We apply the philosophy and skills of the community organizing model, such as identifying self-interest, building relationships, understanding root causes, restructuring power, and centering the experience of the communities most impacted by injustice and systemic oppression, to inform how we build partnerships for community engagement.
We value the principles and elements of Emergent Strategy in our quest to fulfill our vision of collaborating with communities to improve lives
Emergent Strategy provides a way of approaching our work with a set of skills and strategies “for organizers building movements for justice and liberation that leverage relatively simple interactions to create complex patterns, systems, and transformations – including adaptation, interdependence and decentralization, fractal awareness, resilience and transformative justice, nonlinear and iterative change, creating more possibilities.”
Why Engage with CCESL Student Programs?
All CCESL Student Programs expose students to these concepts. Programs focus on various levels of depth and complexity from awareness and knowledge, to skill development, to application through action, then application through integration across experiences/programs/activities, and finally adaptation, moving beyond your own project and contributing to our shared understanding. The aim is to build students’ knowledge, skills, and commitments over time.
Understand your “Why, What, and How” of Social Change:
Bring your understand to bear to do public good work, including:
Your values/self-interest
Social justice issue interests
Preferred pathways for social change
CCESL’s Framework for Community-Engaged Knowledge, Skills, & Commitments
We employ a set of knowledge, skills, and commitments through our student programs that are aligned with this approach. We believe that students’ capacity to do authentic, ethical community-engaged work is enhanced when they Think, Connect, Act, Reflect.
Commit to Act for the Public Good, by considering your place within community and your responsibility to others, engaging in civic professionalism, understanding your strengths, and discerning what you can do to work toward the change you seek.
Contextualize a Social Justice Issue, including root causes, historical context, knowledge of current and previous social movements, and awareness of the systems upholding injustices
Understand Civic and Democratic Processes, including voting processes, civic processes like dialogue and deliberation, and legislative and administrative governmental processes.
Understand a variety of Social Change Actions, including direct service, policy change, grassroots collective action, direct action, community organizing, mutual aid, etc.
Use an Anti-oppression Analysis to inform action, including exercising critical self-awareness of one’s identities, privilege, and the Four I's of Oppression, while centering the knowledge and voices of frontline communities and actively working against white supremacy.
Work Collaboratively for Social Change, guided by the Community Organizing process and embracing Emergent Strategy in your organizing work.
