scu- tni community assessment

Santa Clara Universitys Thriving Neighbors Initiative Community

AssessmentFacilitator

Jennifer Merritt

Co-PresentersBarbara Burns Nicole Branch Irene Cermeo Laura Chyu Laura Nichols Jennifer Nutefall Maria Elizabeth Ramirez

AJCU Justice ConferenceSeattle University

August 11, 2017

Course Integration

Next Steps

Introduction & Background

Conceptualization of Methodology

Community Leadership in Assessment

Data Analysis

2013-2016

2013-2014

Qualitative community assessment

Imagining the Relationship2013-2014

University community meetings

Launch of Thriving Neighbors Initiative (TNI) after-school data collection


Launch of TNI grant programs and associated program evaluations

Recognized the need for a broad-scale community assessment to collect baseline data and inform program development


List of Accomplishments

Growing TNI from 1 to 20 programs co-designed by university faculty, students and community resident teams that support education, health, legal justice and economic development in GW within the first 2 years

2013-2014


Engaging over 25 faculty, 30 student and 20 community team leaders annually

Engaging over 300 community resident program participantsannually

2013-2014


Developing over 16 project-based courses supporting team-centered student engagement with specific TNI community initiatives

2013-2014


Implementing 18 TNI grants supporting faculty/student/community project-development teams from seven disciplines for the design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of sustainable community-development program models

2013-2014


Designing and developing the TNI After School Academic Enrichment Program which grew from serving 25 to 90 children in 2 years (kindergarten through middle school students who participate in STEM, Art, Leadership and Nutrition/Gardening education)

2013-2014

Todays focus: TNI Community Assessment

A review of best practices in Promise and Choice Neighborhood assessment methodologies,

An analysis of US Census data,

2013-2014

A physical survey of the neighborhood,

An extensive community health and family life survey with over 200 respondents in one month

...a broad-scale participatory action research neighborhood assessment that included:

Course Integration

Next Steps



Data Analysis


Relating National Place-Based Initiatives to TNIChild Studies Program: Senior Capstone Courses in Winter 2014- Spring 2015

2014-2015

Learned about the Thriving Neighbors Initiative

Studied history of Harlem Childrens Zone (HCZ) and recent Promise Neighborhood (PN) Programs in San Diego, CA, Hayward,CA, and Berea, KY

Final presentations on how HCZ and PN initiatives may support the SCU TNI-- specific recommendations on key programming and the PNI survey on family health and well being

Student Recommendations Presented to TNI

PN-Type Survey

Track success and share with community-- information is power!

Include community members in survey development; partner with community leaders for gathering and coding surveys.

2014-2015

Areas of Growth in Programming

Add programs that support both cognitive and noncognitive skills in children - especially emotional security.

Add programs that focus on infancy.

Course Integration

Next Steps



Data Analysis


Developing TNI Community Assessment Model

Tracking Neighborhood Change Using Census DataSociology 30 Experiential Learning for Social Justice: Self, Community & Society (Nichols & Branch)

Neighborhood AssessmentPublic Health 1 Intro: Human Health and Disease (Saxton)

Fall 2015

Community Engagement & Advocacy Walking Group & Zumba

Public Health 131 ELSJ:Community Health (Mackenzie)

Source: http://libguides.scu.edu/soc30

Tracking Neighborhood Change Using Census DataFall 2015

US Census & the American Community Survey

Census tract filtering

Detailed demographic data

Reliable

Comparable

Timely

Fall 2015 Tracking Neighborhood Change Using Census Data

Critically Evaluating Data

Misleading visualizationsAuthor/source biasMethodologyData collection & analysisIssues timeliness Data out of contextMissing or unavailable dataCorrelations vs. causations


Data Comparison


Washington Neighborhood Data Collection


Reflections

Students wrote short reflection papers for each module

Students compared their own school and neighborhood to that of students in their community-based learning placements


Reflections

Students looked for and reflected on assets in the community

For the level of Society (Macro): At the end of the course students proposed a potential policy based on their limited experience, the data, and available assets


