2024 Summer Institute Participants in Southwest Detroit’s Clark Park. Teachers and partners practice Photovoice and community mapping using the arts. 

Guiding Principles

Guiding Principles define how we’re going to behave and interact with those around us as we work toward our long-term vision and mission. Guiding principles are clear expectations of the values that guide our work together and determine our direction. This leads us to better decision making in service of our Coalition. 

1. The SEMIS Coalition is rooted in the Great Lakes watersheds of Southeast Michigan. We understand that the watersheds of the Great Lakes support and sustain life and we commit to connecting communities locally and globally across social and ecological boundaries.

2. The social and ecological injustices of our time are intersectional. We practice place-based education to create transformational change through inquiry, interdisciplinary learning, democratic practices, and solutions grounded in hope and actions. 

3. Humans are a part of the web of life in which all living things have inherent value and dignity. Our work is rooted in ecojustice and our community addresses social and ecological challenges together through intergenerational dialogue, civic action, and collaboration between teachers, students, and community partners.  

4. We are a strengths-based coalition, rooted in collaboration, belonging, and a diversity of relationships, members, and generations in the community. Our reciprocal relationships acknowledge and work to undo unjust power dynamics and limits of positionality to build communities of interdependence. 

5. We believe young people do not have to wait to be empowered civic actors and we provide equitable opportunities for young people to make valuable contributions to and decisions for their communities now. We support youth agency and voice, building youth-adult partnerships to lead transformational change.

6. We are committed to anti-racism. In our attitudes and activities, we reject any form of discrimination, marginalization, violence, and exploitation.

7. Everyone is an educator; everyone is a learner. We respect the dignity, professionalism, and creativity of educators, both formal and informal, and approach interactions with love, grace, flexibility, humor, and fun.

 Download our Guiding Principles as a PDF here.

Data Art for Algebra! Students present at the 2023 Youth Community Forum High school students from Ypsilanti display and present their place-based project from their Algebra classes. Their teachers, Mrs. Woodman and Mrs. Stanczyk, have designed their math curriculum to teach climate change education and provide students the practice using data analysis and predictions to express their learning. This team of learners presents at our 2023 annual community forum at Eastern Michigan University.

Our Vision Statement

The Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS) envisions a community centered in an ecojustice approach to place-based education and rooted in interdependence among human and ecological systems. This strengths-based community recognizes that our well-being rests on interconnectedness with each other and the natural world. Together, we will build coalition between youth of all ages, educators, school administrators, families, neighbors, community elders, grassroots organizers, government partners and civic leaders, corporate and industry partners, institutions of higher education, and other champions of our work.

SEMIS Coalition activities are rooted in Coalition members’ sense of place, both ecological and social. Learning, environmental stewardship, and civic action are happening in and out of doors – in schoolyards, neighborhoods, and local communities. SEMIS Coalition events are accessible for members of all abilities and schedules are responsive to the needs of all. 

The SEMIS Coalition staff are leaders in education, both locally and beyond Southeast Michigan. We are representative of our members and of the communities we serve. We learn from and with our members and our work relies upon Coalition relationships and connections. As an organization, we are supported by a diverse funding base and through the ongoing investment of our members and the communities we serve. Our funders align with our vision but also challenge us to grow alongside thought leaders, activists, and educational communities of practice. 

At our annual Community Forum, participants from across Southeast Michigan connect and share discoveries from their work in action. These interactions reveal relationships formed across time, space, and generations. We see members sharing learning experiences that value diverse cultures, abilities, and ways of understanding, encountering, and supporting the natural world. Conversations and presentations cross national, organizational, and cultural boundaries. We see members taking action on complex problems facing their communities. Young people lead many projects locally and see themselves as global citizens, whose work is enlivened by a commitment to environmental and social justice. Conscious of unjust structures, we lift the voices and experiences of those most affected by environmental problems and work together toward a just and sustainable world.