From Charity to Justice through Citysquare

Abstract

The service-learning and co-curricular programs at most universities tend to focus on charitable activities. While a university’s culture of charity is in the mainstream of American civic life, charity is limited and may be counterproductive both as a response to poverty and as a curricular or co-curricular activity. To make this case this paper distinguishes between charity and justice and argues that promoting justice requires engaging students with organizations whose core principles and practices is grounded in justice rather than charity. One example of this type of organization is the Dallas-based social service, community development organization CitySquare, an organization which is explicitly guided by a social justice orientation. Creating partnerships with such organizations is a particularly powerful approach to educate students about the limits of charity and the possibilities of justice.