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Programs:
Learn & Serve Grant Program
Currently Funded Programs
Brandeis University: Enhancing Service Through Enhancing Partnerships
This project will enrich and strengthen a pre-existing three-way partnership
among Brandeis University, the Waltham Public Schools, and the Waltham Partnership
for Youth and thereby lay a foundation for strengthening service-learning both at
Brandeis and at Waltham High School. That partnership (which has just completed
its second year) engages high school juniors and seniors as researchers in the Waltham
Action Research Project (WARP) with the goal of creating knowledge to improve the
Waltham community through service-learning, civic engagement and youth leadership,
and a residence hall-based university-community partnership called the Service-Learning
for Civic Action (SLCA) project.
Bridgewater State College: Promoting Service-Learning Across the Disciplines
The goal of this project is to facilitate the integration of service-learning
into the academic curriculum at Bridgewater State College. To accomplish this goal,
the project will include educating the faculty about the benefits of using service-learning
in courses, providing support to develop new service-learning courses, engaging
students in meaningful service-learning activities in the community, and improving
the quality of teaching and learning by helping students make meaning out of their
classroom and service experiences.
Brown University: Public Dialogues and Debates
The project, a collaborative of Providence Public School Department and Brown
University's Swearer Center for Public Service, seeks to increase both the public
impact and the evaluation of civic dialogue events. Building on strong preexisting
partnerships in policy debate education and youth leadership in high school reform,
the Swearer Center will coordinate public dialogue and debate events that will bring
together community leaders, faculty, high school students and university students
to present their opinions, research, and advocacy on relevant issues in the Providence
community. The proposal includes steps to establish an evaluation design process
for public events that complements the RI Department of Education civic education
standards.
Bryant University: Community Engagement and Service Learning
Building on the launch of its newly established service-learning program, Bryant
aims to build Bryant University's service-learning infrastructure while effecting
positive change within the University's surrounding communities. We will do this
through three initiatives: (1) service-learning program development; (2) faculty
development through instructional development stipends and service-learning workshops;
and (3) design and delivery of effective service-learning activities by aligning
University resources with community need.
Clark University: Youth Engaged in Service and Success
Clark University will develop and improve after-school academic assistance opportunities
for Worcester youth by building upon existing programs at the Main South CDC and
the Worcester Boys and Girls Club. The partnership will also increase college preparation
and access to the college campus for neighborhood youth and integrate civic engagement
into youth programming. This project and a simultaneous effort to increase service
and service-learning opportunities at the University will deepen the partnership
between Clark, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Main South CDC.
Emerson College: Building Community through Communication and Debate
Emerson College will embark on two projects: one focused on the Building Community
through Communications program with Peace Games and the other focused on expanding
the reach of the Community Debate program. Both projects are housed in the Organizational
and Political Communication Department at Emerson and focus on nonviolent forms
of expression. The majority of work for this project year will be focused on the
Building Community through Communications with Peace Games program, moving the project
forward in ways that ensure more Emerson students are involved and more children
are served, while still building infrastructure and conducting assessment.
Holyoke Community College: Neighbor-to-Neighbor Project
Holyoke Community College will partner with Treehouse Community in Easthampton,
MA on a service-learning and community-based research project that allows HCC faculty
to serve the academic, civic, and career development needs of their students and
the school-age children (K-12) at the Treehouse Community. The Treehouse Community
is
"a unique, multigenerational [residential] community . . . created to support families
who care for children from foster care. . . while focusing particularly on healing
children who have experienced trauma and loss."
Johnson & Wales University: Student Leaders in Community Engagement (SLICE)
The main focus of the program will be on leadership and civic skills development
and training for students at participating partnering public schools and youth-serving
agencies to become public problem-solvers and build capacity at partnering organizations.
SLICE participants specifically will work to increase the number of J&W service-learning
students at partner schools, provide opportunity for more in-depth service-learning
placements, respond directly and immediately to expressed needs at partnering agencies
or schools, participants will develop student leadership and civic skills.
