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Kenneth Cole Foundation donates $600K to create Community Building and Social Change program

Last fall, the Kenneth Cole Foundation committed support to Emory to establish a program to train Emory students in comprehensive community-building skills. Fashion industry executive Kenneth Cole, a trustee of the Kenneth Cole Foundation and founder, president and chief executive officer of Kenneth Cole Productions Inc., has long combined social-consciousness messages in marketing his products, and now he will help Emory University train agents for social change through his foundation.

Through academic coursework, a twelve-week paid summer field experience, site visits, small group meetings and an annual leadership conference, Kenneth Cole Fellows will see first-hand the critical role that collaboration plays in the resolution of important public problems, such as increasing the supply of affordable housing, promoting comprehensive school reform, expanding access to health care and addressing sprawl and environmental conservation.

“As an Emory alumnus, I have been searching for a creative way to stay involved with the university,” says Cole, a 1976 graduate of Emory College. “An idea I have struggled with over time is how to play a role in energizing the eager and enthusiastic youth of this country—perhaps our nation’s greatest resource. With that in mind, The Kenneth Cole Foundation, in association with Emory University, has created The Kenneth Cole Fellows in Community Building and Social Change Program. We hope and believe that this program can help mobilize a group of students who are willing and able to affect badly needed social change today and tomorrow.”

The fellowship begins this semester with the class “Introduction to the City,” the first of a three-section sequence for the Kenneth Cole Fellows Program and a crash course in community building. During the sixteen-week course, students will study the dynamics and challenges of community building while using the city of Atlanta as their real-life laboratory. About a third of the course will be spent out of the classroom and in the greater community observing and interacting with the city’s main players in public policy and community building.

A major component of the course is a required skills laboratory outside of class that will allow students to hone their communication skills, develop field research techniques and work with databases—fundamental technical skills needed in community-building work.

“We want to have them fully prepared for their field courses this summer with the skills that will allow them to contribute to the mission of their organization and not just be observers,” says instructor Michael Owens, visiting assistant professor of political science and a visiting fellow of Emory’s Office of University-Community Partnerships.

During the summer, the Cole Fellows will hold internships with a public, private or nonprofit organization and work on specific projects. Unlike most internship programs where students are placed with an individual agency, the Kenneth Cole Fellows will be assigned as part of a team grouped around a specific collaborative, community-building project. The summer section will also involve weekly meetings and discussions with noted community builders from Atlanta and the nation.

Fellows are chosen by a faculty advisory committee of eleven faculty members from nine departments and programs. Students selected for the program receive a summer stipend of $3,000, a summer housing allowance, twelve semester hours of academic credit and an educational scholarship covering full or partial tuition for the four-credit-hour summer field practicum, depending upon financial need.

“Hopefully, the fellows will explore evolving opportunities of bringing together the public, private and not-for-profit sectors for the ultimate benefit of all,” says Cole. “To the degree that we can encourage Emory students to be more connected and committed to their surroundings and to take ownership of the health and well being of the communities in which we live, we will have succeeded in creating a better environment for all.”

Another objective of the program is to integrate Emory’s teaching, research and service missions to create more effective partnerships with local organizations. “The Kenneth Cole Fellows Program will enable Emory to engage in more intensive projects with its community partners,” says Michael Rich, associate professor of political science and director of Emory’s Office of University-Community Partnerships.

“If any doubts as to the viability of this program existed at its initial inception, there are none in the wake of Sept. 11,” says Cole. “The tragic events have confirmed the need for this program. We have watched in awe as people everywhere rallied together for a common cause that is greater than any of us individually. As I’ve said before, alone we may not ‘heel’ the world, but together we can hope to be an accessory.”

[ Posted by Deb Hammacher at March 1, 2002 07:21 AM | More General Center for Ethics News articles ]

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