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Community Outreach
Department of Housing & Residence Education staff and residents actively participate in ongoing community service and community outreach programs. The following programs illustrate the diversity of our interests and efforts.
Community is so important to us that we make sure we have all levels of community leaders living with us. Student volunteers, faculty members, graduate staff, and full-time professionals with families, all live, work, and play with us 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We always have someone to talk to and there’s always a helpful person just a few seconds away.
The good news is that with a population that is always changing, we are always looking for NEW community leaders like you to come and write your role in our story.
Gainesville
Spring Check-out Recycling Project
- Since 1990, the University of Florida Department of Housing & Residence Education Recycling & Sustainability Committee has sponsored the Spring Check-Out Recycling Project.
Donations of non-perishable food, clothes, small appliances, new and used school supplies, and electronics are in residence hall lobby areas during the academic year check-out process. Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, the Outreach Center of Gainesville, Haven Hospice, and Bread of the Mighty Food Bank were the local agencies selected by the committee to receive the collected items for 2011. Also assisting with the project is Alachua County Tools for Schools.
The goals of the project are three-fold: to assist local charitable agencies; to reduce the amount of usable items deposited in the local landfill during this period; and to assist residents moving from residence halls. Based on past experience, an average of approximately $10 - $50 worth of usable items will be donated by each of 7,400 campus residents. Of equal importance, approximately 4 to 5 tons of usable items collected will not be deposited in the Alachua County landfills.
- Community Service Section in Fletcher Hall
- Fill the Bus
- Campus residents donate school supplies to Alachua County school children in need in partnership with the Altrusa Club.
- ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes
- DOHRE donates classroom space to the School Board of Alachua County for adult ESOL classes in Graduate & Family Housing areas.
- Ongoing community service projects initiated in residence halls and Graduate & Family Housing communities. Examples:
Serving dinners at Ronald McDonald House, Catholic Workers House, St. Francis House; volunteering at Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary; volunteering in Alachua County Schools, etc.
Beyond
Team Ohana for Relay for Life American Cancer Society Fundraiser- Relay For Life® is the American Cancer Society's signature event - a fun-filled overnight experience designed to bring together those who have been touched in some way by cancer. Since 2002, the Department of Housing and Residence Education has had an active Relay for Life team, Team Ohana, participating in the Alachua County/Gainesville event at Santa Fe Community College each spring. The team, consisting of Division of Student Affairs staff, Housing staff and their families, residence hall students, and an occasional colleague from an academic department around campus, typically raises an average of $5000 each year which stays in the local area to fund cancer research and services. Fundraisers over the years have included Valentine’s Day Cookie Grams, a yard sale, chance drawings for specialty gift baskets, three Housing family cookbooks, breakfast, lunch BBQ, and the annual Pig Kissing Penny Wars Competition. For more information about Relay, visit www.relayforlife.org or the local American Cancer Society office.
- Toys for Tots (U.S. Marines)
- Toy collections during the holiday season in residence halls and the Housing Office as part of the Division of Student Affairs holiday philanthropy.
- Voter registration and election timeline information to campus residents. Ongoing partnership with Alachua County Supervisor of Elections.
- U.S. Census Bureau. Ongoing monthly ACS (American Community Survey) surveys and ongoing decade census 1990, 2000, and 2010.
