The 8th Annual Community Connections program will take place on Monday, August 27, 2012.  Please check back for more information in March! 

The Community Connections program began in 2005 as a way to continue the orientation process for new students by providing a common service experience that actualizes commitment to service, a core value of the University and meets the real needs of organizations and individuals in the local community. 

Our entering class volunteers at non-profit agencies throughout Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Student groups are led by student site leaders and faculty/staff site leaders.

Here are a few sound bytes from our community partners who have participated in past years' programs:

Peggy Deston  Little Theatre of Fall River, Inc.
"On behalf of the Little Theatre of Fall River, Inc., I would like to tell you what a wonderful group of students you sent to work with us on Community Connections Day.  They were polite, smiling, willing to help, hard workers, responsive, and thoroughly enjoyable.  We gave them all a mark of A+!"

Diana Campbell, Mosaico
"Please extend our sincerest thanks to the students and their leaders who worked hard to clean up Mosiaco Park … The Park looks beautiful.  With this cleanup Mosiaco CDC is a good step toward making the park a real statement for the neighborhood.
All your volunteers were terrific!  They arrived smiling and ready to work- and work they did! The students spent several hours picking up trash, digging up dead bushes, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and even painting park benches at the park that is literally a cornerstone for the community.  The students were courteous, hardworking, and enthusiastic, about doing a pretty dirty job. We could not have done it without them." 

Lesley Muir, Norman Bird Sanctuary
"I continue to be impressed with the organization and energy that comes out of your office at RWU. .. On the day of service, the group was on time, ready to go. The staff members were friendly, energetic, and helpful. Their project involved taking down 150 bird boxes that are set on poles in our fields. They are disassembled and stored for the winter… "

Marguerite Hardisty, URI Master Gardeners
"Thank you for including the RI Veterans Home as one of your community service sites.  The students that came to help spruce up some of the garden areas (that are seen by the many residents and staff members) were polite, conscientious, and very willing to carry out any task we had for them to make areas more pleasing for the residents of the home. …The students who worked with the Master Gardeners did these jobs with minimal guidance and did them well.  As a team leader of the URI Master Gardeners at the Veterans Home, it would be my pleasure to work besides people from Roger Williams University at any time."
 
Stan Dimock ,Save the Bay
"Whether by chance or design (or maybe a little of each), the original Community Connections cleanup progressed flawlessly.  Each new busload of students arrived just as the previous group had been dispatched to their cleanup location around the harbor.  It was logistical perfection!.."

Garry Plunkett, Tiverton Open Space Commission
"We made it through our community connections day today.  What a nice bunch of young adults that came here.  The residents loved seeing them, and some of the students had a wonderful experience (conversing with residents, playing chess, and having a few laughs)."