Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

Pension Action Center, Pension Action Center, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Pension Action Center, (PAC) strives to improve retirees’ and workers’ standard of living in retirement through individual case advocacy; referrals to appropriate programs and professionals; and issue analysis and reform of public policy. The center, which is part of the Gerontology Institute at UMass Boston, focuses on the experience of participants in retirement plans throughout its work. The PAC is a one-of-a-kind organization in New England that touches the lives of thousands of people.

Massachusetts Municipal Performance Management Program (Mpmp), Michael Ward

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The mission of the MPMP is to make the ongoing, systematic use of data, measures, and goals a permanent feature of Massachusetts municipal government, and to accelerate the sharing of ideas among Massachusetts municipalities.

Through a team of highly-skilled Performance Management Analysts, each working directly with a portfolio of cities and towns, the MPMP provides on-the-ground support to Massachusetts municipalities on all aspects of data and analysis.

Promoting Justice, Peace, And Understanding Through Partnerships And Dialogue, Center For Peace, Democracy, And Development, University Of Massachusetts Boston

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The Center for Peace, Democracy and Development (CPDD) promotes conflict resolution, democracy, economic development, education building, media development, and legal and judicial reform through partnerships and training programs across the globe. We offer academic and practical expertise across the spectrum of conflict management and democratic governance. Moreover, we mentor the next generation of peace and democracy builders from the UMass Boston student body who actively participate in many of our initiatives. The Restorative Justice Mediation Project (RJUMP) is a university-based program that aims to provide restorative justice services, education and training to the Suffolk County law enforcement community, department of …

Ultimate Peace, Eben Weitzman, Kylie Millbern

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Ultimate Peace (UP) builds bridges of understanding and friendship between Middle East youth divided by conflict, using the character building sport of Ultimate Frisbee. UP consists of three main components:

• Summer Camp
• Year-Round Community Program
• With inter-community games and practices
• Coach-In-Training (CIT) Leadership Program

Building Bridges: Fostering Dialogue And Shared Understanding Between Communities And Government Agencies, Eben Weitzman, Darren Kew

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Professors Eben Weitzman and Darren Kew of the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies facilitate dialogue among state and federal law enforcement agencies and representatives of Muslim and Sikh communities to help foster shared understanding and navigate challenges and opportunities inherent in their relationship. Working with the BRIDGES program, they are using group dialogue to help stakeholders build lasting, productive connections.

Promoting Awareness, Dialogue, And Culturally Responsive Services, Cedric Woods

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The mission of the Institute for New England Native American Studies (INENAS) is to develop collaborative relationships, projects, and programs between Native American tribes of the New England region and all of the UMass campuses so that the tribes may participate in and benefit from university research, innovation, scholarship, and education. As the interests, needs, and demographics of Native New England shift, these changing priorities will be reflected in its programming, grant submissions, and outreach efforts.

Breaking The Cycle Of Violence - Engaged Scholarship, Juvenile Delinquency Course: Sociology 362 – Spring 2014, Civic Engagement Scholars Initiative, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This course, retooled through the CESI program, underscores the programmatic and policy responses to the issues presented. Students explore the actionable options through partnering with a community partner, allowing a reciprocal process of community work contextualizing the classroom and the classroom informing the community partner.

Educational Engagement In Boston’S Vietnamese Community: Asian American Studies Program Student-Faculty-Alumni Engagement With Teachers, Students, And Families Of The Mather School (Bps) In Dorchester, Asian American Studies Program, University Of Massachusetts Boston

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Founded in 1639, the Mather Elementary School in Dorchester is the oldest public elementary school in the US. In 2012, nearly 40% of Mather students were Vietnamese American from immigrant households. The Mather School’s Vietnamese Structured English Immersion (SEI) program is the largest in Boston. In 1993, Ngoc-lan (Loni) Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee student in education and Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, was hired as a 4th grade bilingual teacher. Many of Lan’s students later attended UMass Boston where they reconnected educationally with the importance of Vietnamese American identity, community, and empowerment in AsAmSt courses. In 2007, Lan visited …

