Northeastern Class: Participatory Modeling
– By Alison Swanitz with Northeastern Sustainability
What is the CETR Program?
Rooted in Northeastern’s commitment to experiential learning, the Community-Engaged Teaching & Research (CETR) program connects students, faculty, and local partners on community-engaged projects that advance student’s academic goals while contributing to the goals of community partner organizations.
Rooted in Community: La Colaborativa’s Mission and Impact
La Colaborativa’s mission is to empower Latinx immigrants and their families in Chelsea, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities through a variety of means, such as grassroots organizing, environmental justice work, leadership development, creative community organizing, and much more. From working with issues of food access and housing justice to running youth programs such as their Riot Squad (Ready Individuals Organizing Team), which trains teens in advocacy, environmental education, and organizing, La Colaborativa works every day not only to fulfill all of their community’s immediate needs, but to make a serious change in the system that consistently creates those needs.
“For La Colaborativa, it has been 30 plus years of community organizing. The one thing that has never changed is that it’s from the bottom up. The community has to be engaged in order for us to be able to reach any type of success with campaigns or policy work.”
– Norieliz DeJesus, Youth Department Director at La Colaborativa and Chelsea City Council President
Connecting Campus and Community: The Collaboration
Moira Zellner’s Participatory Modeling course introduced Northeastern students to the basics of Participatory Modeling, a concept that approaches problem solving in ways that are innovative, collaborative and respectful, which can be particularly useful for addressing complex social and environmental problems. In Zellner’s class, students learned a wide range of modeling approaches and then applied them by partnering with La Colaborativa to co-design community-led green infrastructure planning processes in Chelsea neighborhoods. For La Colaborativa, the collaboration brought extra support to their ongoing work with the City of Chelsea as they advocate for their local community. For students, it was a chance to step outside the classroom and get hands-on experience, not just learning about these complex problems, but working directly with an organization dedicated to supporting the people most affected by these problems, listening and helping develop solutions together.
Partnership in Practice: Outcomes and Insights
One of the first things that Professor Moira Zellner emphasized when talking about what makes a successful campus-community partnership is that successful community engagement is rooted in ethical collaboration. Truly meaningful engagement requires mindfulness and respect for the community partner organization’s needs. Organizations such as La Colaborativa are doing extremely important work, work that addresses persistent social stresses imposed on Chelsea’s immigrant communities, work that provides resources and education to those in need, work that that will create a pathway to a safe and thriving space for everyone in the community. Ultimately campus-community partnerships like the partnership between La Colaborativa and Moira Zellner’s class are undoubtedly a part of Northeastern’s broader commitment to civic responsibility and local impact. Through this collaboration both faculty and students were able to gain hands-on experience while contributing to real change in communities—learning not only about policy and social issues, but also the importance of shared effort in creating a lasting impact.
“Having ethical campus-community partnerships embedded in our DNA as an institution is where transformation happens. We are neighbors. When we all grow together, then we all really grow and thrive.”
– Professor Moira Zellner, Northeastern faculty member in Public Policy and Urban Affairs
“The university has been doing amazing work in helping us gather data and support the work that we’re doing with our new mission of the City’s Master Plan.”
– Norieliz DeJesus, Youth Department Director at La Colaborativa and Chelsea City Council President
Interested in learning more about integrating community engagement into your sustainability course?
Email service-learning@northeastern.edu to get started!