Your Gifts at Work: “Taking CPE to the Streets”

65573_595863Thanks to the support of our faithful donors, in 2020, the Foundation for ACPE granted $21,000 in Innovative Program Awards to support “Taking CPE to the Streets,” an initiative led by ACPE Certified Educator Danielle Buhuro and Eden Theological Seminary Dean Sonja Williams. This project created an ACPE accredited CPE program in a context where seminarian CPE students could learn in a community – justice-oriented context. In doing so, they engaged the multiple pandemics of COVID-19 and police brutality as well as addressed the systemically biased based oppressions of urban communities made of people of color. 

Here are highlights from this project: 

  • The inaugural cohort of five students have taken a practical engagement of community members, their own ministry placements, and theological learnings. The grant made it possible for three subsequent CPE sessions to get off the ground, following the inaugural cohort. 

  • Students with backgrounds in healthcare have the concept of mind, body, and spirit to develop spiritual care based COVID-19 information packets for congregations and organizers. 

  • Students have joined in conversations regarding decarceration, gun violence, police accountability and violence prevention. 

Furthermore, the students have used their spiritual care training to reimagine ministries, engage with a larger number of their community and create space for community organizers to reflect and reimagine. Interns have reported reformatting time in their bible study programs to speak to the spiritual care of the congregation and community. Others have spoken to how they care for children in their youth group by using the techniques of engagement learned in CPE. Still others have worked alongside LiveFree Illinois to engage the community regarding decarceration, gun violence prevention and policy accountability and helped to reframe the conversation around theological and ethical ideas that improve community for all. 

Given the lessons learned from the first phase of the project, below are the plans for expansion: 

  • Eden Seminary’s Admissions Department has created a CPE specific marketing campaign which includes social media, videos, and website ads to communicate to the public more about this program. 

  • Eden Seminary and Sankofa have agreed to provide additional supervisors to Eden Seminary should a published session go over six students which is over and above the current model. 

  • Create an onboarding session and post specific dates and times prior to program start date. 

  • Eden will offer Level 2 CPE sessions beginning in 2022-2023 academic year. 

  • Eden Seminary is in conversation with faculty to develop an expansion of the DMin. program that will have an Urban Chaplaincy focus. 

  • Eden is considering making the course a required level 1 course in Practical Ministry for all MDiv. students enrolled at Eden. 

For more information about this Innovative CPE project, please refer to the following resources developed from the grant:  

  • Students in the program have developed and will provide a 90-minute “Chaplaincy Toolkit” for organizers and activists. They have also created an informational packet for organizers and congregations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow this link for a recording of the 90 min session.

  • In addition, Dr. Buhuro and Dr. Williams have recorded a promotional interview for larger distribution about the program. Follow this link for a recording of the conversation.

 Jasmine Okafor is the ACPE Development Specialist and she can be reached at jasmine.okafor@acpe.edu