Contact: Laura Lee Lienk, Return of the Natives Coordinator, 408.582.3689 or Laura_Lienk {at} monterey(.)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

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

During the academic year, Morris Brown students provided tutorial, mentoring and counseling services for the Harland Teen Center. Male students from Morris Brown provided tutoring and counseling for the male participants in Harland s after school program and also engaged the young men in conversations about academic success, career objectives and the importance of matriculating to college as a means of becoming self-sustaining adults. Women students from Morris Brown were involved in the Teen Center s Smart Girls project. The ultimate objective of this project is for girls to develop healthy attitudes and lifestyles. To accomplish this, the program addresses health and social issues that are specific to young women. Smart Girls is designed to prepare girls, ages 10-15, to make positive decisions at this critical stage in their physical, cognitive, emotional and social development. Both of these components of the Life Line project focus on the importance of developing strong mentoring relationships with young people at an early age to make a difference for them in their life decisions while they are pre-teen.

Although the Smart Girls project and the male mentoring component are important pieces of the Life Line initiative, other aspects have contributed to the overall success of the project. Specifically, the project has contributed to interdepartmental collegiality at Morris Brown and has instilled in Morris Brown students the value of teamwork. Our students have been provided an opportunity to hone and develop skills that are necessary for working with young people who have demonstrated a need for personal and intellectual nurturing. Finally, the project has made an extremely important contribution to Morris Brown College s effort to forge stronger community ties. The facilitators have gotten to know some of the community leaders associated with the teen center and they have developed a stronger mentor relationship with Morris Brown students.

The Center has three primary goals:

I. To involve youth in identifiying the challenges they face and the solutions, and to activate youth to participate more fully in their own development and in civic life.

II. To advance learning, both by engaging communities more fully in addressing youth issues, and by providing intergenerational and cross-cultural opportunities for learning through community education projects.

III. To educate adults to work more effectively and more comrehensively with youth by changing patterns in the fields of education and youth work, convening youth workers across disciplines to bridge the conceptual and programmatic gaps between formal and informal education, and between school, family and community.

Center projects have included a Youth Speak-Out on racism, a symposium on Youth, Identity, and Culture, an adult literacy program, staff-development seminars for youth workers, and Community Justice Initiative.

Website: http://www.youthandsociety.org/

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

Website: http://ssw.che.umn.edu/centers.htm#CITYSONGS

Contact: Arts Council of Surrey 13750 88th Ave. Surrey, BC V3W 3L1 Canada

Tel: 501-5188 Fax: 501-5581

Email: acs {at} vcn.bc(.)ca

In leveraging the human capital resources of universities, the UCCP works closely with two constituent groups–community organizations and youth. The objective in both cases is to increase the capacity of marginalized groups to articulate their goals and to access the resources of governmental, economic and social systems to achieve those goals. The UCCP’s collaborative work includes the following activities: community driven, action oriented research, highly customized technical assistance, strategic planning, coordination of key resources and actors, and direct service provision.

The UCCP focuses its efforts in two primary areas: community economic development and youth civic engagement. Our approach in both areas is one of intensive network development across communities, universities, age cohorts (e.g. youth and adults), social worlds (e.g. college students and low income, inner city youth), and cities (e.g. Philadelphia and Chicago). The UCCP’s formal structure, its outreach, and its collaborative approach to research and other programmatic supports, all foster this development of rich networks.

Website: www.temple.edu/uccp

Contact: UCCP, c/o Political Sciende Dept, Temple University, 1115 West Berks Mall, Philadelphia PA 19122. Director: Barbara Ferman

Contact: Brown professor Nancy Hoffman in the Education Department at Nancy_Hoffman {at} brown(.)edu