The Commons Project

List of 3 items.

• The commons unite us in our purpose . . .

  in our sense of collective responsibility, and in our efforts to turn these shared principles into action. 

   

  The Commons Project represents not an addition to our program but rather a fundamental orientation for the way we engage in community within and beyond the school. At its core, the projects aims to inspire in students an ethic of care rooted in: 

  • Listening
  • Willingness to join
  • Noticing the needs of others
  • Seeing oneself as capable of action
  • Acting in partnership and with humility
  • Move gently, advocate fiercely 
  • Self-reflection
  • Do no harm

• What is the work of The Commons Project? 

  This work includes collaboration between LREI students and faculty and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. 

   

  The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of the school’s knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.

   

  *Adapted from Carnegie Foundation definition of community engagement.

   

  Community Engagement includes: 

  • Service learning
  • Community service (direct or indirect)
  • Activism/advocacy
  • Outreach/partnerships
  • Civic engagement
  • Community-based learning or research
  • Community/economic development

• Our Guiding Principles

  1. Get proximate: 

  • Seek out and center the voices of those affected by injustice and inequity.
  • Listen first. 
  • Ask questions.
  • Define needs and solutions in partnership with community stakeholders. 
  • Understand the ways your own identity positions you in relation to others. 

  2. Challenge easy narratives: 

  • Embrace complexity and ambiguity.
  • Value the perspectives and experiences of all.
  • Interrogate the relationship between individuals and systems of power.
  • Interrogate assumptions and preconceptions.
  • Keep your mind open to the world.

  3. Stay hopeful:

  • Find the helpers who light the way.
  • Remember that hope resides in action. 
  • Know that change is slow but possible. 
  • Carry the lessons of history with us. 
  • Recognize that systems of power were created by individuals and can be dismantled by them.

  4. Do uncomfortable things:

  • Recognize that change takes work. 
  • Embrace mistakes as opportunities for growth and learning.
  • Recognize that the fight for justice belongs to all of us.
  • Acknowledge discomfort as a process of dealing with not-knowing.  

   

  *Adapted from the work of Bryan Stevenson