Whittier College’s Center for Engagement with Communities was recently awarded a grant of $411,680 from the BCM Foundation designed to support programs that strengthen the relationship between the community and academic programs at the College.
“The programs funded by that grant enable our students to work with organizations in the community in any number of capacities, providing students the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom. It allows our community partners to be ‘co-educators’ by taking an active role in our students’ learning and in so doing, they then have an increased investment in the College,” states Joyce Kaufman, Director of Center for Engagement with Communities.
Moreover, the work Whittier students, faculty, and staff do in the community facilitates access to expertise that helps community-based organizations better achieve their own goals. The Center received its first grant from then B.C.McCabe Foundation more than a decade ago. At that time Kaufman was charged to create a real partnership between the College and the community. This latest grant, and all that it will allow the Center to achieve, stands as a testament to achieving that goal.
Since 2011, when the Center was created, Kauffman has now brought in $1,115, 283 from BCM/McCabe to support the work of the Center and all the programs under its umbrella.
Most notably, the BCM Foundation grant covers costs for the Fifth Dimension, which serves over 1,000 students and is based at the Boys & Girls Club of Whittier; provides a sub-grant to the Ruth B. Shannon Performing Arts Center to cover cost for outreach activities for students and members of community at no charge; helps to sponsor academic programs on campus that include the community; and helps to support most of the mentor programs that are run with local high schools including one at La Serna, Whittier and Santa Fe, and another one for girls in STEM disciplines at Pioneer.
In addition, it funds the Center’s special events, such as the annual College and Community Expo, which highlights Whittier students’ work in the community; matches a grant from the Whittier Conservancy for work on a project in Uptown Whittier; and supports a Center Fellow.
The BCM Foundation grant also provides support for students who work on various mentor programs, stipends for faculty who are using community engagement activities in their classes, and funds to help plan, maintain and run all the Center programs.
For the 2014-2015 year, it will enable the Center to partner with approximately 18 Whittier College faculty and staff and 36 community organizations, including Boys & Girls Club of Whittier, El Rancho High School, Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, Uptown YMCA, Whittier Historical Society & Museum, and the Whittier Public Library.
