Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

Coordinated by the United Way of the Piedmont, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program at the JCBE consists of approximately 30 students from a variety of concentrations who have been trained and certified by the IRS to prepare income tax documents for income-qualified residents of Spartanburg County. Since VITA’s first tax season at the JCBE in 2013, students have returned well over $1 million in refunds to the community and have achieved an IRS site visit rating of “excellent” consecutively.

The mission is to achieve health equity and improve health outcomes for all Spartanburg County residents. Live Healthy Spartanburg represents the merging of two existing, longstanding local health collaboratives — The Road To Better Health and Spartanburg’s Way to Wellville — into one unified initiative designed to address the Spartanburg community’s health and wellbeing needs.

Dr. Araceli Hernández-Laroche serves on the Inclusion Council since 2016.

The Inclusion Council ensures OneSpartanburg, Inc. serves and represents Spartanburg’s diverse business community. The council helps diverse and underrepresented business populations grow and encourages their participation in OneSpartanburg, Inc. activities.

Since 2016, I have been serving on the Inclusion Council. 

This grant project, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, provides $1,000,000 for a crime reduction project in the Highland community. The Highland community, despite the kindness and resilience of its residents, has been a consistent hot spot of violent crime within the City of Spartanburg. This grant project will allow the Spartanburg Police Department to work together with the residents of Highland to problem-solve violent crimes in the Highland neighborhood in efforts to enhance safety, quality of life, and police-citizen relationships in the area. Dr. Michele Covington of USC Upstate serves as the project's Research Partner.

Championed by Amanda Karls, Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Compliance, the pollinator habitat on East Campus Blvd - located as a spur connector to the Science Trail - provides resources for pollinators on campus. The area is crucial for the conservation of pollinators and provides a natural area. The garden needs on-going care to support pollinators and is a source of educational, volunteer, and community partnership opportunities here at Upstate.  

Survey of the law enforcement, judicial, correctional, and juvenile systems; interrelationships between criminal justice agencies and the community.

Students will contribute at least four hours to working with SPACE in sustainability efforts in Spartanburg community. These efforts will tie into course content in exploring environmental crimes, especially among those who live in disadvantaged areas.