---

Half-day Pre-Conference Workshop
Wed., Oct. 29, 2008, 9a.m. - 3p.m., includes lunch
Mapping Routes to Writing Center/Community Partnerships

Workshop Facilitators
Thomas Ferrel - University of Missouri, Kansas City
Melissa Helquist - Salt Lake Community College
Teresa Joy Kramer - Central Washington University
Jennifer Oakes Curtis - Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Tiffany Rousculp - Salt Lake Community College
Eliana Schonberg - Denver University
Melissa Tedrowe - University of Wisconsin, Madison

Writing centers are uniquely poised in higher education to provide flexible literacy and community-building opportunities to the neighborhoods and cities in which they reside. In fact, this workshop posits that higher education institutions—in particular, those that are publicly funded--have an obligation to be a “good neighbor” and make available alternative learning environments for people in the community. As the need for writing skills and abilities transcends traditional educational programs, writing centers have multiple opportunities be the first entity within an institution of higher education to explore how to be a “good neighbor.”

In this half-day workshop, participants will be introduced to writing centers that have reached out into their surrounding communities in multiple ways—some that have just started the process, others that have been in partnership for nearly a decade. Facilitators from universities and community colleges across the country will share their stories of challenging institutional assumptions of writing center work and the process of building mutually-beneficial partnerships with people and organizations outside of college/university boundaries.

Participants will be provided with an overview of established and newly-developing theories and research that ground such writing center outreach. We will examine strategies for assessing community and institutional assets/needs, community partnership ethics, negotiating institutional politics, generating opportunities for tutors to create innovative partnerships, and research possibilities.

After an initial orientation and discussion session, participants will break into small groups to analyze community and institutional assets in order to brainstorm potential community partnerships and institutional support for such outreach. Participants will then move through round table discussions focusing on different approaches to working within the community: service learning, community partnerships and community writing centers.

At the end of the workshop, participants will have a plan to begin exploring community outreach possibilities and/or strategies to interrogate and refine current outreach efforts. Participants will also have the option to join a writing center outreach network that will emerge from this workshop.