Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

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.

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

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

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

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

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

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).

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

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

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

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

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 …

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

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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 …

This Is Your Brain On Civically-Engaged Chemistry, Hannah Sevian

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This Freshman Seminar course for Chemistry majors is designed to introduce students to the college experience as well as to foster an interest in chemistry. The science of learning chemistry is the integrating theme. In Fall 2013, Professor Sevian customized the curriculum by linking her undergraduates with students at the Dever-McCormack School. Undergraduates apply basic chemistry concepts they learn in class to content-focused outreach activities in K-8 science classrooms. This course is part of the Civic Engagement Scholars Initiative (CESI), a three-semester UMass Boston program designed to support faculty with integrating community engagement into undergraduate courses.

Upward Bound At Umass Boston, Upward Bound, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Jeremiah E. Burke High School, Dorchester Academy, Madison Park High School, Excel High School

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Every participant in Upward Bound, whether low-income, first-generation, or at high risk for academic failure, will develop the skills, knowledge, and motivation to enroll in and complete postsecondary education. We prepare participants for enrollment in and completion of postsecondary education. Through a year-round program, we address a wide range of learning needs and provide courses, tutoring, advising, workshops, and other services to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.