Villanova University
EN-9: Community Partnerships

Each year, Villanova organizes the St. Thomas Day of Service where nearly 4,500 campus members conduct volunteer work in and around Philadelphia. 2014 was the 9th year Villanova has conducted a Day of Service. Volunteer sites typically involved painting, cleaning up, gardening or helping children and the elderly. Each year we work with hundreds of community organizations and non-profits to make this event possible. In 2014, we also used our volunteer sites for a second consecutive year in the Green Apple Day of Service, an event organized by USGBC to encourage more attention to school sustainability opportunities. Over 60 St. Thomas Day of Service sites qualified for the Green Apple Day of Service, because they helped area schools' green their facilities. Project site examples include: building a rain garden, weeding and planting vegetable gardens, and painting (using low VOC paint).
http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/president/initiatives/stvcelebration/service.html

Villanova ethics professor, Mark Doorley, is actively involved in advising a non-profit called "The Center for Environmental Transformation" in Camden, NJ as a member of the Center's Board of Trustees since 2007. Additionally, Villanova students visit the site annually for our Day of Service in the fall, as well as participate in a missions trip over fall break. The Center works to educate the neighborhoods in Camden of more environmentally responsible ways of living on our planet, including: sustainable modes of food production, stormwater management, and waste recycling. http://www.cfet.org/

For over ten years Villanova has partnered with the North Light Community Center, which serves Manayunk and the surrounding neighborhoods since 1936 by providing educational support, community forum for neighborhood issues, assist families with emergency relief, workforce development, and art & recreation. Villanova has developed a formal steering committee of over 25 employees to coordinate with North Light to provide support and resources. Currently, Villanova has 25 on going programs with North Light, including: cooking, healthy living, music, and tutoring lessons for the children, food donations, campus visits (including tours, shadow opportunities, and workshops), annual campaign printing, student volunteers to improve community center's facilities, holiday party, sport tickets and more. Over the years, Villanova has also completed a number of one time activities, that range from financial to physical donations in the form of time or resources.
Villanova's efforts pair with North Light's mission and have worked to include all University members, students, faculty and staff alike. Most every member of the Villanova community has at one time been involved with a North Light initiative. Similarly, almost every North Light member has been touched by Villanova's efforts to provide assistance to the center.

The Water for Waslala organization was founded by nine Villanova students in 2002 after learning about Waslala's need for access to cleaning drinking water. Since then, multiple trips and thousands of dollars have been raised by Villanova students to help provide cleaning drinking water to the villages of Waslala. Currently 4 Villanova grads sit on the organizations Board of Directors. In 2014, Villanova students raised $23,000 for the Water for Waslala project.

"Water for Waslala is dedicated to providing the funds and technical expertise needed to construct cost-effective, sustainable potable water projects in Waslala, Nicaragua that improve public health, increase educational attainment, and facilitate economic development." http://www.waterforwaslala.org/