Radical Imagination in Action: Re-Visioning and Co-Creating Community Engagement
Due to long-term partnerships that have continued to evolve, during the pandemic Dominican’s Service-Learning program was able to work intensively with partners to support their programming and co-developed new programs to address ongoing equity gaps exacerbated by the pandemic. Most crucially, the pivots and collaborations are grounded in a mutual aid and critical consciousness approach–that acknowledges both trauma and the strengths of collectivist cultures and communities. Innovative programming includes: Leyendo Juntos–a virtual reading pod for K-3rd grade students at a Latino immigrant serving school, and the Digital Literacy and Bilingual Support program with our cohort of heritage Spanish speaking Dominican students that now collaborates with multiple partners. We also created and collaborated on modules and presentations for students and the broader campus community such as the modules based on Cultural Humility principles (Tarvelon & Murray-Garcia, 1998). We will share our effective applications of Appreciative Inquiry, Cultural Humility principles and framing, and asset-based critical community engagement.