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Wesleyan College (Macon, GA)
Aunt
Maggie's Kitchen Table
Summary
In 1998, Wesleyan College expanded its historical commitment to service
by offering a prestigious endowed chair to a local community activist,
Dr. Catherine Meeks. Dr. Meeks, co-founder of a local family resource
center—Aunt Maggie’s Kitchen Table (AMKT)—has galvanized
student commitment to service through meaningful involvement at AMKT and
other community-based service initiatives.
The Practice
Recognizing its need to diversify the faculty and expand its commitment
to service, Wesleyan College named Dr. Meeks the Clara Carter Acree Endowed
Professor with the two-fold charge of teaching and increasing student
involvement in community service. The College’s decision has ensured
that service becomes a life-long commitment for Wesleyan graduates and
has demonstrated Wesleyan’s commitment to contributing to the larger
community of Macon, Georgia. Given Dr. Meeks’ role as co-founder
of AMKT, the Aunt Maggie’s community has become an ideal focal point
for galvanizing student involvement in service.
AMKT is a family resource center located in a neighborhood plagued by
poverty, drugs, violence, illiteracy, poor health, and many other signs
of decline. What began as a small group of 20 Wesleyan students volunteering
at AMKT has exploded into a comprehensive initiative in which 25 percent
of the entire Wesleyan student-body participates in supporting the family
support programs at AMKT. The students currently provide 100 percent of
the staffing for the year-long Saturday School that meets bi-weekly at
Aunt Maggie’s to assist children with math and reading. Additionally,
students have staffed the after-school homework help sessions. Students
have taught computer, dance, and art classes to adults and children. They
have organized field trips, hosted small groups of children at campus
theater events, collected books for the library, helped children to create
home libraries, organized a clothes closet, and helped Aunt Maggie’s
families move when they are needing to relocate.
The student commitment to Aunt Maggie’s has been so consistent and
reliable that the agency has been able to rely on student volunteers as
a central source of support for the work of the family resource center.
The traditional reluctance of community agencies to rely on student volunteers
has been overcome in this case by the strong sense of ownership and responsibility
that the students have developed for the project. The consistent involvement
of students in multiple AMKT projects has made the College a critical
player in the overall community improvement strategies for this neighborhood.
Effectiveness
From the College’s perspective, the fact that a quarter of the student-body
has been engaged at Aunt Maggie’s has had a major impact on the
campus culture. Aunt Maggie’s is now a household name on campus
amongst the students, faculty, and administration. Now, instead of constantly
needing to recruit new students, student groups regularly initiate ideas
for new potential projects at AMKT. More importantly, 35 percent of the
students that complete a service project at Aunt Maggie’s end up
staying involved in some capacity.
Through student journals and short papers, students have been able to
reflect on their service experience in a way that brings much deeper meaning
to their involvement. On a personal level, this reflection component has
enabled students both to challenge their own stereotypes about poverty
and socio-economic differences and also to process the feelings and emotions
that arise as they witness the challenges confronting the families at
Aunt Maggie’s. The transformation that has occurred on campus and
in the community through the Aunt Maggie’s/Wesleyan partnership
now has become a cornerstone for Wesleyan’s creation of a Center
for Community Engagement and Services. Already, the Center is expanding
on the work at AMKT to create a broader role for Wesleyan in the Macon
community. The fact that AMKT won the Inaugural Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
Campus Community Partnership Award in 2000 is a sign that the impact of
this partnership is being recognized far beyond the campus and the local
community.
Resources
For more information, please visit the Aunt Maggie’s Kitchen Table
website.
Contact Information
Catherine Meeks
Director, Wesleyan Center for Community Engagement and Services
Professor Socio-Cultural Studies
Wesleyan College
4760 Forsyth Road
Macon, Georgia 31210
Phone: 478-757-3800
cmeeks@wesleyancollege.edu
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