CPGC 2020 - Rupture and Recalibration

Dear Friends,  

We are interdependent. We are interdependent with one another, as the pandemic painfully demonstrates. We are interdependent with history and historical oppression, as structural racism exemplifies. We are interdependent with the ecological systems that surround us, as we know through the climate crisis. Throughout its 20-year history, the CPGC has advanced understanding of interdependence - and how to operate ethically within it. 

This horrific year has reaffirmed the CPGC’s core reasons for being - and our off-campus partners, generous financial supporters, students, faculty, and staff have all pivoted rapidly. 2020 also coincided with the CPGC’s 20th Anniversary Year. It was meant to be a time for careful reflection and considered recalibration. While the tragedy of 2020 undermined our original ideas about how that would look, we have gathered with CPGC friends throughout the year, resulting in several innovations. Results include: 

1. We are launching the HaverPhilly Alumni Fellowship program. This post-graduate program offers entry-level professional positions with regional non-profit organizations, focused professional development to advance social justice work, and a living wage that sums to nearly $30,000/yr in total pre-tax remuneration and includes Haverford College employee benefits. Applicants will apply to work with organizations including  AFAHO (African Family Health Organization), Ardmore Victory Gardens, Education Law Center, Food Moxie, HIAS-PA, Philadelphia Legal Assistance, Shift Capital, and more. Details about the program and how to apply for its inaugural year will be available in January. 
    
2. The CPGC enabled nearly 60 remote Summer Internships for Social Justice - and will do so again this coming summer. Summer internships provide students with important professional and personal development opportunities while they make a difference desired by communities and community organizations. As has been the case for several years, the majority of students funded for summer internships receive financial aid, and summer internship participation reflects stronger presence of BIPOC students and first generational / low income students than is the case for their presence on campus as a whole. Summer internship results included advances in Zapotec language activism, green infrastructure development in the communities surrounding campus, collaborative inquiry into Black studies through Laɣim Tehi Tuma, and a student’s use of their internship insights to develop an Op-Ed urging humanitarian release of people imprisoned in PA during the COVID pandemic. This coming summer, we will build on lessons learned to again offer strong internship opportunities, even if they continue to be remote. 
    
3. We invested in communities, community organizations, and community leadership. We are fortunate that the CPGC’s generous donors allowed flexibility in our programming and mobilized additional funding as community organizations faced substantial budget hurdles this year. Generous giving and thoughtful flexibility enabled us to continue mobilizing about $100,000 specifically toward direct investments in partner community organizations annually. This occurs largely through funding entry-level professional positions in organizations struggling to maintain those vital roles, such as HIAS-PA, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and Puentes de Salud. 
    
4. We developed an open-access toolkit on a civics of interdependence. The toolkit, which offers orientations to key concepts in ethical interdependence and careful collaboration, was utilized in our summer internship program, in a pilot course at Haverford, and in courses at a dozen other colleges and universities. Toolkit development drew on the insights of more than two dozen scholars, activists, and academics gathered through the CPGC’s hosting of the Community-based Global Learning Collaborative. Key concepts explored through the toolkit include: 
   • What does global citizenship have to do with local actions and community-building?
   • How do my strengths, skills, and dispositions relate to advancing just, inclusive, sustainable communities?
   • How does my positionality relate to how I might share stories to advance positive social change?
   • How can cultural humility help us recognize and challenge power imbalances while advancing institutional accountability?
   • What is Structural Racism, and How Has it Affected the #Philly Region?
   • And much more. 
      
5. This coming summer we will inaugurate the first Philadelphia Justice and Equity Fellowship student cohort. This new program, made possible by an endowed fund created by the Board and Corporation of Haverford College and seeded by Aleta and Paul Zoidis ’81, P’11, will provide paid summer and academic year internships at select partner organizations working actively in Philadelphia to address issues of justice and equity and confronting systemic racism. These internships build on our existing relationships with organizations including Abolitionist Law Center, AFAHO, Asian Arts Initiative, City of Philadelphia, College Together, Council on American-Islamic Relations Philadelphia, and Shift Capital. Stay tuned for more information and announcements. Students may express interest here. 

We are interdependent. We make progress by listening, sharing desires, and aligning strengths - toward justice, inclusion, and sustainability.  If you receive this email, you are part of the CPGC Community. We are grateful for you and appreciate your contributions - through advocacy, through organizing, through teaching, project management, or giving. Everyone has a place in justice work. We’re glad you make your place intersect with us, and we look forward to building on these and other initiatives in the year and years to come. 

May rupture and recalibration lead us toward restoration and renewal, 

The Center for Peace and Global Citizenship