Taking Humanities to the Hill: University Community Writing Center Storytelling Initiatives

FAIN: ASB-299651-24

Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA 15282-0001)
James Purdy (Project Director: October 2023 to present)

A two-year initiative training Duquesne students as staff members of the Community Writing Center to support specific projects with two community partners, a senior center and a nonprofit organization focused on restorative justice.

The Community Writing Center (CWC) extends the services of Duquesne University’s on-campus Writing Center—individual and small group writing instruction and literacy programming—to underserved populations beyond campus. It provides afterschool writing education for underserved youth and their families in the Hill District, a historically African American community near Duquesne, as well as support to secondary school writing centers in the greater Pittsburgh region. The only writing center in Western Pennsylvania to bring these services into the surrounding community, the Center’s goal is to develop the skills of community members in areas that are the hallmark of a humanities education, including written communication and personal reflection. This application addresses the CWC’s work to create a newsletter with a local senior center and to create an edited collection of stories with a non-profit supporting returning citizens.