Public Health 1: Human Health and Disease

Neighborhood AssessmentFall 2015

Public Health 1: Human Health and Disease

Driving and walking tour

Connections to health

Neighborhood AssessmentFall 2015

Systematic observations of physical and and social environment

Public Health 131: Community Health

Community organizing, engagement, and advocacy

Community Engagement & AdvocacyFall 2015

Walking group & Zumba classes Experiential Learning for Social

Justice requirement

Course Integration

Next Steps



Data Analysis


Meet our Community Leaders

Strong community involvement

Active collaborators to TNI vision

Grant development and leadership expertise

Winter 2016

Meet our Community Leaders

Engaged across multiple programs within Initiative

Passionate about creating a change in their community

Winter 2016

Preparing to Start

Understanding the Community Assessment and why it is important

Understanding the purpose of research

Recruiting participants and communicating

Informed consentAbility to say noUnderstanding roles and

responsibilities as researchers

Winter 2016

Training in research methods and ethics (Cermeo & Nichols)

Developing the Survey

Establish Foundational Relationships

Collaboration between Faculty Fellows, Staff and Community Leaders

Identifying Survey Model - Promise Neighborhood

Winter 2016

Developing the SurveyWinter 2016

Input on Survey

Determining Compensation for Participants

Multiple Revisions

Final Draft Test-Community Leaders

Survey Structure

Made up of 3 parts:

Part 1: What is/isnt working Part 2: Understanding parents

interactions with youngest child

Part 3: Participant Information

Winter 2016

Approx. 90 questions

6 Different Survey Versions

Translated into Spanish

Survey Implementation

Community-Led Effort

Supported by SOC 122- Applied Sociology (Nichols & Cermeo)

Survey Administered at 3 different sites

7 open drop-in sessions

3 weeks of surveying

Winter 2016

Outcome: 228 participants

Experiences in the Field

Emergent questions, observations and opportunities we noticed

Winter 2016

Course Integration

Next Steps



Data Analysis


Data Analysis

Data Management and codingPHSC 100/ BIO 117: Epidemiology

Understand study design

Work with variables and codebooks

Run basic descriptive statistics

Spring 2016

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Descriptive analyses

Infographics in English

Necessity of plan to transition work to the fall

Spring 2016

SOCI 199 Independent Study (Nichols)

Demographics of Survey Takers

Sacred Heart Washington Elementary Full Sample

Took the Survey in Spanish 89% 97% 93%

Female 85% 95% 90%

Married 49% 70% 59%

Mexican/Mexican American 68% 66% 67%

High School Degree or Less 65% 78% 72%

Household Income is $30,000 or less 65% 84% 74%

Household Income is $5,000 or less 31% 24% 27.6%

Average Age 41 38 39

Average Income $15,500 $12,500 $14,000

Spring 2016

Upper Level course in Child Studies

LBST 156: Child Advocacy (Burns)

Spring 2016 Data Analysis

Studied survey results from TNI and best practice on how to promote child and family wellness in communities facing economic disadvantage and high community violence

Created flyersOutlined focus groups

Course Integration

Next Steps



Data Analysis


2016-2017

Next Steps

Share findings with the Washington and SCU communities

Plan next steps to respond to expressed community needs and faculty interests

Involve faculty and students from other departments and disciplines

Archive community materials using library resources

2016-2017

Questions?Q&A

Discussion/Poster Review

1) Resilient Families Program in the Thriving Neighbors Initiative: Better Understanding Stress in Parenting

2) Sustainable Grant Projects: Community Gardening and Parents Discussion Group

3) Building Health and Leadership at Washington Elementary School through Project-Based Learning: The Washington Elementary Health Equity Collaborative

4) Resilient Families: Babies (Program to support nurturing parenting led by promotorasand university students)

5) Opening Doors to Early Childhood Education via iPads

6) Participatory Action Research (PAR) Training, Course, and Community Based Projects

7) Community-Based Air Pollution Analysis

2016-2017