Wake Forest University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Under the leadership of a senior fellow for community engagement funding through the President's Office, Wake Forest has begun a long term partnership with the Boston Thurmond community, a historic, predominantly African American community situated between our Reynolda campus and new downtown campus. This partnership grew out of the longtime relationship between the university and Habitat Forsyth, an organization whose headquarters are located in Boston Thurmond. Habitat Forsyth has been a part of a mosaic of organizations over the last several years, including the Boston Thurmond Neighborhood Association, who have convened stakeholders to envision an improved neighborhood with increased resources and economic opportunity. The built environment and public greenspace has been an active part of the discussion as well as centering equity in education (the community only has 3500 residents but it has three schools: two elementary schools and one middle school). The outcomes from this partnership are not yet completely clear but the slow, methodical work of community building and sustainable long-term planning has already shown promising outcomes. In addition to paying a part-time community expert to serve in-residence as a thought leader, the university leveraged the thought leadership of two cohorts of leaders this academic year. Through the Leadership Development Program, middle and senior leaders asset mapped Wake Forest and the surrounding area to identify resources that could be brought to bear for community partners, particularly our neighbors in Boston Thurmond. The ACE Fellows, a two year cohort of mid-career faculty, has been entirely place based. At the conclusion of their first year, this cohort of 6 presented research, scholarship, and engaged teaching projects that integrate their own interests with stated gaps and goals in Boston Thurmond. Resident leaders in Boston Thurmond have been a part of the governance of these efforts, most notably serving on the selection committee for the ACE Fellows cohort.

In the Fall of 2016, the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest began exploratory work in starting a Freedom School on Wake Forest's campus. Freedom Schools are run nationwide in collaboration with the Children's Defense Fund. Their main aim is to "build strong, literate, and empowered children prepared to make a difference in themselves, their families, communities, nation and world today." http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs/freedomschools/) At the same time as AJC was building the capacity to start their Freedom School, several other community partners were in this phase as well. Kimberley Park Elementary and Principal Dr. Amber Baker had already been operating a successful neighborhood freedom school in the Boston Thurmond neighborhood. To build collaboratively instead of in competition with each other, stakeholders came together to form Piedmont Freedom Schools, a collaborative that has launched two new sites this summer (at Wake Forest and in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Winston-Salem) and pans to launch at least 2 more next summer. Each site serves 50 children from Title 1 school environments with a 6-week intensive summer learning camp whose curriculum centers on the experiences and leadership of people of color. With a decentralized leadership structure, PFS is composed of school, university, community, and faith leaders from different backgrounds united in bringing this resource to the children of our community.