• Students from the Sellinger School of Business and Management work with the Senior Network of North Baltimore, a senior activity center which serves more than 700 seniors per year, on a strategic plan and the implementation of technology into their daily lives.
• The Student Government Association, along with Loyola faculty and staff, joined by the mayor and the York Road Partnership for the York Road Spring Green and Clean on April 16, 2012
• The Student Government Association and more than 50 Loyola undergraduates painted York Road fire hydrants, planted pansies, and worked with the York Road Partnership on its annual fall Mayor’s Cleanup in October of 2012.
• Loyola’s Bookstore sold greeting cards to benefit GEDCO’s CARES food pantry and Loyola’s athletics department collected food donations for CARES at basketball games.