Community-Based Research Commons^™

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp) In Fy2022, Madhawa Palihapitiya, David Sulewski, Karina Zeferino, Jarling Ho

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents findings and recommendations from an evaluation of the Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) administered by the MA Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with 11 Community Mediation Centers (Centers). The program is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and implemented in partnership with the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The program was initially part of the Governor’s Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), which ended in the latter half of FY2022 and is continuing as an intervention to support housing stability. The evaluation was conducted by MOPC’s research unit comprised …

Talking About Casino Gambling: Community Voices From Boston Chinatown, Carolyn Wong, Giles Li

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

This pilot study examined the casino gambling practices of residents and workers in Boston Chinatown. The aim was to learn about the trajectory and life context of individual participants’ gambling activity, including how individual participants describe their motivation, nature and frequency of gambling, and its effects on self and family. The research was conducted by a university based research team in partnership with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and with the assistance of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.

The stories told by participants illustrate multiple and overlapping risk factors for problem gambling. Our conceptual approach took into account the …

Surveying Identities In Context: Race, Gender & Sexual Orientation ‘At Work’, Justine A. Bulgar-Medina

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers, practitioners and common practice have imputed a great deal of power onto categories of social identity (e.g. race, sexual orientation, gender, religion). It common practice to collect demographic and identifying information on the categories to which we belong in settings ranging from the Census to the online shopping profile. Moreover, we have come to expect that this information will be used to make meaningful decisions on government program funding, targeted marketing, college recruitment and so much more. We also know that minority identities have a long history of negatively impacting individuals in employment, housing and other realms of daily …

Service Provider Promising Practice: Avenues Supported Living Services: A Staffing Approach Based On Client Relationships, Heike Boeltzig, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Avenues Supported Living Services of Valencia, California was founded in 1997 by a husband- andwife team, Scott and Lori Shepard. The agency provides supported living and community life engagement (CLE) services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Key to Avenues’ success is a staffing approach that is grounded in client relationships. The agency limits staff hours to two shifts per week with the same individual. This is done to facilitate clientstaff matching and relationship building, but also to prevent potential burnout and frustration by ensuring both the clients they support and their staff have variety in their schedules. …

Marital History And Retirement Security: An Empirical Analysis Of The Work, Family, And Gender Relationship, Lauren A. Martin Palmer

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relationship between marital history and individuals’ retirement resources, namely Social Security, employer-sponsored pensions, and non-housing wealth. Prior research provides a foundation for understanding marriage’s positive relationship to retirement security, and suggests that marriage is financially beneficial and can even lessen some external factors that would otherwise damage a family’s financial situation. Yet changing demographics, with fewer people in first marriages and rising numbers of individuals experiencing divorce and choosing to remain unmarried, suggest our understanding of this relationship for today’s retirees may be limited. The purpose of this research is to identify which aspects of complex …

Puerto Rican Mother-Child Communication About Sexuality And Sexual Health: Results From An Ethnographic Community Survey In Springfield, Ma, María Idalí Torres, Phillip Granberry, Sarah Rustan

Gastón Institute Publications

This bilingual report presents data from an ethnographic survey on the experiences of Spanish-speaking Puerto Rican mothers communicating with children ages 10 to 19 regarding sexuality and sexual health. Results of this survey will be used as baseline data to evaluate a media campaign promoting Puerto Rican mother-child communication. This Spanish media campaign was implemented from March to May, 2015 using public service announcements in television, radio, and newspapers and on public transportation.

In this report, we use three main concepts with specific definitions: mother, sexuality, and sexual health protection, defined as follows. Mother is defined as the female adult …

Creative Economies: Using Arts To Revitalize Post-Industrial Cities And Towns In Massachusetts, Anna Price

Honors College Theses

During my senior year in the Honors College at UMass Boston, I became involved in the yearlong Creative and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program. During this program, I interned alongside other UMass Boston students at a local creative non-profit organization, providing the staff with assistance as they worked towards achieving their goals. This internship was funded by the Creative Economy Fund (CE Fund) from the University of Massachusetts President’s Office. My involvement in this program sparked an interest in pursuing an Honors thesis investigating the CE Fund and how the awarded projects are benefitted by that fund.

After looking through all …

Historians In The Community: Public History Practicum Projects, History 625 - The Art And Craft Of Interpretation, Jane Becker

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Public historians work among and for the public—they put their skills as historians to work in our communities. Using historical materials, public historians help people understand personal and community histories and their relationships to broader historical contexts.

The Public History Track at UMass Boston serves and supports community endeavors to document, preserve, curate, interpret, and make accessible their various histories, and to connect their pasts with the present. Our partnerships provide graduate students with opportunities to apply theory to practice, and to build their professional networks and portfolios.

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

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

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).

