As the Community Engagement Center (CEC), a unit within UT Austin’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, prepares to relocate from our longtime East Austin home, we would like to express our appreciation for our friends and neighbors who helped us expand our mission at the Marvin C. Griffin Building.

Since 2007, our home has been within this brown brick building built by the East Austin Economic Development Corporation and connected to the historic East Austin community stalwart, Ebenezer Baptist Church. The East Central location allowed us to continue our mission to serve as the front porch to the university by building mutually beneficial community partnerships, leveraging the university’s thought leadership and resources to support Austin’s most underserved communities.

Throughout the years, the CEC has seen a great deal of growth—from the expansion of the Texas Grants Resource Center (formerly Regional Foundation Library) to the incubation of nonprofits including the Harvest Youth Foundation, Six Square: Austin’s Black Cultural District, and Mama Sana. In addition to our community resources, the CEC is also home to a photo exhibition of the Prairie View Interscholastic League, Texas’ African American high school interscholastic league during segregation.

We invite you to visit our center after we move into our new temporary home at Centennial Towers, 505 E. Huntland Drive, on Nov. 27. Staff members are happy to connect you with free services and resources, from grant-writing assistance to professional development workshops to impactful research from our Social Justice Institute and our dynamic Front Porch Gathering series.

Looking back at the past ten years, we are especially thankful for the leadership, board and staff of Ebenezer Baptist Church for being great neighbors. We also extend our gratitude to the East Austin Economic Development Corporation for allowing us to build our front porch in the community on East 11th Street. We look forward to continuing to developing sustainable and effective partnerships to build access and equity in Central Texas.

Thank you,

The DDCE Community Engagement Center, Texas Grant Resource Center Team and Social Justice Institute Team

For more information about upcoming programming for the Community Engagement Center, Texas Grant Resource Center or Social Justice Institute, visit diversity.utexas.edu/communitycenter.