Civic Engagement Committee

The mission of the Civic Engagement Committee is to create opportunities for individuals and organizations to learn and grow by building coalitions, connections and collaborations within the community.

Civic Engagement Committee supports on-going educational programs and outreach projects that are in collaboration with campus and community organizations and provide opportunity for our members to volunteer their expertise and skills.

Current programs and projects include:

• Leadership Asheville Seniors — now in its 24th year, provides retirement aged people in Buncombe County in-depth understanding of the area's history, people, institutions, challenges, and opportunities. During eight day-long sessions in a variety of locations around the community, participants meet with community leaders, activists, and politicians to gain knowledge while evaluating their choice of volunteer roles or finding new ones.
• Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Project provides accurate information about Medicare and insurance issues to anyone in the community.
• Intergenerational Volunteer Opportunities provides guest speakers for UNC Asheville classes especially in management, psychology, physics and engineering as well as conference moderators for Undergraduate Research Conferences.
• Feeding Hope Food Drive collaborates with Manna Food Bank to provide Center members opportunities to help provide meals to families in WNC through periodic, on-site food collection drives.
• Intergenerational Classes collaborates with Early College of Buncombe County Schools to provide a unique educational opportunity for Center members and exceptional high school students to explore myths, half-truths and realities of coming of age in America and what it means to really “grow up!”

Meeting Minutes