Campus Compact » Program Models Participatory Action Research

Carolina Center for Public Service

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The Carolina Center for Public Service at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was established in 1999 as a unique model among public universities.

The center’s mission is to lead the University’s engagement efforts and service to the state of North Carolina and beyond by linking the expertise and energy of faculty, staff, and students to the needs of the people.

In all our work, the Carolina Center for Public Service seeks to build partnerships throughout the University and the state as we:

– Advance the quality and sustainability of efforts through effective practices
– Recognize and celebrate exemplary service
– Share information, strategies, and outcomes of UNC s service endeavors
– Facilitate community-based scholarship in addressing community issues

As the first public university, Carolina has a proud history of changing lives through educating scholars and leaders dedicated to forging a brighter future for our state, nation and the world. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is committed to expanding its tradition of engagement and responsiveness through the Carolina Center for Public Service.

The center provides a number of programs and services for students, faculty, staff, and the public, including: awards, service fellowships, trainings, and enrichment programs for students; grants and awards for student organizations; trainings, awards, and grants for faculty; an online searchable database of University engagement activities; a weekly listserv of service opportunities; an annual volunteer fair of community agencies; and an annual “”Bus Tour”" of the state for new faculty and administrators.

For more information, visit our webpage: www.unc.edu/cps/

Contact:
Lynn Blanchard, Director
Carolina Center for Public Service
(919)843-7568, ccps {at} unc(.)edu

Public Service Scholars

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On many campuses, service-learning courses are given particular emphasis for honors students. At Stanford University, a select group of honors students are chosen to be Public Service Scholars in their junior year. These students spend a three-week immersion in the community and meet weekly in a service-learning seminar in the urban studies department. They also incorporate community-based learning and action research into their thesis, which they work on with two advisors, one from the Stanford faculty and one from the community.

Haas Center for Public Service website

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Research and empowerment: faculty help parents design a survey

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When parents of children at three elementary schools in San Jose, California, wanted to improve education for their children, faculty from San Jose State University helped them to create their own research effort. The faculty helped them to design and administer a telephone survey to examine the accessibility and helpfulness of elementary school teachers. The parents then took charge conducting the survey in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese in order to include all the language groups in the area. After studying the results, they were able to identify the key obstacles to parent-teacher communication and use these to suggest changes.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

The San Diego Dialogue

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It started with a community that wanted to know more about itself, a roundtable discussion, and a class of sociology students, standing on the border between San Diego and Tijuana, tapping on the windows of cars to ask the drivers four questions:

What is your nation of residence? Why are you crossing the border? How frequently do you cross in a month? For what purposes do you cross the border?

The research that the students compiled dispelled a number of common misconceptions about border crossings here, at the most traversed transnational border in the world. Contrary to popular belief, nine out of ten crossings were not by tourists or smugglers, but by commuters who were going back and forth as part of their daily routine.

Faced with this new information, community leaders on both sides of the border suddenly realized that the economies and lives of their two cities were intertwined. Policy makers came together to discuss how they could make border crossing easier for these every day commuters. By the time discussion was through, their efforts had been profiled by papers from The San Diego Tribune to The New York Times, and the United States Congress had passed a bill authorizing expansion of the border to make crossing easier.

This small study with large implications provides important insight into democracy. Democracy, ideally, is a system where people come together to engage in civil discourse a process of participating in informed discussion of how their community looks today, and how they envision it looking tomorrow. Unfortunately, community members often don t have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about their community, and there are typically few places in a town or city where people can come together for such discussion.

The San Diego Dialogue, an initiative of the University of California that was the springboard for this cross-border research project, seeks to rectify both of these situations. The Dialogue is the name given to a center based at the university founded to provide the information, public education, and forum for effective civil discourse in the San Diego-Tijuana region.

