News

The fall 2018 issue of Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement marks the conclusion of a decade publishing articles that recognize successful engaged learning depends on effective partnerships. Thus, it is fitting that this issue’s articles address directly through empirical research the impact of service-learning partnerships in three distinct areas: how academic-based service yields stronger results than community service; how service-learning directed toward at-risk youth can and should expand to include longitudinal studies; and, how service-learning when paired with sustainability efforts draws greater attention to much needed eco-justice around the world. Access the journal online (free).

Partnerships, Volume 9, Number 2
Table of Contents

Articles

A comparison of the experiences and vocational benefits of service-learning and community service volunteering in a community-based exercise program
Jenelle B. Weidner, Rachael C. Stone, Amy E. Latimer-Cheung, Jennifer R. Tomasone — all from Queens University (Canada)      

Helping At-Risk Youth to ‘Think Big’: A Partnership between a College and a Community Agency
Robyn Maitoza, York College of Pennsylvania 

A New Alliance for Service Learning and Community Engagement To Cultivate Citizens with an Ecocentric Vision of Justice
Melanie G Keel, Catherine Wright, Allison Kellar — all from Wingate University 

Book Reviews

Maria Avila, PH.D (2018) Transformative Civic Engagement Through Community Organizing. Stylus Publishing LLC
Review by Richard Coon, Sean Crossland, University of Utah

2018 Barnhill Trailblazer Zaynah Afada. Photo courtesy of Guilford College.

Guilford College senior Zaynah Afada is the 2018 recipient of the John H. Barnhill Civic Trailblazer Award. The annual award is presented by North Carolina Campus Compact to one student in the state who fostered innovative service partnerships and whose leadership inspires others to serve.

A Bonner Scholar at Guilford, Afada is honored for her service with immigrant and refugee communities in Greensboro.

Afada first encountered Guilford’s Bonner program during her sophomore year of high school, when she joined a project called the African Youth Initiative. The initiative supported newly arrived African immigrant youth in Greensboro as they worked to graduate high school and access higher education.

“When I came to the United States,” Afada says, “I had no previous knowledge about the education system here, so I understood why newly arrived African youth struggled. I knew how hard it was to learn a different language, adjust to a different culture, and access resources in a foreign city.”

At the time, the African Youth Initiative was coordinated by Bonner students from Guilford College. The connection was serendipitous: Afada graduated from high school and enrolled at Guilford as a Bonner Scholar, a program she says “afforded me the opportunity to access an education and an opportunity to serve others.”

Afada was born in the West African country of Togo, and she immigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was nine years old. As a Guilford student and Bonner Scholar, she sought out opportunities to work with Greensboro’s immigrant communities. She was coordinator of the community garden project at the Newcomer’s School and an intern with the North Carolina African Services Coalition. She is also a member of Guilford’s food justice club and African Students Association.

In 2017 Afada was elected by the community to serve as one of five members of the City of Greensboro’s International Advisory Committee (IAC). The committee reports to the city’s human relations commission and the city council about issues and policies affecting Greensboro’s diverse international community.

Afada addresses CSNAP audience. Photo: Dennis McNair

Perhaps her most important service has been with immigrant and refugee families who lived in the Summit-Cone apartment complex. In November 2016, Afada began serving as the Bonner coordinator for a community center at the low-income housing complex. Andrew Young, former volunteer training coordinator at Guilford, took Afada on her first visit to the neighborhood.

“Ms. Afada was tentative at first, but willing to give it a try,” Young recalled. “As we went door to door introducing ourselves she was a natural, able to get residents to open their doors and converse in halting English or in French.”

For almost two years, Afada recruited volunteers, tutored children after school, and assisted families at the complex. In May 2018, an accidental kitchen fire in one apartment killed five children. Their family had been resettled in the complex from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The apartment had no working smoke detectors. The tragedy focused attention on a number of contributing factors: the lack of affordable housing, city building code enforcement, negligent landlords, and economic insecurity facing immigrant and refugee families.

Afada saw the community center needed to serve residents in a different way. She and other volunteers worked with residents to file housing complaints, created spreadsheets to track data, and arranged conversations with city officials, all while comforting devastated neighbors. Most impressive about Afada’s work, according to one nominator, was “her knowledge of each of the 30 or so families. She knew almost everyone’s name.”

In September the Summit-Cone apartments were condemned by the city, and the Bonner community center project ended. Afada plans to continue her work on behalf of immigrant communities in new ways after graduation.

