Spotlight on a Program:
eBlackCU
eBlackCU is a collaborative portal created to display historical artifacts and information from private collections from the African American community in Champaign-Urbana. This resource was created based on the practice of community informatics, meaning the study or practice regarding the continuity of local, historical communities meeting the transformation of information technologies.
This project is also driven by eBlackStudies, which are based on the core principals of cyber-democracy, collective intelligence, and freedom of information. The goals of eBlackCU are to centralize this information, collaboration with past and present community members, make an educational community resource that is free and available for all to use, and to develop practices for furthering of such portals.
Champaign-Urbana’s African American community is rich in culture, and this site has created a source to showcase it. eBlackCU: A Collaborative Portal on African American Experiences in Champaign-Urbana is funded by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and administered by the Community Informatics Research Lab, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For more information, to learn about community technology events, and how to contribute to the archive, go here.
Volunteers Needed
Indi Go Artist Co-op
Indi Go Artist Co-op is looking for volunteers to help with a multitude of tasks: gallery maintenance, web design, graphic design, photography, staffing, catering, painting, social media promotion, general promotion, event organization, and teaching classes. Indi Go offers opportunities for volunteer hours to go towards a membership to the co-op. For more information, call (217) 721-0860.
Champaign County Humane Society
The Champaign County Humane Society in Urbana is currently looking for a volunteer telephone receptionist on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting around 9:00 a.m. Volunteers will answer a multi-phone line and need to be capable of multi-tasking and, of course, provide kind customer service. For more information call Danielle Bender at (217) 344-7297.
Community Elements Crisis Line
Trained volunteers answer a 24-hr crisis line. Forty hours of training is required to learn how to respond to calls from individuals in Champaign County who are in need of support, resource information, and active listening. Sessions include anxiety, substance abuse, psychosis, personality disorders, bi-polar disorder, grief and loss, relationships, and medications and their use for mental health. Volunteers are supported by a qualified clinician on-call at all times. Training sessions begin in mid-September, so sign up now to volunteer. More information can be found on their website.
Disclaimer: I gather this information based on local community calendars and from colleagues at local service organizations. Some of the wording is based directly on what I receive and research. Please feel free to email me if you have any comments, questions, or have anything you would like to see posted. Thank you. (MER)