The Smith College Center for Community Collaboration (CCC) promotes a campuswide culture of community engagement, responsive citizenship and the active generation of knowledge to benefit society.
The CCC is a place for building relationships, where students, faculty and community members may come and meet, talk about common interests and goals and make plans for working together. We are committed to working with communities around our campus and around the world in partnerships for shared learning and growth; facilitating collaborations of faculty, students and community members on projects that provide opportunities for significant real-life learning and engaged scholarship, while addressing community goals.
Projects We Support
The courses and projects supported by the CCC are as varied as the surrounding communities:
- A federally funded collaboration of faculty, students, health care workers, Latino youth and WGBY public television in nearby Springfield, Mass., that is addressing health disparities through community-wide digital storytelling workshops and festivals
- A series of courses in landscape studies where students and faculty members work with a Northampton neighborhood to thoughtfully plan and preserve green spaces in the community
- A tutoring program that brings Smith students into a relationship with children at Homework House in nearby Holyoke
The CCC provides support for these and many more projects and courses that are critical components of a Smith education: supporting students' engagement with local and global communities to make a difference; fostering students' explorations of the real-world implications of their academic studies; and promoting students' lifelong roles as engaged and active members of communities.
The CCC engages and supports our campus and the wider community in mutually respectful, caring, honest conversations and community-based actions.
Our partnerships honor strengths, along with challenges, and leverage our collective human and material resources for the advancement of learning, justice, and the betterment of society.
Such effective collaborations require time, trust, perseverance, flexibility and the commitment to listen, reflect and act with an open heart and mind.
More Information
Visit our News and Announcements page for the most current information about upcoming programs and new initiatives.
Please contact the staff of the CCC to learn more about how we can work together.
