Wartburg College (Waverly, IA)
Community
Builders:
Fostering Intergenerational Civic Engagement
Summary
The Institute for Leadership Education undertook the task of developing
a curriculum that meets the definition of leadership (“Taking responsibility
for our communities, and making them better through public action”)
through applied civic engagement. Toward this end the decision was made
to focus initially on one course that is offered each term to third and
fourth-year students, “Leadership Theories and Practices,”
and use it as a potential springboard to launch a project focused on community-based
civic engagement.
The Practice
The particular civic engagement project undertaken through the curriculum
is called Community Builders: Fostering Intergenerational Civic Engagement.
The purpose of this project is to use the assets of community members
with different cognitive, social, civic, and generational backgrounds
and skills to learn about, build, and strengthen the community they share
through reading, discussion, and service activities. “Community
builders” are individuals who learn from one another in the quest
to attain this common goal, while developing and enhancing their own respective
skill sets that add value to their own lives, and to the larger community
of which they are a part. The creation of this social capital is consequential
to the health and well-being of a democratic society.
The participants in the Community Builders project are Wartburg students
enrolled in leadership classes, adult volunteers from the community (many
of whom are retired), sixth-grade students from the local public school,
fifth graders from a neighboring urban community, and students from Bremwood,
a residential learning community for at-risk adolescents who have been
removed from their homes and are wards of the state.
The project has three interrelated and mutually reinforcing goals. The
first is to build intergenerational learning communities designed to develop
and practice the skills of civic engagement and appreciate the value that
it can add to the life of the individual citizen. The second is to address
specific educational needs and interests of the participants in the project
including enhanced Internet skills, reading skills, social and civic skills,
and the skills of critical inquiry—all the significant attributes
to sustainable democracy. The third is to recognize and use the multifaceted
talents and skills that each participant brings to the project. The rationale
for identifying these three objectives is to help participants appreciate
that healthy, positive communities depend on the recognition that all
individuals have needs that communities can help satisfy. Simultaneously,
all community members have the capacity to contribute to the quality of
community life and deserve the opportunity to do so.
The leadership students are primary participants in the learning communities
throughout the project and work under the supervision of both the course
instructor and the coordinator for civic engagement, a professional staff
position. The instructor has primary responsibility for developing the
leadership curriculum appropriate for the project. The coordinator for
civic engagement has primary responsibility for coordinating logistical
requirements to facilitate effective, efficient neighborhood interaction.
Wartburg students enrolled in “Leadership Theories and Practices”
are expected to integrate the implementation of leadership skills through
the pedagogy of service-learning within the substantive context of encouraging
civic engagement.
The neighborhoods undertake activities under the leadership of the Wartburg
students, such as:
- reading and discussion of texts with themes pertinent to civic engagement;
- discussion of current events in the local community and beyond;
- implementation of projects which engage neighborhood members in acts
of common service; and
- creation of a virtual time capsule by each neighborhood, which depicts
the meaning of community and civic engagement within the context of
the discussion which occurred in the respective neighborhoods.
Leadership development occurs through planning, implementation, and reflection
on neighborhood activities by the Wartburg leaders. Each of these three
components is linked to appropriate literature in the field of leadership
education. Student learning is demonstrated through integrative essays
that address the connections among leadership, community, civic engagement,
and service-learning.
Effectiveness
Wartburg College assumes that effective leadership education for students
is best accomplished through a dynamic exchange between theory and practice
that requires the integration of knowledge and experience. Community Builders
provides a laboratory for testing these assumptions.
A key measure of project effectiveness is sustainability, which requires
a sense of reciprocity among all participants. The original Community
Builders proposal read, in part:
"The goal of the constituent partners in the design of the project
has been to develop a strong sense of reciprocity among the participants.
Collaborating partners agreed to identify what each hoped to gain by participating
in the partnership. Each also agreed to identify their respective contributions
to the partnership. Not only was this principle adopted as a matter of
equity, it was also believed necessary to assure sustainability beyond
the life of the grant."
Community Builders is now entering its third year after only one year
of outside funding through CAPHE’s Engaging Communities and
Campuses grant program. The four institutional partners remain enthusiastic
about the value of Community Builders to their respective missions.
Another measure of project effectiveness is growth. Initially Community
Builders included only one sixth-grade class from the local public school
system. Now all six-sixth grade classes are participating in Community
Builders. A local private, church-related school has expressed interest
in participating as well. The issue has also been raised within the community
why the project should be limited to sixth graders. These are indicators
that the project is effectively fulfilling a recognized community need.
A third measure of project effectiveness is adaptability. Initially,
Community Builders was limited to students enrolled in leadership classes.
Seeing the potential value of the project for her students, a faculty
member who teaches community sociology asked to join. She has now assumed
primary responsibility for working with the fifth-grade students in a
neighboring community and they have changed the curriculum to better meet
the needs of both constituent groups.
Resources
The Community Builders website
has a detailed description of the project along with photographs and other
materials to help those interested gain a better understanding of the
project.
Contact Information
Frederick A. Waldstein
Irving R. Burling Chair in Leadership
and Professor of Political Science
Wartburg College
Waverly, IA 50677
fred.waldstein@wartburg.edu
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Effective
Practices Exchange