Created in 2011, the Barnhill Award is named for John H. Barnhill, who founded innovative service programs while a student at Elon University and who later became the founding executive director of North Carolina Campus Compact. Afada is the ninth student to receive the award and the first from Guilford College.

Afada and Bonner director James Shields. Photo: Dennis McNair

Afada was honored at the Compact’s annual CSNAP student conference, held this year on November 10 at Fayetteville State University. The event convened more than 150 students and staff from 23 campuses in the network. In addition to awards and networking opportunities, the conference included student-led workshops, panel discussions, and plenary sessions on diverse community engagement topics around the theme: “The Power of Youth Civic Courage.”

North Carolina Campus Compact is a collaborative network of 37 colleges and universities committed to educating students for civic and social responsibility, partnering with communities for positive change, and strengthening democracy. The NC Campus Compact state office fosters connections between campuses, shares best practice information and resources, recognizes outstanding work, and champions civic and community engagement in higher education.  The network, an affiliate of the national Campus Compact organization, was founded in 2002 and is hosted by Elon University.

North Carolina Campus Compact has joined forces with Food Lion Feeds to launch a “Collegiate Challenge” that will mobilize colleges and universities to address hunger in their local community. A geographically diverse group of 18 schools — including 4-year colleges and universities and 2-year community colleges — will compete for $20,000 in funding to support campus-based hunger relief projects, while generating donations to local food banks.

Schools can earn points in the challenge by organizing hunger awareness events and food donation drives. Individual students can earn points for their school by shopping at local Food Lion stores or posting on social media. Each campus selected an MVP Student Ambassador to help organize the Collegiate Challenge, which runs from September 17 – December 3.

“We are excited to partner with NC Campus Compact and these 18 campuses that are already doing so much around food insecurity,” said Pat Taft, Community Relations Manager for Food Lion.  “It is a natural fit for us because we are passionate about feeding our neighbors who shop with us and those who may have the difficult task of choosing between rent and gas and groceries.  We want to encourage the great work these students are already doing and by supporting their efforts we can broaden the reach of our hunger relief efforts in the towns and cities we serve.”

College campuses across the country and in North Carolina are taking steps to address student hunger. UNC Pembroke and Wake Community College are among a number of schools with on-campus food pantries, and a recent study by NC State University found 14% of students had experienced low or very low food security in the past month.

Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has made a commitment to provide 500 million meals to individuals and families in need by the end of 2020. Since the launch of Food Lion Feeds in 2014, the grocer has donated more than 400 million meals through in-store campaigns, in-store food rescue programs and associate volunteerism.

About Food Lion

Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., since 1957, has more than 1,000 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and employs more than 63,000 associates. By leveraging its longstanding heritage of low prices and convenient locations, Food Lion is working to own the easiest full shop grocery experience in the Southeast, anchored by a strong commitment to affordability, freshness and the communities it serves. Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has committed to provide 500 million meals to individuals and families in need by the end of 2020. Food Lion is a company of Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. division of Zaandam-based Royal Ahold Delhaize Group. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.

On November 9-10 in Fayetteville, NC Campus Compact will hold its annual CSNAP Student Conference in partnership with Fayetteville State University. CSNAP — which stands for “Citizenship, Service, Networking, And Partnerships” — lets college students lead and attend breakout sessions that advance the practice of civic and community engagement on campuses across the state. Workshops may address leadership skills, model programs, or public issues.

The 2018 event will also explore the concept of social justice by featuring a panel of local civil rights activists and a group exercise based on Theater of the Oppressed. During the CSNAP awards ceremony, the Compact will recognize Community Impact Award recipients from participating campuses, as well as the Barnhill Civic Trailblazer, one outstanding student whose community service has created new paths to engagement and inspired peers. Learn more about the awards.

All CSNAP participants can also apply for the Marshall Alternative Break Scholarship. Created by former CSNAP award winner and Western Carolina University alum Aaron Marshall as an effort to “pay it forward,” the scholarship offers up to $250 to support a student’s participation in an alternative break service trip. In most years, multiple scholarships are awarded.

Students (and campus staff) should submit breakout session proposals by Oct. 5. Submit via the Call for Proposals.

Registration for the event is open now through Oct. 22. Cost is $75/pp for students, faculty, and staff from Campus Compact member campuses (including CC members from outside NC) or $100/pp for individuals from colleges and universities that are not part of the network. Fee covers all conference materials, plus breakfast and lunch on Saturday.

Submit a breakout session proposal by Oct. 5

Register by Oct. 22

Learn more the event