Social Justice Initiative

Vision Statement

Every individual, organization, and community will have equitable access to life-long resources required to reach their highest potential within a peaceful and just world.

Mission Statement

Co-create space and dedicate time for dialogue, reflection, relationship-building, and action to dismantle the structures and systems of injustice that perpetuate social inequities and disparities, honoring inherent interconnections and interdependencies.

Core Beliefs

• All life is interconnected and deserves to be valued.

• Everyone has the capacity to lead and be a teacher-learner.

• Acts of injustice are learned behaviors.

• The components of social justice can be taught, learned, embodied, and enacted within and among individuals and communities.

• Healing and reconciliation within and among individuals and communities are steps on a journey toward liberation from vengeance, violence, destruction, and turmoil.

Four Pathways to Justice

These four pathways are most powerful when used together to activate socially-just individuals, families, organizations, communities, and policies. They are all active processes, not end states. Each pathway requires that we avoid passivity and are active participants in Life. Collectively, these pathways urge risk-taking with intention, and genuinely seeking connections within, between, and among individuals and others. 

The Social Justice Initiative pathways are defined as follows:

• Forgiveness: Acknowledging injustices as we transform from identifying as victim to identifying as survivor and from perpetuating harm to practicing social justice

• Cultural Humility: Remaining grounded in our own knowing and unknowing as we continue to come to know others

• Courage and Compassion: Facing fear and choosing to move forward anyway, with a commitment to remaining desirous of supporting others though suffering

• Radical Love: Recognizing the Good in others simply because they exist

Upcoming SJI Events

To stay up to date on SJI news and events, please send an email to sji@brynmawr.edu to join our Community Email List!!

Living Lives on Purpose: The Power of Radical Love

Monday, April 21, 7:00-8:30pm - doors open at 6:15pm

Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Join us for a film screening followed by panel discussion and dialogue, hosted by SJI Collaborating partner the Bryn Mawr Film Institute!! Defining Moments is a documentary based upon the groundbreaking life’s work and leadership of Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Frances Hesselbein, a “pioneer for women, volunteerism, diversity, and opportunity.” After the screening, the SJI will facilitate a discussion and dialogue about the "defining moments" that have brought a sense of purpose to the lives of five panelists. The theme of the evening will be Radical Love, one of the Four Pathways of the SJI.

Free and Open to the Public. To register for this event, please send an email to sji@brynmawr.edu to let us know how many seats you wish to reserve.

"Walking the Four Pathways to Social Justice as a Perinatal Social Worker"

Wednesday, April 30th, 3:00-4:30pm EST (virtual)

Keynote for the 49th Annual Conference of the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers: Navigating Practice in Today's World - Advocating for All

This keynote by Dr. Darlyne Bailey will introduce participants to the Four Pathways to Social Justice, a framework developed by the Social Justice Initiative (SJI) housed at Bryn Mawr College: Cultural Humility, Courage and Compassion, Forgiveness, and Radical Love. The presentation will illustrate how each individual Pathway can “be walked” to best manage problems and dilemmas that can arise for perinatal social work practice.