Advancing Racial Justice: Engaging with Community Organizations through Restoration and Transformation

The Social Justice Initiative (SJI) designed and offered a unique Praxis II course for Bryn Mawr College undergraduates that engaged students in learning about: Racial Equity Tools and Diversity, Equity, and Belonging practices; the dynamics of system-wide change; and the impact of transformative and restorative justice on individuals, organizations, and communities. Dr. Darlyne Bailey and Graduate Assistants Gwenn Prinbeck and Sarah Spath partnered with the Bryn Mawr College Career and Civic Engagement Center to create and co-teach the course. In addition, the Racial Justice Impact Fund supported engaging students with Philadelphia area community-based organizations committed to achieving racial justice through practices of restoration and transformation within the organizations and/or in the neighborhoods of those they serve.

While this course was launched in the Fall 2022, the specific content will continue to reflect the input of the students each year and the SJI instructors. It will be offered again in Fall 2024 from its new home as part of the core offerings in the College’s Africana Studies Program.

In Fall 2022 our community partners included:

 

Students with community mentor at the Praxis poster session
Neighbors Helping Neighbors on the Main Line (NHN), a nonprofit organization that serves as a continual source of support to some of the most vulnerable residents in Lower Merion Township and the immediate vicinity. NHN is made up of local volunteers, who are dedicated to creating racial equity and unity within our community. Our students helped develop an Enrichment Program to connect youth to local professional mentors.
Students with community mentor at the Praxis poster session
The Korean American Association of Greater Philadelphia (KAAGP) advocates for the Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) in the greater Philadelphia area though education, outreach and advocacy. Our students advocated for including the history of in K-12 curriculum by educating the public about House Bill 1917.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students with community mentors at the Praxis poster session
A second group of students worked with YASP’s Participatory Defense Hub Program to educate and support individuals, families and communities impacted by the incarceration system.
Students at the Praxis poster session
Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project (YASP), a youth-led movement dedicated to ending the practice of trying and incarcerating youth. One group of students worked with YASP’s Healing Futures Program to divert youth from the incarceration system to a restorative justice process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two students who worked with YASP also chose to continue learning with the organization by each participating in an Independent Study course supervised by Dr. Bailey and Gwenn Prinbeck during the Spring term 2023. Visit our 2022 Praxis blog site for more information about the amazing work done by our students of this inaugural course!! While this course was launched in the Fall 2022, it is anticipated to continue to be taught annually beginning in 2024.

 

 

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Contact Us

Social Justice Initiative

Darlyne Bailey, Ph.D.

Founder & Executive Director of the Social Justice Initiative

Katherine E. McBride Professor Emeritus & Dean Emeritus of the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research
Email: sji@brynmawr.edu
Phone: 610-526-5180