Raising civic engagement's profile

A university project serving people living in situations of high risk in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, has won the 2011 MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship, awarded on Wednesday at the Talloires Network conference in Madrid.

Since 2007, the Community Action Program in Vulnerable Neighbourhoods of the University of Buenos Aires has set up special centres in deprived areas across the Argentinian capital and its metropolitan area to promote social inclusion and local development by harnessing the resources available to communities as well as providing some useful services of its own.

Projects focus on three broad areas: non-formal education, community health and community development. "From our point of view, you cannot provide fully train university students without bringing them into contact with the social reality of their time," said Oscar García, the university's Vice-rector for outreach

Joint second prize was awarded to projects from the University of South Africa and the University of Brighton in the UK. The South African Bright Site of Sunnyside Service Learning Centre serves the community of Sunnyside in Pretoria by promoting community engagement, providing in-service learning opportunities to students, support to local NGOs and channeling the results of academic research to the community at large.

Brighton's Student Community Engagement Programme was set up in 2003 to tackle issues of marginalization and disadvantage in the local community. It gives students the chance to explore their attitudes, values and aspirations in a real life situation while making a contribution to the organization where they are working.

Co-sponsored by Talloires and the MacJannet Foundation, the prizes recognise outstanding examples of civic engagement and social responsibility carried out by universities from the Talloires Network.

"MacJannet Prize winners receive a cash award to continue their community work," said Robert Hollister, Dean of Tufts Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, as he introduced the prize winners. "They also receive public recognition and publicity, and we convene a student representative and a staff representative from each institution to exchange about their experience and to build their capacity."

A broader aim of the prize, awarded annually in memory of pioneering US-German educators Donald and Charlotte MacJannet, is to raise awareness about the important work universities around the world are doing in the field of civic engagement.