On Wednesday, Ocotober 20^th, The Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (CFBNP) participated in the State Department’s (STATE) Office of Religion and Global Affairs Religious Literacy, Public Policy and American Schools brown bag event in The Ralph Bunche Library. The event included a panel moderated by Mariam Kaldas (STATE) with panelists Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell (CFBNP) and Benjamin Marcus (Newseum Fellow). Brenda gave remarks on the work of the Department of Education Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Ben presented his research from his chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Religion and America Education. Some of the topics discussed were practicing religious literacy, religious identity formation and how to work with religious communities in conflict settings.

In Ben’s research he highlighted how we all have different understandings of faith and religion. For instance, if a group of people are asked the definition of religion, there would be a myriad of different definitions and one may even say it is undefinable. Religious literacy does not mean you can define every religion, but rather “understand and use the religious terms, symbols, images, beliefs, practices, scriptures, heroes, themes, and stories that are employed in American public life.”

Ben’s research delves further into religious identity and formation and perception of religion. He uses a framework called the “Three B’s”: Belief, Behavior and Belonging to explain how one develops his or her religious identity.

When engaging conflict communities, there are a few steps to address religious identity:

1. Listen and ask “What does your religion mean to you?”
2. Determine what aspect of religious identity (Belief, Behavior, Belonging), if any, fuels the tension.
3. Look for common ground, not necessarily talking about scripture, but what they care about.

Through Brenda’s remarks and Ben’s research, the audience was able to engage in an introspective conversation on religious literacy. Brenda reinforced the value of convening and bringing people together. Ben was able to build upon that foundation by discussing practices to humbly address differences and understand the history behind various religious identities. Finally, questions on topics such as separation of church and state, populism and religion, and secularism were discussed.

It was an informative and reflective event that helped the participants gain a further understanding and direction on discussing religious literacy!

This blog is cross posted from the White House here

One of President Obama’s first acts was to establish the Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Acting on a recommendation by this council,President Obama established the Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge to build bridges of understanding across our differences, especially among rising leaders, and to serve our neighbors. Interfaith service involves people from different religious and non-religious backgrounds tackling community challenges together – for example, Protestants and Catholics, Hindus and Jews, and Muslims and non-believers building a Habitat for Humanity house together. Interfaith service impacts specific community challenges, while building social capital and civility.

We were pleased to kick off the Fifth Annual President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge last week at Howard University. We have been delighted to watch as the President’s Challenge has resonated with leaders in higher education. In some schools, programs were already under way and gathered momentum because of the challenge. Other schools launched new interfaith service programs in response to the challenge. Actions like these have resulted in opportunities for millions of students and the betterment of countless communities.

The challenge has not been restricted to one model of higher education. Instead it has flourished in a variety of settings including large research universities, four-year colleges, tribal colleges, career colleges, and historically black universities. Each institution provides a unique perspective on what it means to have an interfaith commitment to campus.

Prompted by American schools’ embrace of the Campus Challenge, this year we proposed to think about ways in which institutions of higher learning around the world might benefit from sharing ideas, experiences, and practices of interfaith community service. In early 2015, meetings were held in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City with Campus Challenge participants to discuss possibilities for global engagement. One result of these discussions is that educators and students from around the world were invited to attend the Fifth Annual President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge Gathering at Howard University on September 9 -11, 2015. The response was overwhelming, with people coming from 24 countries.

We’d like to thank those who worked so hard to make this initiative successful, including the Department of Education and its Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, the Department of State and its Office of Religion and Global Affairs and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and the Corporation for National & Community Service. We’d also like to thank the Howard University community for their generosity and hospitality in hosting the gathering this year.

On behalf of the President, I congratulate all of the schools and leaders who participate in the Challenge. We look forward with anticipation as this initiative continues to expand.

By Melissa Rogers, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

I was one of the people who reviewed applications for the Presidential Awards as part of the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. I remember that California State University, Dominguez Hills had a strong application. So, when they were chosen in the General Community Service category I was pleased. But I had no idea how deserving they were until I joined John Kelly, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Corporation for National and Community Service, to present the Presidential Award at their Community Engagement Symposium.

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll was established by President George W. Bush in 2006 to honor colleges and universities that have exemplary community service programs for their students. Each year institutions of higher education submit applications that highlight their programs to solve community problems and set students on paths of life-long commitment to civil engagement. Schools apply in the categories of General Community Service, Interfaith Community Service, Economic Opportunity, and Education. In each category schools are recognized as members of the Honor Roll, members with distinction, finalists, and one school in each category is given the Presidential Award.

