Presented by:  Maria Jesus Alzugaray Orellana

This presentation examines the challenges Catholic Charities face in supporting refugees as they seek to exercise their legal and social rights within the United States. Drawing on insights gained through engagement with Catholic Charities’ work, the presentation highlights how structural, legal, and policy-related barriers complicate efforts to assist refugees in areas such as housing, employment, legal status, and access to social services. Particular attention is given to the ways shifting federal and state immigration policies affect refugees’ ability to integrate into society and achieve long-term stability.

Presented by:  Desiree’ J. DuBoise, Andrea Andrew, Kathleen Conte, Marisa Zapata, and Members of the TREES Lived Experience Committee

The “Pathways” study employed a lived experience committee (LEC) consisting of members with diverse identities and experiences of houselessness. This presentation describes our story of collaborating with PSU researchers and the LEC to create a large-scale mixed-methods study examining pathways through houselessness. The researchers’ goals were to share ownership of the study, decision-making with the LEC, and build capacity for future engagement in research design and implementation. We discuss challenges and successes of this process.

Presented by:  Alissa Leavitt, Marcia Fornataro, Jazzlyn Russ, Sophia Mattera, Micaela Miller, Daisy Duran Navarro, and Berit Weaver

This showcase highlights a community-engaged senior capstone course at Portland State University in which students collaborate with the Family Preservation Project (FPP) on applied projects related to pregnancy, parenting, and incarceration. Three student teams, including student interns from FPP, will discuss three projects: (1) developing trauma-informed family communication pathways at the time of arrest; (2) conducting prison nursery feasibility research; and (3) supporting statewide Day of Empathy advocacy aligned with the Bill of Rights for Children of Incarcerated Parents. The session features student-generated deliverables, lessons learned, and strategies for sustaining reciprocal campus–community partnerships.

Presented by:  Albert Spencer

This presentation showcases role-playing games as a form of academic community building during times of social strain. Drawing on RPG collaborations with local faculty and colleagues across the country, it highlights four cases: a long-running all-philosophers game that culminated in a monograph and an author-meets-critics panel; play-testing two indie-RPGs by Indigenous designers ("Dog Eat Dog" & "Ehdrigohr") at two workshops on American Philosophy; and a one-shot with local general education faculty of an adventure from a sourcebook written by BiPoC authors that centers the experiences of refugees. It will show how these games build community, influence scholarship, and expand our understanding of marginalized communities.

Presented by:  Colleen Carroll and Lisa K. Bates, PhD

Studying-up is an orientation to research that examines “the culture of power rather than the culture of the powerless”(Nader, 1972). In this session we will practice the skills of "studying-up" with a focus on the Portland Metro - who makes culture of power and how it is exercised in our lives. This research skill is underused in community-based research and community-engaged scholarly partnerships.

Presented by:  Amanda Robinson

This session is intended to be an active presentation/ discussion based around the principles and practices of anti-racist community engagement. We will analyze the ways “saviorism” "charity" and the idea of “giving back” to the community sets up unequal ideas about power in our community work. Additionally, we will collaboratively work towards identifying the ways in which “whiteness”/ “normativity” has shaped higher education and continued to inform the ways in which knowledge is created and regarded as “credible”.

Presented by:  Amie Riley and Mercedes Elizalde

This session explores a multi-year, community-engaged Senior Capstone course at PSU addressing housing insecurity and homelessness in Portland. The course integrates community-engaged learning, systems thinking, and policy practice, while remaining responsive to changing community conditions and student needs. Participants will see how students co-create solutions with community partners, adapting to evolving priorities, and fostering social change across a diverse ecosystem of roles, strategies, and perspectives.

Presented by:  Kayla Banda

This session positions entrepreneurship as a vital tool for social change and community well-being—particularly for individuals who have been historically excluded from empowerment within traditional institutional systems. Participants will explore how campuses and community partners can collaborate more intentionally with local small business owners to shape purpose, impact, and accountability. Through dialogue and shared stories, attendees will identify ways to contribute insight, feedback, and partnership that help businesses evolve in alignment with real community needs.

Presented by:  George Luc

Learn how to leverage the GivePulse platform to list, find, organize and measure social impact initiatives in the community!

Faculty: Empower your students and uplift your partners by streamlining your institution's community engagement, scholarship and initiatives with high-impact practices (HIPs).

Community Organizations: Engage your community with an all-in-one platform to manage volunteers, donors and organize all events and projects including fundraising campaigns and initiatives to activate your members and constituents.

Presented by:  Gunjan Gakhar

This session shares a promising, replicable course-based microbiology lab practice that builds microbial literacy and well-being through campus-community partnerships centered on fermented foods. We partnered with four high schools and local fermented food companies. With two Title I schools, we delivered talks on the gut microbiome, fermented foods, and health, provided a yogurt-making video for home use, and hosted a campus lab where undergraduates mentored high school students to Gram-stain their yogurt and observe bacteria. With two STEM magnet schools, students attended Microbe Lunch, a tasting and showcase where undergraduates presented infographics and companies demonstrated fermentation.