Statement Of Purpose
The Vincentian, Catholic, and Urban mission of DePaul University is central to the mission of the Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning. The Center has a preferential option for the poor, marginalized, excluded, oppressed, exploited, disenfranchised, ignored, and under-served. DePaul's notion of "preferential option" involves a focused choice on the part of faculty, staff, alumni, and students to work with all groups of people who experience health, racial and ethnic, gender, and class differences. The Central purposes of the Steans Center are to:
Promote changes in the quality of life of all people to ensure equal opportunity and fair access to resources that satisfy basic human needs of housing, health, education, employment, safety, and a livable environment.
Seek to create an intellectual and social environment where a plurality of world views, cultures, and value systems are respected, understood, encouraged and appreciated, and where students and community are empowered to become active participants in shaping a more equitable, egalitarian, and livable world.
Promote the concept that with service and assistance, people can realize their own abilities to resolve issues that they thought themselves incapable of overcoming.
Promote the implementation of education programs and practices that are egalitarian, equitable, and effective for a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, and communities.
Address issues of personal and community empowerment, critical knowledge, ethical values, and the realization of participatory democracy.
Develop with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community a reciprocal, mutual, and trusting process to understand community needs, cultures, and resources within the broader social context that addresses power relations.
