• The University of Virginia has been named one of 10 national finalists for the President's Higher Education Community Service Award for Excellence in General Community Service by the federal Corporation for National and Community Service. The award program, which is co-sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, USA Freedom Corps and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, was created to recognize the contributions that college students make within their local communities.
• Madison House, a student-run organization that coordinates the work
of more than 3,300 student volunteers each week. This past year, volunteers
contributed 110,000 hours of service as tutors, construction workers, peer
counselors and day care and patient-service providers.
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• The Day in the Life program, organized by the Office of Community
Relations, which matches UVA students with local youth who attend academic,
cultural, athletic and social events. During the past year, 539 UVA students
provided 9,522 hours of tutoring and mentoring to 473 local youth.
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• The 2006 RAM (Remote Area Medical) Expedition in Wise, VA provided
dental, eye and medical care services to uninsured and underinsured patients
in southwest Virginia including 7917 patient visits for 2740 individuals. The
University of Virginia Health Sciences Library Outreach Librarian based at
UVA’s College at Wise partnered with the Lonesome Pine Regional Public
Library to promote health information access awareness for RAM participants.
At their 2006 Library Outreach educational booth over 700 RAM patients and
family members received library program information and were able to make requests
for information about specific health conditions.
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• ecoMOD, a joint project of the Architecture and Engineering schools
through which students contributed 10,000 hours to design, build and evaluate
eight modular homes that were transported to one of Charlottesville's low-income
neighborhoods.
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• The University Internship Program contributed 55,000 hours of service
to meet a variety of community needs last year.
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• 15th annual Lawrence E. Richardson Day of Caring includes UVA faculty and staff volunteers on projects designed to help people and organizations in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. This year’s participation included a 40% increase of employee—950 employees compared to the 690 who participated last year. The official breakdown of employees was 522 from academic departments and 428 from the Health System. University employees represented 45% of the total 2100 volunteers from area organizations who participated on the Day of Caring.
• Since 2001, over 6,000 people have attended Engaging
the Mind lectures
in 11 different regions across the state. Coordinated by the Office of the
Vice President and Provost, the series is designed to share the educational
life of a nationally ranked top research university with the public.
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• Mary D. Ainsworth Psychological Clinic, the training clinic for the
clinical PhD program in the Psychology Department in Gilmer Hall provides free
psychotherapy and free psychological testing for both students and other members
of the Charlottesville area community. Last year they served 97 clients, 82
therapy clients (for a total of 1,312 hours of therapy), 10 testing clients
(full psychological evaluations), and 5 parent training consultations. The
majority of the therapy was provided to individuals; however the Clinic also
provided couples and family therapy, free group therapy for Panic Disorder,
and free school consultations for In-Class Behavioral treatments for ADHD.
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• Alternative Spring Break, a student-run group that organizes service
and educational trips for over 500 students during University breaks. This
year, volunteers on 34 trips will provide 22,000 hours of service. Projects
include school construction in Cameroon, trail building in Charlottesville,
and educational theater in Uruguay.
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• The Virginia Film Festival draws approximately 15,000 attendees from
across the country. The Film Festival performs a major service by engaging
many UVA and regional scholars in public discussion of their academic fields
and their application to social and cultural issues addressed by the Festival's
films and annual themes (i.e., law and justice in 2005 and religion and society
in 2006).
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• Faculty at the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the University of Virginia's
Medical School have educated over 1000 representatives from healthcare organizations
interested in strengthening their ethics programs. Institutional representatives
have come from as far away as Canada and Alaska to participate in the program "Developing
Skills for Healthcare Ethics Programs." Participants have praised the
program for interweaving theory and sound practical guidance. For more information,
please visit the Center website at www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/bio-ethics/
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• The Medical Center Hour, The School of Medicine's weekly interdisciplinary
forum on medicine and society, offered 20 programs in 2005-2006 to the university
community and the public free of charge, reaching an audience of more than
2,500 persons. Medical Center Hour programs are also broadcast on local cable
television and podcast (audio only) by the university.
