Committee for Community-Directed Research & Education

Civic Engagement Through Organizational Capacity Building

Update on CCDRE-Sponsored Initiatives

By Professor Ian Baptiste

CCDRE (The Committee for Community-Directed Research and Education) was established in 1998. Its goals are: (1) to improve the civic capacity of Penn State and community organizations with whom Penn State partners, (2) to provide opportunities for Penn State students, staff and faculty—who are interested civic engagement— to integrate their teaching, research and service; and (3) to conduct research on the role of service learning in community capacity building.

CCDRE currently comprises faculty and staff associates from fourteen (14) departments/units on two Penn State campuses—University Park and Harrisburg. Dr. Ian Baptiste, associate professor and professor-in-charge of the adult education program is the chair of CCDRE. Participating students have been drawn from Adult Education, Architecture, Art Education, Communication Arts and Sciences, Educational Theory and Policy, Human Development and Family Studies, Instruction Systems, Geography, and Rural Sociology.

With financial assistance from the department of Learning and Performance Systems, the College of Education, Children Youth and Family Consortium, Africana Research Center and Penn State’s Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy, CCDRE has (for the past three years, 2002-2005) been partnering with community organizations on the island of Grenada, West Indies, and in Belmont, West Philadelphia. A directory of students, staff and faculty who have participated in these ventures is available upon request from Professor Baptiste (ieb1@psu.edu). Highlights of CCDRE’s civic engagement efforts in both locations follow. The report first describes services that CCDRE has provided (is providing) to community organizations at both locations. Then it highlights service learning emanating from both initiatives. Many of our students have been working in both locations (Grenada and Philadelphia). Consequently, their service learning is an integration of both sets of experiences. The report ends with a request for volunteers. Pictures from the Grenada projects are attached.

Civic Engagement in Belmont, West Philadelphia

This project is part of what had been a larger initiative called BelCUP (Belmont Community-University Partnership). BelCUP grew out of Geography Professor Yapa’s work in West Philadelphia. BelCUP was organized under three inter-related thematic areas, each headed by one or two Penn State faculty. The areas and corresponding faculty directors were: (1) Environment, headed by Professor Michael Rios—home improvement and energy efficiency, development and optimal use of free spaces (parks and recreation, etc); (2) Enterprise Development, headed by Professors Lakshman Yapa and Lynette Kvasny—computer literacy, online marketing for selected businesses, online banking, and a community credit cooperative; and (3) Organizational Capacity Building, headed by Professor Ian Baptiste—strengthening existing community organizations, and facilitating inter-organizational communication and networking. The partnership (BelCUP) officially ended in spring 2005, but CCDRE has continued the organizational building capacity component. The rest of this section of the report focuses on CCDRE’s efforts in Belmont.

Over the past three years CCDRE members with assistance from Americorp VISTA volunteers have been working primarily with four community organizations in Belmont: Belmont Improvement Association, Holly Street Literary and Garden Association, Calvary Episcopalian Church, and Lancaster Avenue Business Association. Below are highlights of CCDRE’S accomplishments:

  1. Reinvigorating Belmont Improvement Association (BIA): Roughly two years ago, BIA was shut down by the City of Philadelphia for tax-related misfeasance. Today, with the help of CCDRE, BIA is a thriving community organization providing a number of social services to the community—including assistance with energy bills, and minor home repairs related to plumbing, heating and lighting. Dr. Baptiste and his students are currently working with BIA on revising its constitution and on developing a proposal for two rehabilitation programs—a Teenaged Mothers and Infant program, and Boys to Men, a program for young men who are institutionalized in Philadelphia’s juvenile detention systems.
  2. Expanding the Services of Holly Street Garden and Literary Association (HSGLA): With other BelCUP partners, CCDRE has been providing technical assistance to HSGLA in planning and implement The Belmont Commons (an intergenerational park). CCDRE is also assisting HSGLA is designing and implementing a youth enrichment (after school) program for elementary and middle school children.
  3. Nurturing a More Civic-Minded Calvary Episcopalian Church (CEC): Calvary Episcopalian Church (located in Belmont, West Philadelphia) has an aging congregation; and most of its members live outside the Belmont community. Over the years, the church has become more and more isolated from the community. The leadership of the church has identified as one of its major goals becoming a more civic-minded church. To this end the church is partnering with Holly Street (above) on the youth enrichment program. CCDRE is consulting with the church on this and other initiatives that would increase the church’s community involvement.
  4. Restructuring Lancaster Avenue Business Association (LABA): CCDRE is assisting LABA in its restructuring efforts. This includes revising its constitution and byelaws, reconstituting its membership, and streamlining its operations.

