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

Contact: Mary Hardin, assistant professor 602.965.3536 at mary_hardin {at} macmail.inre.asu(.)edu

This information originally appeared in “”Science and Society: Redefining the Relationship”" by Stephen Miller. Published by Campus Compact, 1996.

From

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

Website: http://www.sandiego.edu/csl/

A fine example of the opportunities that exist is the Boys & Girls Club at Trinity College. The Club is the first Boys & Girls Club in the country to be located on a college campus, and Trinity students fill all of its volunteer positions. Trinity students also are involved in the Club through internships, service-learning, and research. They serve the needs of more than 300 inner-city, low-income children who have enrolled in the Club since its opening in February. In true community spirit, the Club s construction was financed with gifts from Hartford-area corporations, foundations and individuals, including Trinity College trustees. The Club also was the first new building to be constructed as part of a neighborhood renewal effort spearheaded by Trinity College that calls for three new schools, a family resource center, new home ownership opportunities, job training, support for existing retail establishments, and new business assistance.

Retired General Colin Powell, now chairman of America s Promise: The Alliance for Youth, participated in the dedication of the Club and designated Trinity as the nation s first “”College of Promise.”" He said that Trinity s “”commitment to improving the quality of life in Hartford and to helping the city s young people dream and believe they, too, might someday attend college and live the American dream is exemplary. What are the other hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the country doing on behalf of at-risk youth? Why can t they all be Colleges and Universities of Promise?”"

The Club s activities are focused on education and the development of social skills, using Trinity students as teachers, role models and mentors. The activities include daily homework sessions; recreation that fosters team-spirit; positive competition and social skills; arts and crafts; a computer club that uses academic-oriented software; a newsletter; a percussion workshop; and a Saturday basketball league. The newest addition is a wilderness club that involves students and staff in educational trips and outings to foster positive relationships, an awareness of nature and the environment, self-awareness, character-building and self-esteem.

This program offers Trinity students an opportunity to use their skills and their athletic, intellectual, artistic and teaching/tutoring talents for the benefit of a community in need. Students engaged at the Boys & Girls Club become increasingly civic-minded; they become more aware of the real issues and problems of inner-cities. Although it happens outside the classroom, this represents true and invaluable learning, and it stimulates intellectual inquiry, civic action and leadership. This process helps mold Trinity students into responsible, involved, caring, and effective leaders of the future. It builds citizens who are more concerned about solving social problems than just studying and talking about them.

Contact person: Angel Huertas, Unit Director, Boys & Girls Club at Trinity College, yankee {at} hotmail(.)com
Web site: http://www.learningcorridor.org/bgc.htm

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

Website: http://www.trincoll.edu/pub/heights/education.htm

Economic Prosperity and Social Justice
– The New London Development Corporation (NLDC) was re-energized in 1997 when Connecticut College President Claire L. Gaudiani became its president. The NLDC s aim is to increase the city s tax base, increase the number of jobs in the city, and enhance the quality of life for all of New London s residents. NLDC was instrumental in securing a decision by Pfizer, Inc. to commit to building its $270 million Global Development Facility in New London. Pfizer’s commitment has been leveraged into other projects in New London. Projects under way include a state park at Fort Trumbull (a Civil War era fort adjoining Pfizer), an industrial pier development, downtown housing and retail space projects, and a dynamic new section of the city with a 200-room hotel, marina, health club, conference facility, and residences. The State of Connecticut has committed $60 million so far with a total of over $715 million committed from public and private sources. In December of 1998, the Connecticut College Board of Trustees voted $2.6 million from the College s endowment to be used as working capital.

In response to the economic development activities, Connecticut College has created the New London Social Justice Initiative. The broad goal for this initiative is to bring Connecticut College to a new level of engagement with its community leading to transformational changes for both Connecticut College and New London. This transformation yields an improved quality of life for New Londoners and an enhanced educational experience for Connecticut College students.

The philosophy behind the initiative is to ensure that the renaissance , which has started and will take place in New London over the next several years benefits all residents. Economic prosperity is only half of the equation. The other half is social justice, which must go hand in hand with economic prosperity. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. The work of the social justice initiative builds on the assets, strengths and experiences of our community to create a level of social transformation to match what is already occurring on the economic side.

A series of new programs in five areas health and wellness, early childhood development, K-12 education, the arts and public spaces, and economic opportunity — have been developed by the faculty in connection with this Initiative and the College s newest strategic plan. These programs will help to lead the transformation of New London and engage students and faculty in exciting elements of New London s emerging renaissance.

