Catalyzing Community Connections | Institute for Social Concerns

YEAR IN REVIEW

Catalyzing Community Connections

TOWARD A THRIVING SOUTH BEND

As a newly hired assistant professor of information technology, analytics, and operations at the Mendoza College of Business, Chengcheng Zhai began her time at Notre Dame by joining the Institute’s annual Engage South Bend faculty tour. More than just introducing her to the city in which she would live and work, the tour introduced her to community partners to explore research and scholarship possibilities.

Following the tour, Zhai was inspired to meet with the Institute’s community partnerships staff to discuss how Notre Dame could partner with civic leaders to reimagine what is possible for parts of the city that have suffered from decades of disinvestment. That conversation blossomed into a collaboration among the Institute, Mendoza’s Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program, and South Bend residents to research the viability of redeveloping an economic and cultural anchor on South Bend’s West Side.

The Engage South Bend tour is just one way the Institute catalyzes connections between Notre Dame faculty and South Bend residents. With longstanding partnerships across South Bend, the Institute has become a hub for developing community-driven research agendas to promote justice and pursue the common good.

In the fall, the Institute organized the series South Bend: Questions of Justice to bring together faculty experts and civic leaders. Over the course of four sessions—on gun violence, housing, food security, and education—participants did more than discuss the issues. The conversations were specifically designed to cultivate new partnerships between Notre Dame and South Bend, and each session ended with concrete actions for continued work.

“The Institute was able to get the right people in the room, people who have been working on these issues for decades at Notre Dame and in South Bend but may have never before met. This work fills me with hope that together we will be able to improve educational outcomes in South Bend.”

– MARK BERENDS, Professor of sociology, on South Bend: Questions of Justice

In addition to a community-driven research hub, the Institute has developed a story lab that celebrates South Bend citizens who are pursuing the common good by telling local stories through creative and historical writing, performance, and visual arts. In the spring, the Institute’s Art and Social Change course partnered with La Casa de Amistad’s Adelante program and South Bend–based Latino artist Freddy Rodriguez for a public mural that celebrates the many achievements of the founders of the city’s Mexican-American baseball league. Through extensive archival research, Notre Dame students uncovered stories of the Latino community’s struggles for civil rights as well as their contributions to South Bend’s flourishing, ensuring that these stories will live on to inspire new generations of Latino civic leaders.

Building on these successes, the Institute is launching the South Bend Citizens Collaboratory, which leans into its partnerships by developing a leadership forum to accompany the research hub and story lab. The leadership forum will cultivate civic leaders across academia, government, industry, faith communities, and neighborhood associations by providing them with tools that promote flourishing. Through the Collaboratory, the Institute is realizing Notre Dame’s aspiration to build genuine partnerships with the region that create a thriving community for all.