Community engagement is the reason that CSU Dominguez Hills exists. They were founded in 1965 after the Watts Rebellion which was triggered by a white police officer pulling over a young African-American, Marquette Frye. A crowd gathered to protest. This was followed by six days of rioting that brought attention to issues of urban poverty. One response to the rebellion was that Governor Pat Brown immediately moved to establish a college that would serve the needs of people living in South Los Angeles including Watts. The college was founded to engage the community.

At a Community Engagement Symposium organized to celebrate all the community engagement and the honor of the Presidential Award, 41 community engagement projects were highlighted with booths, awards, and presentations. Dr. Vivian Price put community service into context with a slideshow and presentation that showed the potential of service learning. President Willie Hagan, Provost Ellen Junn, and Vice Provost Mitch Maki all showed their support for the students and staff. But the real energy behind community engagement at CSU Dominguez Hills is Cheryl McKnight, director of the Center for Service Learning.

McKnight clearly has support from faculty who integrate service learning into their courses. For example, in Anthropology 330, a Service-Learning and Community Engagement course, students not only learned about North American Indians, but they also helped organize a Pow Wow. She has support from President Hagan and the administrative staff. Students provide leadership and organize community engagement. An example is three design students who worked with a non-profit to support a project that responds to the needs of pets that are caught up in a domestic violence situation.

While it takes the commitment of a whole school to develop a high quality community engagement program like CSU Dominguez Hills has, clearly one key is to have a person like McKnight who pulls everything together and keeps the community service agenda on everyone’s mind.

Cross posted from the White House blog here

Acting on a recommendation by the first Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships,President Obama established the Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge to build bridges of understanding across our differences, especially among rising leaders, and to serve our neighbors. Interfaith service involves people from different religious and non-religious backgrounds tackling community challenges together – for example, Protestants and Catholics, Hindus and Jews, and Muslims and non-believers – building a Habitat for Humanity house together. Interfaith service impacts specific community challenges, while building social capital and civility.

This week, the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Department of Education, and Corporation for National and Community Service hosted a gathering to kick off the President’s Fourth Annual Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge. More than 500 college students, chaplains, faculty, and administrators – including over 50 college presidents – participated in the two-day event.

The Challenge has grown by leaps and bounds since 2011 when President Obama first encouraged college presidents to establish or expand programs in interfaith and community service. Currently, more than 400 institutions of higher education participate in the Challenge.

The national gathering this week began with Cecilia Muñoz, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, welcoming college presidents and supporters. It concluded with remarks by Treasury Secretary and former member of the CNCS Board of Directors, Jack Lew, and a showing of the award-winning film, Of Many, which follows the friendship and interfaith partnership of New York University’s Imam Khalid Latif and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna. These two sessions bookended a series of fascinating panel discussions, presentations, and community conversations involving a diverse array of academics, students, advocates, governmental officials, and think tank scholars.

A new step forward for the Challenge this year was the fact that recognition for interfaith community service was included in the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually highlights the role colleges and universities play in solving community problems and placing more students on a lifelong path of civic engagement by recognizing institutions that achieve meaningful, measureable outcomes in the communities they serve. The President’s Honor Roll now recognizes higher education institutions in four categories: General Community Service, Interfaith Community Service, Economic Opportunity, and Education. Also for the first time this year, a school was selected as a winner of a Presidential Award for Interfaith Community Service. That honor went to Loras College, a Catholic affiliated school in Dubuque, Iowa. One of the school’s many achievements is partnering with the AmeriCorps VISTA program to recruit and retain volunteers to tackle a range of challenges. This year and every year, the Campus Challenge demonstrates President Obama’s longstanding commitment to expanding and supporting national service, which he recently highlighted at the White House’s 20th Anniversary of AmeriCorps celebration.

Thanks to all who make the goals of interfaith and community service a priority, and a very special thanks to the Department of Education’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships for its leadership in planning and organizing this week’s event. We are excited about future of the Challenge.

If you’d like to learn more about the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, contact the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Education at EdPartners@ed.gov.

Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Secretary Arne Duncan, Wendy Spencer, and Melissa Rogers present Loras College a Presidential Award for Interfaith Community Service through the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll at George Washington University.