Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 58.11
Liaison Elizabeth Drake
Submission Date April 19, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Swarthmore College
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Aurora Winslade
Director of Sustainability
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
Harvest Circle

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus?:
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above:

Harvest Circle, started in Spring 2016 and going at least until 2018, will promote the development of an equitable, sustainable, and nourishing local food system in Chester, PA. Harvest Circle aims to increase food sovereignty, support healthy nutrition and to stimulate a community-based food economy through investing in small farmers, offering a flexible marketplace for consumers, supporting the startup of new residential gardens, and delivering educational programming.


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
Serenity Soular

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (2nd partnership) (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (2nd partnership):

Serenity Soular is an initiative made up of Swarthmore students, a Swarthmore professor, N. Phila community members as well as a solar non profit organization- REvolv, based in San Francisco. Serenity Soular addresses the compounding threats of gentrification, food deserts, joblessness, housing deterioration, and climate change.
To do so, Sustainable Serenity has several main goals and functions: 1. Host community discussions on various topics of social and environmental sustainability. 2. Maintain a community garden, 3. Make solar affordable for low-income households, 4. Train North Philadelphia residents for solar jobs, 5. Grow new solar jobs in North Philadelphia. It has so far been successful with several community projects: creating a community garden, employing two community members trained and hired by a solar company, installing solar panels on the roof of the Serenity House (community house in North Philadelphia). It is currently training two more "solar apprentices" and working to solarize a church near the community house. http://serenitysoular.weebly.com/about.html (website not as up to date as above info)


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
Dare to Soar

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (3rd partnership):
The partnership supports at least one, but not all three, dimensions of sustainability

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (3rd partnership) (Yes, No, or Unknown):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (3rd partnership):

Dare 2 Soar is the largest and oldest tutoring program at Swarthmore College, and is the largest student-run group under the administration of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. Dare 2 Soar sends approximately 70 tutors into nearby Chester, Pennsylvania to give homework help and educational assistance to students grades K-12 each week during the academic year.
For more information, visit http://www.swarthmore.edu/dare-2-soar.


A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:

Project Blueprints: is a tutoring program similar to Dare 2 Soar. The Lang Center and Swarthmore’s Black Cultural Center have collaborated with The Crozer-Chester Wellness Center, Chester Upland School District, The College Access Center of Delaware County, and The Chester Youth Collaborative to implement the program. Project Blueprints engages at-risk minority youth from Chester, PA with opportunities for academic support, life skills training, personal development, cultural enrichment, and career exploration. The program provides after-school programming for more than 40 students who are supported 8th through 12th grade. Additionally, Swarthmore hosted a Project Blueprints intern this past Summer, 2016.

Let's Get Ready: Let’s Get Ready is a registered non‐profit organization which provides low‐income high school students with free SAT preparation, admissions counseling, and other support services needed to gain admission to and graduate from college. Swarthmore students volunteer to assist with this program.

Other: At least 10 other student initiated projects (in addition to the Harvest Circle program detailed in the response) that are supported by the College's Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. These projects all cover at least 1 of the identified 3 dimensions of sustainability. For brief descriptions of each, visit http://www.swarthmore.edu/lang-center-civic-social-responsibility/lang-scholar-profiles.

Other resources:
Project Blueprints: http://www.swarthmore.edu/lang-center-civic-social-responsibility/project-blueprints

Other Lang Center Initiatives-
Older: http://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/new-class-lang-opportunity-scholars-named
Recent: http://www.swarthmore.edu/lang-center-civic-social-responsibility/lang-scholar-profiles
Most Recent: http://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/meet-newest-class-lang-opportunity-scholars


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Jennifer Magee, Associate Director of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility
Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, jmagee1@swarthmore.edu


Jennifer Magee, Associate Director of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility
Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, jmagee1@swarthmore.edu

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.