About Us

Mission Statement: Common Ground is a student group at YDS that invites anyone and everyone to the shared work of caring for the Earth, our common ground.

Description: Common Ground is a student-led group that aims to build community around caring for and celebrating our communal home. Through platforms of community building, education, and advocacy, Common Ground will provide a space for people to come together to respond to and reckon with environmental issues, giving particular attention to the climate emergency.

We seek to deepen our relationships to one another and the ground we share through exploring reparative work rooted in faith, community, diversity, and celebration. At the same time, we acknowledge the fraught and beautiful complexity of "shared ground," and thus commit to grappling with and addressing the ongoing legacies of colonization, patriarchy, and racism. We are guided and inspired by scientific and traditional knowledge, including the practices of indigenous peoples who have stewarded these lands for millenia, which now comprise the city of New Haven, and the many saints, mystics, and practitioners of different faiths who have called on us to love and care for our one earth home.

Additionally, we aim to provide environmental visibility to issues on campus, holding YDS accountable to our unique calling as an institution: to put faith and scholarship into action for the common good of all persons, beings, and ecosystems. Activities include: potlucks, volunteer opportunities, Earth-based ceremonies, environmental education, supporting other groups, rallies, petitions, nonviolent direct action, etc.