Get off the Hill: YDS Committee on Community Engagement (YCCE)

One of the great ways to get plugged in at YDS is through one of the various student groups supported by Student Council and the Community Life Committee (more on those later). Most of these groups are focused primarily on students at the Divinity School, but one in particular seeks to broaden the scope of YDS's efforts from our perch atop Prospect Hill to the rest of New Haven, and to work for justice in the local community: the YDS Committee on Community Engagement (YCCE).

Dean of Students, Dale Peterson, and
graduating student Willie Barnes '12 M.Div.

YCCE seeks to speak with a prophetic voice on issues of social justice in the YDS community. To this end, YCCE is committed to being firmly rooted in local, sustained community engagement. YCCE understands community engagement to include:

• volunteer service, 
• advocacy, 
• solidarity, 
• political participation, and 
• community organizing. 

YCCE believes that by walking with, working alongside of, and serving our neighbors in New Haven, we will better come to understand larger issues of justice.

YCCE is responsible for many aspects of life at YDS. One of cornerstones of its work is are the Days of Service, held during BTFO and once each semester. Teams of students are deployed to various nonprofits and community organizations throughout New Haven and neighboring towns for an half-day of service to contribute to our community in a tangible way, to learn about the good work being done in our community, and to find ways to get involved long-term with these organizations.

YCCE is also responsible for facilitating the work of YDS's Volunteer Coordinator, who keeps a running database of short- and long-term volunteer opportunities in the area, which will be available on the new YCCE website later this summer. On a monthly or biweekly basis, YCCE hosts brown-bag lunches to talk about different aspects of social justice and community engagement with an eye towards praxis; according to Gustavo Gutiérrez, the father of liberation theology, theology is "critical reflection on praxis in light of the Word."

Various students sorting donations at
Integrated Refugee and Immigration Services (IRIS) 

YCCE is also constantly looking for new ways to engage YDS with the broader community, helping to organize and sponsor events and volunteer opportunities in conjunction with other schools at Yale, with nonprofits in the area, and with social movements seeking justice and reconciliation among people. Be it hosting a training on Non-Violent Direct Action, discussing the history of justice movements throughout YDS's history, or any number of other possibilities, YCCE is dedicated to helping YDS prepare to engage the world we seek to teach and minister to, both in the future and while still on the Hill.