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• The Department of Volunteer Services and University of Virginia Hospital
Auxiliary of the UVa Health System offered volunteer opportunities to 981 community
residents and UVa students from all over our region. The volunteers extend
the care of the hospital staff and provide support and comfort to patients
and families, many of whom are lonely and far from home. The UVa Hospital Auxiliary,
in addition to providing volunteer support to the hospital, donated over $180,000
to the Health System this past year.
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• The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP), an innovative mentoring program
cosponsored by the UVA Women's Center and Curry School of Education. Since
its inception in 1997, 916 undergraduate women, 49 graduate women, and 879
middle school girls have participated.
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• Cavaliers Care brings together University of Virginia alumni, family
and friends to make a difference in their communities across the United States.
What began as a joint initiative between UVaClubs and the Young Alumni Council
nearly a decade ago to celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday now supports far-reaching
volunteer service programs in almost every state and in a handful of international
locations. Traditionally held between April 1 and 13, Cavaliers Care has become
the preeminent national volunteer program that allows Cavs to help others in
need. Last April, hundreds of University alumni, family and friends participated
in nearly 40 Cavaliers Care projects across the country. For more information
contact uvaclubs@virginia.edu.
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• The University is allowed under state law to donate Surplus Property
in certain specified circumstances. In fiscal year 2006 the University donated
a total of 237 surplused items to 14 non-profit, charitable organizations.
These items were made up of a wide range of computer and office equipment and
furniture.
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• The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening
(PALS) is used by over
15,000 teachers in all of Virginia's school districts and positively impacts
a quarter of a million young students in grades K-3 annually. An assessment
for preschoolers, PALS-PreK, has also been developed to assess emergent literacy
skills. PALS has extended its reach nationally and internationally to include
schools in all 50 states and six countries. PALS español is currently
under development.
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• The McGuffey Reading Center at the Curry School of Education serves
struggling readers of all ages throughout the year. Each summer, the Reading
Center serves approximately 40 area youths in one-on-one and small-group tutorials.
During the academic year, Curry students interning at the McGuffey Reading
Center serve an additional 35 area students through their diagnostic and remedial
services.
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• University of Virginia Art Museum’s Summer Arts academy served
more than 65 students this summer, 29 of whom received full needs-based scholarships.
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• University of Virginia Art Museum celebrates 30th years of an active
docent program and 20 years of its Writer’s Eye competition. A total
of 1,262 entries were received for the competition – the largest number
in the program’s 20 year history.
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• Nursing students and faculty maintain a Nursing
Clinic at Crescent Halls, provide CPR training within the University and throughout the community,
conduct health fairs, support holiday projects for children who are patients
at UVA, support the Shelter for Help in Emergency and a wide variety of other
community service projects. Faculty members also volunteer at the Charlottesville
Free Clinic.
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• Nursing Students Without Borders (NSWB) sent 3 students to El Salvador
in March to work with local Red Cross volunteers and other health promoters
in small rural communities. They are raising money (so far 20,000 of the $100,000
needed) to be used by Building Goodness Foundation to construct a news clinic
that will serve both the community and local nursing education clinical site
needs. Last summer, 7 NSWB members visited South Africa to collaborate with
their fellow nursing students at the University of Venda. They worked with
a mobile clinic in a remote village and visited children’s homes; they
are now raising money to sponsor 2 students from the University of Venda to
come to UVA and to take a new group of UVA students to South Africa to expand
work with the mobile clinic.
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• The Virginia Center for Diabetes Professional Education has conducted
four professional medical education programs in 2006 focusing on lifestyle
counseling in obesity and diabetes care. The day-long, in- depth programs were
conducted in Richmond, Alexandria, Charlottesville, and Williamsburg for approximately
175 health care providers including dietitians, physicians, nurses and nurse
practitioners. The goal is to provide more detailed and realistic training
in counseling skills, so that diabetes care providers will be better prepared
to deal with the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the commonwealth. Collaborating
organizations in this effort were the district dietetic associations and the
UVA Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism.
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• Over 300 University of Virginia Law students logged more than 13,000
hours of pro bono assistance in legal services during the 2005-06 academic
year. During the 2005-06 Winter Break, 46 law students spent over 1,500 hours
volunteering with various legal public service employers across the country,
such as the ACLU National Capital Office, Central California Legal Services,
the NAACP of Houston, and the Asian American Justice Center.
