S PELMAN COLLEGE
BONNER SCHOLARS PROGRAM

PROJECT PROPOSAL

ARIENNE JONES AND DIANA SAINTIL

OCTOBER 23, 2009

  1. Background
  2. Spelman College is located in the historic West End Atlanta Community. West End Atlanta was once a thriving, predominantly African-American metropolis. However, over the years, the area went into a slow decline, due primarily to the introduction of drugs, violence, and poverty into the area. Spelman College, being an institution that prides itself on serving the community, has, in our opinion, a duty to help revitalize the West End community. In the past, Bonner Scholars have been scattered throughout Metropolitan Atlanta, working in a variety of capacities, when there is much work to be done in the surrounding community. After participating in the Bonner Summer Leadership Institute and seeing how other institutions were focused primarily on one issue area, it has come to our attention that our Bonner Scholars Program needs to do the same. Thus, our Big Idea as Bonner Congress Representatives is to use our experiences and the examples of others at Congress to implement more issue-based service in order to help revive the deteriorating West End community.
  3. Big Idea
  4. History of College and Community
  5. The West End Atlanta community began developing in 1830. By 1855, the area was populated by upper middle class Caucasians. Spelman College was founded on April 11, 1881, in the basement of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet Giles. Friendship Baptist Church is located in the West End Community; thus, Spelman has always had a vested interest in the West End community. By 1976, the economic standing of the community was in slow decline. Today, West End Atlanta is one of the poorest communities in Atlanta. While measures are being taken to help revitalize the community, more can be done to help with this endeavor. Thus, Spelman College becomes a factor. Spelman has three primary service organizations, those being the Bonner Scholars Program, the UPS Scholars, and Actively Changing Tomorrow Through Service (A.C.T.S.). These three organizations encompass roughly 160 individuals.
  6. Issues
  7. Though these three organizations serve others, many of us do not provide service in the West End community, which greatly hinders the redevelopment of the community. At one point during the last academic year, students were scattered throughout Metropolitan Atlanta. With the amount of work to be done in West End, everyone should be involved in helping the community in some way. Spelman has numerous community partners, all of whom can use additional assistance. Additionally, all First and Second Year Spelmanites are required to complete a certain amount of community service; this requirement is typically done in a variety of capacities and in a variety of places. While many students go above and beyond the mandatory call to service, they don’t necessarily serve in the West End area. Thus, the problem that Spelman is experiencing is that students are serving a multiplicity of areas, as opposed to congregating to serve one particular area. This scattering of service does not particularly make as big of an impact as it would if all students were to come together to help one area.
  8. Big Idea
  9. Having participated in the Bonner Summer Leadership Institute 2009, we realize that numerous Bonner institutions have centered their service on one specific area, and that this singular focus helps unite everyone under the blanket of a common cause. We plan to have more of a relationship with our community partners and to include more of the Spelman community, as opposed to the three primary service organizations laced with a few dedicated students who are not affiliated with any of the organizations. In having more issue-based service, we feel that Spelman will be able to play a more active role in the revival of the West End community.
  10. Plan of Action
  11. Involving Others
  12. As Bonner Congress Representatives, we feel that it is our duty to mobilize others in support of our cause. In so doing we feel that we have solid support from numerous entities at Spelman and in the surrounding community. Some of these people include, but are not limited to:
  13. Other Bonner Scholars
  14. UPS Scholars
  15. Shirley Noel (co-founder of A.C.T.S.)
  16. Staci Bruce (Community Service Coordinator)
  17. Sheryl Belizaire (Bonner Scholars Coordinator)
  18. A.F. Herndon Elementary School
  19. Neighborhood Planning Unit T (NPU-T)
  20. Foreverfamily Atlanta
  21. KIPP-Strive Academy
  22. Other schools and organizations in the West End community
  23. With the help of the aforementioned entities, we feel that our Bonner Program will be able to have a stronger, more issue-based program that will address the issue of community revitalization in West End Atlanta.
  24. Addressing the Problem
  25. As our primary goal is to help revitalize the West End community, we feel that having a more cohesive Bonner Program aligned with other service organizations and people with a desire to serve will help make this dream a reality. In order to help West End, we must first help ourselves; in order to do this, we must present a united program in which all people who perform community service do it in one specific area. In order to have everyone working together in certain areas, we will utilize the help of our community partners in order to place students with these partners to serve. When more people are congregated into a smaller area to focus on serving, more cohesive and long-lasting work can be done to help the community. Thus, our Big Idea places more woman power behind the cause of revitalizing West End.
  26. Conclusion
  27. Being members of the Bonner Congress affords us with numerous opportunities to glean more information to better implement our Big Idea plan. As we will be placed into groups based on our project interests, this affords us the opportunity to utilize information for implementation from other Congress Representatives. Some of the things that we plan to glean from Congress are: how to mobilize students so that we can have them congregated into the West End community, measures that we can take to further reach out to people and/or organizations in the community, steps to make this process an organized and cohesive process, and, quite possibly, other things about which we have not thought.
  28. Being surrounded by other Congress representatives will empower us to the extent that we are able to take with us the experiences of other Bonner Congress Representatives and implement them in our Bonner Program. This opportunity will give us the tools, ideas, and motivation to return to Spelman College with a renewed sense of mobilization and with the power to help revamp our program and place it on the path to helping the West End community. The mission statement of Spelman College says that its goal is to “empower the total person who…commits to positive social change.” While we know that our Big Idea will not be easy or simple, we also know that, as Bonner Congress representatives and Spelman women, it is our duty to ourselves, the Bonner Program, and our school to implement this issue-based program as a means of bettering the surrounding community, as a way of engaging in positive social change. Thus, we consider Bonner Congress an opportunity to absorb the advice of others so that we can effectively answer our call to service.