Kit Collins rscj (left), and Mavi Coakley rscj (far right), support Joan Kirby rscj in her plan to create Homes for the Homeless in the 1980s.

Kit and Melanie Guste rscj choose slides for a project

CEDC’s advertisement for AVAAZ as it appeared in a Japanese newspaper.

CEDC staff meet with a partner.

The Center for Educational Design and Communication 

Washington DC, United States

The Church sends us to communicate the love of the heart of Jesus.
Constitutions, 10

It is just before nine in the morning and one of the busiest capital cities in the world is going about the hustle of a new day, in the northeast corner of the city the staff of the Center for Educational Design and Communication (CEDC) is arriving to begin their work. Each morning brings new challenges at this ministry of the Society of the Sacred Heart in their mission to provide top quality communications and hospitality in support of social justice, education, and ministry. Whether it is a website dedicated to providing justice and peace education, or a meeting of board members of a teen outreach organization, everything that is done at the Center is in the name of empowering the voiceless, the oppressed, and those without the resources to fully support their mission.   

From humble beginnings the Center has grown into the comprehensive and far-reaching organization that it is today. Born out of a frustration with the major media’s coverage of conflicts in Central America in the 1980’s, the Society leadership team asked Sister Catherine (Kit) Collins in 1984 to begin a ministry dedicated to giving a voice to those groups that are lost in the cacophony of the media marketplace.  She accepted the challenge, and CEDC began its mission serving the groups that most needed a voice.  

When groups partner with the Center, they frequently comment about how it is about more than just good design or a meeting space. It is the common desire to see societal change and progress that enables the Center to serve these partner organizations in a way that empowers them to succeed. Another thing that makes the Center different from for-profit organizations is the goal of fostering learning and independence in those that come for help.  The CEDC seeks to be a partner, not a vendor, giving organizations dedicated to the concepts of social justice and education the skills and services they need to be the most efficient with their resources that they have.

The impact of this dedication to mission can sometimes be greater than the staff can imagine. A recent example of this has been the Center’s partnering with a “global web movement” called Avaaz.org a non-profit that uses its web site to connect and mobilize people all over the world into global activism. Their millions of members receive email updates and action alerts in 13 languages, dealing with everything from global climate change to the conflict in Darfur. Avaaz collects signatures and raises money to bring greater attention and focus to certain global concerns.

CEDC worked with Avaaz on an advertisement for the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali that compared the talks to the Titanic… a sinking ship. The ad called for the US, Canada and Japan to stop blocking 2020 targets for emission reductions. Japan, a leading member of the Kyoto Protocol, came under criticism from many non-governmental organizations, including the advertisement from Avaaz. A Japanese newspaper (Asahi Shimbun) reported that after the Bali Conference Environment Minister Kamoshita approached Prime Minister Fukuda with the ad explaining that Japan was being seen as a force of resistance in the climate change talks. Days later Prime Minister Fukuda announced a major national policy shift… Japan is now setting a 2020 emissions target.

It is in this spirit of hope and peace that the CEDC seeks to live out the goals of their mandate from the Society of the Sacred Heart, as the myriad groups that the Center partners fulfill their mission in various places and in many different spheres. The Center of Concern is a Catholic social justice education center with whom the CEDC has worked for over a decade, and have just recently completed work on their “Education for Justice” website , allowing them to reach new members across the globe. CEDC uses a content management system which allows the Center of Concern to organize their many resources an easy-to-reach format for their constituents. Their website will continue to grow, with the hopes that its audience will be spurred into action by the resources it provides.

The impact that these groups are making may be global, as with Avaaz and the Center of Concern, but the Center works with organizations with a local mission as well. For the last five years, the Center has partnered with two of the largest foundations in the Washington, D.C. area, the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region and the Prince George’s Community Foundation.  The work that the Center has done for these groups has varied from postcards to corporate identity packages, but all were done in the name of assisting the foundations in reaching groups that need their help to accomplish their mission.

While all of these organizations represent partners that are large, many of the under-resourced organizations that the Center supports are much smaller, both in size and scope.  For over ten years, the Center has been working with the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy , building a professional website and providing much in the way of both graphic design and conference space for their work in Washington.  The work of the Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is twofold: to prevent teen pregnancy, and to work with pregnant teens to help them prepare for life as a parent. The Center has helped them expand their reach and impact on the teens that vitally need their services.

One of the Center’s proudest achievements with the closest of its partners is the very web site where you are reading this article… rscjinternational.org.  From its inception in 2004 it has grown to a resource that now reaches thousands of people around the globe.  It serves as a tool for the Society, allowing greater communication and fellowship through increased connectivity among its members.  Information about important meetings and Society events is provided shortly after they happen and often in three languages. For example, each Celebration of Perpetual Profession is featured with the description of the event and a photo gallery. In 2008 we took the technology further by including video clips of the event. The upcoming General Chapter 2008 will be another big step for the webweavers, with plans to include videos, agendas, interviews, a blog, working papers and more to keep the Sacred Heart family informed.

The staff at the Center take great joy in their efforts to fulfill the ideals of the Society through their work each day. The ministry is moving forward, a dynamic and empowering resource in the fight to overcome resistance to social justice, the support of true education, striving to end homelessness and poverty, and a cornucopia of other missions that its partners represent. It is with their missions in mind that the Center begins and ends each day, with the hope that its impact can be felt through each of theirs.

Laryn Kragt Bakker, Senior Designer Kit Collins rscj, Executive Director Beth Ponticello, Art/Media Director

Daniel Frascella, Hospitality Director Jeannine Carracciolo, Graphic Designer Will Simpson, Assistant Director