51 University of Regina students are getting life lessons this week by working in 22 different community organizations that help the helpless.
It is part of a research project at the University that has been running for six years. The coordinator of the program, Yolanda Hansen, says the goal is to connect the university with the community.
“Most students are surprisingly unaware of what is happening in their own backyard.”
This week that is changing as the students put in 15 hours with organizations like the All Nations Aids Hope Network, the north central community association, homeless shelters, and many more that offer help and hope.
Yolanda Hansen is the head of the U of R community research unit, which offers the “ARTS CARES” program.
Most of the students taking part are enrolled in social humanities classes and many of them will end up working in the field of social services.
Hansen says it is a real eye opener for them.
“I’m hearing things like, wow, I have never been to North Central before and I worked there all week and I learned so many things, or wow, I have met so many great people at the organization….the staff, the volunteers, the clients.”
Hansen says there is only so much that can be learned through books and lectures. She says getting in the trenches and working with the community organizations gives the students a whole new perspective.
“We hope the students get some longer term benefits, maybe it changes their ideas about things, maybe it opens up more volunteer opportunities or maybe it’s as big as a change in career path. “
This project is just a small piece of the work that is being done by the University’s community research unit.
It offers its services free of charge to local outreach groups when they need help studying and researching issues in an effort to come up with better ways to serve the people that come to them for help.