“At-Risk” of What?: Rewriting a Prescribed Relationship in a Community Literacy Nonprofit Organization: A Dialogue

Cherish Smith; Vani Kannen

doi:10.59236/rjv14i2pp51-77

Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Apr 2015 Open Access

“At-Risk” of What?: Rewriting a Prescribed Relationship in a Community Literacy Nonprofit Organization: A Dialogue

Cherish Smith ; Vani Kannen

Abstract

This paper draws on our time working together in a community literacy organization in New York, NY. In it, we describe the strengths of the program while also detailing our questions about how our “mentor/mentee” relationship was represented in the organization’s mission statement and fundraising rhetoric: specifically, the term “at-risk,” which was applied to the “mentees.” We describe the difficulties we faced when we proposed a writing workshop that challenged the organization’s mission statement and raise questions about the rhetorical tension inherent in education nonprofits’ reliance on funding. We ask community literacy nonprofits to consider whether their mission statement and fundraising language inadvertently individualize and/or racialize systemic inequities in public education and argue in favor of community-defined mission statements.

Journal: Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published: 2015-04-01
DOI: 10.59236/rjv14i2pp51-77
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Open Access: OA PDF Gold
Topics: rhetorical criticism literacy studies community literacy
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“At-Risk” of What?: Rewriting a Prescribed Relationship in a Community Literacy Nonprofit Organization: A Dialogue

Abstract

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References (12)

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