PROJECT OVERVIEW

Description

A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Communication Association, Campus Compact, and the American Association for Higher Education, Communicating Common Ground teams faculty and students from college-level communication programs with P-12 schools and community groups to implement programs that foster respect for diversity and combat prejudice in communities across America. College students and faculty lead younger students in learning activities designed to advance multicultural education, appreciation of diversity, and the creation of communities in which hate, hate speech, and hate crimes are not tolerated. 

Mission

Communicating Common Ground has a three-pronged mission, which reflects the interests of its sponsoring organizations:

1) to educate youth to embrace the advantages of a diverse society;

2) to foster engagement between higher education and elementary/secondary education, and between educational institutions and communities;

3) to promote service-learning as an effective method for enhancing student learning and civic responsibility.

History/Timeline

Communicating Common Ground (CCG) is the result of a series of discussions that began in 1999, when the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) asked the National Communication Association (NCA) for assistance in advancing its efforts to promote diversity and tolerance through communication instruction. Campus Compact and the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) joined SPLC and NCA as founding partners, and CCG was formally announced in February 2000. A national call for proposals issued that month sought pilot sites to participate in the program. Thirty-one initiatives at thirty sites were selected to participate in August, 2000. An orientation for participating faculty and community representatives was held November 8-9, 2000 at the NCA annual convention in Seattle.  Project implementation for year one partnerships began in January 2001. A call for year two partnerships was issue in March 2001 Spectra.

Curricular Activities

Learning activities will be adapted to the local contexts of pilot-site participants, and are based on proposals from communication faculty and their K-12 and community partners. In addition, teaching materials from the Teaching Tolerance program of the Southern Poverty Law Center are available to participants for adoption or adaptation. All activities involve college students in “service-learning” – practicing what they are learning in their disciplines in community settings where their work benefits others. Pilot sites have proposed a wide range of activities, including:

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS

Communicating Common Ground

National Communication Association: NCA is a nonprofit organization of communication educators, practitioners and students. It is the oldest and largest national association promoting communication scholarship and education, with 7100 members from the U.S. and 25 other countries.  For CCG, NCA has promoted and recruited partnerships from among its departmental and individual members, and will host the CCG training at its 2000 and 2001 conferences. In addition, NCA supports the initiative through activities at state and regional associations, a web site, and an electronic mail discussion group.

Southern Poverty Law Center

Montgomery, Alabama-based SPLC has a long and successful history in developing initiatives that promote diversity and combat prejudice. Its Teaching Tolerance program is providing teaching materials necessary to support CCG activities and staff members’ expertise to support CCG activities.

Campus Compact

Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 900 colleges and university presidents devoted to the civic purposes of higher education. To support this civic mission, Campus Compact promotes community service that develops students' citizenship skills and values, encourages partnerships between campuses and communities, and assists faculty who seek to integrate public and community engagement into their teaching and research. Their network of 30 state based offices, as well as the national office, provide local, state, and regional support in funding, designing, recruiting for, and administering service and service-learning programs.

American Association for Higher Education

AAHE is an individual membership organization that promotes the changes higher education must make to ensure effectiveness in a complex, interconnected world. AAHE has published a series of monographs on service-learning in various disciplines. AAHE is partially funding and promoting the CCG partnerships through its initiative on service-learning. In addition, AAHE will assist in the development of assessment activities for evaluating the impact of the partnerships on school and community climates and on student learning.