Institute for Social Concerns receives Bridge Builder Award

May 6, 2026

The Institute for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame was honored to receive the Bridge Builder Award at the 39th annual community celebration and benefit dinner for Dismas House of Indiana on May 2, 2026. The award recognizes an organization, group, or institution that has demonstrated a strong commitment to carceral engagement by providing partnership, education, volunteer engagement, and resources that strengthen pathways for justice-impacted individuals.

“The institute has shown what it looks like for higher education to step closer, not stay at a distance.”

– Andrea Gordon, Dismas House director of operations

“The institute has shown what it looks like for higher education to step closer, not stay at a distance,” said Andrea Gordon, director of operations at Dismas House, in presenting the award.

“You model an approach that brings together the wisdom and experience of the Dismas community with the expertise and resources of Notre Dame in order to cultivate long-term, impactful partnerships in service of justice and the common good. Your partnership has genuinely helped us build bridges—between campus and community, theory and lived experience, systems and dignity.”

Last fall, the institute collaborated with Dismas House for its Art & Social Change course. The course brought together Notre Dame students with residents of Dismas House and other community partners, including South Bend–based muralist Nate Baranowski, and culminated in a mural honoring returning citizens.

“As significant as these collaborations have been, what guides this partnership is not a particular project or set of events,” said Jim Cunningham, program director for reentry at the Institute for Social Concerns, accepting the award on the institute’s behalf. “It is an ongoing relationship in which institute faculty, staff, and students are regularly at Dismas House, and Dismas staff and residents are regularly at the institute.”

“What a joy for the institute to receive this Bridge Builder Award, as we do aspire to connect the research and faculty resources on campus to the extraordinary individuals and organizations in our community—and to do so in both directions,” shared Suzanne Shanahan, the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Institute for Social Concerns. “Authentic engagement and relationships deepen all of our work and enhance the impact of our research and teaching.”

Portraying the joys, struggles, and resilience of returning citizens at Dismas House, the mural spans the entire west side of the newly opened Dismas Hub and features 27 residents, former residents, community members, and Notre Dame students—each of whom had a hand in its creation. See more about the making of the mural in the video below.

The Institute for Social Concerns is the University of Notre Dame’s scholarly home for interdisciplinary responses to questions of justice. Committed to the normative proposition that a just world is a beautiful world, we engage the most urgent signs of the times through justice education, research for the common good, and collaborations with community. socialconcerns.nd.edu/

Image 1: Left to right, John Butler, Dismas House board president; Andrea Gordon, Dismas House director of operations; Jim Cunningham, program director for reentry at the Institute for Social Concerns

Image 2: Bridge Builder Award presented to the Institute for Social Concerns by Dismas House of Indiana