Worcester College Coprs

The Worcester College Corps (WCC), a collaborative project of H.E.C.C.M.A. institutions and community organizations, formed as part of the Worcester Together efforts. (The Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the United Way of Central Massachusetts with the City of Worcester launched Worcester Together in March 2020 to address community needs intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.) WCC capitalizes on Worcester's geography and abundance of higher education establishments to foster authentic community engagement to provide consistent education on topics such as racial justice, social and health equity, and reciprocity.

WCC employs its dense network of college faculty, staff, and community leaders to guide intentional interactions through resources, opportunities, conversation, and training. Through its offerings, WCC hopes to build a more equitable community. WCC welcomes you to explore two current offerings, the Repository of Educational Content (C.O.R.E.) and a professional development training for college volunteers, "Readiness for Community Engagement."

"Readiness for Community Engagement" Training

Participate in a three-part online module series designed to help you maximize your volunteer experience and to provide our community partners with well-trained volunteers.

C.O.R.E.

Contribute to an online repository of educational content for Worcester youth and their caregivers.

"Readiness for Community Engagement"

WCC higher education institutions are proud of undergraduate and graduate students' service and volunteerism engagement. To aid in making those experiences more authentic and provide individuals with better awareness of their ability to impact their community, WCC developed professional development training. It is an online, multi-module asynchronous training to provide student volunteers with information and resources to build a historical and cultural understanding of Worcester and improve inclusivity and support antiracism and social and health equity in our community.

WCC hopes to bring about real change on our campuses, worksites, schools, and in our community through this training. WCC realizes that engaging in this challenging activity can bring discomfort and tension. By taking on this racial and social justice work and practice and having these difficult conversations, you are helping build a community that creates equity for all groups.

Students who complete the 3 training modules will receive a certificate, awarded by the United Way of Central Massachusetts (WCC's sponsoring organization).

Learning Outcomes From The Training Include:

• Knowledge and skills to engage more authentically with community members

• Awareness of the Worcester community and its rich history and diversity

• To value and enact reciprocity between the community and campuses

• Identify one's civic agency

• Awareness of your mindset and skillset to be able to impact their community

• Develop an active citizen mindset

• Understand the importance of an anti-racist stance in community engagement

• Cultivate a praxis of cultural reflection

• Nurture humility in the work we do

Participants can expect to commit to 2-3 hours to complete the training in its entirety. Each of the 3 modules provides additional readings and resources and reflective questions to amplify the content.

Access the training on Google Classroom via the WCC website. (Note: you will need a Gmail account to access the training [i.e., username@gmail.com]. Your Holy Cross email will not work.)

C.O.R.E.

The College Corps' Online Repository of Educational Content (C.O.R.E.) provides supplemental academic and extra-curricular materials for Worcester students and their caregivers. Explore the repository to find videos and other content made by Worcester-area college students, faculty, and others to amplify and add to school-day learning. One way that these videos and materials differ from other resources online is that they feature local college students and their contexts. Through engaging with these materials it is our hope that children and youth can begin to see themselves as attending one of Worcester's higher education institutions in the future, or any institution of higher education, in addition to gaining helpful academic and extra-curricular content.

Have an expertise you want to share with Worcester youth and their caregivers? Interested in sharing content you are learning in your own classes with others? Want to get involved with the Worcester community? Contribute to C.O.R.E. today! Contact C.O.R.E. if you are interested in becoming a contributor.