SPOTLIGHT

Larine Y. Cowan
Make a Difference Award

The Larine Y. Cowan Make a Difference Award was presented to ESLARP Director Laura Lawson and FAA Dean Robert Graves earlier this month during the 24th Annual Celebration of Diversity breakfast on November 11, held at the I Hotel. Presenting the award to ESLARP was Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Robert Easter, and Menah Pratt-Clarke, Interim Assistant Chancellor and Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.

 ESLARP in Action Blog

Organizational Capacity Building

Two to three times each semester, ESLARP organizes weekend trips that bring between 40 and 100 students to East St. Louis to help implement many of the ideas identified in plans and design proposals. Volunteers collect data for neighborhood planning, rehab and remodel for non-profit organizations, cleanup vacant lots and parks as well as provide landscaping improvements. In addition to course work and outreach weekends, ESLARP staff and graduate assistant support community-based organizations in a variety of ways, for example, through grant writing assistance, nonprofit training, sponsoring community leaders so they can participate in training and attend conferences,  review of construction documents and contracts and facilitating networking between community leaders and organizations with university faculty, staff and students at the University of Illinois and elsewhere.

Examples of Past and Present Projects:

•    CCP12 Clean-Up
•    Eagles Nest
•    Opal’s House
•    Village Theater
•    St Vincent DePaul Thrift Store
•    ESL Park District
•    Farmers' Market