UM-Flint Students Team Up with Community Photographers to "Change the World"

The project didn't mean much to Justin Hill when the semester started.

The first-year student from Oak Park, Michigan didn't know Flint or the community photographers he and his UM-Flint classmates would be working with.

"I wasn't really interested in it," Hill said about the core initiative of his "I am UM-Flint" First Year Experience (FYE) class. "It was just another project."

But then he met Geraldine Douglas and the rest of the community photographers.

The "photo-voice initiative" connected his class with individuals associated with the Center for Hope, a facility a few blocks from campus that houses a warming center, soup kitchen, and other community services. In October, more than a dozen people captured their world around Flint with disposable cameras. Many utilize services at the Center for Hope. Others work there.

The UM-Flint students worked with the photographers to communicate what the pictures meant to them. The project is both personal and public. It is both intimate and part of something larger.

It is a joint venture among the "I am UM-Flint" class and another FYE class at UM-Flint, "So You Want to Change the World," and the community services department of the Catholic Charities of Shiawassee & Genesee Counties.

Hill and his classmates are helping to tell the photographers' stories. And the "So You Want to Change the World" students are using these stories and pictures to create a social media campaign to help raise awareness and funds for the community services wing of the local Catholic Charities. This includes three soup kitchens, a warming center, a community closet, and four sandwich programs.

The project became personal to Hill when he met Douglas. The woman, who has used some Center for Hope services, reminded him of his grandmother. He felt comfortable talking to her about anything. He liked her sense of humor and was touched that she joined the photo project so she could help others.

"I could connect with her," he said.

And when Douglas came back with her photographs, he was even more impressed. Photographs of community gardens were aplenty.

"Anyone can get food, no matter what their situation is," Douglas said at a recent meeting between the students and photographers.

Several days later, Douglas' words and photographs still resonated with Hill. And he felt a growing connection with Flint.

"I could see hope," he said.

Aimi Moss, director of the Student Success Center at UM-Flint, and Christine Waters, associate provost and dean of undergraduate studies, are leading the "I am UM-Flint" class. Elizabeth Collardey, assistant professor of social work, and Todd Womack, a social work academic advisor, teach the "So You Want to Change the World" class.

Organizers said the collaboration contributes in several ways. It gives a voice and avenue of expression to people often overlooked by others. It illuminates Flint and its residents to new students. It extends the outreach of the university. It allows two classes to work together and leverage their ideas and talents. And it creates a social media campaign that aims to raise money to run the various community service programs at Catholic Charities.

"You really can change the world," Moss said, echoing the message she shares with her students. "This is not just a project. This is real life."

John Manse, director of community services for Catholic Charities of Shiawasee and Genesee Counties, said the overall goal is to raise $1 million.

"The idea is donate one dollar. And spread the word to those you know to do the exact same thing," Manse said. The funding goal would help run the services for three years.

"So You Want to Change the World" students are working in groups of six to each create a social media campaign, Womack said. One main project is slated to be chosen, but Manse said he may incorporate ideas and elements from several of the student groups' ideas.

More than 17,000 people volunteered for the organization's various community programs during its last fiscal year, he said. The soup kitchen and sandwich programs provided more than 175,000 meals for free. The warming center, or shelter, saw nearly 12,000 clients.

The photography project helps illustrate a broader Flint world to the students, Manse said, and helps them believe in the efforts.

"It gets the clients involved, and the students," Manse said.

The two UM-Flint classes will meet later this month to discuss what each found and how to take things further. There will be a December 12 presentation at the Center for Hope for the public.

Taylor Klumpp, a student in the "I am UM-Flint" class said the project opened her eyes. She bonded with the community photographers. Too often, Klumpp said, homeless people or those in deep poverty are treated like they don't exist.

"They are actually interesting people who have lives, whether you think so or not," said Klumpp.

The collection of photographs from the project runs the gamut from the despair of derelict buildings and parts of town, to the promise expressed in photographs of area churches and soup kitchens.

James Webb, a 59-year-old lifelong Flint resident who frequently uses the Center for Hope, highlighted neighborhoods, family, and friends in east Flint. The Flint native said people need to work together to build positive change in the city. The initiative with the students did just that, he said.

"It was a good project," he said.

The organizers of this semester's project want to make the community connection long-term. For example, Womack and Moss will lead next semester's "So You Want to Change the World" class, which will further contribute to the social media campaign.

"We are looking to pass the baton," from class to class, Womack said.

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Contact University Relations staff writer Robert Gold with comments, questions, and ideas at [email protected], (810) 424-5596, or on Twitter, @writerobert.