The Center for Responsibility and Justice has added new programs this spring semester.

Executive Director Laurie Giles and adjunct history professor Paul Bowen worked closely together to iron out the details for CRJ’s two new partnerships: Reebok and the non-profit organization, Ten Thousand Villages.

CRJ’s overall theme in the fall semester was closing the achievement gap within education. This semester they are also focusing on closing the achievement gap between men and women.

Alongside the Student Development Office, CRJ will be co-sponsoring a women’s empowerment week from March 19-21. The focus of that week will be the Ten Thousand Villages.

“The entire point of Ten Thousand Villages is to empower woman in less developed or third-world countries. [They] make [items] that we sell to help them make money,” Giles said.

By partnering with Reebok, CRJ’s goal is to bring the BOKS program to Boston’s Tobin K-8 School. The BOKS program allows students to access one hour of some type of physical fitness before their workday begins.

“Reebok says, based off their research, that if people get their heart rate up and get their aerobic capacity up before they start their workday, they will be much more productive,” Giles said.

In the fall, CRJ began the Keys to Success program, a literary magazine, and a partnership with Boston’s Tobin K-8 School.

The Keys to Success program has been in full swing this spring semester.

“It is growing,” Giles said. “We had phenomenal results. About 50% of our fellows were on the honor roll or deans list, and more than half of our coaches were also on the honor roll or deans list.”

The Keys to Success took two trips to help coaches learn about leadership development and to help students understand their capability for success.

The program currently has eight student-coaches and is in the process of training more students for the upcoming academic year. “And that will continue on, hopefully in perpetuity,” Giles said.

The literary magazine is complete and will be released after spring break.

The magazine is a 42-page spread of poems, photography, short stories, articles, and lyrics themed around the realities of injustice within education.

“I am so happy with our finished product, and proud of my staff for the countless hours of hard work that went into creating ENC’s first literary magazine,” editor in chief of the literary magazine Taylor Kelliher said.

CRJ operates in the Tobin K-8 School by being involved with Tangible Dream Makers, an acting program. During the fall CRJ also partnered with Hannaford Supermarket to bring the FoodPlay program into Tobin.

CRJ is still considering its theme focus and potential partnerships for next year.

“We have not started to plan [for] next year, but we are thrilled about our partnerships, both the internal partnerships as well as the external partnerships,” Giles concluded.