Two Community Collaborations With Sexual Minority Women’S Ngos In Shanghai & Hong Kong, Connie Chan, Hsin-Ching Wu

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Based on research with sexual minority communities in the United States, Connie Chan, professor of public policy and public affairs, conducted comparative research with community groups in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. She provided capacity building training and resources directly to the organization which provides outreach and service to sexual minority women and girls in Shanghai, China. Professor Chan also supported Queer Sisters – an NGO that provides advocacy and community outreach to sexual minority girls and women in Hong Kong – by co-creating a needs assessment survey and helping them to interview their membership in Hong Kong.

Connie Chan …

Family Self-Sufficiency Program: An Evaluation, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) serves as a strategic learning and evaluation partner to The Boston Foundation, relative to its collective investments in the Fairmount Corridor. The Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership’s (MBHP) Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program is one of TBF’s people-oriented Fairmount Corridor investments. The FSS program is part of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program to promote economic advancement for families receiving housing assistance.

Hope Vi-Old Colony: An Evaluation, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) is continuing its ongoing evaluation role with HOPE VI, a federally funded program operated by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. HOPE VI allows public housing authorities to apply for funding to redevelop severely distressed housing developments. The Old Colony development is currently the most physically distressed site in the Boston Housing Authority’s federal portfolio, with aged systems and infrastructure and high annual energy and water costs. This project began in January 2014.

Resilient Communities/Resilient Families, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) serves as a strategic learning and evaluation partner to The Boston Foundation (TBF). TBF’s investment and people and place-based initiatives seek to make sustainable, positive change through community and economic development in neighborhoods along the Fairmount-Indigo transit line in Boston. As part of the Resilient Communities/Resilient Families (RC/RF), CSP with Mattapan United and Millennium 10 (in Codman Square/Four Corners) to identify community priorities for neighborhood change. From 2013-2015, the Center team is evaluating these neighborhood change efforts, as well as other initiatives aimed at increasing economic well-being for neighborhood residents.

The Boston Foundation Retrospective Case Study, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Boston Foundation (TBF) seeks to improve the life trajectories for children and families living in Fairmount Corridor neighborhoods. The emerging Fairmount Strategy can be strengthened and achieve greater impact with rigorous information about how foundation activities and investments contribute to community change. To further this internal strategic learning, the Center for Social Policy (CSP) is conducting retrospective and prospective case studies of the Fairmount Strategy (2009-2015) focusing on one of the foundation’s central tenets: alignment.

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 …

Early Childhood Open Course Ware, Department Of Early Education And Care, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Build Out Of School Time Network - Bostnet

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Early Education and Care in Inclusive Settings (EECIS) is UMass Boston's program for both entry-level and experienced early childhood practitioners. It is designed for individuals seeking leadership roles in the early childhood field. The program's specific focus is support for individuals who wish to work in Early Intervention and early childhood programs outside of the public schools.

The goal of the Early Childhood Open Course Ware is to provide on demand high quality professional development across the state with consistency available at various levels of academic rigor.

The Emancipated Century: A Staged Reading Series, Robert Lublin, Clifford Odle, Barbara Lewis

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

A coordinated series of dramatic staged readings of the plays of August Wilson in theatres throughout greater Boston. This project aims to pay tribute to the 150th anniversary of the Emancipated Proclamation with a full presentation of August Wilson’s monumental 10-play cycle on African American life in each decade of the twentieth century. The accompanying Re-Visioning Tomorrow Forums explored ongoing themes in urban communities.

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

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

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.

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

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

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.

Urban.Boston (Urban Research-Based Action Network): Creating Meaningful Connections Between Community & Academia, Mark Warren

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Urban Research-Based Action Network (URBAN) is a national platform that facilitates community-based research, teaching, and learning for action across disciplinary lines, connecting scholars and community activists within and across cities. It was started in 2011 to honor the memory of activist scholar Marylin Gitell, and has received generous support from SAGE Publications. URBAN currently has 5 local nodes: Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Northern California, and Philadelphia; as well as 3 discipline nodes: Education, Sociology, and Urban Planning. More nodes will be established in the future. In the meantime, efforts are focused on connecting academics and community partners …

Thrive In 5 Boston Initiative, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) is the external evaluator for Thrive in 5 Boston. As part of the initiative, CSP is helping to identify, implement, and evaluate community interventions designed to increase the readiness of Boston children for success in school at kindergarten age.

Thrive in 5 is transforming Boston into a city that values and proactively nurtures young children’s school readiness, and envisions a city where families, educators, providers, business leaders and communities come together with the knowledge, skills, and resources to prepare children for success in school and beyond.

