Swarthmore College
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Environmental Justice & Community Resilience Program (EJCR) is a new, interdisciplinary and community engagement initiative sponsored by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, the Environmental Studies Program, and the Office of Sustainability. The EJCR program will provide a gathering space and support network facilitating action research partnerships grounded in environmental justice and committed to forging diverse campus-community collaborations. Many years of lively conversations linking environmental justice curricula with engaged scholarship reached a pivotal convergence in 2015 with the convening of Swarthmore’s first “Sustainability Charrette,” a campus-wide, strategic visioning workshop that brought together students, faculty, staff, board members, alums, and community partners to learn from invited experts in the field and to collectively brainstorm ideas for moving the college forward. A key recommendation that emerged from the Charrette was to establish a “center dedicated to environmental sustainability aligned with the advancement of social justice.” The EJCR represents the newest constellation of these historical commitments and aspirations. In alignment with the College’s mission to advance critically-engaged scholarship, racial and gender justice, and purposeful, campus-community collaborations with local partners and beyond, Giovanna Di Chiro, Professor of Environmental Studies and former Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change will serve as the EJCR program’s first faculty coordinator.

ChesterSemester is an interdisciplinary course on social change with an engaged scholarship internship component. Housed within the Environmental Studies Program and the Black Studies Program and supported by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, it consists of a weekly class facilitated by engaged faculty, staff, and community partners; a supervised internship in the nearby city of Chester; and a final research paper with a public-facing presentation. The purpose of ChesterSemester is to build strong relationships between committed students and community leaders on common projects of mutual transformation.

Dare2Soar: Dare 2 Soar is Swarthmore College’s largest and oldest tutoring program that has served hundreds of children aged K-12 in Chester, PA. Chester youth receive academic and cultural enrichment through the administration of meaningful activities that provide opportunities for personal development as well as recreation. The program’s primary goal is to provide effective homework help to students in a way that encourages them to become increasingly more academically self-sufficient. During post-homework activities, students engage in fun and educational activities that increase their exposure to new subjects and help foster an independent love of learning. Having consolidated Dare 2 Soar sites from eight to six sites in FY 17-18, in FY 18-19, Dare 2 Soar provided after-school tutoring at the following Chester-based sites: Boys and Girls Club; Chester Eastside, Inc.; Chester Charter School for the Arts; Community Action Agency of Delaware County; God’s House of Glory; and J. Lewis Crozer Library.

Chester Education Foundation: Twice per week for ten weeks, 10 college students trained by LGR from Widener University, Swarthmore College and Penn State Brandywine meet at the STEM Academy to coach students in math, language arts and test-taking strategies. The LGR coaches, along with guest speakers, also provide workshops on the college application process, financial aid and student success.

Information for this credit was assembled by representatives from the Office of Sustainability and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.