The Next Step 2012: A Social Justice Retreat
Welcome to The Next Step website! This retreat is a program of UVM’s Student Life Leadership & Civic Engagement Programs. This year's retreat will be held Friday, Jan. 20th-Sunday, Jan. 22nd. Next Step facilitator applications are due Monday, September 26th at 5pm and participant applications are due Monday, Nov. 14th at 5pm.
Occurring each January, Next Step provides 65 participants (undergraduate, graduate, staff and faculty) with a personal and collective experience in which to further develop their own knowledge and skills about their own social identities. Participants learn how to become better change agents and activists against racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, religious discrimination, classism and other socially constructed oppressions.
We believe that to be an effective social justice activist one must:
• understand one's own cultural
backgrounds;
• hear the experiences and stories of
others;
• learn about the roots of specific forms
of oppression and privilege;
discover
ways to address everyday bias, stereotypes, and discrimination as an
ally (or someone who isn’t personally impacted, but who is responsible
based on their privilege).
Next Step’s long term goal is to
impart concrete skills to students so that they can return to campus
and their community and give value and voice to people and cultures
which have historically been denied access in our society.
Please explore our website to learn more about how you can be involved
in The Next Step.
If you have further questions, please email nextstep[at]uvm.edu, or contact Cornell Woodson or Laura Megivern (the Next Step logistic staff) in the Department of Student Life, at (802)656-2060. We are excited to have Kailee Brickner-McDonald and Vu Tran as this year's Next Step Planning Committee co-chairs. They can be reached via the UVM directory (phone & email).