Community Engagement

The University of Michigan School of Social Work ENGAGE is a strategic effort to connect the School of Social Work to community issues, partners, and movements for greater equity and social change. Through our annual signature activities, we contribute to student learning while helping cultivate a school culture that prioritizes meaningful engagement with communities. All of our work, whether supported through the school budget or through sponsors, focuses on building community partnerships, contributing to the public good, and translating research into action.

Our team is guided by the belief that the assets and strengths in communities can be mobilized to affect power dynamics and characteristics of neighborhoods. Coaching, support, and the infusion of university resources, if leveraged in a responsive and respectful way, have the power to magnify these inherent capabilities.

• Authentic Connection
• Radical Respect
• Innovative Ideas and Approaches

• We provide an anti-racist organizing framework for the school’s engagement efforts, lifting the profile of the good work happening and helping coordinate more.
• Our rootedness in community and trusted relationships connect the school to activism, current social justice issues, and real-time community needs.
• We are flexible and nimble, and able to adapt our activities to align with other efforts.
• We effectively link with the engagement and equity efforts of other centers and departments across the university.