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Women of IMPACT
BusinessWest
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Women of IMPACT Charlene
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Elvers
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Women of
Women of IMPACT Director, Center
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for Service and
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Leadership at Springfield College
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  She’s Built Stronger Bridges
Between the College and the
Neighborhoods Around It
CBy George O’Brien
harlene Elvers says she and others at Springfield College affection- ately refer to it as the “listening tour.”
It happened around seven years ago, she noted, and as that name suggests, there was a lot of listening going on — and there is still
a good bit of it today. This tour, if you will, was prompted by her
desire to build more and stronger bridges between the college and the two neighborhoods that surround it — Old Hill and Upper Hill — which, when you get right down to it, is her basic job description as director of the school’s Center for Service and Leadership.
“It is great when college students really see things from a different perspective, when they develop relationships with people who come from a different place than they came from.”
to take some steps to change those responses.
“I wanted to someday talk with people who said, ‘one of the great benefits of living here is having Springfield College as a neighbor,’” she said, adding that, as a result of all that listening and
Women of community and the school. It is mostly quiet now as a result of the pandemic, but before COVID-19
Women of IMPACT
IMPACT repair shop — her listening revealed that there isn’t one anywhere in the city,
The assignment, which had many components, included asking residents in arrived, it housed a homework-help drop-in center and a middle-school
those neighborhoods if they saw any tangible benefits to having the college mentoring program — initiatives that are both being carried out remotely.
in their backyard and, likewise, asking SC students if they saw any benefits, as In the future, Elvers sees vast potential for the site also housing a bicycle-
in learning or growing opportunities, from being in that neighborhood. When A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
both constituencies answered, for the most part, ‘no,’ Elvers knew she had and there’s a real need for one — and that the large open space adjacent to
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Photo by Leah Martin Photography
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OCTOBER 27, 2021 39
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the answers garnered, she spearheaded the creation of the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, an arm of the Center for Service and Leadership. It’s located in a three-story house a few blocks from campus and is, quite literally, a bridge between the


















































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