Community Partnerships

New City Community Press understands it mission as working with local communities to represent themselves by telling their stories in their own words. NCCP document stories of local communities because we believe their voices matter in addressing issues of national and global significance. The press values these stories as a way for communities to reflect upon and analyze their own experience   through literacy and oral performance. NCCP is committed to working with communities, writers, editors, and translators to develop strategies that assure these stories will be heard in the larger world. Publications include: I Witness: Perspectives on Policing in the Near Westside (Kuebrich); No Restraints: An Anthology of Disability Culture in Philadelphia (Ott); Espejos y Ventanas: Oral Histories of Mexican Farmworkers and their Families (Lyons). NCCP also supports Reflections, a journal focused on social justice work by teachers and community activists, and SPARK, a journal focused on political activism.

Interns will be provided the opportunity to work on a community publication, including developing writing groups, editing/design of manuscript, public events with authors, and, where possible, engaging in activist rights campaign linked to the publication.

تويزة/Twiza is defined as the act of a community coming together to collaboratively build a material structure, such as a house or barn, to support a neighbor. The تويزة/Twiza project is a collaboration of seven universities and three non-government organizations that supports over 500 youth participants in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America to engage in transnational dialogues about the meaning of civic society and human rights in response to a global rise in extremism and intolerance. Twenty of these individuals will ultimately be chosen as تويزة/Twiza Fellows to take part in a five-day workshop where they will build (then implement) civic society projects focused on human rights in their home communities. From the dialogues and workshops, educational materials will be developed for use at additional universities and non-government organizations.

Interns will be provided the opportunity to work with international faculty/students developing dialogue topics, background materials, and digital infrastructure. Where possible, students will work with Twiza Fellows on local human rights campaigns.

The Writing and Working for Change Series (WWFC) began as a means to recognize the collective work of academic and professional writing teachers to work within and across diverse identities, ensuring the field recognize and respect language, educational, political, and social rights of all students, teachers, and community members. It was soon realized that any effort at social justice for students required equal attention to the communities in which the school reside, the nation in which they exist. To that end, WWFC has expanded its focus to include the voices of marginalized individuals and the collective political work that attempts to expand justice across classrooms, communities, and the country.

Publications include: From Po Ho on Dope to Ph.D (Elaine Richardson); Dreams and Nightmares: I fled alone to the United States when I was fourteen (Liliana Velasquez); The Weight of My Armor (McShane, Kleinbart, Schell).

Interns will be provided the opportunity to work on a publication, including project development, editing/design of completed manuscripts, organizing public events with authors, and, where possible, supporting aligned community activist projects.

Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) believes that human rights are basic rights deeply rooted in all humans and every individual shall be entitled to their own human rights equally without any discrimination. All these rights are interlinked, mutually reinforcing, indivisible and inseparable. To this end, STJ is a Syrian-led organization that aims to promote human rights for all Syrians, including equality, dignity, freedom, and justice – indivisibly, correlated, and complementary to each other. STJ believes that uncovering the truth behind violations, rendering justice to victims, and the promotion of human rights are all key to achieving a genuine and lasting peace in Syria. We believe this can only be accomplished through a period of real “transitional justice”, which involves rebuilding the Syrian state based on the rule of law, justice, human rights, and equal citizenship for all Syrians as a guarantee for a future free from violence and conflict. STJ realizes that professional and highly accurate documentation according to human rights standards is the first step to uncovering the truth behind violations and achieving justice for victims and their families. 

Interns will be provided the opportunity to work on human rights reports, support creation of human rights workshop materials, develop press releases for international media, and work on presentations to United Nations as well as International Criminal Court. In addition, interns will be able to help develop the digital infrastructure of STJ.

The Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers (FWWCP) originated in the late 20th century as a network of working-class writing groups, beginning in the United Kingdom but eventually spreading into Europe and the United States. During its 30-year history, the FWWCP circulated over one million publications. It was a long-term goal of the organization to create an archive that would ensure that the work of FWWCP writers and publishers could serve as a lasting record of working-class life in the late 20th century. The dream of an archive became a necessity, however, when the FWWCP was forced to close during the period of the 2008 recession. In response, an international network of studnets, scholrs, and universities worked with the organization to create an archive of over 2,500 publications. Currently, there is work to develop digital/augmented reality access to the collection which is housed in the Trade Union Congress Collection, London Metropolitian University.

Interns will be provided the opportunity to work on digitizing the archive, developing special collection areas, produce archive guidebooks, and work with FWCCP authors on acquiring publications. The intern will also have the opportunity to plan the annual Festival of Writing held annually in England.

The Studies in Writing and Rhetoric Series (SWR), established in 1984, supports research that explores how writing and rhetoric are currently and have been historically taught, practiced, and circulated within communities, whether in colleges, workplaces, or neighborhoods, local, national, digital, or international contexts. The series also focuses on supporting a broad range of projects that accurately represent the multifarious identities of teachers, administrators, and researchers involved in writing and rhetoric, addressing the cultural, social, political, and material realities that define their work. SWR aspires to be global both in scope and reach, and is dedicated to the use of digital technologies that ensure its publications are accessible and available to a national and international audience. Publications include: Freedom Writing: African American Civil Rights Literacy Activism, 1955-1967 (Lathan); The Desire for Literacy: Writing in the Lives of Adult Learners (Rosenberg); From Boys to Men: Rhetorics of Emergent American Masculinity (Jones); Rhetoric of Respect: Recognizing Change at a Community Writing Center (Rousculp).

Interns will be provided the opportunity to work on an academic publication, including project development, editing/design of manuscript, public events with authors, and, where possible, marketing materials.