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

“”We are finding that successful partnerships are emerging and flourishing in the state of Wisconsin. At the same time, we are receiving extensive feedback that many of you would like more resources on how to develop civic engagement projects. With support from the University of Wisconsin-Extension, WiCC created a resource guide to make the development of civic engagement projects – and sharing of ideas – easier for agencies and campuses.

The resource guide contains a brief introduction to community-campus civic engagement including several models, definitions and rationales. At the heart of the resource guide is a directory, which describes existing civic engagement projects/partnerships and provides contact information. Finally, the resource guide includes sample resources such as forms, manuals, partnership principles and syllabi.”"

Click here to learn more and to download the guide from the WICC website.

Website: http://utahspromise.org/ysu

Contact: Teresa Oliver, yes {at} utahspromise(.)org

The Agnes Scott Volunteer Program at the Fraiser Center seeks to break the generational cycle of poverty and teen pregnancy by helping young mothers envision a productive future. By assisting with the parenting and academic education of teenage mothers, Agnes Scott students experience, first-hand, the benefits of applying theory to practice. The program has five components:

Mentoring: Each week students lead group and individual projects that reflect an empowerment curriculum

Tutoring: Students and guest facilitators host workshops that address literacy skills, as well as self-expression through art and writing.

Social Work: Students accompany social workers from Decatur High School on home visits.

College Visit Days: Fraiser Center mothers accompany Agnes Scott students to morning classes and then attend a luncheon with an alumna keynote speaker.

Support for Moms: Students and campus volunteers create gift bags and Christmas bags for mothers and babies.

The Program also provides a funded two-semester service-learning internship designed to provide out-reach for further strengthening the Center’s basic services.

For more information contact Dr. Tina Pippin, Department of Religious Studies: tpippin {at} agnesscott(.)edu.

Goals: To address the following five primary needs: eliminate the digital divide for Charter School students and members of their family, teach students basic computer and internet skills, integrate internet lessons into social studies curriculum, enhance students understanding of ethnic heritage and pride, and integrate social studies curriculum with present day issues.

Click here for more information on this project.

Goals: To provide high school students who are either on prolonged suspension, have been expelled, or are serving parole with the opportunity to learn computer skills that will better prepare them for the work force.

Click here for more information on this project.

Goals: To encourage and aid Reservation schools in developing science curricula. To increase numbers of educated Indian professionals, especially in the sciences related to sustainable natural resource management and conservation, who make decisions important to Indian rights, welfare, and sovereignty. To impact empowerment and greater self-determination of American Indian communities by helping them to get their voices heard through education, especially with respect to environmental science.

Click here for more information on this project.

This is an example of a true community partnership. In Fall 1999, outgoing President Randolph asked the college to identify a project that would involve our “”GateWay Family”" (our entire campus community). About that time, we received a call from the principal of our neighboring elementary school asking us to consider becoming community consultants to deliver the Junior Achievement curriculum to all classrooms at her school. Junior Achievement s mission of teaching children to value themselves, others, their education, and the American free enterprise system aligned perfectly with the the goals of our service-learning program. A representative from Junior Achievement met with our Service-learning Committee, a interdisciplinary group charged with overseeing service-learning activities on our campus and making related recommendations to the administration, to explain the program. The committee embraced the project and recommended to President Randolph that this would be our all campus spring project.

In January, President Randolph was reassigned to the MCCD District office as Acting Vice-Chancellor for Quality and Employee Development. Acting President Gaudet made the suggestion that we form teams of GWCC personnel and service-learning students. The call went out from President Gaudet and volunteers from all divisions came forward. While all volunteers saw the project as a way to fill an unmet need for an inner city school, faculty viewed it as an opportunity to partner with their students, students saw the project as a way to interact more informally with campus personnel and administrators had an opportunity to interact more with students. In less than two weeks, all 24 classes were assigned. President Gaudet volunteered to be consultant to an 8th grade class. (As an extension activity, he and the nursing faculty member who was the consultant to the other grade class, sponsored Career Awareness visit to the campus for the 8th grade students and their parents. Thirty-five participants spent three hours at the campus completing computer based career assessments and touring the campus.)

A core team with faculty representation from each instructional division and the Director of Community Partnership Programs participated in a training workshop with the teachers from the elementary school and went through a Junior Achievement provided train-the-consultant workshop. Team members in turn provided training to campus volunteers. During the next three months, teams made 6-8 visits to their assigned classrooms to deliver the citizenship lessons. The evaluations have been overwhelmingly positive and about 75% of the consultants have asked to participate next year.

Our campus has decided to continue the project. Ideally, children who spend their K-8 years at Crockett Elementary will have nine years of citizenship and stay in school messages. We also see it as an opportunity to informally mentor our future civic leaders and our future GateWay students. We are certain that there will be additional related service-learning opportunities at the school.

