C.A.P.E.S.

The C.A.P.E.S. Network

Community Advocacy, Prevention & Education, and Safety (C.A.P.E.S.) is a network of departments within the Division of Student Affairs that seeks to contribute to creating an environment where students are able to work diligently to support the Hampshire community and pursue excellence, while consistently challenging themselves and others to dismantle systems of oppression and racism. 

This network is composed of the following departments:

• Community Advocacy & Restorative Practices
• Prevention & Education
• Campus Safety and Wellbeing

C.A.P.E.S. is structured this way, because we recognize that the work of each of these distinct units has a profound impact on the way each individually connects with and supports our student population. By organizing ourselves in this way, we hope to better inform each other on best practices, develop new policies and procedures that are more inclusive and supportive, better prepare staff to continue the work of dismantling barriers to access and continue the strong legacy of community advocacy and activism that is central to Hampshire College.

In order to best address the complex issues facing our students and our community, our organizational structures must also reflect the complexities of the problems we wish to confront, and we hope that C.A.P.E.S. provides a pathway to do the hard work of transformation.

Our Vision

We strive to collaboratively create a campus environment that is safe, empowering, and inclusive of members to be and embrace multiple dimensions of themselves while leaning into vulnerability, discomfort, and growth to reach individual and communal well-being.

Our Mission

C.A.P.E.S. supports the Hampshire College community in building strong connections with each other in moments of affinity, difference, and conflict. We do this through sustaining a safe and secure environment conducive to learning and growing academically, civically, and personally. We provide intentional and intersectional services, programming, and advocacy, utilizing our three guiding frameworks: community care, harm reduction, and restorative practices.

Our Core Values

• Centering Students: We keep students' needs and interests as the basis for our practice as we exercise pride in contributing to the mission of the College and the mission of Division of Student Affairs.
• Advocacy: We aim to build rapport and trust with students so they can share honestly about their needs and dreams for Hampshire College. We assist and support them in gaining the advocacy skills necessary to establish community and action toward collective liberation and cultural change. 
• Trauma-Informed Service: We serve students from all lived experiences and cultural backgrounds, and approach our service through a trauma-informed lens to provide judgment-free and harm-reduction support for community members in need. 
• Intersectionality: We encourage community members to embrace their full range of experiences and identities. Creating space for authenticity and compassion as a channel for social justice and antiracism engagement.
• Safety: Through proactive and responsive measures, we promote physical, emotional, and cultural safety. We collaborate on building community education, services, and initiatives around safety, support, care,  and action.
• Accountability: We work with our community to listen to each other and build shared investment in the well-being of our community - and to hold active accountability for the positive and harmful impacts of our actions or inaction.