The Center for Democracy and Humanity at Mount Wachusett Community College in North Central Massachusetts envisions a world where the values of democracy are embodied in the daily lives of individuals and communities.

In the fall of 2002, MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino announced the “Decade of Civic Engagement,” a college-wide effort to foster increased civic responsibility among its students, faculty, staff and greater community.

The Center for Democracy and Humanity was recently established to oversee the many programs and services offered by the college as part of the Decade of Civic Engagement. The Center coordinates programs and activities to ensure optimum efficiency and collaboration. In addition to the college’s many outreach programs, college faculty are committed to infusing service learning into their curricula and academic endeavors.

To promote civic engagement within the college and its broader community, the Center for Democracy and Humanity employs four strategies:

• Student engagement
• Resident engagement
• Capacity building and
• Systemic change.

In the Classroom

With civic engagement and service learning in the classroom, students gain practical experience that sets them apart in a competitive job market, communities benefit and classroom learning is reinforced. Students also become more knowledgeable, self-confident, active and engaged citizens with effective critical thinking skills. this effort is guided by a team of faculty advisors.

The Center’s Academic Programs

Citizenship Academy – The Citizenship Academy introduces high school students to higher education, civic engagement and community service. While earning college credit, students learn the basics of thinking and writing with clarity as well as how to become engaged in their communities. The academy offers Composition, Economics, Political Science and Sociology courses–all with a civic engagement/service learning component. The academy’s unique curriculum allows students to focus on issues pertinent to their lives and communities.

Service Learning – Service Learning programs involve students in organized community service that addresses local needs, while developing their academic skills, sense of civic responsibility and commitment to the community. by developing reciprocal partnerships, the program strives to serve the community and enrich the students’ educational and civic engagement experiences. Over 1,200 MWCC students have participated in Service Learning experiences, performing more than 7,000 hours of service to the community. In the coming year, faculty mini-grants will be awarded for new and innovative integration of service learning within the curricula.

AmeriCorps Scholars – Through the AmeriCorps, a number of students are chosen each year for the Scholarships for Service program that engages students as part-time AmeriCorps members. The program is designed to both acknowledge and advance campus civic engagement efforts, placing students at the core. Students are required to complete 300 hours of service with a local non-profit organization during the school year as an intensive means of meeting critical needs in education, public safety, health and the environment.

In the Community

Center for Democracy and Humanity Community Development and Outreach Programs:

Community Builders and Project Volunteer – Community Builders is a partnership between the United Way of North Central Massachusetts and MWCC to educate, inform and inspire a greater community involvement through new and innovative strategies. Community Builders’ activities increase community action through volunteer promotion and recognition, and by providing tools, awareness and training to community organizations that depend on volunteers for their success.

Institute for Nonprofit Development – To build a more vibrant North Central Massachusetts, the Institute for Nonprofit Development supports organizations to strengthen their capacity to fulfill their missions and impact their communities. A membership-driven organization, the Institute provides training, technical assistance, resource libraries and coalition building services to nonprofits serving the region.

Molly Bish Institute for child Health and Safety – The mission of the Molly Bish Institute for Child Health and Safety is to ensure the health and safety of all children in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. To meet this mission, the Institute provides hands-on, practical learning opportunities for parents, caregivers and children, and provides a clearinghouse of child health and safety information.

Twin Cities Latino Coalition – The Twin Cities Latino Coalition is a cross-sector collaborative effort involving local educational institutions, private business, public institutions and non-profits to achieve: increased Latino parental involvement, increased Latino K-16 student educational success and sustainable educatinoal systemic change through the implementation of a strategic plan. The Coalition actively works with Latino young people, parents and multicultural leaders to support parents and children’s independence, academic achievement and active civic engagement.

United Way Youth Venture – Youth Venture aims to change society’s views of youth by catalyzing a mass movement of young people who have the vision and drive to make a difference. Youth Venture emplowers young people ages 12-20 by providing them all the tools necessary to create “ventures” – civic-minded organizations, clubs or businesses to change schools and communities. Unique to North Central Massachusetts is Youth Venture’s partnership with ten schools, which work with educators, administrators and students to integrate Youth Venture into their curricula and achieve a graeter impact across the community.

What’s Next Speaker Series – Born out of a plan to bring several notable experts in the field of social change under a single theme, hundreds of residents have attended the What’s Next Speaker Series – public forums that introduce students, residents, community leaders and decision-makers in North Central Massachusetts to innovative thinkers and doers from around the country and world. The goal of the series is to show change is possible, spark creative problem-solving and inspire action.

