Uniting students with their communities

Students follow a community engagement learning model, where young people learn from their communities — and their communities learn from them.

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Civic engagement
cultivates
informed global citizens

Stories are just the start. Students in our program create civic engagement projects that meet local needs, with the potential to go global.

Civic engagement works:

Article • , May 24, 2023

Lights, Camera, Action for Civic Engagement in Kentucky!

Six hundred miles separate Langley, Kentucky, from the Bronx, New York. Differences abound. Langley is an old coal-mining community rooted…

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Video • Freethink, May 06, 2022

8 complete strangers tell their life stories. Watch what happens next.

Learn how the Story Exchange inspired one high school student to turn his empathy into action.

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Video • YouTube, Jul 16, 2020

Mountjoy Prison and Maynooth University Story Exchange

Ilustrator Eimear McNally captures the lessons, learning, and bonding that happened during this 8-week project between prisoners at Mountjoy and college students. In partnership with Gaisce -The President’s Award.

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Our civic engagement
projects span the globe

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USA

The Field Exchange

Date • 2017–Present

Location • The Bronx, New York,
and Langley, Kentucky

Communities served • High school students, (northeast & southeast) U.S.

University Heights High School in The Bronx, New York, and Floyd Central High School in Langley, Kentucky, may not seem to have much in common. But for the past six years and counting, these visionary high schools have joined forces to break down barriers, build community, and transform empathy into action.

Although we were from very different places, I felt so comfortable and connected on a level I would never have imagined.
Sahara, N4 Student, KY, U.S.

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South Africa

Trash to Treasure

Date • 2000–Present

Location • Joe Slovo Township,
Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Communities served • Families and community members in the Nkandla region

We’re turning trash into treasure in Joe Slovo Township. With this project, residents are exchanging recyclable trash for redeemable vouchers for food and groceries. Not only does this program clean the streets, it puts food on the table for families facing food insecurity.

We are currently serving about 360 households per week in Nkandla alone, and we have collected more than 1000kgs of plastic bottles, cardboard, and waste.
Zukiswa Allah, Program Manager, N4 Africa

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