A new program from the Wilks Leadership Institute aims to combine leadership enactment, community building, and service.

Miami’s first Day of MPACT, scheduled for Sunday, November 10, 2019, is structured in three parts. “During the first part, we’ll have seven rooms in the Armstrong East Wing, plus the atrium,” explained Emily Ashner, senior psychology and neuroscience major and service and leadership coordinator for Wilks. “Each room will be dedicated to service projects around a different social justice theme.”

The program originated out of a Wilks leadership brainstorming session in January. “There is somewhat of a competitive drive with service on campus - both greek vs non greek, and within the greek community with philanthropies,” said Ashner. “We wanted to emphasize that we are a Miami community by bringing everyone together on this big day of service.”

Part 1: Service Projects

Each room will feature a different social justice theme
and 1-3 service projectsThe service portion of the day will take place from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. The planning team, mostly students in the Wilks Leadership Institute, selected the social justice themes (food insecurity, children's health, geriatric care, human trafficking, sustainability, and international relief); the service project ideas were submitted by Miami students and organizations.

Each room / theme will have one to three service projects. Example projects include:

• In the food insecurity room, volunteers will put together gardening kits, plant seedlings, and make decorations for Gabriel’s Place, a non-profit organization that serves as a healthy food resource and a safe fellowship space in Avondale. Projects will support the organization’s community garden.
• In the sustainability room, students will focus on projects that reuse clothes and/or plastics to make items to be donated.
• In the geriatric care room, volunteers will make holiday cards and care packages for Oxford Seniors.

“There’s a lot of flexibility built in to the event,” said Ashner. “Students can choose to rotate to different rooms once per hour during the service portion, or stick with the same room for the whole time. Or they could just come for one hour and leave.”

While projects are happening in the social justice rooms, the atrium of the east wing of Armstrong will be available for clubs to sell products in support of their philanthropies. There will also be an area to donate unwanted clothes and household items.

Part 2: Networking

From 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., students will meet up for a networking night with several area nonprofit organizations, in conjunction with the Butler County United Way and the Career Center for Exploration and Success.

“It’s an opportunity for students who care about community work to actually meet and talk to people who work for agencies in the area. We wanted to empower students to work directly with those agencies in deepening their commitment to enacting leadership,” said Ashner.

Part 3: Sustainability Speaker

Following the networking event, participants will hear from the executive director of Green Umbrella, Ryan Mooney-Bullock, at 7:00 p.m. in the Wilks Theater. Green Umbrella is a Cincinnati non-profit geared toward promoting sustainable change.

How to Get Involved

There are several ways interested students can get involved with Day of MPACT. For more information on these opportunities, please complete the interest form.

• Directly volunteer as an individual.
• Organize a project with a club or greek organization. Officers can take on a lead role in one of the volunteer rooms.
• Donate clothes, food, or household items to the several collection drives happening on November 10 in the East Wing Atrium (2-5pm).
• Participate in a sheet sign competition for your organization’s philanthropy.
• Attend the networking night with local nonprofit organizations.
• Attend the sustainability speaker at Wilks Theater (7 p.m.) and learn about how you or your organization can be more sustainable.

To date, 21 clubs and organizations have signed up to volunteer or lead a service project for Day of MPACT.

Phi Delta Epsilon (PhiDe) is one of those groups. “I’m excited to make connections with other students and orgs and promote our mission as PhiDE with students who truly care about addressing social justice needs,” said Garrett Schilling, microbiology pre-med junior and PhiDe service chair.

“This event provides the opportunity to unite the campus and the community through the service of others,” said Ashner. “I am excited to see how the unique nature of this event will have long lasting effects on the connections made and action taken in the future.”