Civic Engagement in Rural Grenada

                                                   

Professor Baptiste initiated GrenCUP (the Grenada Community-University Partnership) in August 2002. During the 2003 spring, summer and winter breaks, and the summers of 2004 and 2005, twelve Penn State personnel (3 faculty and 9 graduate students) have visited Grenada to participate in GrenCUP. Lengths of visits range from 2-11 weeks. Ten (10) more CCDRE affiliates (1 faculty and 9 graduate students) have participated in planning and implementing GrenCUP projects, but have not visited Grenada. A directory of PSU students, staff and faculty who have participated in GrenCUP is available on request from Professor Baptiste (ieb1@psu.edu). The following are highlights of CCDRE’s accomplishments in Grenada:

1)     Establishing Community Organizations: CCDRE has helped to establish three community associations: (a) a community advisory council (Five Star United Hands), (b) a community learning center (LaKahook), and (c) a youth research and service organization (RESO)

2)     Training Community Researchers: CCDRE conducted a 4 week training program for members the youth organization, the Research and Service Organization (RESO) in community organizing and research. The training was staggered over the spring, summer and winter breaks of 2003. Certificates of accomplishment were awarded to persons successfully completing the training. Based on the training, RESO has been able to find temporary employment for some of its members by contracting their research services to public and private agencies in Grenada.

3)     Homework Assistance and Adult Education program: With CCDRE’s assistance, the community learning center (LaKahook) has started a Homework Assistance and Adult Education program. Volunteer tutors from the local community assist community residents who are preparing for examinations to enter secondary school, college, or vocational-technical institutions.

4)     Computer Training: CCDRE has procured (through offices at Penn State) 44 used computers and has shipped them to Grenada. Thirty four (34) computers were used to set up and commission a computer lab for the LaKahook Community Learning Center. LaKahook has leased a property to house its operation. The center has incorporated computers in its Homework Assistance and Adult Education programs. LaKahook also provides general computer training to community residents. The remaining ten (10) computers were distributed to the elementary school and the five pre-schools in the area. CCDRE has trained community volunteers to manage LaKahook’s lab, and has conducted a workshop for teachers of the five local pre-school on ways to integrate information communication technology (ICT) into their curricula

5)     Summer School: CCDRE has assisted LaKahook in the implementation of a youth summer program for three consecutive years (2003 – 2005). In 2004, approximately 122 children aged 2 to 16 participated. Computer classes taught by Penn State graduate students (with assistance from community volunteers) were a major component of the summer school programs.

6)     Hurricane Relief: On Tuesday September 7, 2004, Grenada was pounded by Hurricane Ivan. The hurricane took the lives of 38 persons, and damaged or destroyed approximately 90% of the built environment (homes, commercial buildings, government offices, hospitals, schools, etc.) and most of the vegetation. CCDRE has partnered with the Caribbean Student Association of Penn State and with Caribbean-American Family Network (CAFN) a Chicago-based organization to provide hurricane relief. The relief items included tents, tarpaulins and other temporary roofing materials, clothing, food, light, medical supplies, and school supplies.

7)     Networking for Sustainability: GrenCUP began its operations in the village of Hope, St. Andrew’s, Grenada and surrounding areas. Hope was chosen because of its accessibility to CCDRE. Dr. Baptiste (the chair of CCDRE) was raised in Hope. In the first two years of GrenCUP’s operation, CCDRE has been primarily concerned with strengthening and establishing community associations in and around Hope. CCDRE, however, was always aware that the sustainability of its local efforts would require collaboration with NGOs, governmental, and private institutions BEYOND the local communities. CCDRE initiated this wider collaboration in summer 2004, via consultations with the Grenada Ministry of Education, TA Marryshow Community College (TAMCC), St George’s University (SGU) and Crochu-Pomme Rose Ex-Students Association. A summary of CCDRE’s consultations follow.

a)     Partnering with Crochu-Pomme Rose Ex-Students Association (CPRESA): CPRESA is a community organization serving villages adjacent to Hope. CPRESA’s mission is quite similar to those of LaKahook Community Learning Center. CCDRE has facilitated communication with the two organizations. They are now exchanging personnel and resources, and collaborating on curriculum development and other programming areas.