Website: www.gwc.maricopa.edu/partnerships

The Tutoring Program utilizes the volunteer services of the University s student body to act as Reading and Math tutors for K-6 grade pupils in the Alvord Unified School District. While realizing the nation s need for quality teachers, the Tutoring Program provides an opportunity for University students to explore teaching as a career goal. As a result of the tutoring experience, several tutors express a new or increased desire to enter the teaching profession. They also state benefits of acquiring effective teaching skills, gaining leadership confidence and making a difference in the lives of others. While disadvantaged students receive this additional learning opportunity, they also gain self-esteem, enthusiasm for learning, hope for a better future and a positive perception of La Sierra University.

The Mentoring Program is providing an equally beneficial experience for its participants. This program places high school students in a one-to-one mentoring relationship working with a University professor. This employment opportunity allows them to explore their interests in a chosen career field. The mentoring experience teaches them how to operate in a professional work environment. In addition to learning new skills, these students testify about other benefits increased self-esteem, motivation toward higher education and a positive perception of the La Sierra University s educational experience. The University professors make these benefits a reality through their dedicated volunteer service. While the professors appreciate the assistance they receive from these students, they welcome the chance to make a difference in the lives of our youth.

The Tutoring and Mentoring programs twofold ability to benefit every participant makes the Arlanza/La Sierra Community Collaborative a perfect example of “”best practices.”"

For many years FSU has worked well with the school district to achieve their mutual agenda. The new agreement sets forth a “”professional development schools network”" with the intent of reforming schools, developing exemplary models for teacher and administrator preservice and inservice education, and achieving the highest quality educational results. Through the implementation of this partnership special attention and resources will be focused on the southside schools, most of which are in neighborhoods nearby the campus and most of which are lower achieving than other schools in the district.

The collaboration is managed by a highly experienced former principal reporting to the provost and is overseen by a steering committee comprised of the university presidents, superintendent, education and arts and science deans. Advice is provided by two committees broadly representing interests and disciplines: the professional development school committee and the outreach advisory committee. A needs assessment undertaken among the southside school administrators provided important guidance for the new initiative.

Early projects include establishing professional development school relationships among the College of Arts and Science, the Colleges of Education, and several “”high needs”" elementary and middle schools which focus on reading and literacy. Technology training is being provided by the university this summer to support these efforts. Several joint proposals have been written to provide resources to support the work of the partnership.

One visible example of the partnership is the mentoring program through which faculty and staff have committed to working with youngsters in southside schools. Both the FSU president and the LCS superintendent have chosen to mentor to demonstrate their support for the program.

For further information contact Dr. Laura Hassler, K-12 Initiatives Director or go to http://www.fsu.edu/~k12.

The partnership involves the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the University of Miami, Barry University, Florida Memorial University, Florida International University and Miami-Dade Community College. This partnership of K-12 public schools along with private and public higher education institutions is unique in the country. Under the leadership of M-DCC these institutions jointly provide nearly 175 federal work study students to serve as one-on-one tutors at 34 elementary schools and six after-school programs. Together, the tutors provide individual assistance to nearly 2,000 first-grade students every week, and this requires significant energy and resources to assure that FWS students receive appropriate training and support. Also, the coordination of the placement of these student-tutors is a positive example of dedication to collaborative use of institutional resources to maximize the benefits for the community.

The partnership also includes a comprehensive training program for the tutors that addresses the development of essential tutoring skills as well as specific sessions to emphasize civic responsibility and the importance of individual commitment to community good. These training and support activities occur on an continuous basis throughout the semester.

An additional feature of the partnership is a separate series of training events for teachers, teachers aides and others who desire to help children learn to read better. This is a jointly developed training program called “”Buddy Reading”" and it provides basic skills for individual volunteers. It also serves as a means to involve volunteers from the community at-large as well as from within each of the partner-institutions.

Finally, this partnership provides a way for us to introduce our students to the importance of corporate citizenship responsibilities. In other words, we model for them how the different sectors of a community must work together for the strength of the community; that through the combined efforts of our different colleges, we can do far more than any one individual school in assisting our community. We believe that it is essential our students understand that higher education has a common commitment to enhance the learning of children in the K-12 system.

Joshua Young, College-Wide Director, Center for Community Involvement, jyoung {at} mdcc(.)edu

CCI web site: www.mdcc.edu/cci/

A few years ago Dr. Bob DeHaan, a professor of biology at Emory University and a resident of Atlanta, decided it was time something was done about science education in elementary schools. Recent research showed that the way science was taught to elementary school students was simply incompatible with the nature of the discipline. Classes looked more like science history teaching students about science and the key words and ideas than like science education teaching students how to do science and engage in scientific inquiry about the world around them.

Dr. DeHaan approached the principal at his grandson s elementary school and asked whether seventy math and science majors would be of use to teachers. When the answer was yes, he found a host of Emory students who were interested in participating. The students, all science and math majors, received nine hours of training in which they learned not just how to help teachers, but how to help change the way teachers teach. These students would serve as science partners in Atlanta public schools, assisting teachers in inquiry-based science instruction. Together, they founded Elementary Science Education Partners (ESEP).