Lesley University: Service-Learning in the Undergraduate Curriculum
This project will deepen Lesley University's partnership with the organizations
that serve young people in Cambridge's Area 4 neighborhood. The purpose of the partnership
is to pursue projects and activities between Lesley University faculty, staff, and
students, and members of the Area 4 neighborhood, which are guided by the following
goals: to build and nurture civic capacity; to facilitate collaborative, experiential
education; and to share resources. Lesley University will partner with Tutoring
Plus, The Community Art Center, and The Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House which
are all located in Area 4 and whose common thread, in addition to location, is their
involvement with youth.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts: Partnership in Education
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) in North Adams will help at-risk
adolescents in the community prepare for a future of success that includes higher
education and civic engagement, while concurrently strengthening our service-learning
program. Area public schools, along with local and state human service agencies,
will identify local youth who will then be brought on campus and provided with experiences
in higher education orientation and community services. College students will relate
to these youth and establish a mentor connection.
Mount Wachusett Community College: Citizenship Academy
The goal of this project is to expand the existing MWCC Citizenship Academy
to low-income and/or first generation college high school juniors and seniors in
Gardner, Massachusetts while also targeting disadvantaged youth in Leominster and
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, through promoting life long citizenship and civic engagement,
high school academic success, and access and exposure to a college education.
North Shore Community College: Live and Learn
North Shore Community College proposes an educational and mentoring pathway
to involve students recruited from NSCC's college service-learning programs in meaningful
support to local youth who attend a gang prevention initiative, Project YES, for
5th, 6th, and 7th grade school students in Lynn
and NSCC's Education Talent Search college access program for middle and high school
students. The pathway would both encourage youth participants to progress to the
next stage educationally as well as to acquire the skills and values modeled by
mentors who support them in various service experiences. This pathway mirrors Campus
Compact's concept of active citizenship "from school to college to public leadership."
Rhode Island School of Design: Publicly Engaged Art and Design
RISD proposes to develop, in consultation with community partners, and launch an
organized program of credit-bearing courses for undergraduate and graduate students
in "Publicly Engaged Art and Design." The academic programs will provide a research
and practice based opportunity for students to work with RISD's longstanding partners
youth groups, K12 education partners, community organizations and government
to serve the community and profoundly increase the capacity for RISD student engagement
with the community.
Roxbury Community College: Mentors and Girls
Roxbury Community College will partner with the Boston Center for Youth and
Families to offer a service-learning course on mentoring girls. Through this course,
Roxbury Community College students will mentor girls at the Orchard Gardens and
Vine Street Community Centers. The partnerships will use the Young Women's Lives:
Building Self-Awareness for Life curriculum aimed to help young women work together
to curtail destructive behavior, support one another, and connect with the on-going
struggle to overcome inequality and violence against women.
UMASS Amherst: Serving Youth through Service-Learning
This project will develop UMASS student involvement in youth-serving programs
through four Community Service Learning courses or projects. Commonwealth College
(the honors college) and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County will collaborate
in the redesign of an honors course to shift its focus from site-based mentoring
to supporting students from UMASS in one-to-one community matches. The Department
of Veterinary and Animal Science and UMASS Extension will partner with Nuestras
Raices in Holyoke in the "Animal Ambassadors" project. Students in the new Current
Issues in Higher Education course will have an opportunity to work with Holyoke
high school students in a "college quest" project. The Communication department's
course on Media Literacy and Violence Prevention will engage students in working
in sixth-grade classrooms in Holyoke, South Hadley, and Deerfield to explore the
understanding of conflict that youth construct from mass media.
UMASS Boston: The Harbor Point Youth Outreach Project
UMASS Boston will reach out to young people in the Harbor Point housing development,
the University's closest urban neighbor. UMASS Boston students will participate
in a comprehensive tutoring program linking an interdisciplinary, intercollegiate
group of UMASS students in a service-learning class, with the youth of Harbor Point.
Youth will be referred by the Walter Denney Youth Center and the Geiger Gibson Community
Health Center at Harbor Point. As a second component, there will be a series of
community to campus workshops aimed at providing access to higher education and
sharing university resources with community youth. Outreach aimed at different ages
will result in tailoring workshops to meet the development needs of the community
youth in relationship to accessing higher education and responding to current interests.
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