Community Connections
This is what it looks like to unsilo resources and collaborate across our communities.
Building a stronger culture of belonging through student-led projects, community care, and collaborative action across UConn campuses.
Interdepartmental Collaborations:
WeLAB
WeLAB is a space where undergraduate and graduate students access tools, opportunities and connections to dig into questions that make us think, communities that make us whole, and experiences that generate action to build a stronger culture of belonging.
In Practice, WeLAB:
Empowers
Undergraduate and graduate students to become catalysts for change through individual and collective impact.
Equips
Students with tools, opportunities, and networks to lead initiatives that challenge inequities and build a stronger culture of belonging.
Elevates
Curiosity-driven projects that center the lived experience as expertise in belonging work across UConn campuses and the wider community.
Engages
Diverse voices and partnerships through community building and mentorship to amplify student-led thought, research and transformation.
A living system of co-design
WeLAB student projects cross departments, dissolve silos, and flip hierarchy.
Caring Community Pop-Ups
Collaborative events that join efforts across our professional and student community
Caring Community Pop-Ups are small, heart-centered moments that invite people to slow down, connect, and feel held right where they are.
We created these because we know that belonging happens in the in-between. In the walk between classes, in the pause before a meeting, in the unexpected invitation to be seen and heard. These are the places where connection grows. These are the seeds of community. The goal is not perfection, it’s presence.
You might recognize our past Pop-Up events:
Roses
Pick the Thread: A Post Election Connection
AsAACC
Pick Up the Thread
Mutual Aid Network
A shared commitment to community care at UConn.
An ongoing practice of showing up for one another in real, tangible ways.
It’s built on a simple truth: we all have something to offer, and we all need support. Mutual aid is not charity – it’s solidarity. It’s the recognition that our well-being is interconnected, and that asking for help, or offering it, are equally powerful acts of belonging.
This network holds space for students, staff, and faculty to exchange resources, time, energy, and kindness. Whether it’s helping someone access food, sharing transportation, offering event support, or simply being present. Each act is part of a larger ecosystem of care.
This is how we build a resilient, connected community.
Fall 2025 Meeting dates hosted at the Rainbow Center, Student Union rm 403, Storrs.
9/24 Wednesday 12p-1p
10/8 Wednesday 12p-1p
11/12 Wednesday 12p-1p
12/10 Wednesday 12p-1p
The Welcome Quilt
Join this collaboration with the Human Rights Institute and the Well-Being Collective. We create handmade quilts for babies and toddlers who are newcomers to the U.S. or facing hardship.
Image credits go here
Each quilt we make is a gesture of love and welcome, stitched with purpose and shared in solidarity. No sewing experience is needed—just your time, creativity, and care.
Seeking Partners
We are openly seeking co-facilitators and sponsors for future events rotating in communities on or near our campuses.
“The Welcome Quilt is never finished. It’s always becoming. Just like us.”