Gulf-South Summit Hosted by GivePulse and SLIC Georgia
Routes to Joyful Engagement: Rooted in Community, Moving with Purpose
Atlanta grew up as a junction, a spot on the map chosen because rail lines converged there. It later rebuilt itself entirely, and its BeltLine now turns old rail corridors into the trails and connective tissue linking neighborhoods back together. This year's Summit takes that same instinct and applies it to our own work: how do we build, and rebuild, the routes that connect campuses and communities, and how do we make sure joy, not just obligation, is what travels along them. We'll explore the physical, technological, and relational routes that connect campuses and communities, and how tending them well can restore civic joy, not just civic duty. What makes community-engaged work, in the classroom and beyond it, feel joyful and sustaining, for faculty, practitioners, students, and community partners alike? How do the tools we use help us tell that story more clearly?
Switch Points - How are communities, courses, and curricula forming, changing, and representing themselves? What decisions send engagement work down one track versus another?
Blocked Signals - What are barriers to community engagement - physical, financial, organizational, or curricular - and what does it take to clear them?
Junction Joy - What practices, partnerships, and moments make civic work feel joyful and rewarding?
Powering the Line - How is technology, in particular AI, reshaping community engagement?
Reading the Rails - How can we use research, data, and assessment to check whether engagement work is actually reaching where it intends?