Community Outreach

Three award recipients stand side by side holding framed plaques and smiling for a photograph.

MSU Institute Director Honored for Community-Led Partnership Supporting Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

July 31, 2026

For nearly four years, a Michigan State University researcher and two Detroit organizations have worked side by side to expand services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking in Detroit, securing nearly $900,000 in funding, establishing the first paid staff positions at both organizations, launching new programs, and strengthening community-led support networks across the city. That work earned Elena Ruíz, Professor in MSU’s Department of Philosophy and founder and Director of the Research Institute for Structural Change (RISC) at Michigan State University, two 2026 MSU Outreach and Engagement Awards.

Michigan State University students sit across from participants in blue-and-orange uniforms, talking and working together on a writing activity at classroom tables.

Community Outreach / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / Faculty / Michigan Impact / News / Programs / Student / WRAC

Behind Prison Walls: MSU and Incarcerated Students Learn From Each Other Through Writing

July 24, 2026

Michigan State University students chat among themselves in the cramped waiting room at Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson, unfazed by the TSA-like security process. They place their shoes and socks in bins, walk through a metal detector enclosed in chain-link fencing, and go through a pat-down before the steel doors lock behind them. Next, they walk across a prison yard…