By Al Dickenson
At a time of high social isolation among young people, finding opportunities to connect can be key. The College of Community Engagement and Professions offers a unique opportunity to combat social isolation – hosting community building workshops.
Each workshop is a two- or three-day group experience. According to Dimitri Topitzes, these workshops promote a vision of community, defined by a “spirit of unusual safety and intimacy” and act as an antidote to social isolation, personal alienation, and lack-luster group cohesiveness. Topitzes has been involved with community building workshops – or CBWs – for more than a decade and has promoted them at UWM as chair of the Social Work Department.
Community building workshops have a long history, starting in the late 20th century as an idea of M. Scott Peck, a psychiatrist and best-selling author of self-help titles. These workshops began taking off in the 1990s, when Bob Roberts, an educator and scholar, began a workshop in a medium security Louisiana prison.
The results of that workshop were increased reading function of the participants and after Roberts published his findings, community building workshops became ubiquitous among criminal justice and social work organizations as well as the general public.
Enthusiastic reception for community building at UWM
In the years since CCEP started hosting its own community building workshop, the student participants have been ecstatic. Lexy Lunger, a 2025 bachelor of social work (BSW) graduate and incoming master’s degree candidate, couldn’t praise these workshops enough. “In August 2025, I’ll be joining my third community building workshop, after finding the past two deeply valuable for both my professional and personal journeys,” she said.
These skills are essential to supporting the clients I work with, both now and in the future. And personally, the experience has been a beacon of hope in challenging times, reminding me that community is intentional, possible, and powerful.
As a social work graduate student and sexual assault advocate, Lunger mentioned that this workshop has been a space to practice presence and radical listening.
“These skills are essential to supporting the clients I work with, both now and in the future. And personally, the experience has been a beacon of hope in challenging times, reminding me that community is intentional, possible, and powerful.”
For Topitzes, these statements are positive proof that community building workshops are fulfilling a needed feeling of closeness to community. “We’ve heard from students that they are feeling disconnected from each other and their programs, particularly post-pandemic,” Topitzes said. “CBWs typically help participants cultivate a greater sense of intimacy and belonging, something that can help students more easily reach their performance potential during the academic semester.”
Topitzes continued, “The CBWs can help students hone particular expressive and receptive community skills, a critical area of development for students in disciplines such as social work, education, and counseling psychology among others.” As these professions routinely work with the general public, being able to communicate and connect with others is an essential part of their careers.
Developing skills rooted in empathy and intention
Though community building workshops have been occurring on UWM’s campus for years, and across the country for decades, there is still some trepidation for prospective students to participate.
One student, Heather Maggio, a May 2025 BSW graduate, offered her experience in attending UWM’s workshop: “I was not entirely sure what I had gotten myself into when I signed up for the Community Building Workshop and Resource Exchange: a chance to meet new people, develop new connections, network. Well, what does that mean, exactly?” she said. Maggio anticipates obtaining a master’s in social work degree in December 2026 from UWM.
But Maggio found an appreciation for the workshops immediately after attending. “The Community Building Workshop helped me to connect deeper with myself. I was able to reflect deeper on who I am so I can connect more meaningfully with others, creating relationships that are more complex and nuanced and not shallow.”
In a particularly powerful testimonial, shared anonymously by Topitzes, a student expressed their gratitude for the personal transformation afforded by the community building workshops:
“I was put in direct touch with my own capacities for engaged, empathic, and emotionally present listening. I discovered within myself the latent ability … to stand in silent solidarity with a wide variety of individuals. I was able to abandon superficial barriers … and to experience … acceptance. The workshop gave me an opportunity to learn how to manage unpleasant situations and frustrations, how to set and understand my own boundaries and how to regulate my emotions in the midst of deep expressions of human suffering and trauma.”
As a researcher focused on early life adversity exposure, Topitzes understands how these CBWs can improve community connection and empathy.
This student continued to illustrate how community building workshops are fantastic tools to supplement social work and criminal justice courses. “This has been the social work class I have been searching for my entire student career. I was able to have a true experience of the many principles, values, and strategies … that other classes have only alluded to.”
Topitzes himself incorporated community building workshops into coursework at UWM and has been an active promoter of using community building workshops to increase student learning outcomes. As a researcher focused on early life adversity exposure, Topitzes understands how these CBWs can improve community connection and empathy.
For the foreseeable future, CCEP will continue to host community building workshops and resource exchanges twice a year. All CCEP students are welcome to join the workshops and are bound to come out of the experience better engaged and prepared for their future careers.