The partnership between the Pulitzer Foundation and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work was established in November of 2007. This past fall, near the second anniversary of the partnership, students at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University (GWB) created a new student group. The Community Arts Initiative, or CAI, was born into a family of a dozen other active student groups. But CAI’s birth could not have occurred at a more appropriate time.

With an influx of admitted students interested in the relationship between arts and social work coupled with the partnership between GWB and the Pulitzer Foundation maturing, CAI’s inception seems to be written in the stars. CAI’s mission explores building awareness of the role of art in social work and public health practice by creating community connections and providing educational opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »

When thinking about social activism, we tend to limit the definition to include protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and marches. Yet such a definition confines our understanding, and we rarely acknowledge activism’s various manifestations. Visual art, music, literature, flash mobs, clothing styles, and deciding which type of coffee to drink further prove social activism’s immeasurable forms. Our everyday choices become steps towards creating change. We can look back to the Civil Rights Movement as a perfect example on the varying expressions of activism. In the movement we see how song, art, literature, and bus rides can change an entire nation. Each time I hear the very first refrain “We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday,” chills cover me. I am moved by the simplicity of the harmony and the lyrics, not because of their clever arrangement, but because I know such simplicity created such power and unity to bring together thousands. Or perhaps I am moved because decades following the movement the song still shakes one’s inner core and commands such hope. Read the rest of this entry »

Emily Augsburger is a Brown School of Social Work practicum student in the Pulitzer’s Community Engagement Department.

Last Saturday, Jenny, Aaron, Craig, Lisa, and I set up a table at the Earthways Green Home Festival with old newspapers and a Plexiglas box ready to be filled with garbage. The morning was cool and breezy, and the news forecasted rain, but we were warmed by coffee and eagerly waited for festival tourists.

Within minutes of the kickoff, we made a friend, whose mom was volunteering with Earthways. Henry, a student from Loyola Academy, became an amazing assistant to the Pulitzer’s booth. He joined our recycling paper task force and eventually became an expert with the hand-crank blender used to make the paper pulp.

Henry, Jenny, and Emily demonstrate making paper pulp and paper out of recycled newspapers. Read the rest of this entry »