Ubuntu in the Works

A series of community outreach initiatives

• JJYA Initiatives | 
• SPARK the Truth | 
• Directions to Wheelock | 
• Boston Youth Course | 
• May 2 | 
• Ubuntu Home

On October 29 2007, 350 middle and high school students from Boston gathered at Wheelock College for a once-in-a-lifetime youth symposium with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. The symposium, entitled “Bridges to Hope and Understanding: Exploring Truth and Reconciliation,” was an opportunity for the youth of Boston to explore the meaning of truth, reconciliation, forgiveness and “ubuntu”—an African philosophy that offers insight into our relationships with others and how we might live in ways that support ourselves, our neighbors and our communities. Ubuntu means that “a person is a person through other persons,” which allows us to understand that we are all interconnected, and therefore interdependent.

It is in the spirit of ubuntu that Wheelock made a commitment to stay connected to the area schools and student leaders who participated in the symposium. As a follow-up to the symposium, the College hosted a Youth Leadership Summit in November and helped to launch and develop “SPARK the Truth,” a student-led social action organization.

Currently, Wheelock faculty and staff are working with the 27 schools who participated in the Youth Symposium. The goal of this collaboration is for each school to develop a school project focused on ubuntu and peace. As part of this effort, Dr. Ann Tobey, director of the Juvenile Justice and Youth Advocacy (JJYA) Program at Wheelock, is organizing a series of art exhibits in conjunction with other social justice groups from the Boston area. Both exhibits will showcase the work of local teens using the theme of ubuntu and the medium of art to “imagine alternatives to violence.” The Towne Art Gallery at Wheelock will host Youth Transforming Violence: Ubuntu in the Works, and the Massachusetts State House will host the second exhibit, entitled Violence Transformed: An Exhibition of Visual and Performing Arts. Please click here to learn about other JJYA collaborations with local community partners.

In partnership with the Wheelock Family Theater, the College also will host “Bridges to Hope and Understanding: Ubuntu in the Works” in May. This colloquium will be a capstone event that will showcase the social action and artistic projects that these Boston youths have developed through Wheelock’s outreach initiatives.

Please join us for these upcoming events and participate in Wheelock’s continuing dialogue about peace and reconciliation.