The Dialogue is led by a group of one hundred regional leaders of industry, government, the media, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations in Mexico and the United States. The group identifies issues of regional significance in three issue areas: regional integration; equity, diversity, and urban development; and globalization. For any particular issue, the progress of promoting civil discourse follows five steps. First, a plenary session is held providing public education and introducing the issue. Second, working groups are formed that include community members interested in the issue. Third, faculty and research fellows from the university provide applied research on the topic to give the working groups information they need to make informed decisions. The fourth key step in the development of civil discourse is the holding of community forums. The Dialogue regularly convenes workshops, roundtables, and community discussions that focus on research findings and regional issues. The group also sponsors a regular forum for discussion of cross-border policy issues that attracts participation from nearly 500 business, government, and academic leaders; and a regular breakfast forum series in which 200-300 business executives and public officials discuss economic issues and trends.

Once discussion of an issue is complete, the last step in the process is the publication of results. These may be published as separate articles available to the community, or as part of the San Diego Dialogue Report, the group s monthly newsletter.

By the time proceedings are published, community members have become involved in the process of sharing ideas that makes democratic communities come to life. Starting with a sociology class that got people talking all over the nation, the University of California, San Diego, has developed a project that has gotten people talking in a much more important venue: their own communities.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

For more information: http://www.sddialogue.org/

PAR Project: Regis University

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This project focused on a lower-income, ethnically diverse, inner-city neighborhood of Denver, Colorado and utilized a variety of strategies to involve neighborhood residents in research on youth cultures, youth crime, and police and judicial responses to youthful offenders.

First, the project drew upon existing campus-based community service programs in the neighborhood to create research teams, which conducted in-depth interviews with neighborhood youth and other residents, neighborhood community leaders and activists, and local police officers in order to uncover perceptions and concerns about youth and youth crime. Information from these interviews will in turn provide directions for subsequent research. In this way, the project involved neighborhood residents in setting the research agenda; exposed and investigated perceptions and misperceptions about youth cultures and crime; and sought to open lines of communication.

The project concluded with a public forum on the Regis University campus, open to membersof the Regis community and the larger neighborhood alike. Here, the research teams presented the findings; neighborhood residents discussed the research and provided their perspectives; and all involved worked on possible solutions, and set agendas for further campus/community collaboration.

Contact: Jeff Ferrell at 303.458.4206

East St. Louis research project

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When faculty from the University of Illinois first came to East St. Louis in 1987, residents had a simple message for them: Go back home. They had seen faculty before; they had been studied and analyzed and reported on in academic literature. They had seen their forgotten city turned into a national symbol of weakness and urban waste, with stories on national television of police using pay phones because they didn t have radios and of the city renting city hall because they couldn t afford to own it.

In 1990 Ken Reardon, an associate professor in urban and regional planning, became the director of the university s East St. Louis research project, and suggested one critical change. Instead of doing research on East St. Louis, as they had done for the last three years, the university would start doing research with East St. Louis. With that change, Dr. Reardon changed the nature of the project from a study in traditional research, to a national model in participatory action research.

This new approach had a ripple effect. Initially, research had focused on large-scale improvements within the city. University planners had developed enormous projects to encompass whole neighborhoods. When they began working with the community, faculty realized that residents didn t want lofty plans for changing their whole city. They wanted to take on problems one at a time, fixing East St. Louis piece by piece. Small-scale change replaced sweeping proposals.

The way the research itself was conducted also changed. Initially, the university had followed academic research models regularly used in urban planning. Once they began working with residents, they realized that no single model could be applied to East St. Louis. They picked pieces from here and there, and put together their plans as they went, modifying projects to fit the new ideas brought by residents. Reports written to fit academic specifications have had to be reworked and rewritten to be effective for community residents to use them with policy makers and funders.

The outcomes of the action research have been significant. In 1994, through regular meetings with urban planning faculty and students, the Emerson Park neighborhood association, representing the poorest neighborhood in East St. Louis, developed a five-year community development plan. In 1998, after completing the plan one year ahead of schedule, they initiated new discussions with faculty and students for a second five-year plan, which will include a $20 million project to develop 300 homes in the neighborhood. Another typical achievement came earlier in 1998 when the collaborative research team produced sufficient data on housing, transportation, and zoning to convince the St. Louis Bi-State Development Corporation to locate a new stop on their light rail system in Emerson Park a move that is expected to bring new revenue to the neighborhood and make jobs more accessible to residents.

