In this episode, we explore the Seeding Civity partnership with the University YMCA at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My guests are: Jes DeVries, director of immigrant family services at the University YMCA, and Cynthia Markstahler, Global Engagement Coordinator and AmeriCorps Vista Coordinator at the University YMCA.
Civity is a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with others who are different.
Our world today is one of haves and have-nots, insiders and outsiders, people who belong and people who are marginalized because they are other.
By reaching out person-to-person to others who are different, all of us together create the relational infrastructure to build solidarity, justice, and resilience in our communities.
Our differences are our strengths. This is ‘civity.’
Our podcast showcases interviews with people bridging power-based divides to move communities forward on issues grounded in inequities.