Contact

Lea Ann Erickson
Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs
(978) 630-9322
l_erickson {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

Amy Casavina Hall
Director of Civic Engagement and Outreach
(978) 630-9201
a_casavina {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

Fagan Forhan
Coordinator, Center for Democracy and Humanity
(978) 630-9595
f_forhan {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

Joanne Foster
Coordinator, Institute for Nonprofit Development
(978) 840-3221 x200
j_foster {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

Andrea Hart
Program Assistant
978) 840-3221 x197
ahart {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

Karin Olivera
Coordinator, Community Builders and Project Volunteer
(978) 840-3221 x201
k_olivera {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

Sayra Pinto
Executive Director, Twin Cities Latino Coalition
(978) 840-3221
spinto {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

Rebecca Cyganiewicz
United Way Youth Venture AmeriCorps*VISTA
(978) 840-3221 x203
youthventure {at} mwcc.mass(.)edu

The Center for Democracy and Humanity’s offices are located at

110 Erdman Way
Leominster, MA 01453
Tel. (978) 840-3221 x197
Fax (978) 840-4398

Contact: Larry Long at Community Celebration of Place (long {at} tt(.)net or 612.733.9775)

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

The Office for the Community Agenda based at the Maricopa Community Colleges District puts a whole new twist on these models. Part community collaborator, part education reformer, part campus innovator the Office for the Community Agenda offers a distinctive example of campus support for community engagement.

The Office for the Community Agenda was founded in the spring of 1996 to directly advise Maricopa Chancellor Paul Elsner. Central to its founding mission was the support and initiation of community collaborations at the various community colleges overseen by Maricopa. Unlike most centers, however, the Office for the Community Agenda doesn t focus on maintaining programs. Instead, it works to generate new ideas and develop new collaborations which, once off the ground, can be sustained by other offices in the Maricopa District.

The office is regularly initiating studies and discussions with community groups to explore potential partnerships for the Maricopa campuses. In one case, through discussions with the mayor and city council of Phoenix and the Arizona Film Institute, the office initiated the construction of a multimedia/video production center. In another case, a study center was formed through a consortium of the Maricopa Community Colleges, the city of Phoenix, and the city s Fire Fighters Association to examine ways that Phoenix neighborhoods can be made or remain livable and viable. Another effort generated by the office focuses on ways to address the needs of Native American tribes in the Phoenix area.

A second aspect of the office s work is as education reformer. The office treats community engagement as an integral part of larger changes in education. Much of its initial work has focused on providing better educational service to urban and minority populations of youth and adults. This includes change both on and off campus. Off campus, the college has begun work with the community on projects such as an NFL Youth Education Training Center and the development of a proposed Urban Survival Program, both to be made available for all elementary and middle schools in Maricopa County. On campus, its work includes the creation of learning centers, and exploration of ideas like a College Without Cost, which uses volunteers and existing structures to deliver higher education at little or no cost.

The third role of the Office for the Community Agenda is as campus innovator. All of the work and ideas generated by the office are framed by its resolve to take a proactive and forward-thinking approach to education and community engagement. The Office for the Community Agenda bills itself, above all, as a medium for innovation to prepare to face and incorporate the paradigm shifts of the 21st century, planning change rather than accepting it, experimenting rather than waiting. Within this office, change on campus and in the community come together around an innovative attitude towards education.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Website: Office for the Community Agenda http://www.dist.maricopa.edu/comm/

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Website: http://nkla.sppsr.ucla.edu/

The above is one of several intergenerational programs featured in the Constitutional Rights Foundation Network magazine, Winter 2001. Written by Wendy Schaetzel Lesko

The project students undertake, and the logistical support required for the project are determined during the summer months by the Director of Internships and Volunteer Programs. Projects in recent years have included: fence painting and spreading sand (seven tons!) throughout the playground of a local pre-school; cleaning up the local Little League field; landscaping the grounds and interior painting of the Crippled Children s Society; and landscaping the grounds of a local public school.

The Director has attempted to select projects which: provide new students with an opportunity to see they can make a tangible difference; provide students with a common bonding experience; and serve as vehicles to let students know about other “”helping”" opportunities in which they might involve themselves during their time at the College. Most importantly, the project – an outreach effort – serves to establish relationships with the local community.

The New Student Community Service project was initiated six years ago when student government agreed to give up a portion of the orientation program dedicated to social programming. Students were initially reticent about relinquishing that time. However, after the first entering class successfully completed their project they challenged each succeeding class to do a bigger or better job and the project took on a life of its own.