The burgeoning relationship between the University of Illinois and various neighborhoods in East St. Louis continues to grow. A new Neighborhood Technical Assistance Center, opened in East St. Louis and staffed by the University of Illinois, augments action research with training and technical assistance in areas like computer literacy and grant writing.

Through action research that is truly collaborative, constructive, and community-focused, the University of Illinois has helped East St. Louis to build on their assets and increase their social capital as a community. Collaborative efforts and collaborative successes have re-energized neighborhoods and begun a process of transformation. When the university arrived in 1987, East St. Louis residents could think of no reason for faculty to stay. In a recent community retreat in 1998, faculty had a different problem. After asking residents to discuss future directions, and current strengths and weaknesses in the action research they were doing together, residents came up with a list of strengths, and a host of new ideas, but even after much prodding, they couldn t come up with any weaknesses.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: East St. Louis Action Research Project: http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/

Policy Research Action Group: using small teams of faculty and community members

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Faculty at the Policy Research Action Group, a center based at Loyola University in Chicago, engage in action research by forming small teams. These teams are made up of at least one representative each from the faculty, the graduate school, and the community. The teams meet to address specific issues in the community and devise and implement research strategies. The small collaborative group is conducive to sharing ideas without getting bogged down in discussion. Teams have recently focused research efforts on the impact of welfare reform on three neighborhoods in Chicago s North Side.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Web site: http://www.luc.edu/curl/prag/

Contact: Philip Nyden, Director, pnyden {at} luc(.)edu

Public policy and social change

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A key element of citizenship is the knowledge that work in the community is connected to larger issues of policy and social change. Students enrolled in POLS 320 Problems in State and Local Politics at Valparaiso University assist in the development of a measuring tool which they use to gather and analyze data related to particular public policy issues. The data is then utilized by public planners in Valparaiso, highlighting the connection between the students service and the future policies of their community.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact: Political Science Service at (219) 464-6921

PAR Project: U-Mass Boston

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Members of the Riverside Community Neighborhood Watch in Cambridge and eight College of Public and Community Service students, working under the supervision of an associate professor of Community Planning, worked collaboratively on a PAR project from September 1993 until June 1994.

A community needs and resouces assessment carried out in the fall of 1994 formed the basis for developing a strategic plan to meet communtiy goals. The focus was issues of community building and safety, especially concentrating on the needs for youth. In addition to producing realistic implementation plans for community action, the project emphasized a planning process designed to engage a broad spectrum of the Riverside community, thereby increasing visibility, membership and effectiveness of the Riverside Community Neighborhood Watch.

Contact: Marie Kennedy at 617.287.7262

The Weissman Center for Leadership

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The Weissman Center for Leadership is a promising practice at Mount Holyoke College that illustrates how our campus is successfully fulfilling its civic mission.

Our strategic plan, The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003, adopted in 1997, centers the College on our mission to foster the alliance of excellent liberal arts education with purposeful engagement in the world. It spawned a number of faculty-led initiatives including our now thriving Weissman Center for Leadership. The overarching goal of the Weissman Center is to enhance students abilities to become effective agents of change. In its first few years the Center has drawn significant faculty and student interest, major donor support (including a 4-million-dollar naming gift), and considerable public attention. Over 150 faculty and hundreds of students have participated directly in advancing the Center s work. Center programming falls into three main areas:

I. Focus on Critical Public Issues:
Through a variety of educational activities, the WCL seeks to increase awareness of the critical problems of our times and to engage the entire community on and off campus in discussion about workable solutions and avenues for action. Each semester the WCL organizes a campus-wide focus on a specific public issue or problem. The theme is incorporated into the curriculum in myriad ways and public events include lectures by distinguished specialists, panel discussions, student debates. Recent themes include:

Fall 1999: Silent Killer? Environmental Contaminants and Health
Spring 2000: U.S. Foreign Interventions: Human Rights versus National Interests
Fall 2000: American Democracy in Crisis?: Money, Politics, and Civic Participation
Spring 2001: Legacies of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under Franklin Roosevelt

II. Active Learning Strategies

The WCL promotes active learning strategies that enhance students ability to think independently and analytically, to participate in informed and vigorous discussion, to grapple with uncertainty and complexity, and to work in groups across difference. These include:

The Community-Based Learning Program (CBL): an educational initiative located in the Weissman Center that links Mount Holyoke students with local communities in nearby Springfield, Holyoke, South Hadley, and the surrounding Pioneer Valley in courses that combine analysis with action. Begun in 1993 as a pilot project funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, community-based learning now has over 30 courses in a wide variety of disciplines.

