Division of Community, Culture, & Belonging, Emerson College

The Division of Community, Culture, and Belonging (CCB) leads and supports practices, programs, and initiatives that strengthen the Emerson experience and advance the College’s values of creativity, innovation, inclusion, curiosity, equity, expression, and collaboration. We work across Emerson’s campuses and with neighborhood partners in support of Emerson’s mission to educate and elevate extraordinary artists and communicators for the betterment of humanity.

Below are a few of the projects and initiatives from the four areas of the Division of Community, Culture, & Belonging: Elma Lewis Center, Healing and Advocacy Center, HIVE (Hub for Inclusive Visionary Engagement), and the Office of the Vice President. Please explore our pages to learn more about our work.

Elma Lewis Center

The Elma Lewis Center (ELC) practices community-centered storywork and listening. We focus on intergenerational story work and youth workshops with campus and neighborhood communities through self-representation, across media formats. Our current projects include FIREWATER Poetics, Youth Programs (ages 3-19), Solidarity Circles with Emerson students, and Growing Up Roxbury, a living archive from more than 150 elders' family albums.

Healing and Advocacy Center

Healing & Advocacy offers confidential trauma-informed support and advocacy-based counseling for people impacted by power-based interpersonal violence. Our offerings include Yoga for Healing, the Healing Workshop Series, and office hours with Truman the Friendly Therapy Beagle. We also facilitate workshops about power and control, trauma-informed approaches, bystander intervention, and transforming culture. We believe in working together to address the larger structural roots of violence and discrimination, and are committed to engaging in this work from the lens of imagination and community.

HIVE (Hub for Inclusive Visionary Engagement)

HIVE collaborates with students, staff, faculty, and community members to reimagine and shift resources to support community-building, college-access, and self-expression. We offer the free college pathway programs EmersonWRITES and EmersonTHEATER, host the Dress for Success Career Closet, and support Employee Resource Networks. Our programs are rooted in creativity and exploring visionary futures in arts, communication, and higher education.

Office of the Vice President

The Office of the Vice President for Community, Culture, and Belonging is a strategic partner, leveraging human centered-approaches, sustained collaboration, data-informed practices, and accessible design to shape institutional practices that drive lasting systemic impact. Our areas of work include the Presidential Advisory Group for Community & Culture, Accessibility Advisory Board, and Emerson360 Community Survey.