Service  |  Academic Work  |  Education & Training  |  Capacity Building  |  Deliberative Democracy 

Program Highlight 2009

The CSB/SJU Bonners put on a campus-wide promotional event on April 23rd, 2009.  The purpose of the event was to get the name of Bonner out to fellow students.  The Bonners also collected donated items (paper towels and toilet paper) from the students to give to Place of Hope.  A fun-filled night complete with campus-led entertainment, a game of BONNER Bingo and free rootbeer floats served to spread the word about Bonner in an attractive way to students.  Nearly 200 people came to the first ever CSB/SJU Bonner event!  A big part of this success is attributed to the use of media tools to reach out to students.  Emails with enticing subject lines and a link to a promotional video, facebook groups and invitations, flyers hung around campus and word of mouth brought in a bigger crowd than anticipated.  Success!

Shelter and Temporary Housing

• Place of Hope - Place of Hope has multiple programs that minister to the poor and under-served of St. Cloud. It offers a residential program that helps adults to develop work-readiness, find outside employment, and re-enter the community. Place of Hope also runs a non-residential program that helps individuals through difficult times with a Christian perspective. Kids’ Hope and Teen Hope are two other programs that provide meals and activities for younger individuals. Place of Hope is located in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
• Overcomers International Fellowship (Dream Center) - The mission of the Dream Center is to provide food and clothing to those in need as well as prison ministry, minister to the sick, and providing shelter for the homeless while enhancing the spiritual well-being of each individual. One particular program, the Residential Transitional Housing Program, provides a safe and supportive environment for men who desire to get their lives on a productive course (i.e., staying free of drugs, alcohol and other addicting behaviors). This program offers men physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual support. Dream Center is located in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
• Habitat for Humanity

• Anti-Hunger Programs, Food Pantries, Soup Kitchens
  • Place of Hope
• Job Training Programs
  • Overcomers International Fellowship (Dream Center)-CSB/SJU students have recently started weekly sessions with the residents centered on the logistics of resume writing after one has served time in prison. 

Types of Service   short-term  |  ongoing school year  |  summer

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  Short-Term

  • Empty Bowls - This event will take place on March 22, 2009. "Participants create ceramic bowls, then serve a simple meal of soup and bread.  Guests choose a bowl to use that day and to keep as a reminder that there are always Empty Bowls in the world.  In exchange for a meal and the bowl, the guest gives a suggested minimum donation of ten dollars" (EmptyBowls.net). The organizations that will be receiving the donations are Place of Hope and Crisis Nursery. Place of Hope's ministry is described above. Crisis Nursery provides support for families in crisis all day, everyday of the year. Services include a 24-hours/day crisis hotline, crisis counseling, 72-hour residential care, parent education, in-home visits, medical care for the children during the day, and referrals to partner organizations.  We have a Ceramics course of 13 students that is donating 30 bowls per student  to this event! 

   

  Ongoing School Year

  We work with a couple of sites that are relevant to the homelessness and hunger topic.  We send service-learning students to serve at these sites each semester.

  • Place of Hope
  • Overcomers International Fellowship (Dream Center)  

Academic Work   courses  |  service-learning  |  CBR and policy research   |  departments and institutes

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  • Courses
    • Currently, we have the following classes directly dealing with these issues as well as the organizations listed above:
      • Theology 111: The Biblical Tradition (Place of Hope)
      • Peace Studies 346: Mediation and Conflict Resolution (Dream Center)
      • Peace Studies 368E: Justice, Peace and Reconciliation (Dream Center)
      • Art 319: Ceramics II-III (Empty Bowls)
      • Communication 346: Strategic Communication Campaigns (Empty Bowls)
    • Last semester, we had the following classes directly dealing with these issues as well as the organizations listed above:
      • Peace Studies 368/Theology 348: Religion, Society and Politics
      • Communication 367: Organization Communication
  • Service-Learning
    • While not all of our service-learning sites deal directly with fighting hunger and homelessness, 

      the majority of our students work with children and young adults that are 

      affected by these unfortunate realities.  Our CSB/SJU students are able to see 

      many of the effects that poverty and low-income living can have on families.  We take pride in our Service-Learning program, which puts close to 300 students in the community per semester, 

      each student serving a minimum of 20 hours at his/her site. Some sites other than the ones listed above where students are able to get this experience include: Boys & Girls Clubs, Kidstops, MN Correctional Facility,

      Fast Forward and Upward Bound.  The last two are sites that serve young adults in college preparation. 

  • Departments

    These departments have shown continuted dedication to the community by incorporating service-learning into their course curriculum.

    • Art
    • Communication
    • Education
    • Peace Studies 
    • Psychology 
    • Social Work
    • Sociology 
    • Theology

Education & Training   forums  |  workshops  |  reflection activities

•    "Hunger and Homelessness Week" sponsored by CSB Campus Ministry in the fall

Campus and Organizational Capacity-Building   training  |  fundraising  |  resource development

•  Hunger Banquet

   

•   Empty Bowls event sponsored by Crisis Nursery and Place of Hope Ministries 

Research, Policy Analysis, Deliberative Democracy   evaluations  |  policy research  | issue forums  |  advocacy

Contacts   staff  |  faculty  |  students  |  community partners (local, regional, national)

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  • Staff
    • Marah Jacobson-Schulte, CSB/SJU Service-Learning Coordinator, Bonner Director
      • mjacobsonsc@csbsju.edu ; 320-363-5117
  • Students
    • Lindsey Cermak, Senior Bonner Intern (Junior)
      • lccermak@csbsju.edu ; 952-237-2068
  • Community Partners
    • Pastor Geary and Pastor Carol Jean Smith, Place of Hope
      • hope@placeofhopeministries.org ; 320-203-7881
    • Conni Orth, Crisis Nursery
    • Pastor Michael Laidlaw, Overcomers International Fellowship (Dream Center)
      • dreamcenterpath@aol.com ; 320-656-1550