The Case Method: a learning strategy that provides students with a narrative account of an actual problem and compels them to develop dynamic approaches toward solving it under the close questioning of faculty and peers, and with the constraints of new information. Supported by a $100,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation, the WCL is working during 1999-2001 with twenty faculty members from different disciplines to use the case method in their courses.

III. The Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program (SAW):

A vibrant program that works with faculty and students to help students to think critically, speak articulately, and write effectively in order to develop students capacity to be active and effective agents of change. It includes the Writing Center and the innovative Speaking Center, which direct the efforts of scores of writing and speaking assistants and mentors. SAW conducts workshops for faculty and students, publishes Word of Mouth (newsletter for students), and coordinates other initiatives to foster a culture of conversation at Mount Holyoke.

Contact:Chris Benfey at cbenfey {at} mtholyoke(.)edu and Karen Remmler at kremmler {at} mtholyoke(.)edu, Co-Directors, Weissmann Center for Leadership

Service Learning Through Action Research Partnerships

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An action research course combined student research and community service, with researchers collaborating with practitioner researchers on projects that contributed to the solution of significant community problems involving service to children. Two projects were particularly successful: a multi-method approach to learning about violence and violence prevention efforts in schools, and a qualitative evaluation of a K-3 curriculum based on the theory of multiple intelligences.

For the school violence program students interviewed children, parents, and school administrators about the efficacy of violence-prevention programs to see the difference between how children and adults see the problem.

For the multiple intelligences study students designed 6 stations based on six of the intellegences and observed each child for a week at each station. The children in the study all suffered from academic, self-esteem, or behavioral problems. At the end of the six week study the teachers felt they had a better appreciation for each of the intelligences and that children discovered new strengths.

Website: http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/service-learning/

Calvin Environmental Assessment Program (CEAP): understanding the interconnections of the campus, the local ecosystem, and the surrounding communities

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CEAP is a collaborative effort of faculty across Calvin’s campus, but mainly in the sciences, whose focus is understanding the interconnections of the campus, the local ecosystem, and the surrounding communities. The goal is to impact the College and local municipalities as well as individual behavior. In this innovative program, faculty dedicate a regular lab session or project to collecting data that contributes to an overall assessment of the environment of the campus and surrounding area. Classes form working teams related to particular environmental issues. The data forms the basis for recommended changes in campus polices, for programs that target individual behavioral changes, and for identifying issues that involve and impact the adjacent neighborhoods. The program is dramatically increasing the natural science faculty and students’ involvement in service-learning. CEAP is developing a model that can be used by other colleges and universities to move faculty to greater engagement with the local community. Imbedded in the CEAP design are several “”best practices”" in educating students for civic engagement:

CEAP is integrated with the curriculum. Faculty members re-designed existing labs and projects to connect with the CEAP program. For example: chemistry students examine the water quality of the Calvin ponds; physics students measure energy usage on campus; biology students examine the productivity of the ecosystems of the lawn and old field; and geography students study the consumption patterns of students.

CEAP creates a stronger academic community. The CEAP program was designed by a group of faculty members, representing each of the disciplines within the natural sciences at Calvin. Each year since its conception in 1997, participating faculty and newly interested faculty convene through Calvin’s faculty development program to discuss results and plan for the upcoming year. Professors from the social sciences and humanities have joined the program with their own projects.

CEAP opens up vistas for service and citizenship in a powerful way. The disciplinary content a student learns through a CEAP project is comparable to a traditional classroom, library or lab activity. The added value, however, is that the student begins to see the relevance of study and analysis for dealing with complex and pressing problems. Many students who would not consider themselves activists have the opportunity to learn more about environmental issues and what can be done to address them.

