Cultivating+connections-A+partnership

Download a PDF of this file. ** Cultivating connections: A partnership between Loyola University Maryland and Baltimore Reads ** Andrea M. Leary, Affiliate Assistant Professor, Loyola University Maryland [aleary@loyola.edu]

Rachel Barrett-Dolcine, Transition & Training Coordinator, Baltimore Reads

Laura McCormack, student, Loyola University


 * Keywords:** Civic literacy, partnership best-practice, reciprocal partnership, Baltimore Reads


 * Conference track:** Community partnerships and outcomes


 * Format:** Team inquiry presentation

The purpose of this panel is to illustrate how this partnership works—for Baltimore Reads, their students, my students, and myself. Representatives from Baltimore Reads and the civic literacy course will join me on the panel to illustrate this multi-faceted partnership and its results.
 * Summary**

At Loyola University Maryland, I teach “Civic Literacy,” a course focused on literacy studies and social justice, which includes a service‐learning component. My students work with and for Baltimore Reads, an adult literacy program in Baltimore whose mission mirrors that of Loyola: cura personalis, or care of the whole person. Because we are grounded in the same mission, our relationship has grown in ways I never could have imagined when it began during the fall 2010 semester. At that point, we planted a seed. An unintended branch sprouted: my students became so connected to Baltimore Reads and their mission that they asked me to write an assignment—in addition to their final paper assignment—that would propose a formal community partnership to the University’s President.

How does this experience serve future research? My goal with this panel is to offer this type of project-based, strong partnership as an example. A reciprocal partnership of this nature serves every individual involved; everyone broadens their understanding of the others involved and, thereby, we see ourselves working together toward some hoped-for goal that is greater than each of us. Isn’t this, after all, the reason we engage in service-learning in the first place? Our intangible hope is to create a more just society. We begin with a single seed.

Coggins, C. (2012). An open letter of gratitude. //Holy Cross Magazine, 46,// 72.
 * References**

Kidder, T. (2009). //Mountains beyond mountains: The quest of Paul Farmer.// New York, NY: Random House.

Mathieu, P. (2005). //Tactics of hope.// Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.


 * To access materials from this session please click on the file link(s) below:**

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