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.

This course was offered for the first time in Fall 2022 as a General Studies course. It will be offered again in Fall 2024 as a course in the Africana Studies Program.

In Fall 2022 our community partners included:

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.  

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.

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. 

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.

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.