The structure of CEAP involves “”grass-roots”" energy and “”top-down”" support. There are multiple entry points for involvement in CEAP. Faculty members across the college along with students from the Environmental Stewardship Coalition are involved.

Contact person: Janel Curry (Department of Geology, Geography, and Environmental Studies) jcurry {at} calvin(.)edu

Developing assessment methods for elementary school teachers

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Through action research, faculty can help members of the community to develop assessment tools for their own work. When elementary school teachers were looking for methods to assess the efficacy of various teaching methods, a pair of faculty members at Michigan State University helped them out. Working together, the faculty and teachers devised assessment tools for use in three areas: literacy education of first graders, written work of fifth graders, and reflective strategies for novice teachers.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Perspectives on Love

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Building on Robert Bellah’s The Good Society , the Senior Integrative Seminar, “”Perspectives on Love”" expanded beyond academic study of types of love to develop the vision that individuals working together through local organizations can make the great institutions of our society more responsible for the common good. Students explored ways to implement this vision through their involvement in the Southeast Economic Development Corporation, a local community based organization. They worked through SEED to gather data for a Housing Development Plan in a low-income residential area where 69 two-story, single-family homes were in need of extensive rehabilitation. Students contributed to a data gathering and planning process, working directly with tenants and homeowners to create a survey (door-to-door and focus groups) that will become the basis of a master plan for residential redevelopment of these poorly maintained structures.

Contact: Michael Williams at 616.459.8281 ext 4495

“”Biology of Global Change course: becoming an active participant in solving environmental problems

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During the winter 2000 term at Carleton College, Phil Camill, Assistant Professor of Biology, taught a class entitled “”Biology of Global Change.”" Through the creative curriculum of Professor Camill with help from the two ACT service-learning student coordinators and the environmental studies intern, the students in the course were able to experience community-based learning in which they developed civic competencies and civic habits. They were given multiple opportunities to do the work of citizenship through real projects of impact and relevance that were linked to their academic learning.

A major emphasis of the “”Biology of Global Change”" class was to learn how to become an active participant in solving environmental problems. The course was split into three components. In part I of the course, students learned about scientific issues and the scientific method. Part II examined policy issues surrounding global change and part III combined both the policy and science issues learned during part I and II. The philosophy behind this construction is that the students learn the material but are then given the opportunity to apply this learning in order to begin to address problems of global change that they discover during the academic portion of the course. One student commented on the benefits of this system: “”I like the fact that we are able to act on what we learn.”" Camill saw this opportunity to act on learning missing from many traditional science classes. He thought that students need to learn how they can affect public policy now, so they can feel like active members of society as soon as they leave their undergraduate career. He states “”the service-learning component of the class gives real world, hands-on experience.”"

Students were given the option of working at a local or national level in groups or on their own. Some of the projects included:

students developed curriculum for kindergarten students that would instill the importance of environmentalism and then went into public schools and taught
students worked with the food services at Carleton to chart energy and food waste and then developed a presentation to the campus on their findings
students studied the local river to determine how and if it was being polluted and identified steps to mitigate the pollution
students created a web page to discuss environmental issues at the international scale; students computed the costs and savings of implementing solar power in homes.
Other possibilities were explained in detail on the website developed specifically for the class: http://celeste.carleton.edu/curricular/BIOL/classes/bio190/slp2.html.

The final day of class all the students presented their projects in poster form for the Carleton campus as well as the local community. Students comments after the class showed the positive connection they had established between academics and their application in the community: “”I thought it was a great way to both apply what we were learning in class and in general to make the connection between academics and real life. I made a connection in the wider community and made a useful contribution.”"

Websites: http://www.acad.carleton.edu/curricular/BIOL/faculty/pcamill/SLP00/SLPindex.html
http://www.acad.carleton.edu/curricular/BIOL/classes/bio190/index3.html

Interdisciplinary Action Research program

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Macalester College is making a concentrated, multi-faceted effort to develop long term partnerships with East metro community organizations in order to enhance neighborhood capacity building, strengthen the academic and civic education for students, and deepen the engagement of faculty with local communities. Macalester’s action research initiative on the East Side of St. Paul utilizes various college resources including academic teaching and research, off-campus student employment, and a co-curricular student volunteer program that involves nearly half of the student body annually.

