CSC strives to build community
Jessica McManus
For a More Just and Humane World
Consider this example. Imagine walking into your classroom today and seeing half of the students missing, not to return. Imagine returning to your residence hall or apartment building this evening to visit with friends and realizing that your neighbors have moved away without the opportunity to say goodbye. Imagine returning home for break to find neighbors, friends and family members gone. I share this example in hopes that we might begin to understand what it means to lose a community. The example seems nonsensical in this setting. Though marked with diversity of experience, it is almost certain that the majority of students and faculty feel a sense of "place" on our campuses.
I witnessed this phenomenon of community dissolution last year as I worked with high school aged children, residents of the Robert Taylor Homes public housing community in Chicago, Ill. and their families, community leaders and teachers. As many of you may know or have studied, the public housing program in Chicago has been a marked failure. For Robert Taylor, the largest public housing development in the nation, this failure culminated last year in the decision to demolish the buildings and relocate its residents.
Time and space prevents thorough discussion of motivations for and logistics of this decision; my focus here is the reality that "community" is fragile and can not be taken for granted. Teachers shared with me their young students' pain and frustration felt upon coming to class to see friends and neighbors transferred away. Families, many with several generations living within the development, were no longer neighbors.
What did this transition mean for this community? Turbulence, inconsistency and distrust, to start. All of these are disastrous to children and families, particularly those whose lives have been marked with struggle. The organization at which I worked, Chicago Area Project, recognized this and attempted to address it. The youth of the community enrolled in our program, a program that moved beyond recreation or tutoring or other typical youth activities and encompassed community-building. Our program involved the youth of the housing development in designing and implementing community-service projects. What a wonderful concept!
So-called "at-risk" youth, who typically exist on the receiving end of service projects, designed and led their own volunteer projects for their families and neighbors — fostering leadership and pride in their community and building where others have torn down. And despite what you may have seen on your evening news, there exist many youth right here in the South Bend community embarking on such endeavors in their challenged neighborhoods. Working with them has brought me tremendous joy and hope.
I share this experience to ask that this new year brings us all to fill the essential role of community builders. Working with several social service organizations in South Bend and Chicago, I have seen and felt the reality that community can be transient and fragmented, but that it can also be strong and sustaining — particularly in those communities that are often ignored or misjudged.
I witnessed many students in the course I teach on Business Ethics, a course that involves undergraduate business students performing volunteer service at sites throughout the area, amazed and transformed by what they saw in their volunteering. So many of them expressed amazement in themselves and their tremendous abilities to serve and the remarkable abilities of many in these communities that often are described unfairly as only "poor" or "at-risk." My students saw so much more; I am certain that many will continue their commitment long after the course is complete.
We've all heard about the "global community." If we acknowledge the reality that communities across the world are increasingly interacting and symbiotic, we must realize the fundamental need for strong and capable community units. We must recognize that community functions only to the extent that its members participate — community is something that must be built and, when it exists, must be nourished. Community depends on the sustenance of its members and is crucial to the economic and social future of groups of people.
Our Notre Dame, Saint Mary's, Holy Cross and South Bend communities comprise one such unit. Moving beyond our University borders in partnership with surrounding communities is an invaluable and incomparable contribution to education and development. I hope that we as faculty and students can be touched by such experiences. This Thursday, from 7-9 p.m., the Center for Social Concerns will hold its annual "Social Concerns Festival." This is a tremendous occasion to meet with community agency and student service and social action group representatives to discuss available volunteer opportunities. I invite everyone to attend the festival. I strongly encourage us all to continue or embark on a volunteer experience, thereby filling that fundamental role of community-builders.
Jessica L. McManus, M.A., is the Assistant Program Director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business, and a member of the Mendoza College of Business faculty. She also serves as the Community-Based Learning Coordinator between the College of Business and the Center for Social Concerns. The CSC's column runs every other Wednesday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, January 24, 2001
