The social equity podcast was developed with support from Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement community partnership grant in partnership with the NAACP and Shaw University.
The podcast Learning, Lifting, Leading: Social Equity for and by Black and Brown Girls & Women was launched earlier this year to bring greater awareness of critical issues confronted by these vulnerable populations, highlighting their resiliency or ability to rebound from adversity.
The podcast features mothers, teachers, community activists, clergy, scholars, students and authors interviewed during a period of two months in coffee shops, by phone, in offices and even a public library. The 18 episodes were chosen to broaden the voices of black and brown women and girls, specifically focused on experiences in the South.
The social equity podcast was developed as part of the service-learning courses taught by Assistant Professor Carmen Monico of Human Service Studies, who teaches in partnership with the NAACP. Jenn Grimmett was the Podcast host and social justice educator. Monico and the Rev. Donna Vanhook ’07, a local minister and Elon alumna, captured the vision of extending the learning and wisdom from the Women’s Conferences held at Shaw University Divinity School in 2017 and 2018, in which Elon students participated.
The social equity podcast will be used as a resource in the fall 2019 conference. Monico has been using the podcast in the development of multi-media assignments in all of her classes. Her students select one of the episodes, describe it and connect it to the course contents. Other faculty and staff from Elon and Shaw are exploring ways in which to use the podcast to educate students on these the critical issues addressed by this wide range of experts.
This project was funded by the Frueauff Foundation and supported through a Community Partnership Initiative (CPI) by the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement at Elon. The social equity podcast project was inspired by the work of the McSilver Institute in Chicago, who released a podcast series titled Black Boys and Men: Changing the Narrative in January 2018.