What Is Action Research?
Action research involves students, faculty and community members to work collaboratively on research that has been requested by a nonprofit, government or neighborhood organization. A unique characteristic of action research is that the community serves as an active contributor and agent of change by participating in the design, execution, evaluation, and dissemination of academic research. Action research also provides faculty with an opportunity to synthesize their mandate for excellence in teaching, research, and service.

Why Concentrate On the East Side?
The neighborhoods on St. Paul’s East Side were selected because of the community’s demographics, problems, and opportunities. Of the 30,000 people living on the East Side, one third experience serious poverty, one third are struggling, and one third are solidly in the middle class. Neighborhood-based organizations face incredible challenges: high mobility of residents; deteriorating housing stock and business infrastructure; and depleting economic resources. Although the community has been economically impaired, the possibilities for financial reinvestment and the capitalization of human resource assets are tremendous.

Action Research at Macalester
Led by the Director of Community Service and by a former St. Paul Mayor who is now a Visiting Professor of Urban Studies, the initiative works with residents to look at issues such as housing and employment and to identify priorities for future economic development. Faculty and students pursue action research projects as part of Macalester courses or senior honors projects with the expectation that the results will have broader community impact. For instance, an Urban Geography Field Seminar class recently produced an 80-page book on the economic potential of the main business district of the East Side neighborhood; the book is being used by the current mayor to secure funding for the area from the state legislature. To date, faculty and students from Urban Studies, Sociology, Geography, Economics, Political Science, Education and Mathematics departments have participated. Faculty teams focused on the natural sciences and health care issues are developing. The efforts are supported by college funding, a federally funded HUD grant, and a grant from Minnesota Campus Compact and Minnesota Higher Education Services Office through the Corporation for National Service Learn and Serve America Program.

Community Service Office web site: www.macalester.edu/cso/

Mathematical Modeling and Differential Equations course: Problem solving with the community

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A mathematician s livelihood consists of solving problems. It isn t a far stretch to translate this into efforts to help communities solve real-life problems. Students who took Mathematical Modeling and Differential Equations at Augsburg College split into two teams that partnered with a school district and an environmental organization to do a collaborative research project with the community. Students chose their projects after presentations by community members. Those working with the school district created more effective and efficient options for the school busing system. Those working with the environmental organization analyzed toxic data to show connections between toxicity and specific neighborhoods, information which was then used by the organization to push for changes in pollution controls.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

Contact:
Department of Mathematics
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
(612) 330-1059

Public planning

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Morris, Minnesota, a town of 5,500 residents, recently established a ten-year comprehensive plan for the town, with seven priorities relating to such issues as the town s economy, employment, and physical and natural resources. When it was time to research statistical data to address these issues, the town found a willing partner in the local campus of the University of Minnesota. Three faculty members designed courses around the research needs of the town with students collecting and analyzing data on Morris land use, housing, traffic patterns, and existing public utilities and circulation systems. The action research helped Morris to address six out of the seven top priorities in their town plan.

From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy

A Matter of Degree

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NU Directions at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one of ten “”A Matter of Degree”" sites funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the American Medical Association. The program focuses on the use of campus-community coalitions and a comprehensive approach to create change.

Contact: Project director Linda Major at lmajor1 {at} unl(.)edu or 402.472.6601
Communications Coordinator Tom Workman at tworkman3 {at} unl(.)edu or 402.472.0618

PAR Project: Good Neighbor Health Clinic

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Two Dartmouth students conducted research for the Good Neighbor Health Clinic, a local rural, free health clinic. The clinic opened in January 1992 to provide free, primary medical care to residents of the Upper Valley who have no health insurance, do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid and who have no means to pay for care. The clinic is staffed by professional and lay volunteers and one full-time paid manager. The clinic also serves as an advocate for patients needing food, housing, clothing and other basic necessities of life. Research conducted by the students will be used by the clinic to focus services; stimulate on-campus awareness of poverty, the health care crisis and the need for community medicine; and increase the clinic’s volunteer base.

Contact: Jan Tarjan at 603.646.2558