UT Tyler, All Saints Partner to Help Students Make a Difference in Tyler

Office of Marketing and Communications

April 22, 2022

Media Contact: Beverley Golden
Senior Director of Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.566.7303

The University of Texas at Tyler Department of Social Sciences collaborated with All Saints Episcopal School to help incorporate young peoples’ voices in plans for addressing certain issues in the city of Tyler.

“Tyler is not only getting bigger, it’s getting younger,” said Aleksandra Cregler, PhD, UT Tyler assistant professor of sociology. “Young people’s experiences, choices and preferences already shape the image of the city.”

“Our Voices for a Better City” is designed to empower young people to work with community leaders to plan, design and manage Tyler to address such issues as pollution, inequality and homelessness. It is coordinated by Cregler and Rick Helfers, PhD, UT Tyler associate professor of criminal justice and public administration.

The project helps create a community that offers hope, and by lending a listening ear, the city of Tyler promotes a sense of belonging and treats young people as capable partners. This approach inspires young people to seek solutions and innovative ideas instead of just seeing the problems, Cregler added.

Nine groups of All Saints students presented their unique ideas to an audience of Tyler city officials including Mayor Don Warren, City Manager Ed Broussard and Deputy Manager Stephanie Franklin on April 22 at Liberty Hall.

“We are proud to partner with UT Tyler and the city of Tyler as we live out the All Saints mission to Ignite Passions to Impact Our World. This program demonstrates the power of cooperation and the intense promise our students offer for the future,” said All Saints Episcopal School Head of School, Mike Cobb.

The students have engaged in a semester of design-based work to investigate ways to better our city. UT Tyler students have served as guides for the All Saints 8th grade students and then worked with city of Tyler officials to develop plans for improvement. Some of the topics include traffic mitigation, services for the homeless, park beautification and programs for animal services.

“These presentations demonstrate how much these students recognize the values and opportunities of living in this community as well as how they can contribute,” said Warren. “We are also extremely pleased to see the collaborative spirit of these two outstanding educational institutions.”

Plans are for “Our Voices for a Better City” to be an annual project that will include more local schools.
“We are also exploring opportunities for social entrepreneurship and local investments by including relevant stakeholders in this dialogue,” Cregler said.

With a mission to improve educational and healthcare outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs to 10,000 students. UT Tyler recently merged with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (now known as UT Tyler Health Science Center). Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center (HSC) and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.