Our Mission and Guiding principles
The SEMIS Coalition facilitates school-community partnerships to develop students as citizen-stewards of healthy ecological-social systems
Our Mission
The Southeast Michigan Stewardship (SEMIS) Coalition facilitates school-community partnerships to develop students as citizen-stewards of healthy ecological-social systems. We are educators, visionaries, public intellectuals, advocates, people with a lot of love. Our coalition brings the art and craft of place-based education into core practices in schools and advocates for transformational changes to K-12 institutions, colleges, and universities so that all living systems may thrive in sustainable, healthy, and just communities.
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 inter-generational 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.