SIUE SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITIES COLLABORATIVE

siue.edu/successful-communities

Since its start in 2017, the SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC) has partnered with nine different cities and villages in Madison and St. Clair counties. More than 700 SIUE students from approximately 25 disciplines have been engaged thus far with partners through community-identified projects that are embedded in their courses. Additionally, SSCC is coordinating two special projects –Community-Oriented Digital Engagement Scholars (CODES) initiative and SIUE’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center.

CODES, which introduces first-generation, Black, Latinx and/or Pell-eligible students to digital community engagement, received $100,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The first cohort of CODES scholars began in fall 2022. CODES scholars work in small research teams that focus on seemingly unsolvable problems, such as climate change or poverty’s manifestations across rural and urban environments. The project is led by principal investigator (PI) Jessica DeSpain, PhD, professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and co-director of the SIUE Interdisciplinary Research and Informatics (IRIS) Center, and co-PI Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and director of the SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC). CODES is currently recruiting for fall 2023. Interested applicants can learn more at siue.edu/vcedi/codes.

In January 2020, the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) named SIUE a host location for a TRHT Campus Center. Organized around the five pillars of the TRHT framework—narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and the economy—TRHT Campus Centers seek to prepare the next generation of leaders to confront racism and dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value. In support of this mission, the SIUE TRHT Campus Center endeavors to fundamentally alter the ways that institutions, practices, policies and people have served to reinforce systemic racial oppression in the Metro East. The integration of TRHT and SSCC results in more equitable access to high-impact practices (HIPs) for SIUE students, because community-identified needs are embedded into courses in which students are enrolled. This is important, because HIPs are recognized for their positive impact on retention and learning outcomes for students across many backgrounds. As community and campus stakeholders collaborate and achieve goals together, truths can be revealed, authentic relationships can be formed and racial equity can be advanced. Learn more at siue.edu/vcedi/trht.