| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 75.39 |
| Liaison | Stephanie MacPhee |
| Submission Date | Feb. 5, 2025 |
Dalhousie University
EN-13: Community Service
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.75 / 5.00 |
Stephanie
MacPhee Executive Director Office of Sustainability |
Part 1. Percentage of students participating in community service
Total number of students:
Number of students engaged in community service:
Percentage of students engaged in community service:
Part 2. Community service hours per student
Total number of student community service hours contributed annually:
Number of annual community service hours contributed per student:
Part 3. Employee community service program
A brief description of the institution’s program to support employee volunteering:
Dalhousie outlines the support for community work in workplace agreements ex.- DPMG handbook: "7.6 Volunteer Work.
The university encourages participation by all of its employees in university and community volunteer work. Time commitments should be arranged with the employee’s supervisor so that they do not interfere with the fulfillment of regular responsibilities." https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/dept/hr/Employee-Relations/dpmg-handbook-2023.pdf
Some examples of workplace-community initiatives include:
Dalhousie’s mission includes an important service aspect. The university works hard to engage and serve the community through projects and charitable initiatives in many ways. The largest community fundraiser on campus is the United Way campaign held each fall on the Halifax and Truro campuses and employees are actively encouraged to participate. https://www.dal.ca/faculty_staff/united-way.html. The funds raised go to local, non-profit agencies in Halifax and Colchester County in Nova Scotia ranging from women's shelters, family/parent support services, Boys & Girls Clubs, to learning disability organizations.
Other charitable/community projects on campus include:
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Human Rights - Dalhousie has for some time had representation on the community-based, not-for-profit Partners for Human Rights committee, which is made up of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission and organizations and community groups dedicated to working toward respectful and inclusive communities.
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Prevention of sexualized violence – Dalhousie engages in many community-based initiatives aimed at addressing sexualized violence, including the establishment of a Sexual Harassment and Assault Resource group of partners and participation in on- and off-campus fundraising events and other various campaigns and education initiatives. Dalhousie’s Harassment Prevention Advisor is currently the Chair of the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre Board.
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Halifax Pride Parade - employees and students volunteer as part of Halifax's Pride Parade, in support of tolerance and diversity.
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Dentistry Clinic—employees offer a clinic where any community member can have dentistry services performed at a discounted rate.
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Legal Clinic—employees offer legal aid service to community members who are eligible for legal aid under provincial guidelines.
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Doctors without Borders—Many Dalhousie physicians (as part of our Dalhousie Medical School) volunteer their time to go to countries around the world to provide medical aid.
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Mi’kmaq History Month- Each October, community activities, events, sharing and showcasing the Mi’kmaw history take place across Nova Scotia. Events held on campus include a traditional salmon dinner, Treaty Flag Raising Ceremony, Mawi’omi (pow wow) and Orange Shirt Day.
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African Heritage Month – Each February, community activities and events are organized with involvement from on-campus and off-campus partners. Campus activities include dinners, Black Health Awareness Week, panel presentations, and a flag raising ceremony
Dalhousie employees (primarily faculty members) also provide academic expertise locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. For a sample of some of the university's experts, see www.experts.dal.ca.
Does the institution track the number of employee community service hours contributed through programs it sponsors?:
Total number of employee community service hours contributed annually through programs sponsored by the institution:
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Methodology for data collection:Student data was derived from the Winter 2023 NSSE survey. (National Survey of Student Engagement). From this survey: 1st year students – 36% report participating in community service, with the majority volunteering between 2.3 hours (2020 hours used 2023 hours not available). 4th year students – 47% report participating in community service, with majority volunteering between 2.6 hours (2020 hours used as 2023 hours not available). We used an average of 41.5% for community service engagement.
We used 32 weeks of volunteer service per year to reflect the main school year of three terms. 41.5% of our student count is 8721 x 32 weeks x 2.5 hours per week= 697,698 hours.
An innovative program developed by Dalhousie to enable students build stronger connections with the community is DalConnect Certificate Program. This program pairs interactive workshops with community volunteering after which a certificate is awarded. Find more information: https://www.dal.ca/news/2013/01/23/dalconnects-helps-students-build-their-volunteer-resume.html
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.