Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

Students in three separate classes in the Department of Communication at Central Connecticut State University collaborated to organize a colloquium for community members to learn about the influence of Asian popular culture on American student consumers. The specific focus was on the popular 2021 Netflix series "Squid Game." Students were responsible for marketing and promoting the event, moderating different segments throughout the day, and also presented research. A faculty panel, organized by the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAAPI) Studies Minor, was part of the event as well as the co-Chairs of the newly founded Chinese-American Student Association at CCSU.  

The Mobile Monument project seeks to engage people in discussions that lead to public monument design via live and interactive street theater. The project consists of a mobile monument plinth that is delivered to a variety of locations where members of the public can mount the plinth to make speeches about monuments and commemoration. Questionnaires are handed to the public asking for proposals for personal monument descriptions and sketches.

To date, the project has engaged students from the CCSU Art and Design and Theater departments, public high school students from the House of Teens at the YWCA run East Side Community Center in New Britain, and students from the Academia di Belle Arti di Venezia in Venice, Italy. Performances have happened on CCSU Campus, East Side of New Britain CT, and Venice Italy. Fifty professional artists have created artworks and designs for the Mobile Monument project. 

The project has been initiated by CCSU faculty Ted Efremoff, Eben Kling and Aude Jomini

As Director of the CCSU LGBT Center, Professor William Mann has worked with various community partners to acquire their papers and memorabilia for the rapidly growing GLBTQ Archive at Burritt Library. In addition to the community organiztions listed, Professor Mann has also obtained the papers of several local activists and community leaders such as lobbyist Betty Gallo, trans rights pioneer Jerimarie Liesegang, and local historian Richard Nelson.

The Center for Teaching and Innovation (CTI) and Associate Vice President of Community Engagement, Beth Merenstein, along with representatives of the United Way teamed up to teach a hands-on workshop focused on community engagement, community partners, and resources. The event also included a literacy kit activity in which participants were able to choose a children's book and create some sort of related craft item to go along with it, to be distributed to area children in keeping with the United Way's literacy initatives.

The Empty Bowls event held at Smalley Elementary school was a way to bring community members together in order to combat food insecurity in the area. CCSU's art department donated materials to make bowls, and held 3 studio sessions where volunteers came to throw, trim, and glaze the bowls that would be used for the event. Students at Smalley Elementary school also made bowls for the event.

Participants were able to purchase tickets, which allowed them to choose one bowl to be filled with their choice of soup, donated by local shops and restaurants, and then take their bowl home at the end of the event. 

Elementary students sang the National Anthem and a song celebrating Thanksgiving, and a few members of the New Britain High School's theater department delighted the crowd with solo performances.

Throughout the semester, students in the EXS215 course went to the New Britain Senior Center (NBSC) to implement group and individualized fitness programming with the seniors. It was a first-time collaboration between CCSU and the NBSC. Students were able to gain real-world experience in their field, and develop intergenerational relationships with senior members of the New Britain community.

Attendees of CCSU's annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Breakfast participated in a service activity in which they assembled feminine hygeine kits to be distributed to young menstruators in New Britain and Meriden. 100 kits were created, each of which included an assortment of pads and tampons, body wipes, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as a printout of resources in the local area. 80 kits were provided to the YWCA of New Britain, and 20 were given to Girls Inc., Meriden. 

The United Way joined members of the CCSU faculty and staff to create 57 literacy kits for local elementary school students as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event put on by the Center for Community Engagement and Social Research. Participants each picked out a children's book provided by the United Way, and then created some sort of craft (bookmark, picture, etc.) to include with the kit to be given to a student.

Members of the CCSU faculty & staff went to The Friendship Center in downtown New Britain to organize and clean and organize their basement space. Food and hygiene goods were also donated by the Center for Community Engagement and Social Research.

Members of CCSU's faculty and staff went to Smalley Elementary school to read to students as part of the Day of Service associated with the University's MLK Day celebrations.

Children in more than 340 classrooms across the region gathered to read this year's campaign book "Hair Love" by Matthew Cherry.

More than 80 Volunteers from Central Connecticut State University, Bank of America, Traveler's, Raytheon Technologies, and Trinity College joined the United Way for a brief morning orientation before splitting up and heading to local elementary schools in New Britain, Bloomfield, Hartford, and East Hartford

Once there, volunteers each went to a classroom, with some volunteers visiting multiple, to read the story to students, engaging them with questions, predictions, and talking about how the book related to their lives.