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• The Youth Leadership Initiative at the University of Virginia's Center
for Politics continues exponential growth of its technology-based programs,
providing resources to over 30,000 educators in schools across the country
and American schools abroad, to engage young people in the civic and electoral
process. In 2006, YLI held its annual student-only on-line presidential Mock
Election in which hundreds of thousands of students from across the nation
cast their votes in races for House, Senate and governor. In spring 2006, YLI's
e-Congress online simulation was used by nearly 500 teachers from 48 states
across the country to involve more than 20,000 students in the legislative
process, and this program will continue to expand in 2007.
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• Sabato's Crystal Ball is a comprehensive Web site run by the University
of Virginia's Center for Politics; Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball features
detailed and frequently updated analyses for a wide spectrum of races from
around the country. The Crystal Ball keeps tabs on presidential elections,
along with every Senate and gubernatorial race, as well as the tightest campaigns
for the House. The Crystal Ball is a free public service meant to appeal to
political junkies and interested voters alike. All content from the site may
be used by educators, journalists, and others with proper attribution. In 2006
the Crystal Ball accurately predicted 96 percent of all House, Senate and gubernatorial
races, as well as the exact margins in both the House and the Senate, while
missing the final governor total by a single seat. The Crystal ball will re-launch
in 2007 with an eye on the 2008 presidential, congressional and gubernatorial
contests.
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• The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) is a statewide organization
created in 1974 to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the
Commonwealth by creating learning opportunities for all Virginians. The VFH
brings together people from across the Commonwealth with differing backgrounds
and viewpoints--interested citizens, scholars, community leaders, and experts
from many fields--creating an environment in which new ideas are encouraged
and new ways of thinking are possible.
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• Email Broadcast Information Service (EBIS) provides
the Virginia Institute of Government’s member localities the capacity
to request information on a virtually unlimited number of topics from other
Virginia local governments on an anonymous basis. As of November 2006, 2,350
separate topics have been processed since its inception in the fall of 1997. Of
that number, 230 were submitted during the last 12 months. The EBIS database
of local government officials that are relatively frequent users of the system
includes over 2,800 individual profiles.
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• The University of Virginia Medical Reserve Corps (UVAMRC), established in 2003 to supplement the health and medical response in disasters, is the only medical student led program in the country, out of more than 400 similar groups. The project serves as a central registration, training and response group for all types of disasters and health emergencies in the Thomas Jefferson Area of Central Virginia (comprised of the 5 surrounding counties, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia). Partnered with a number of community agencies, including the University, the Health Department, Red Cross and Community Mental Health, the 300+ volunteer members represent of a variety of volunteer health professionals, medical, nursing and undergraduate students.
• Connecting Congregations was a Claude Moore Health
Sciences Library project to expand access to Internet technology
for five parish nurses in rural Virginia. These nurses are important links
between faith and health for their congregations, and are instrumental in
promoting wellness in their communities. Library staff introduced the nurses
to various technologies including online “chat” sessions, video
conferencing, and a discussion list. Nurses also learned to use Microsoft
PowerPoint and a portable projector to help them create individualized health
information presentations for their parishioners.
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• The Virginia Institute of Government is part of the Weldon
Cooper Center for Public Service. The Virginia Institute of Government
was established in 1994 by the Virginia General Assembly to provide training,
technical services, applied research, and information technology assistance
to the Commonwealth's local governments. Local Government Academy: A major
Institute FY06 training initiative was the rollout of the Local Government
Academy. The Academy was created to provide quality, reasonably priced training
to local government employees in the greater Fredericksburg area. The
Local Government Academy held its first class in September 2005 on the Fredericksburg
campus of Germanna Community College. Since then, almost 500 local government
employees have attended the 27 custom-designed classes offered by the Academy.
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• In 2006, thirty UVA America Reads work study students contribute
100 hours/week at ten different locations throughout Charlottesville and Albemarle.
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• Book Buddies, now in its 15th year, is a collaboration of the Charlottesville
City Schools, the University of Virginia, and the Charlottesville community
to ensure that every child learns to read before entering third grade. In 2006
the program had five UVA graduate student tutors who together provided over
250 hours of reading instruction to first graders in the city schools.
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