Wipro Science Education Fellowship Teacher Leadership Program, Center Of Science And Math In Context, University Of Massachusetts Boston

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The WIPRO Science Education Fellowship (SEF) is a 2 year science teacher-leadership program funded by the Wipro Ltd. Wipro committed $5.1million to COSMIC, over seven-years, to train three (3) cohorts of 180 school teachers, fostering leadership and teaching excellence in science education among K-12 teachers from Greater Boston, Northern New Jersey and Greater New York. Through engagement and collaboration with teams of teachers from different districts, teachers reflect on their own practice and that of their peers through the use of video; they identify opportunities for themselves to take a leadership role within the district, in their building or with …

Upward Bound Math-Science At Umass Boston, Upward Bound, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Lawrence High School

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We seek to increase the number of low-income and first-generation college students majoring in mathematics and the sciences at the undergraduate level. We motivate students to achieve at their highest potential by facilitating exploration and discovery in an active learning environment drawing on values embedded in the complementary philosophies of UMass Boston and the Noble and Greenough School.

Umass Boston Coasts And Communities Igert Program, Robyn Hannigan, Maria Ivanova, Maria Petrova

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The Coasts and Communities IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) Program starting in 2014 at the University of Massachusetts Boston provides PhD students with the skills to understand the interactions between natural and human systems and to develop appropriate policy solutions for urban and urbanizing environments. By emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and communication, this program aims to enable trainees to apply innovative and sustainable solutions across geographical, political, and economic contexts.

Summer Youth Blog, Urban Scholars, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Office Of Information Technology, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Office Of Communications, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

In an effort to expose youth to careers in information technology and journalism, Urban Scholars, the Office of Information Technology, and the Office of Communications partnered this past summer to offer two high school graduates an internship focusing on the development of a summer youth blog. The two interns, Jennie Lai and Trammel Griffith, who currently attend UMass Boston and Mass College of Liberal Arts respectively, were mentored by UMass Boston staff Akunna Rosser, Colleen Locke, and Lisa Link. The interns were given the task of developing a blog that would publicize the many youth programs on UMass Boston’s campus …

Adopting Evidence-Based Practices In Elementary School Math: The Collaborative For Improvement Of Problem Solving (Cips), Scott Methe, Meghan R. Silva, Kristin Iodice, Carrie Fortunato, Sheila Desai

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Two key activities in building and sustaining a change-based model are (a) enhancing buy-in for the change and (b) evaluating capacity to evaluate the change before, during, and after adoption. Unfortunately, the construct of buy-in is frequently used but poorly defined. Furthermore, adopting precise methods to evaluate implementation of evidence-based practices is challenging for schools. Partnerships with universities have been shown to help schools better understand the complexity of sustained change (Shernoff et al., 2011). This poster discusses methods used by the UMass-Boston and Burlington Public Schools Collaborative for the Improvement of Problem Solving (CIPS) to enhance the use of …

Reinforcing The Safety Net: A Collaborative Survey With The Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, Heather Macindoe, Lindsay Morgia, Erynn Herman

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The more than 35,000 nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts employ 20% of the state’s workforce and serve as a vital part of the social safety net. Many of these organizations face challenges concerning fiscal sustainability. Funding often covers current services with little surplus to address organizational capacity issues. Successful public-nonprofit partnerships are key to building a resilient nonprofit sector. This study contributes to the nonprofit sector’s knowledge of how best to engage with policymakers at the state and local level.

Success Boston: College Completion Initiative, University Of Massachusetts Boston

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Vision: All graduates of the Boston Public Schools will complete college. Mission: We provide intensive coaching support and wraparound services to incoming Boston Public Schools (BPS) graduates through their critical first year and until their graduation from UMass Boston. Our coaches (from both UMass Boston and our nonprofit partners) work closely with students, offering activities that increase academic success and build community and engagement.

