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Listed below are some ideas to think about when you are developing your House Community Service and Sustainability Recognition Projects (HCSS)
HCSS Recognition Program is designed to be engaging, creative, educational, fun and insightful. Projects can be one time, a series of projects, incorporate on-going work students in your house are already engaged in, or be a composite of several different kinds of projects. You can focus on sustainability or community service or both sustainability and community service.
Designing your plan and working with partner agencies:
- Form a team of house members interested in the HCSS Recognition Project, discuss various scenarios and ways that you might be able to integrate community work that students are already doing.
- Have students in your house already established relationships with potential community partners…could you build on those relationships?
- What type of projects would engage and interest your house members… what projects would support community needs and issues?
- Remember that many community agencies are already overburdened and often understaffed. Be considerate when you approach potential partners to see if your project ideas mesh with their needs and capabilities.
- When you are making your initial contact via phone or email it is important to remember to briefly state your intent, phrasing the request so that it is a question… “would this be helpful to your agency… we would be able to do this part of organizing the project… could you be able to do this part?”
- Be patient when you are waiting for a reply from the organization. Make sure to allow enough lead time so that you are not planning at the last minute.
- Small grassroots organizations or agencies often have limited email and computer capabilities. Don’t expect instant email responses. Follow up in a few days if you do not get a response. The staff has many pressures and they may be dealing with more critical issues at the time.
- Talk with your house members about what it means to do effective community work and what approaches would be effective so that you can develop a positive partnership with the local agency. Think about how you want to approach your work with local agencies and neighbors in the larger community who may be using agencies services.
- Think about your own preconceptions…when you do community work in a community facing many challenges do you also see the tenacity and vibrancy of members or that community or do you just see the problems? Do you think of this work as charity… if so then what does it mean to be the recipient of charity…? Do you see this work as providing services or community advocacy or activism and if so what might that mean for the agency or community you are working with?
- Before you do a project think about your motivations for doing this work… who do you think it will benefit… what will you gain from the experience…?
- Talk with your housemates about the issue you are focusing on. What are the services provided or not provided by agencies and the government? How do you feel about the effectiveness of those programs or services before and after the project?
Incorporating reflection:
- As you prepare for the project, write down your ideas. Good community work means that you are continually reflecting on the process, planning, results and insight you have gained from the process.
- Think about ways that you can incorporate reflection into your work. Some ideas might be:
- Have a discussion at a tea
- Invite a faculty/staff person to engage in a conversation
- Find a short reading to discuss in congruence with an activity
- Create a reflection bulletin board
- Invite an agency representative to help you reflect on your experiences
- Guided journaling
Faculty and staff involvement:
- Examples on how to get faculty and staff involved:
- Invite them to tea discuss service and sustainability opportunities
- Connect with a faculty or staff person who participates in service or sustainability projects
- Collaborate with your House Fellow
- Connect with the Smith Green Team
Presenting your work:
- We will ask you to submit an update in the middle of the year informing us about your progress, obstacles encountered etc.
- In April you will turn in an “end of project portfolio.” This portfolio can be whatever you and your community imagines it to be, but it should provide informative information to the committee so they can choose an outstanding house(s). The committee will be looking for how the community learned, how the house community’s projects impacted the larger community, how was reflection utilized in the learning process and were faculty and staff involved in the process?
- Make sure to document your project as you go along, keep track of how many students participated, how your original plans compared to your end results, how you reflected on your work, what you learned about the community needs, issues, services provided or sustainability, what was the impact on your house community, what was the impact on student personally etc.
- Note: If your house receives the award you can designate which organization would receive the funds. According to IRS regulation the organization must be a US based, and tax exempt non-profit organization.
If you have questions or want some input contact Hannah Durrant Assistant Director of Residential Life x2248 hdurrant@email.smith.edu , Tiertza-leah Schwartz, Director of Voluntary Services x2758 tschwart@email.smith.edu
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Previously Recognized Houses
Example Projects
Important Dates
Project Tips
Living at Smith
Green Team
Service Organizations of Smith (SOS)
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