Contact person: Margaret Sheridan , Director, Holleran Center for Community Action & Public Policy,

Web: http://www.conncoll.edu/academics/centers/hollerancenter/index.html

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/

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

Web site: http://ccts2.cti.depaul.edu/whpdc/index.htm

Contact: William Howard, Executive Director, williamhoward {at} aol(.)com

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

E-mail: business {at} evansville(.)edu

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

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

Web site: http://www.umass.edu/larp/CED/

Contact: John Mullin, Center Direct, jmullin {at} larp.umass(.)edu

Fitchburg, Massachusetts, like many small cities around the United States, has a downtown that looks more like a ghost town; the growth of the suburbs has come at the expense of the inner city. Two years ago, the Fitchburg Safe and Healthy Neighborhood Coalition came to Fitchburg State University, asking for their assistance to build and revitalize the community of Fitchburg. The two organizations joined together to apply for funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development s Office of University Partnerships an office developed to recognize the potential of such partnerships to address urban problems.

With this funding, the Fitchburg partners have embarked on a series of initiatives that highlight the variety of ways in which campuses across the country have engaged in community development. These include: initiating neighborhood planning; improving public health; supporting economic development; and changes within the structure of the university as a result.

The first and foremost role of the university in community development is as a support system for neighborhood residents to discuss how they want to change their community. Community development simply cannot occur if the community itself is not the central figure in all planning. Faculty and staff at Fitchburg State participate in meetings with neighborhood associations and community residents to discuss the residents plans and vision for the community. Through these meetings, ideas are shared and planning for specific projects begins. The university also helps leaders of community organizations to build their skills through the Citizens Leadership Institute, which provides training for leaders of community organizations.

A number of community development efforts focus on the health of the community. In Fitchburg, the neighborhood coalition had already conducted a health needs assessment before the university began working with them. When the university joined the partnership, the neighborhood association found that they were able to re-assess what they could accomplish. Working together, the university and community agencies developed an information referral system for community residents to more easily access health services. Plans now call for the development of a community health clinic over the next year. Economic development is key to bringing back the jobs and commercial life that enhance community development. Fitchburg State and the local community development corporation are attacking this issue on two fronts. First, they have developed an entrepreneurial training program for small business owners and residents with entrepreneurial aspirations to learn effective business practices. Second, they have developed the Main Street Business Support Center, a building which houses the training program and also serves as a place for community members and associations to meet downtown.

These efforts have led to introspection and change at Fitchburg State, as various departments re-envision how they can support the community. The university has provided release time for the chairs of the nursing and business departments to support efforts in the community. The nursing department is revising its curriculum to integrate service-learning and community engagement. Various other faculty members, students, and staff have begun to commit their time and university resources to community activities that support the community development effort.

Through community development, Fitchburg State has begun to redefine its role in the community, and the community s role in higher education.

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

For more information: http://www.fsc.edu/community/aboutus/partnership/

Contact: Kim Cummings, Professor, Sociology, Kalamazoo College at cummings {at} kzoo(.)edu. (“”I would be delighted to help other campuses/professors replicate this unique 10-week program.”")

Contact: Michael Williams at 616.459.8281 ext 4495

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/

1) strengthen the capacity of residents to build and maintain a strong urban environment;

2) provide community based learning opportunities for students;

3) develop the capacity of the university to serve as an institutional resource in partnership with the community.

Created an extensive partnership with Dayton s Bluff Elementary School that combines services-learning and curriculum enrichment programs (e.g. the America Reads program, Family Literacy, Peer Mediation, Philosophy for Children, Environmental Education, and College for Kids an on-campus college awareness program) with social service, parent education, and affordable housing initiates focused on involving low income parents in addressing issues of concern to themselves and their families.

Co-organized a comprehensive planning process to identify priority development projects for the community with an emphasis on creating more affordable housing and neighborhood businesses, and enhancing the physical and natural environment of the neighborhood.

Conducted ongoing community based research projects, both individually and in cooperation with other area colleges and universities, including a major study of the neighborhood economy; a community capacity inventory featuring interviews with over 100 community residents on contributions they have or could make to the neighborhood; an inventory of “”problem properties”" and a “”tool box”" of strategies residents can use to convert these properties into neighborhood assets; and a multi-year study on issues and opportunities for members of newly emerging Asian-American, Latino, America Indian, and African American communities in Dayton s Bluff and St. Paul s East Side more generally.

Established a campus based community health clinic operated by the university s school of nursing to provide both on site and outreach health services and practicum placement opportunities for nursing students.

Created both practicums and community service field placements in the Dayton s Bluff community for students in the social work, community violence prevention, law enforcement and criminal justice, teacher preparation and accounting programs.

Adopted an institutional “”shared use”" approach that includes the creation of a joint community-university library, and the establishment of a community job resource center on university property. Having received approval (and initial funding) from the state legislature, the library will be one of the country s first joint university-community libraries. The job resource center is operated by a community non-profit, with support from the university s career placement director and student interns. It focuses on supporting public assistance recipients in the transition from welfare to work.