At many colleges and universities, students are matched with public schools to provide services to children. While such a match may be a service partnership, it is not an educational partnership. In an educational partnership, campuses work with the community to effect change in the way education itself works. What made ESEP a true partnership was the idea of participatory reform, which guided ESEP s work. By this method, teachers and administrators work with college students to take an active role in the reform process.

ESEP was an immediate hit, and Dr. DeHaan soon discovered that this partnership was only the beginning. Science teachers began requesting that their principals provide them with additional science instruction. Out of this request, grew a teacher training program: Science, Knowledge, Inquiry, Leadership (SKIL), a program in which teachers who have worked with ESEP provide professional development to their colleagues in the Atlanta public school system. Every year, 38 SKIL teachers provide this science training.

The partnership continues to grow. With demand for undergraduate science partners outpacing the supply at Emory, six other campuses in Atlanta have joined ESEP: Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Sate University, Morehouse College, the Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College. Students, faculty, and staff work in mentoring and partnering relationships with elementary teachers, principals, and the Atlanta Board of Education. The Atlanta public school system now provides every elementary school science teacher in Atlanta with science kits that are designed by the partnership members to assist in course instruction.

What began as a small-scale effort to change science education at the school where Dr. DeHaan s grandson was a student, has grown into a partnership that includes all seventy Atlanta public elementary schools. By the year 2000, ESEP will have worked with all 1,700 science teachers in the Atlanta school system.

From

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

For more information: http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/ESEP/

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

Web site: http://www.communityschools.org/extendedservices.html

e-mail: ccs {at} iel(.)org

Contact: diversity {at} siuc(.)edu

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

E-mail: Jill Miels, 00JCMIELS {at} BSUVC.bsu(.)edu

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

Increasing youth service opportunities by 20 percent

Mentoring 200 youth and adding six job shadowing programs

Creating an inter-generational after-school program

Giving 1,500 children a new book

Providng a medical history passport for 1,370 foster children

Doubling its telemedicine school sites and establsihing a speaker’s bureau to youth

Assisting the 24 school districts and more than 5,000 youth in developing a formal community collaborative infrastructure within EKU sites

Continuing to foster, within EKU’s university-school-community partnerships, cooperative and coordinated working relationships to ensure that the needs of the community’s young people are identified and met

Designating an individual to coordinate the partnership for each site

Expanding Project HEALTH (see Project HEALTH entry in database) to Brown University and academic institutions in five other cities

Delivering resources to more than 2,100 children, 350 children in six additional cities that will benefit from Project HEALTH programs

]]> http://www.compact.org/program-models/program-models-campus-community-partnerships-andor-campuscorporatecommunity-partnerships/eastern-kentucky-universitys-promise/1656/feed/ 0 http://www.compact.org/program-models/program-models-assessment/abc-day-teaming-up-with-elementary-schools-for-a-day-of-service/1662/ http://www.compact.org/program-models/program-models-assessment/abc-day-teaming-up-with-elementary-schools-for-a-day-of-service/1662/#comments Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 tdomf_26a6d http://compact.localhost.com/?p=1662 On Saturday, April 10, 1999, members of the Lesley College community joined forces with residents of the city of Cambridge in a unique endeavor which reflected the College’s conviction “”that people matter”" and that we must nurture the “”power of individuals working collaboratively to bring about constructive change.”" (Lesley College Mission Statement). Building on a long history of Community Service Learning and Professional Development School Partnerships between Lesley College and the Cambridge Public Schools, this year under the auspices of President Margaret A. McKenna these communities collaborated on a series of projects designed to meet the individual needs of four elementary schools. Students, teachers, parents, and administrators from the Agassiz, Haggerty, Harrington, and Peabody Schools joined with students, faculty, and staff from Lesley College for a day of service that culminated in a shared meal as well as a special reflective session for all participants.

In the initial planning stages for this day, the schools were asked to engage in a needs assessment that involved school staff, parents, and students to determine a project which met a specific need in the community and, at the same time, engaged students as well as enhanced their learning. These projects were identified as a result of School-Site-Council discussions and joint sessions between Lesley College and Cambridge school representatives, including the student government organizations. The Lesley College Council for Community Service worked with members of the President’s Office to facilitate planning of ABC Day over the course of six months.

The specific project of the Agassiz School showcases Lesley College undergraduate students as active, community citizens. This particular Cambridge community project was concerned with homelessness. Over the course of a month, students throughout the school collected cans from neighborhood residents for a citywide food pantry. On April 10th, after the cans had been collected, this group of students also made lunches for the homeless in Harvard Square. Lesley College students who are members of the undergraduate service club walked with the Agassiz students into the Square, helping with the distribution of food, while sharing in a discussion with the students about the issue of homelessness in our communities.

As Lesley College celebrates its 90th anniversary, the ABC Day is a good example of a campus-wide initiative that clearly indicates the long-standing commitment of the college to the development of active, educated citizens among its students and to the cultivation of collaboration between the College and its surrounding communities.

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