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Urban Studies Graduate Students Present on Worcester State's Community Partner located in Rio de Janeiro

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Urban Studies graduate students enrolled in Professor Timothy Murphy’s course, NM-901 The Nonprofit World, collaborated on group presentations that focused on initiatives of one of WSU's community partners - a Rio de Janeiro based nonprofit called Catalytic Communities (CatComm). 

The students considered how CatComm’s four initiatives - Favala 101, Narrative Shifting, Sustainable Favelas, and Land Rights - relate to the organization’s mission, which is to 

"generate models for effective community-led and people-centered development of informal settlements in cities across the globe, based on the experience of Rio de Janeiro, with the city’s favelas achieving recognition of their heritage status and residents being served as equal citizens. This is done through a combination of education, research, training, networking exchanges, strategic communications, technology, mapping, advocacy, and participatory planning."

A major takeaway from the presentations was the degree to which CatComm empowers communities by centering them, appreciating each community for its unique characteristics. For example, understanding that each community has specific knowledges, skills, and experiences, CatComm helps connect communities across the city of Rio de Janeiro so they can share information and resources with one another. Rather than seeing all informal settlements as all the same, in need of all the same things, or as having an external standard to aspire to, CatComm helps communities rise to their potential in pursuit of their specific goals by building on their unique assets. 

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between CatComm and WSU in 2018, opening the door for various types of collaborations. One such collaboration is taking place in this semester’s UR-142 ELL Community Fieldwork class where Urban Studies students work one-on-one with Brazilian community organizers living in Rio de Janeiro via Zoom to help improve their English conversation skills. 

To learn more about CatComm, check out their site!

 The ELL Community Fieldwork class with Brazilian community organizers will be offered again next semester. Email Prof. Murphy if you’re interested - tmurphy6@worcester.edu




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