Contact person: Susan Giguere, Director, Center for Community-Based Learning (CCBL)

CCBL web site: http://www.metrostate.edu/ccbl/CCBLindex.htm

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

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

Contact:
UNC School of Law
Van Hecke-Wettach Hall,
100 Ridge Road
CB #3380
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380
(919) 962-5106

The Initiative is a partnership that strengthens the relationship between Union College and the City of Schenectady now and into the future. For the City, a Schenectady neighborhood receives a much-needed infusion of capital; and the College benefits by enhancing student, staff, and faculty housing, as well as by improving the environment outside our gates.

The US Initiative attacks the ever-worsening problem of urban decay at its core. By offering a number of incentives attractive mortgage programs, full-tuition scholarships for neighborhood residents, the construction of a community center, the creation of a neighborhood association, and the establishment of a security office in the neighborhood the US Initiative encourages home ownership, a crucial factor in stabilizing and strengthening a community.

As part of the effort, the College has acquired 40 properties in the initiative area that will be completely renovated for student, staff, and faculty housing by Fall 2000. Many of the properties in the USI area were absentee-owned residences; houses were neglected, tenants paid unreasonable rents. The US Initiative addresses that issue by providing tuition-free scholarship funds, which gives prospective buyers an incentive to turn absentee-owned properties into family homes. Today, the neighborhood is transformed. With the vast majority of Union s work on houses complete, and with major streetscape improvements underway, the neighborhood is now considered one of the more striking areas in the entire City of Schenectady. And, USI incentives have generated more than ten home purchases in the Initiative area, which reverses an ongoing trend of slumping home sales in the City of Schenectady.

Another benefit that resulted from Union s Initiative is improved town/gown relations, which represents a significant measure of the overall success of the program. The key to this success is keeping the lines of communication open. Public meetings with Union s neighbors and the City of Schenectady to both provide information and seek feedback enabled the College to move forward as a community to better the neighborhood.

Finally, in addition to the community benefit, students gain from being engaged in Union s revitalization efforts. Within the target neighborhood and beyond, Union students participate in such activities as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, tutoring in Schenectady schools, mentoring, neighborhood watch programs, and community work projects.

Gretchel Tyson, director of affirmative action and community outreach, ysong {at} union(.)edu
Union-Schenectady Initiative web site: http://www.union.edu/News/CollegeNews/USI/

To Dr. Ferguson, director of the Institute for Neighborhood and Community Leadership at the University of Dayton, this was not a sign of despair, but a sign of progress, one of the many steps students take in recognizing the depth and complexities of what it means not just to be a problem-solver, but to be a citizen. As the student quoted above continued working with Dr. Ferguson, she recognized that there were many levels where she could make a difference and many communities from the nation, to the state, to the neighborhood where issues need to be addressed.

Students often come to community service naively optimistic about their ability to single-handedly solve problems. Richard Ferguson sees his role as one of developing more aware citizens: people who recognize the way that they as individuals fit into groups; people who are able to work within large systems to influence policy and achieve broad social change; people who are able to see in small interactions, the broader forces that lie behind them.

Leadership and Community Building a seminar co-taught by Dr. Ferguson and Brother Raymond Fitz, S.M., president of the University of Dayton is designed to help students recognize the complexities of society and develop skills that are central to democratic citizenship: skills like decision-making, deliberation, participation, and understanding policy change.

Each year, students in the seminar work with one or two neighborhood associations in a distressed area in Dayton. Through readings and a series of meetings and presentations with the neighborhood association, the course addresses a number of key citizenship skills.

In face-to-face meetings with community residents, students engage in discussion of community issues. Together, they share ideas and insights about the problems that can be addressed around critical issues such as housing, safety, families and children, and economic development. In this process, students build skills of civic discourse and participation, learning to communicate effectively with others and to think through problems together.

Back in the classroom, students read theoretical work by various sociologists and political scientists who discuss the connection between individuals and society in modern America. This gives students the opportunity to see the connection between social forces and individual lives, another key connection to make as citizens.

Students return to the community for three more of their weekly seminars, engaging in a process of deliberative decision-making with community residents. Through each issue, residents and students discuss their vision for a better community and how it can be achieved with the resources that are available.

At the end of the course, an audience of university professors and staff, members of local nonprofits and foundations, various elected and appointed city officials, neighborhood residents, and others are assembled for a presentation by the students. This presentation is accompanied by a 50-100 page report in which they summarize key action steps that can be taken and policy changes that can be implemented to help the community achieve its vision.

By the time they are done, the participating students many of whom are studying political science, public administration, sociology, or communications have developed knowledge, attitudes, and skills that no classroom could teach. They have seen themselves, often for the first time, as part of the web of human interactions and social policies that continually affect one another. In the process, they have acted not just as problem-solvers or service providers, but as democratic citizens.

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

Website: Institute for Neighborhood and Community Leadership: http://www.udayton.edu/~includ/