The Parent Mediation Program – A Pathway To Cooperative Parenting, Massachusetts Office Of Public Collaboration, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Department Of Revenue Cse Division, Ma Community Mediation Centers

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The Parent Mediation Program was established in 2008 as a state-local collaboration to raise awareness of mediation as a viable option for creating workable parenting plans and to mediate parenting issues for never-married, separated, divorced or separating parents across the state. The program aims to annually provide direct educational services to around 250-300 disputing parents, about 170-220 of whom will also receive mediation services.

Changing Lives Through Literature: Implementation & Evaluation, Jackie Lageson, Russell Schutt

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The CLTL program at the Juvenile probation department works with court involved youth between the ages of 12 – 19 years of age. The program is designed to explore prosocial character themes through the use of literature. The program facilitators select short stories, poems, music lyrics, and/or short films that center around themes for example, respect, love, education, violence, family, friendship, leadership, and the like. The judge, probation officer, facilitators and youth read the literature together, then discuss what the author is trying to get across. Then the level of discussion shifts to what reading do they identify with personally …

Massachusetts Education Partnership: Policy, Leadership, Labor-Management Collaboration, Nancy Peace, John W. Mccormack Graduate School Of Policy And Global Studies, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Edward J. Collins, Jr., Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Massachusetts Education Partnership (MEP) is a collaborative endeavor on the part of four education-related organizations representing teachers, superintendents, and school committees and four research institutions. By working together, the Partnership aims to improve student achievement through labor-management collaboration and to foster the development of collaborative cultures in Massachusetts school districts. As of March 1, 2014, the MEP has trained labor and management leaders from 34 school districts in interest-based bargaining (IBB) and provided intensive facilitation to seven school districts where labor and management are working collaboratively on a program or issue of their choosing.

The Campus Kitchen At Umass Boston Student-Powered Hunger Relief In Boston, Office Of Student Leadership And Community Engagement, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Walter Denney Youth Center, Housing Opportunities Unlimited, St. Peter's Teen Center, John Winthrop Elementary, Project Alerta, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Camp Shriver, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Inc., Sodexo

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Campus Kitchen at the University of Massachusetts Boston (CKUMB) is a part of The Campus Kitchens Project. (CKP), a national network of student volunteers, works to rescue excess food to create meals for those in need. CKUMB opened in 2010 to provide meals for the Dorchester community. By taking the initiative to run a community kitchen, students develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills, along with a commitment to serve their community, that they will carry with them into future careers.

The Unequal Burden Of Debt And Its Impact On Health, Elizabeth Sweet, Zachary Dubois

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Average household debt in America has tripled in the past 30 years. Much of this burden is unequally borne by racial/ethnic minorities and those with lower incomes, who face discrimination in obtaining loans and must devote more household resources to paying off debts. Being indebted is a strong predictor of suicide, depression, and other adverse mental health outcomes. However, its impact on physical health is underexplored.

Prison Poetry Group, Master Of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program, College Of Liberal Arts, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Bay State Correctional Center

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Beginning in September 2012, a graduate student enrolled in UMass Boston’s MFA Creative Writing Program served as the volunteer instructor for a Poetry Group at Baystate Correctional Center. Through creative development and community discussion, this program, which operates during the academic year (September-May), facilitates positive behavioral change in order to eliminate violence, victimization, and recidivism.

Calderwood Writing Initiative, Charlestown High School, Another Course To College, Snowden International School, Denise Patmon

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Since 2010, UMass Boston has received funding from the Calderwood Writing Initiative to improve the quality of the teaching of writing in Boston area schools through two major programs that constitute this collaborative work.

Conversations Between Communities: Umass Boston Archaeology For And With The Nipmuc Nation & The Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, Stephen A. Mrozowski, Stephen W. Silliman

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Community-engaged scholarship, learning, and service are becoming important parts of university missions, ensuring that academic projects do not just “take” but also give back in meaningful ways. For Native American communities and archaeologists who come from and work with them, this kind of research sensitivity and community accountability is fundamentally important. Archaeological projects with, by, and for Native American communities vary as much in their structures and goals as the communities themselves. In order to meet the desires and needs of each community, two archaeological field schools at UMass Boston – Hassanamesit Woods (Grafton, Massachusetts) and Eastern Pequot (North Stonington, …

Community Engagement And Research Section, Umass Center For Clinical And Translational Science, University Of Massachusetts Center For Clinical And Translational Science

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The UMCCTS Community Engagement and Research Section works to improve health in Massachusetts by fostering community engaged research among UMass researchers and community partners. We do this through conferences, pilot funding opportunities, webinars, training, consultation, linking researchers with community partners, and an email discussion group (listserv).

