welcome to community science

Community Science Announcements:

No Wrong Door
Addressing the Spectrum of Needs for Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance 
 
Helping children with serious emotional disturbances and their families requires an integrated, innovative approach to care and services. To that end, Nassau County, NY, is establishing the No Wrong Door Family Support System of Care (NWD-FSS) providing a single point of access to care for children and youth with serious emotional disturbance and their families. The program, modeled after Nassau's unique program of health and human services delivery known as No Wrong Door, represents a shift from top down medical models to a more collaborative team strategy. No Wrong Door offers a family-driven, youth-guided empowerment approach. Three accessible Family Resource Centers will offer a convenient gateway to multiple services, developed in targeted, high-needs communities. 
 
Community Science will play a continuous role as evaluator and partner for the six-year project. Community Science's LaKeesha Woods, Co-Project Director, says, "System of care in general, and No Wrong Door Family Support System of Care in particular, promote the holistic health of diverse children and families. As local evaluators, we are charged not only with measuring the initiative's desired outcomes, but providing information to help the program develop and improve, celebrate its successes, and add to the field of children's mental health."

In conjunction with Nassau University Medical Center and New York State Families Together, NWD-FSS will build on this integrated way of meeting a full range of human services needs of county residents. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, funds the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their Families Program, which is funding Nassau County's grant. Nassau County is one of 18 participating communities in this sixth phase of the initiative. Over 140 communities have been funded since 1993.
 
Click here to learn more about the SAMSHA Systems of Care or email Community Science 

 

Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee

Most children cannot imagine being forced from their homes. Today, more than 30 million people around the world have been displaced due to war and violence. Of those, nearly 10 million are children. Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee is an exhibit that takes young audiences on an inspiring, hands-on journey into the lives of refugee children.

Torn From Home is now available as a traveling exhibit for museums around the country. Active Voice, communication specialists that use different media forms to spark social change, is coordinating the traveling exhibit and facilitating the collaboration between the host venue and local refugee serving organizations, to establish and foster a more welcoming community. Community Science has been asked by Active Voice to evaluate both its role as facilitator and the host organization's community engagement and col- laboration efforts. Community Science will also examine whether collaboration leading to concrete action develops between the host organizations and refugee serving organizations (civic and faith-based groups, immigrant and refugee service providers). In addition, Community Science will evaluate the impact such community collaboration has on the capacity of art and cultural institutions to act as advocates for an issue and whether this approach can serve as a model for future partnerships.

The program, created by the Lied Discovery Children's Museum in Las Vegas, NV, is targeted to 8- to 12-year-old children. Thanks to generous funding, no rental fee will be charged to participating museums. For more information, visit Torn from Home or email Community Science. 

New Employee Spotlight

Nadra C. Tyus, DrPH

Community Science is pleased to welcome Nadra C. Tyus, DrPH, as a Managing Associate. She brings to our group a new voice for addressing community and behavioral health issues. Nadra was Health Program Manager at the Black Women's Health Imperative, a national nonprofit that addresses health issues disproportionately affecting Black women. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Urban Health Institute (UHI) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Through UHI, she conducted several pilot research studies examining social and environmental factors contributing to disparate health issues including poverty, access to health care, relationships, cancer, and STDs/HIV.
 
Nadra also has experience working with community leaders and groups to build capacity to address health inequities and has led several community health studies. "It's exciting to join an organization that shares my passion for community and also offers a great frame work for rigorous capacity-building and evaluation. I look forward to this opportunity and challenge," she says.

 

Introducing Community Science

We are pleased to announce the Association for the Study and Development of Community (ASDC) changed its name to Community Science as of January 1st, 2009.

Our new name better reflects our organization's greater focus on its mission - to advance the science and practice of community change.

Although our name is changing our core values remain.  Our work, regardless of which social issue we focus on, is designed, conducted, and evaluated with three values in mind:

  • Community is important,
  • Building the capacity of the community to assess and solve its problems is important,
  • Change is necessary in our ongoing struggle for equity and justice.

About Community Science

Since 1997, Community Science has provided an integrated approach to building the capacity of organizations and institutions, helping to develop healthy, just and equitable communities.

Our greatest strength is the study of community and system change.  From day one, our objective has been simple: to develop the knowledge necessary to address social problems in a way that benefits all communities. 

We answer evaluation and research questions using state-of-the-art qualitative and quantitative methods.  Our services include research and evaluation services, capacity-building products and services, and initiative management and support. 

Our new website address is www.communityscience.com. 

Special Community Science Report:

Scope, Scale, and Sustainability
What it Takes to Create
Lasting Community Change

Community Science, with funds from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, conducted a study exploring the history of comprehensive community initiatives to better understand how these complex efforts can reach the scope, scale, and sustainability needed to achieve lasting community change.  This report examines the specific practices, approaches and mechanisms that lead to successful initiatives.  The study examines those success factors as they relate to the ability of a comprehensive community initiative to achieve the scope and scale required to generate community-level outcomes and to sustain those positive impacts over time.

What it Takes to Create Lasting Community Change

Special Community Science Report:

The Importance of Culture in Evaluation
A Practical Guide for Evaluators
Cross Cultural Guide

The Importance of Culture in Evaluation, a publication funded by The Colorado Trust, provides examples of where cross-cultural competency is critical in evaluation. While not intended to be the definitive answer to all questions about cross-culturally competent evaluation, it provides a good start in recommending questions and strategies that an evaluator should consider when practicing this form of competency.

To Order Additional Copies: Colorado Trust

Special ASDC Report:

The Five C’s
Strategic Factors for Building Community

Have you ever wondered what would have the greatest and broadest impact on the well being of individuals, families, and communities? This brief report describes the strategic factors for stimulating community-wide health and well-being.  It illustrates how each of the Five C’s  - Community, Connections, Control, Cash and Collective Action - can be put together to develop an effective, broad-reaching, and sustainable community development strategy.

The Five Cs

 

Special Community Science Report:

The Importance of Culture in Evaluation
A Practical Guide for Evaluators
Cross Cultural Guide

The Importance of Culture in Evaluation, a publication funded by The Colorado Trust, provides examples of where cross-cultural competency is critical in evaluation. While not intended to be the definitive answer to all questions about cross-culturally competent evaluation, it provides a good start in recommending questions and strategies that an evaluator should consider when practicing this form of competency.

To Order Additional Copies: Colorado Trust

 

Special Community Science Report:

The Importance of Culture in Evaluation
A Practical Guide for Evaluators
Cross Cultural Guide

The Importance of Culture in Evaluation, a publication funded by The Colorado Trust, provides examples of where cross-cultural competency is critical in evaluation. While not intended to be the definitive answer to all questions about cross-culturally competent evaluation, it provides a good start in recommending questions and strategies that an evaluator should consider when practicing this form of competency.

To Order Additional Copies: Colorado Trust