| الوصف: |
Partnering with nonprofit organizations to advance civic engagement and media literacy in urban communities can be daunting yet extremely transformative. The addition of health disparities which often accompany at-risk and marginalized groups only seems to up the ante. Historically, urban communities have been known for their dynamic scaffolding of racially/ethnically diverse people groups where access to care or compromised infrastructures only perpetuates multilayered health risk and disparities. For example, Boston’s urban communities, which are similar to other urban communities in the United States, has a large representation of immigrants and people of colour that report their race and ethnicity as African American, Hispanic, Haitian, Cape Verdean, Asian Pacific Islander, African and West Indian (Guyanese), respectively. Of these groups many would be defined by terms like, at-risk or marginalized and they would come from neighbourhoods with low levels of educational achievement and families who live below the federal poverty level. As a scholar who teaches at a private institution that abuts these communities my role as a community liaison seeks to highlight civic voice and engagement, with health and media literacy. I contend that offering opportunities that promote new technologies lets distinct cultural nuances emerge; particularly, when they are lay created and support organizations that serve urban people of colour. Furthermore, these individual and collective community experiences can be useful for advancing literacy, health awareness and behaviour changes. This chapter highlights a few organizations that use innovative methodologies to empower urban communities of colour – The Family Van and Sister-to-Sister. The author spotlights a real-world contextualization of the value of bridging civic engagement, new technologies and collaborative teams to advance health and media literacy. The hope is to encourage scholars to celebrate the diversity that exist in urban communities, while understanding how transformative experiential learning can shift behaviours and enrich marginalized groups. |