Csef: An Internship Program At Community Arts Organizations For Honors College Students, Megan Rokop, Michael Metzger, Rajini Srikanth

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CSEF (the “Creative and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship”) runs from August 2013 through May 2014 as part of the Creative Economy Initiative, funded by the UMass President’s Office. CSEF aims to provides students the opportunity to intern at a community arts organization, and provides local organizations the opportunity to work closely with UMass Boston students & faculty. Three intern teams immersed themselves in issues their sites were facing, proposed potential solutions, and are now using a $4000 mini-grant to implement those solutions at their partner sites.

Higher Order Teaching: University Of Massachusetts Boston, Institute For Community Inclusion And Lowell Public Schools, Lisa Van Thiel

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The Higher Order Teaching (HOT) partnership builds upon and extends the Lowell Public School’s Birth to Three Alignment grant. One of five pilot sites across the Commonwealth, the Lowell Alignment grant brings together a 15 member Leadership Alignment Team comprised of two, Level 3 & Level 4 public school principals, the District’s Early Childhood Department, and the City’s 7 center based programs, 5 family child care systems, and Head Start to build a common language around alignment, the common core, standards-based curriculum, and to set alignment goals and benchmarks. HOT addresses a widespread need throughout the City to aggressively address …

Evaluating Needs Of Older Adults In Massachusetts Communities, Hayley P. Gleason, Caitlin Coyle, Bernard A. Steinman, Ceara R. Somerville, Jan Mutchler

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Throughout Massachusetts, the ongoing demographic shift toward an older population has required most cities and towns to reevaluate the adequacy of services and programs for older adults. By 2030, the vast majority of municipalities in Massachusetts will have unprecedented proportions of people age 60 or over.

Addressing The Supportive Transportation Challenges Of Community-Residing Older Adults, Nina M. Silverstein, Kristina M. Turk, Laura Adams, Holly Belanger, Linnea Burke, Stephen Jones, Lauren Lee, David Lopez, Keith Sherman, Lee Paradis, Erin O’Neill, Alycia Rao, Rachael Solano

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The ability to get to where you want to go, when you want to go there is a key factor for aging-in-place in our communities. It is often taken for granted until that ability is compromised. The informal network of family and friends, if it exists, is not likely to be a sustainable transportation alternative for persons with cognitive impairment or for older adults with limitations that may not fit eligibility criteria for senior transportation services, where they exist. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of communities to address the specialized supportive mobility needs of community-residing …

Graduate Studies In Archives: Proficiency, Experience, Engagement, Darwin Stapleton

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Role of Archivists in Communities:

• Acquire, manage, preserve, and provide access to historical records
• Assist communities with documenting their unique stories
• Serve as a link to the records that inform family historians and genealogists
• Utilize digital technologies & media to expand public access to on-line collections
• Digitize images and records to make them available for use by peers, researchers, and diverse communities worldwide
• Serve as the bridge between historic information and the users who can benefit from its public availability

Working Conditions Of Brazilian Housecleaners In Massachusetts: A Joint Research Project Of The Umass Boston-Brazilian Immigrant Center Partnership, Tim Sieber, Natalicia Tracy, Eduardo Siqueira

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Research Questions: What are the working and living conditions of Brazilian housecleaners in the major Brazilian communities of Massachusetts? What working conditions do they perceive to be the most problematic in their work life?

A domestic worker is a person who works within their employer’s household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping. Globally there are over 52.6 million domestic workers, 2.5 million in the United States and over 100,000 in Massachusetts.

Domestic work is the most common …