The student-run group comm.UNITY (Communications for the Community) has just joined forces with 10 local nonprofit organizations in the Syracuse community to help them build sustainable communications plans. During the 2010-11 school year, comm.UNITY will be working with: Habitat for Humanity, AIDS Community Resources, Wacheva Cultural Arts, Brady Faith Center, Say Yes to Education, Jewish Federation of CNY, Girl Scouts of CNY, Exodus 3 Ministries, Move Along, Inc. and the Alchemical Nursery.
The organization has seen tremendous growth since its founding in October 2007 by then SU students Carissa Matthews and Tessa Kurman. Now, more than 70 members work in small groups to help achieve the communications goals that many nonprofits would not be able to accomplish on their own. Projects include building or redesigning websites, creating poster campaigns, shooting video for promotional use or other projects, taking photographs of key events for future promotion and general public relations work to help the nonprofit with its communications plans.
“So many students join comm.UNITY because they love the idea of helping out in the Syracuse community by using the skills they’re learning through their majors,” says comm.UNITY’s executive director, Megan McMonagle. The organization’s goals are also congruent with Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s Scholarship in Action mission, a campus-wide effort to get students more involved in the community.
“It’s amazing how much we’ve accomplished in the last three years and I can only imagine how comm.UNITY will grow in the future,” McMonagle says.
