Family Handbook 2023-24

CO-CURRICULAR OPPORTUNITIES

Upper School Affinity Groups & Alliances

At Havergal, Affinity Groups and Alliances are Upper School forums that encourage dialogue and learning as the structure for students to engage with shared interests and experiences around identity. Havergal students share responsibility for expressing the College’s values of Compassion, Courage, Integrity and Inquiry, while maintaining respect for differences in the spirit of community-building through Affinity Groups & Alliances Programming at Havergal. These spaces are related to — but operate differently from — each other and provide their own specific outcomes . Affinity Groups and Alliances are curated through the work of the Coordinator, Equity Inclusion & Belonging. They are student-led and are each supported by a skilled adult facilitator who supports the agency of the student leads, while assuring meetings operate according to the purpose, protocols and guidelines of these spaces. In creating safer learning environments where all students are able to feel belonging, find community and thrive more easily. Affinity Groups: ● are regular drop-in spaces that allow students who share a common identity or an aspect of their identity—usually one that is marginalized or non-dominant—to gather and talk in a safe and supported space about issues and experiences related to that identity; ● allow students to seek support and build community with each other, while also transferring these conversations into action that helps create a more equitable and inclusive school experience; ● hold confidentiality as a shared community agreement that enables students to share candidly and with honesty; ● go beyond being spaces for identity pride, and focus instead on building empowerment, allyship and learning capacity; and ● are developmentally appropriate and focus on providing student support and positive identity development. Current Affinity Groups: ● Black Student Affinity Group (BSA): BSA aims to provide a safe, supportive space to engage in difficult conversations surrounding the black experience both within and outside of Havergal; to embrace and celebrate the diverse black cultures in our community; and to cultivate ways to educate, unite and engage the Havergal community in better understanding issues impacting black people.

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