Global Blueprint for Community Engagement Unveiled

Cyclonic weather couldn't upstage the fourth biennial conference on community engagement and service-learning, held at ACU North Sydney last week in partnership with De Paul University, Chicago.

The ACU and DePaul Conference on Community Engagement and Service-Learning was established in 2019 to share lessons and best practice for developing partnerships between university and community.

Hosted by ACU Engagement at the North Sydney Campus during the bomb cyclone, the conference welcomed academics and community engagement professionals from ACU, DePaul University, and De La Salle College of St Benilde, Philippines.

In welcoming both local and international guests to the conference, ACU Vice Chancellor and President Professor Zlatko Skrbis said community engagement should be a top priority for all educators.

"We would all agree that educating good citizens is important. It's not only a moral imperative, but it is a necessity and our responsibility as educators," Professor Skrbis said.

"It is almost trite to say something about uncertain times, but the times we live in are very uncertain. The only way to stabilise this uncertainty is to do exactly what people like yourselves are doing day in, day out, taking care of learning, taking care of our communities, and passing on particular values to students and fellow citizens as you go about your daily work."

Professor Skrbis said as a Catholic university, community engagement was embedded in the fabric of ACU.

"Building and nurturing purposeful communities is sorely lacking. Without communities we fall to pieces, we fragment, we experience disunity, and certainly, we don't have a sense of shared purpose."

The 2025 conference theme, 'Preparing educated citizens during uncertain times', showcased models of community engagement and service-learning that are politically engaged and makes real-world impact with university, community, and governments.

ACU Pro-Vice Chancellor (Indigenous) Kelly Humphrey and Emmy award-winning journalist and DePaul University Senior Professional in Residence, Judith McCray, delivered the keynote addresses.

Within the context of First Nations people and the important role of truth-telling, Ms Humphrey said community engagement should be a "deeply human way" of ensuring all people are seen, heard, and supported to move through shared spaces, not just frameworks and definitions.

"Community engagement asks us to get close, walk slowly, to see the systems and frameworks for what they are, and to ask, are they truly helping people feel safe, connected and seen," she said.

For Professor McCray, who teaches hyperlocal journalism to aspiring and emerging journalists from DePaul University, community engagement has meant uncovering the stories from underrepresented voices.

This included the launch five years ago of Changes Agents, a podcast made by journalism students, and calls for social change and grassroots activism.

"In the last three years we have focused exclusively on one of the most disenfranchised and marginalised communities in America, but certainly in Chicago, and those are people who have been what we considered justice- or system-impacted," Professor McCray said.

"We focus mostly on people who have been formerly incarcerated, and can't get jobs, can't get housing, and focused on activists working to change that."

Across the two-day conference, both ACU and DePaul University experts gave presentations on community engagement and service-learning initiatives focused on political engagement, student wellbeing, curriculum development, ecology, and advocacy.

ACU research projects featured in presentations included ongoing including the ongoing development of education programs with the people of the Solomon Islands; a life-changing Clemente liberal arts course being delivered to prison inmates; a deep dive into the history of the hospitaller Order of Malta; community choirs through ACU's Big Sing for a Big Cause; the Thomas More Law School Pro Bono program; and a Melbourne-based community hub empowering the gifts and talents of residents of the Darebin City Council.

Head of ACU Engagement Dr Matthew Pink said the conference continued a tradition of collaboration, knowledge exchange, and co-creation between ACU and DePaul University.

"It has been critical to the advancement of community engagement at ACU. It is more than a partnership; it is a relationship," Dr Pink said.

"Ultimately, the best university-community engagement honours the centrality of human relationships. This is important for us to reflect upon as we evolve our practice and support for the work in pursuit of ACU's Vision 2033 ambitions."

The next ACU and DePaul Conference on Community Engagement and Service-Learning will be in Chicago in 2027.