Moving Home: An Evaluation, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) is carrying out an analysis of data on the housing situations of participants in the Moving Home program, which is run by the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) in New York City (NYC). BRC is one of the largest, most comprehensive social service agencies in NYC, offering a client-focused continuum of 27 programs that serve 2,600 individuals daily. Launched in 2007, BRC’s Moving Home initiative applies an individualized, low-threshold model to transitioning chronically homeless men and women from the streets to permanent housing.

New Lease For Families: An Evaluation, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) was hired by the New Lease for Homeless Families to conduct an evaluation measuring specific outcomes of the unique housing interventions in their pilot program. New Lease for Homeless Families will connect 400 or more homeless families to affordable housing units provided by private and non-profit property owners over a two-year period. The infrastructure will then be in place to continue matching homeless families coming out of shelter to affordable housing units, which may change the larger systems of reducing family homelessness in Massachusetts.

Urban.Boston (Urban Research-Based Action Network): Creating Connections Between Community + Academia, Urban.Boston, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Urban Research-Based Action Network (URBAN) is a national platform that facilitates community-based research, teaching and learning for action across disciplinary lines, connecting scholars and community activists within and across cities. It was started in 2011 to honor the memory of activist scholar Marylin Gitell, and has received generous support from SAGE Publications. URBAN currently has local nodes in Boston, LA, NY, and Northern California. It also has nodes that connect at the national level among sociologists, education researchers and community planners.

Asian American We: Civic Engagement Among Low-Income Young Adults, Michael Liu, Star Wang, Janice Wong, Loan Dao

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

This report describes a study of the civic participation of low-income Asian American adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five in the Boston area. It is based upon a mail survey with 100 respondents, focus groups, and organization interviews.

The study found that over 60% of the study population engaged in some form of civic participation, most commonly through fundraising or volunteer activities. Other activities included arts and culture with a social message, issues work, and electoral involvement. The area of greatest involvement was education. From the survey, civic engagement is correlated with female gender, higher education, and a …

Service Versus Advocacy? A Comparison Of Two Latino Community-Based Organizations In Chelsea, Massachusetts, Glenn Jacobs

Trotter Review

Anyone walking down Chelsea’s main drag, Broadway, would be struck by its raucous cacophony of sights and sounds, a panoply of foreign languages spoken by women (many mothers with young children and infants), children, teenagers, and men of a variety of physiognomies and skin tones; a collage of small specialty shops selling jewelry, clothing, religious statues, CDs, and mobile phones; and restaurants and eateries serving El Salvadoran, Vietnamese, Mexican, and Chinese food; pawnshops, check-cashing places, bakeries, and coffee shops, with occasional rectangles of negative visual space occupied by the post office and chain drug and convenience stores. It is a …

Software And Internet Industry Workers: Implications For The Future Of Work In Massachusetts, Sarah Kuhn, Paula Raymann

New England Journal of Public Policy

Those at the leading edge of the new economy — workers in software and Internet workplaces — can tell us something about the future of work in our new world. The authors have conducted a National Science Foundation-funded study of women and men working in IT. They find that while pay and the opportunity to do interesting work are major attractions, challenges facing this workforce include stress, difficulties balancing work and family, and concerns about employment security. While women and men reported similar attitudes and experiences in many areas, in others there were still significant differences.

Community Economic Development And The Latino Experience, Edwin Melendez, Michael A. Stoll

Gastón Institute Publications

Just as people had high expectations for the Great Society programs instituted to address poverty after the Watts riots of 1965 so, too, did people have high hopes for a turning point in federal initiatives to address the plight of the urban poor after the Los Angeles rebellion of 1992. Indeed, both analysts and community activists were hopeful that a more sympathetic administration would be able to capitalize on the political momentum that resulted from their electoral victory and implement somewhat unpopular programs in Congress. This could not have come at a better time for blacks and Latinos in the …

Computer Utilization And Attitudinal Patterns In A Black Community, James Jennings

Trotter Review

During the Spring and Summer of 1995 The William Monroe Trotter Institute conducted a survey of resident utilization patterns and attitudes towards various facets of computer technology. This survey was commissioned by Freedom House, Inc. and supported with a grant from the AT&T Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. The goal of this survey, composed of adult residents who have been served by Freedom House, and agency representatives of a small number of selected community-based organizations, is to inform planners at this agency about the computer technical needs, interests, and utilization patterns of its clients.

Empowering Communities Of Color Through Computer Technology, Michael Roberts

Trotter Review

As we hurtle towards the 21st century, an increasing number of individuals start to realize that the ability to use computers and information technology resources effectively will determine how well individuals, organizations, and communities function in a rapidly changing technological society. Numerous studies, including one conducted in the Summer 1995 of Boston's Black community by Freedom House and The Trotter Institute, and highlighted in this issue, have documented the need of Americans—students, workers, unemployed, youth, adults and senior citizens, to become knowledgeable and proficient in the use of computers and information technology. There are several questions that do face communities …