Impact Area

This collaborative effort between the Brown School’s Buder Center with leaders at the St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri Humanities Council, Missouri History Museum and Lutheran Indian Ministries, is meant to advance Native partnerships and programming. Strengthening collaboration and communication will allow better dissemination of knowledge, stronger programs, and improved outreach.

Social Workers Advancing through Grounded Education (SAGE) program recruits, trains and financially supports Brown School Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health students who are interested in completing 360 hours of their practica in Indian Country. Brown School students who are interested in serving Indian Country complete a foundation practicum or field placement within St. Louis. The placement can be on a reservation, or with tribal, social, educational, or governmental agencies.

The Brown School Evaluation Center works with organizations to create change through evaluation. Through training, planning, data, and communication, the Evaluation Center has been helpful in working with numerous organizations and their capacity and resources to elevate the organizations.

The Center for Human Service Leadership (HSL) supports the nonprofit tenants at Delmar DivINe, a new complex in North St. Louis city dedicated to community development, social improvement and collaboration in the St. Louis area. Directed by Professor Barry Rosenberg, this initiative uses racial equity lens to contribute to the long-term development of social service organizations, assisting in organizational governance, data-driven strategic thinking, innovation, talent development and collaboration.

“The Divided City” works to bring humanities scholars into interdisciplinary dialogue with architects, urban designers, landscape architects, legal scholars, etc. This initiative includes a number of different projects such as the Sumner Studio Lab, a lab that runs through the academic year to bring together Sumner High students, WashU students, and Ville residents.

This program from the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement focuses on using the arts as a means for social change. Scholars in the program are immersed in arts-based community engagement in the St. Louis area. Participants are encouraged to foster dialogue, mentorship, and action between themselves and the artistic endeavors in the St. Louis area. Previous fellows have worked at the Contemporary Art Museum, the Griot Museum for Black History, and the Shakespeare Festival in St. Louis.

The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE^2) provides an opportunity for three high school students in the St. Louis area to win $500 for their essay on why the study of race and ethnicity is important and for the study of race and ethnicity can benefit students.

The environmental studies impact internship offers WashU students the opportunity to work with St. Louis organizations to positively improve and impact the quality of life through an environmental justice lens.

In early 2018, the Living Earth Collaborative: Center for Biodiversity was launched. WashU partners with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Saint Louis Zoo to advance the center’s mission. The mission includes advancing the knowledge of biodiversity and ensuring the future of the diverse species of earth. Students within the center can participate in research courses and internships that further accelerate the biodiversity work and the relation with these St. Louis areas.

The Creative Community Support programming helps bring together the literary arts and creative practice communities across WashU and throughout St. Louis. This support programming is meant to help foster relationships between faculty from different departments and school, support creative programs on campus and offer an inclusive environment in the literary arts at WashU. Projects include the St. Louis Literary Arts program, offers an up-to-date calendar of literary happenings in St. Louis, and co-sponsorship of events that may happen in the St. Louis area.