From

Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Website: http://www.sandiego.edu/csl/

What is your nation of residence? Why are you crossing the border? How frequently do you cross in a month? For what purposes do you cross the border?

The research that the students compiled dispelled a number of common misconceptions about border crossings here, at the most traversed transnational border in the world. Contrary to popular belief, nine out of ten crossings were not by tourists or smugglers, but by commuters who were going back and forth as part of their daily routine.

Faced with this new information, community leaders on both sides of the border suddenly realized that the economies and lives of their two cities were intertwined. Policy makers came together to discuss how they could make border crossing easier for these every day commuters. By the time discussion was through, their efforts had been profiled by papers from The San Diego Tribune to The New York Times, and the United States Congress had passed a bill authorizing expansion of the border to make crossing easier.

This small study with large implications provides important insight into democracy. Democracy, ideally, is a system where people come together to engage in civil discourse a process of participating in informed discussion of how their community looks today, and how they envision it looking tomorrow. Unfortunately, community members often don t have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about their community, and there are typically few places in a town or city where people can come together for such discussion.

The San Diego Dialogue, an initiative of the University of California that was the springboard for this cross-border research project, seeks to rectify both of these situations. The Dialogue is the name given to a center based at the university founded to provide the information, public education, and forum for effective civil discourse in the San Diego-Tijuana region.

The Dialogue is led by a group of one hundred regional leaders of industry, government, the media, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations in Mexico and the United States. The group identifies issues of regional significance in three issue areas: regional integration; equity, diversity, and urban development; and globalization. For any particular issue, the progress of promoting civil discourse follows five steps. First, a plenary session is held providing public education and introducing the issue. Second, working groups are formed that include community members interested in the issue. Third, faculty and research fellows from the university provide applied research on the topic to give the working groups information they need to make informed decisions. The fourth key step in the development of civil discourse is the holding of community forums. The Dialogue regularly convenes workshops, roundtables, and community discussions that focus on research findings and regional issues. The group also sponsors a regular forum for discussion of cross-border policy issues that attracts participation from nearly 500 business, government, and academic leaders; and a regular breakfast forum series in which 200-300 business executives and public officials discuss economic issues and trends.

Once discussion of an issue is complete, the last step in the process is the publication of results. These may be published as separate articles available to the community, or as part of the San Diego Dialogue Report, the group s monthly newsletter.

By the time proceedings are published, community members have become involved in the process of sharing ideas that makes democratic communities come to life. Starting with a sociology class that got people talking all over the nation, the University of California, San Diego, has developed a project that has gotten people talking in a much more important venue: their own communities.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

For more information: http://www.sddialogue.org/

Nationally, Gaudiani used her presidency to be a leading advocate for civil discourse and civic engagement in American society. In October 1996, the college published Democracy Is a Discussion, a collection of essays on democracy by renowned international leaders designed to foster civic discussion in communities and countries worldwide. The book was translated into eleven languages by the United States Information Agency and was used as the basis for a series of discussion on the responsibilities of citizenship, sponsored by Connecticut College in cities throughout the United States. President Gaudiani encouraged this kind of thoughtful discussion on the state level as well. Working with the Connecticut Secretary of the State, she helped convene representatives of nonprofits, business, and government to encourage civic participation. On the local level, President Gaudiani became known as the most successful community developer in New London. After being appointed the director of the city s development corporation last year, Dr. Gaudiani convinced a major employer to move to New London, shoring up jobs that had been lost as industry moved out in recent years. This began a revitalization that had appeared impossible only a few years earlier. For more information read about the New London Social Justice Initiative.

The president sees her work in and for New London as deserved repayment to the community. The college itself was originally founded by residents of New London who raised money to buy land which they donated to start the school. Now, the school has repaid the favor by opening a new downtown center that houses the Center for Community Challenges, a new academic initiative that helps Connecticut College students to engage in service-learning in collaborative projects to benefit the community. The college has also instituted a new Certificate Program in Community Action that highlights the ways in which students can learn to give back to their community.

