2023 Anti-Racism Grant Recipients

Congratulations to the 2023 cohort of Lindy Center for Civic Engagement Anti-Racism Mini-Grant recipients! Each recipient submitted a project through our application process detailed in the previous link - the following list includes descriptions of each project and bios and pictures for the students who submitted the applications.

Project: Courageous Conversation

Grantees: Erin Bailey (left) and Cianni Williams (right)

Erin and Cianni are part of a Drexel cohort of Courageous Equity Leadership Fellows, a program that prepares college students to create safe spaces for authentic dialogue around race and racial healing. In 2022 they used the protocol they were trained in to host a Courageous Conversation in the School of Education. This year they are looking to host a second conversation with a broader University and community audience, inviting people from West Philadelphia to participate. In addition to sharing stories and reflections on race using the Courageous Conversations protocol, the event would also feature a creative project (in 2022 participants made a quilt together).

Project: Community Meal after Food & Land Security Course

Grantees: Drexel Urban Growers student group

Drexel Urban Growers will bring people together to share food, knowledge, and experiences at a community cookout, which will coincide with the end of a summer Community-Based Learning course “Food and Land Security in Philadelphia.” The cookout will be at 35th and Spring Garden (the Dornsife Center and the location of DUG’s garden) and be in partnership with Mantua Worldwide Community and other community organizations, civic associations, community agriculture organizations and students and partners of the course. The idea is to bring these groups together to share a meal, promote ongoing community-led initiatives, offer free seedlings and planting supplies, strengthen community agriculture partnerships in West Philly, honor food sovereignty projects, movements, and education happening in Philadelphia, and build relationships between DUG and community agriculture collectives through Mantua and all of Philadelphia.

Project: Engineering a Sustainable Community Garden

Grantees: Engineers Without Borders student group

Engineers Without Borders has a long-standing partnership with Holly Street Neighbors Community Garden. In the past, they have helped design and install a drip irrigation system for the garden. With this grant, they will further that partnership by designing a small, solar-powered electric system to charge power tools and light the garden as well as a shade structure so the gardeners can grow watermelons. Through partnerships like this one, Engineers Without Borders hopes to impact urban “food deserts” and give more people access to health foods and nutrition education. In addition to this project, they also work with other gardens throughout the city on engineering projects that promote sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Project: Collaborative Community Art Event

Grantee: Rashmeet Kaur

Rashmeet Kaur is an IDEA Fellow with the Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity. As part of her Fellowship and her personal practice as an artist, she will facilitate a collaborative community art event that invites local individuals to co-create art and learn together. The event will be an opportunity for individuals of all artistic backgrounds to engage in meaningful reflection about what Ubuntu and anti-racism mean to them using artistic media (e.g., painting, collaging, poetry, etc.). The artworks that are created at the collaborative community art event will then be displayed at the Ubuntu Center.

Project: Racial Literacy Workshop for Pre-Service Teachers

Grantee: Rebecca Epting

This grantee, in partnership with faculty in the School of Education, will create and facilitate a racial literacy workshop assisting pre-service teachers in developing pedagogical methods to improve their own racial literacy and build the capacity to engage in conversations that can develop a more equitable classroom environment and to support academic success for students of color participating in the five-week Kindergarten Bridge Program. The Kindergarten Bridge program is a five-week summer program which supports minoritized and underserved students of color in Philadelphia in their transition into kindergarten at two separate sites including the Powell School. The program utilizes undergraduate teachers to provide support and services to students entering kindergarten in the fall. The goal of this workshop is to increase awareness for program staff of ways that race may show up in classrooms and present strategies to thoughtfully plan and self-reflect on pedagogical practices. Attendees will learn what racial literacy is, reflect on the role race plays in instructional practices, learn how to recognize and discuss race in the classroom as it relates to teaching and learning, and build a personal racial literacy plan for their own classrooms.