Reciprocal academic-community partnerships: Stories from Occidental College in Los Angeles and Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts
Maria Avila (Occidental College), Alan Knoerr (Occidental College), Nicolas Orlando (A Non-Profit community and Education Development Organization), Mary Carlton (Occidental College), Lauren Watanabe (Occidental College), Mary Bombardier (Hampshire College), Kiara Nagel (Hampshire College)
Abstract
This interactive workshop will present participants with the opportunity to learn from two models of civic engagement in the U.S., both at four-year liberal arts colleges: Occidental College in Los Angeles and Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts. Despite their geographical separation from West to East Coast, one in a large urban setting and the other in a semi-rural area, both colleges use community organizing practices to promote civic engagement.
A major focus of the model of civic engagement at Occidental is the development of a collective of leadership and expertise focused on creating cultural change within the campus and in the community. This cultural change aims at interweaving the skills, philosophy, and language leading to campus-community engagement and long-term sustainable partnerships, throughout the campus and off campus community. The main stakeholders in this model are faculty, students, and community partners; representatives of all these stakeholders will be participating in this workshop. Occidental’s team includes: Maria Avila, Director of the Center for Community-Based Learning and founder of this model of civic engagement based on a set of community organizing practices; Professor Alan Knoerr, of the Department of Mathematics and the Cognitive Science Program, who will share his role in the creation of a growing network concerned with mathematics as a social justice issue; Nik Orlando, Regional Director Los Angeles of Partnerships to Uplift Communities, who will talk about the ways in which his organization of schools has partnered with Occidental College; Mary Carlton, a third-year student at Occidental, who has been a leader in creating a program in which students get paid and mentored as young civically-engaged scholars while they assist faculty who are teaching community-based learning courses; and Lauren Watanabe, the leader of a student-run community project through which Occidental students teach performing arts to fifth grade children at a neighboring school. All brief presentations will highlight the main three organizing practices utilized throughout the model – reciprocal relationships, collective ownership and leadership, and power structures/dynamics involved – as an outline to their topics.
Representing Hampshire College will be Mary Bombardier, Assistant Dean of Community Engagement at Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts, and Kiara Nagel, Hampshire alumna and Project Manager of Sisterhood for Peace (Sudan Initiative).
Several civic engagement programs have emerged at Hampshire since the College’s inception in 1970. This has resulted in an interconnected yet decentralized network of civic engagement and community-based learning initiatives formally known as the Community Engagement and Collaborative Learning (CECL) Network. The presenters will provide an overview of the CECL Network model and highlight the work of Hampshire's interdisciplinary community-based learning program - Community Partnerships for Social Change (CPSC). CPSC’s multi-level skill building model develops student social justice leadership by emphasizing relational leadership and cross-cultural community organizing, built on a foundation that grounds students in a critical analysis of race, class, and power. Using the best practices of anti-racist organizing and working in accordance with the accumulated wisdom of local communities, CPSC works to build effective and equitable partnerships that foster a co-learning network between campus and community organizers.
The models share commonalities especially around their use of community organizing practices such as 1. relationship building; 2. creating a collective of leaders learning together the skills to become civically engaged; 3. building reciprocal and equitable partnerships; 4. and addressing power structures and dynamics. The models differ in that: 1. Occidental’s model is based on the work of the Center for Community Based Learning, while Hampshire’s model is based on a network of campus-wide collaborations around civic engagement; 2. Occidental’s model integrates reflection for all stakeholders aiming at engaging participants in their personal interests/passion for engaging in long-term civic engagement, while Hampshire focuses on grounding students in a critical analysis of race, class and power. Challenges and opportunities for both models will be addressed.
The format of the workshop will include a brief description of the two models, followed by examples from the work of each model. Through brief individual reflections and small group discussions, participants will be asked to identify ways in which aspects of the two models would benefit their own institutions and therefore might be replicable.
The workshop will conclude with participants sharing their reflections regarding replicability for their campuses/organizations, and with a question and answer period.