Even on the most local level, Dr. Gaudiani s commitment remained clear. With all of her activities to promote community engagement in New London, Connecticut, and the United States, President Gaudiani still found time to teach Literature, Service, and Social Reflection, a service-learning course at Connecticut College.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Economic Prosperity and Social Justice
– The New London Development Corporation (NLDC) was re-energized in 1997 when Connecticut College President Claire L. Gaudiani became its president. The NLDC s aim is to increase the city s tax base, increase the number of jobs in the city, and enhance the quality of life for all of New London s residents. NLDC was instrumental in securing a decision by Pfizer, Inc. to commit to building its $270 million Global Development Facility in New London. Pfizer’s commitment has been leveraged into other projects in New London. Projects under way include a state park at Fort Trumbull (a Civil War era fort adjoining Pfizer), an industrial pier development, downtown housing and retail space projects, and a dynamic new section of the city with a 200-room hotel, marina, health club, conference facility, and residences. The State of Connecticut has committed $60 million so far with a total of over $715 million committed from public and private sources. In December of 1998, the Connecticut College Board of Trustees voted $2.6 million from the College s endowment to be used as working capital.

In response to the economic development activities, Connecticut College has created the New London Social Justice Initiative. The broad goal for this initiative is to bring Connecticut College to a new level of engagement with its community leading to transformational changes for both Connecticut College and New London. This transformation yields an improved quality of life for New Londoners and an enhanced educational experience for Connecticut College students.

The philosophy behind the initiative is to ensure that the renaissance , which has started and will take place in New London over the next several years benefits all residents. Economic prosperity is only half of the equation. The other half is social justice, which must go hand in hand with economic prosperity. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. The work of the social justice initiative builds on the assets, strengths and experiences of our community to create a level of social transformation to match what is already occurring on the economic side.

A series of new programs in five areas health and wellness, early childhood development, K-12 education, the arts and public spaces, and economic opportunity — have been developed by the faculty in connection with this Initiative and the College s newest strategic plan. These programs will help to lead the transformation of New London and engage students and faculty in exciting elements of New London s emerging renaissance.

Contact person: Margaret Sheridan , Director, Holleran Center for Community Action & Public Policy,

Web: http://www.conncoll.edu/academics/centers/hollerancenter/index.html

The above is one of several intergenerational programs featured in the Constitutional Rights Foundation Network magazine, Winter 2001. Written by Wendy Schaetzel Lesko

Contact: Bart Baca, Director of Aquaculture Programs, baca {at} nova(.)edu

Davie Aquaculture Research Center web site: http://www.nova.edu/ocean/aqua/ (this is the former sewage plant where the fish are grown)

Not all community service, however, is good community service. Unfortunately, service can easily be done badly optimistic ideas thrown together can cause more harm than good. Fortunately, service can also be done well bringing mutual benefit to those serving and those served. The Harris Homes First Grade Initiative provides an example of co-curricular service at its best.

The initiative started in 1996, when parents at Harris Homes in Atlanta suggested that their children be exposed to college life through mentoring. The idea was a tried and true one: mentors are matched one-on-one with children whom they serve as a teacher and friend once a week. In the process, the children gain new visions of what the future might look like. One hundred twenty-five first graders from Harris Homes were paired with 125 freshman college students from Spelman College and Morehouse College, and a co-curricular service project had begun.

This alone would be a strong, on-going, co-curricular service. But there s more. The college students realized over time that their one-on-one relationship with these children could not so easily be relegated to a once-a-week relationship. For one thing, college students are part of a college, and it was difficult to separate their service work from that. So, mentees would come over to campus for visits with their mentors. And have lunches with their mentors. And sleepovers.

Just as college students are part of their college, the mentees they worked with were part of families. As it had been at the beginning of the program, parents input remained a driving force of the program. Mentors invited entire families onto campus, offered to share university resources, and acted as resources for neighborhood parents to address issues and concerns in the neighborhood.

It is now three years later. The mentees, now third graders, have become a familiar part of campus. Their small bodies have made frequent appearances in the cafeteria. Regularly, their shouts are heard across the campus green.

Their families too are part of campus. Support for Harris Homes parents is formalized in a peer group that meets on campus monthly to discuss common concerns. Classrooms are used for town meetings, and libraries for research.

Last year, outside funding made possible the founding of the Dean Rusk Enrichment Academy, an after-school program specializing in science and technology instruction for Harris Homes mentees that is run collaboratively by Spelman and Morehouse mentors and Harris Homes parents.

The Harris Homes Initiative has succeeded by being ongoing and long-term; building upon human relationships; involving thorough engagement with community members; and evolving over time to meet changing ideas, abilities, needs, and visions. From the start of the Harris Homes co-curricular service project in 1996, the Spelman and Morehouse students wanted their mentees to get the message that: This is college and you can come here. Over the course of three years, that message has been joined by a chorus of others: this is your neighborhood, this is your family, this is your community.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

DePaul University is a Catholic, urban institution, which was founded in 1898 to educate the children of Chicago’s large immigrant community, and has had service and citizenship as part of its core values throughout its history. DePaul has taken very seriously its responsibilities as a member of the larger community of Chicago. As it grew, the University included in its mission the education not only of first generation Americans, but also other non-traditional and underserved students and has as one of its goals being an internationally known provider of the highest quality professional education for adult, part-time students. In recent years the University has intensified its efforts at community service through a wide variety of programs that aim to provide solutions to the problems that face Chicago and many other large American cities.