b)     Taking the community college to the local communities: CCDRE would assist TAMCC in its initiative to extend educational programs to communities throughout Grenada, especially to marginalized communities. Students successfully completing these courses would obtain professional certifications from TAMCC and may use the credits earned towards an Associate Degree. CCDRE would assist TAMCC in designing educational programs, in training teachers, and in procuring resources. TAMCC would implement the community education programs. TAMCC and PSU faculty and students would conduct joint research on the collaborative venture.

c)     Community service: TAMCC students, as part of their community service requirements, would assist in various GrenCUP-sponsored community projects. Preferably, students would serve in communities in which they reside. For example, TAMCC students living in and around the village of Hope, St Andrew’s might facilitate computer classes at LaKahook Community Learning Center. TAMCC and PSU faculty and students would exchange service learning ideas and conduct joint research on service learning.

d)     Staff and curricular development for TAMCC: Four institutions (The Grenada Ministry of Education, TAMCC, SGU and PSU) would develop and implement affordable and sustainable staff and curricular development programs for TAMCC faculty and staff. Many TAMCC faculty members do not have advanced degrees.

e)     Research collaboration: CCDRE is exploring collaborative grant-funded research opportunities between PSU, TAMCC and SGU faculty.

f)      Faculty and Student Exchanges: CCDRE would explore possibilities for faculty and student exchanges between PSU, TAMCC and SGU.

g)     Nation-wide ICT integration: CCDRE would assist the Grenada Ministry of Education in designing and implementing a nationwide program to integrate Information Communication Technologies into the curriculum of the primary and secondary schools.

Selected CCDRE-Sponsored Service Learning

 This section provides highlights of CCDRE-sponsored service learning experiences in Philadelphia and Grenada.

 1)     Three graduate students—Chang-gook Youn (Adult Education) Naomie Nyanungo (Adult Education), and Brian Beabout (Instructional Systems)—traveled to Philadelphia's Belmont neighborhood to train members of HSGLA and CEC to organize and conduct focus groups to study community issues. Over three days (June 22-25, 2005), the Penn State team engaged community members in crafting their own research purposes and questions as well as honing the writing, listening, and analysis skills that would be necessary to turn their research results into action. While the pressing need was to conduct focus group interviews for a proposed after-school program in the community, the trainees have now expressed interest in hosting another focus group to explore mental health issues in the community. The Penn State students left Belmont after three days with tangible facilitation skills as well as a new appreciation for the tireless work of community organizers in urban neighborhoods. The three students are currently writing a journal article that links their service learning to discourses within their areas of academic interest.

2)     Graduate students participating in GrenCUP projects enroll in independent studies jointly supervised by faculty affiliated with CCDRE. Based on one of these independent studies, Naomie Nyanungo has had a paper accepted at the 2004 Midwest Research to Practice Conference. The paper won the graduate student’s award. Based in part on her GrenCUP work Naomie has also been awarded a Graduate Assistantship (in 2004) by the Center for Work and Family Research at Penn State. Sparked by lessons learned in Grenada, Ms Nyanungo is currently conducting ethnographic research (for her doctoral dissertation) in West Philadelphia. She is exploring how the social structure of community organizations shape the roles played by their members.

3)     Chang-gook Youn (another graduate student who has participated in both the Grenada and Philadelphia projects) is conducting a dissertation in which he is looking at the process of learning in inter-organizational conflicts between and among African-American and Korean-American merchants in West Philadelphia.

Help Wanted

CCDRE is looking for volunteers in the following areas:

  1. Grant writers: Persons with expertise in grant writing to support the efforts of the organizations described above.
  2. Curriculum developers and designers: Persons to assist HSGLA and CEC with developing and designing the youth enrichment program. Volunteers are also needed to assist LaKahook Community Learning Center (Grenada) with developing and designing a Job Preparation and Small Business Enterprise program.
  3. Tutor trainers: Persons to help in training volunteer tutors of the Homework Assistance and Adult Education program of LaKahook Community Learning Center. Expertise in teaching math, English, science, social studies, and computer literacy are in particular demand. Volunteers must be prepared to travel to and stay in Grenada for at least 3 weeks during summer 2006.
  4. Program planners: Persons to assist BIA with planning its rehabilitation programs (Teenaged Mothers and Infants program and Boys to Men).
  5. Computer technicians: Persons who can fix broken computers. Several of the computers that have been donated to Grenada and Philadelphia have been broken. Many are fixable. There are both hardware and software related problems. Those volunteering to work in Grenada must be prepared to travel to (and stay) on the island for at least 7 days over the 2005 winter break.

Persons wishing to volunteers should contact Professor Baptiste at ieb1@psu.edu.