The Sarah Lawrence campus gives students access to three communities—the town of Bronxville, New York City and the city of Yonkers. Through partnerships with Sarah Lawrence, these and other communities provide students and introduction to real-life social concerns. Sarah Lawrence students, in turn, help residents become their own advocates and find ways to make their voices heard.

The Community Partnerships and Service Learning Office acts as a clearinghouse and facilitator for students and faculty interested in working, through course work, for social change in Yonkers, New York City and surrounding communities. The focus of the program is on community-based learning that occurs as part of a course. Students receive personalized assistance in finding placements related to their academic interest. Opportunities include teaching English to adults; leading writing workshops with prison inmates; working with children of incarcerated parents; union organizing; political lobbying; community organizing; working with mentoring programs; literacy programs; AIDS education projects; psychiatric hospitals; domestic violence programs; rape crisis centers; substance abuse treatment centers and more.

Trips to communities working for social change are scheduled during College breaks. These trips are connected to a course or set of courses dealing with themes such as globalization, labor issues, environmental issues, sustainable development and poverty. The Community Partnerships and Service Learning director and faculty members meet with students for several weeks to prepare them for the venture, assigning readings and providing background information on history and cultural norms. Past destinations have included a traditional Mohawk community in upstate New York, Nicaragua, the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, and the coal- mining region of West Virginia.