“”Discover Chicago”" web site: http://condor.depaul.edu/~firstyr/discover.html

In 1990 Ken Reardon, an associate professor in urban and regional planning, became the director of the university s East St. Louis research project, and suggested one critical change. Instead of doing research on East St. Louis, as they had done for the last three years, the university would start doing research with East St. Louis. With that change, Dr. Reardon changed the nature of the project from a study in traditional research, to a national model in participatory action research.

This new approach had a ripple effect. Initially, research had focused on large-scale improvements within the city. University planners had developed enormous projects to encompass whole neighborhoods. When they began working with the community, faculty realized that residents didn t want lofty plans for changing their whole city. They wanted to take on problems one at a time, fixing East St. Louis piece by piece. Small-scale change replaced sweeping proposals.

The way the research itself was conducted also changed. Initially, the university had followed academic research models regularly used in urban planning. Once they began working with residents, they realized that no single model could be applied to East St. Louis. They picked pieces from here and there, and put together their plans as they went, modifying projects to fit the new ideas brought by residents. Reports written to fit academic specifications have had to be reworked and rewritten to be effective for community residents to use them with policy makers and funders.

The outcomes of the action research have been significant. In 1994, through regular meetings with urban planning faculty and students, the Emerson Park neighborhood association, representing the poorest neighborhood in East St. Louis, developed a five-year community development plan. In 1998, after completing the plan one year ahead of schedule, they initiated new discussions with faculty and students for a second five-year plan, which will include a $20 million project to develop 300 homes in the neighborhood. Another typical achievement came earlier in 1998 when the collaborative research team produced sufficient data on housing, transportation, and zoning to convince the St. Louis Bi-State Development Corporation to locate a new stop on their light rail system in Emerson Park a move that is expected to bring new revenue to the neighborhood and make jobs more accessible to residents.

The burgeoning relationship between the University of Illinois and various neighborhoods in East St. Louis continues to grow. A new Neighborhood Technical Assistance Center, opened in East St. Louis and staffed by the University of Illinois, augments action research with training and technical assistance in areas like computer literacy and grant writing.

Through action research that is truly collaborative, constructive, and community-focused, the University of Illinois has helped East St. Louis to build on their assets and increase their social capital as a community. Collaborative efforts and collaborative successes have re-energized neighborhoods and begun a process of transformation. When the university arrived in 1987, East St. Louis residents could think of no reason for faculty to stay. In a recent community retreat in 1998, faculty had a different problem. After asking residents to discuss future directions, and current strengths and weaknesses in the action research they were doing together, residents came up with a list of strengths, and a host of new ideas, but even after much prodding, they couldn t come up with any weaknesses.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: East St. Louis Action Research Project: http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Web site: http://ccts2.cti.depaul.edu/whpdc/index.htm

Contact: William Howard, Executive Director, williamhoward {at} aol(.)com

Contact: diversity {at} siuc(.)edu

The Center has three primary goals:

I. To involve youth in identifiying the challenges they face and the solutions, and to activate youth to participate more fully in their own development and in civic life.

II. To advance learning, both by engaging communities more fully in addressing youth issues, and by providing intergenerational and cross-cultural opportunities for learning through community education projects.

III. To educate adults to work more effectively and more comrehensively with youth by changing patterns in the fields of education and youth work, convening youth workers across disciplines to bridge the conceptual and programmatic gaps between formal and informal education, and between school, family and community.

Center projects have included a Youth Speak-Out on racism, a symposium on Youth, Identity, and Culture, an adult literacy program, staff-development seminars for youth workers, and Community Justice Initiative.

Website: http://www.youthandsociety.org/

On the west side of Indianapolis FPA helped begin a new community center by donating computers, assisting in grant-writing, and organizing fund raisers. It helped a local church to convert a former crack house into a drug counseling center by providing resources and partnerships. It helped the center renovate its building and train its staff by building relationships with a local hospital and businesses.

Contact: Mr. Olgen Williams, resident of Haughville in Indianapolis’ near west side and co-chair of the Front Porch Alliance Roundtable.

Excerpted from “”Caring for Our Civic Souls”", by Olgen Williams for Blueprint Magazine, April 1, 1999.