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Community Engagement Center


Since its founding in 1883, The University of Texas at Austin has had a rich history of community engagement and service, with service as a key component of its mission. With the launch of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement in 2007, the university is building on its foundation of engagement in new ways. 

DDCE has been charged with

  • ensuring the university is responsive to and positively impacts the surrounding community,
  • ensuring that community engagement remains central to the University’s core academic mission, and
  • serving as a catalyst to create new opportunities for expanded and more coordinated ties between the university and the community

Community Engagement CenterCommunity Engagement Center (CEC)
1009 E. 11th St. 2nd Floor, Austin, TX 78702. (map) 
phone: 512-232-8586 
fax: 512-236-1729

DDCE’s community engagement efforts are directed by Dr. Shannon Speed, assistant vice president and associate professor of anthropology. The Office of Community Engagement is housed in the DDCE’s Community Engagement Center (CEC), located in the Marvin C. Griffin Bldg. at 1009 E. 11th St., Austin, TX 78702. (map)

The CEC promotes and coordinates services, learning opportunities, and research for communities historically underserved by the university. The CEC works to foster and sustain respectful, mutually beneficial engagements between UT and diverse communities beyond its walls, especially in ways that work to address inequality and increase social justice. 

Areas within the CEC include the following:

Free Minds Project – Vive Griffith, Director
The Free Minds Project provides Central Texas adults living on low to moderate incomes with a chance to fulfill their intellectual potential and to "jumpstart" their college education. In the Free Minds Project, students explore new ways of thinking about themselves and about their world by studying important works of literature, history, philosophy, and art.

Volunteer and Service Learning Center 
…provides volunteer opportunities for university students, and recruits over 8,000 student volunteers each year for service projects; Strengthens healthy relationships between students and their communities; facilitates UT Student Volunteer Board and The Project Service Event, student organizations that promote and coordinate community engagement activities and events for the whole campus, and provide students opportunities to make a difference in the community and provides resources and logistical support for students interested or enrolled in service learning courses, for faculty currently teaching or desiring to teach a service learning course and for community agencies interested in partnering with UT faculty and service learning students. 

Regional Foundation Library (RFL) – Ellen Moutos-Lee Director 
… provides comprehensive education and resources to all individuals and organizations involved in grant –making, grant-seeking and funding development

Staff