Building Belonging: Gonzaga Family Haven & Community Partnership in Action

Abstract

This poster presentation highlights a Community Engaged Learning (CEL) partnership between Gonzaga University’s EDPE 307 Foundations in Sports Outreach course and Gonzaga Family Haven (GFH), an affordable housing community supported by Catholic Charities. Our project focuses on providing structured after-school physical activity programs for elementary and middle school children residing at GFH, while fostering leadership and reflective learning among undergraduate sport management students. Throughout the semester, students collaborated to design, implement, and adapt sports-based outreach sessions that emphasized inclusivity, teamwork, and positive youth development. This engagement not only offered children access to safe, active play but also provided meaningful, real-world experience for students, helping them recognize the broader social systems that shape communities in need. By integrating course content on social justice, diversity, and leadership with hands-on practice, students gained insight into how socioeconomic barriers and systemic inequalities affect access to sports and recreation. The project underscores how educational institutions can empower future professionals to become agents of change through community partnerships rooted in dignity, respect, and belonging. The poster will showcase program outcomes, reflections from both students and GFH participants, and a discussion of how CEL projects like this can advance education, diversity, and hope within marginalized communities