COMMUNITY SERVICE and SOCIAL RESEARCH: students and NGOs in dialogue

Experiencing professional work environments, dealing with urgent social issues
and applying theory to practice. 
 
The students of the Social Science-Service Learning class shared their experiences, research and thoughts from a semester of theory, community service and interaction with people at the forefront of today’s urgent social issues, through presentations and discussion on Monday December 14th.
The aim of the class is to combine theory and practice in the field of social sciences through the concepts of service, community-academic partnerships and useful research findings following student immersion in the partner communities.
The students’ research isn’t merely being graded for their class, but is also constructed in a manner that will be useful to the organization that it was carried out in.
The internships and research that the students have engaged with during the semester include - working with refugee families, assisting asylum-seeking youth,  investigating issues of health and poverty among Roma women, undertaking research on political apathy and the education and promotion of contemporary art.
Their research was presented at ACT, to faculty, staff and students as well as representatives of the cooperating NGOs.
This diverse range of activities has been made possible through the cooperation of the following local non-profit organizations, whom we would like to thank for their work with us and on-going efforts, knowledge-sharing and collaboration:  ARSIS (Filoxeneio Shelter for Refugee Families & Social Housing for asylum-seeking youth), The Dukakis Center for Humanitarian and Public Service,  Faros tou Kosmou, Solidarity Now, The State Museum for Contemporary Art.  
 
For further information about the class, please contact
Dr. Maria Patsarika mpatsarika@act.edu or Ruth Sutton rsutton@act.edu
 

Photo credit: Marianna Zisopoulou