OUR NEWS

Introducing Our New Model: Innovating for Optimal Social Impact

We're proud to launch a five-point model called Innovating for Optimal Social Impact, which enables Community Science to work with organizations where change management is an ongoing process and finding solutions for complex social problems is an urgent mission.

In Print: Strategic Factors for Building Community

The Five C's: Community, Connections, Control, Cash, & Collective Action

First published in 2006, this Community Science publication continues to resonate with capacity building practitioners today. The Austin, TX chapter of the Community Associations Institute highlighted the article on the cover of its Q2 journal.

New Employee Spotlight x2!

We're proud to welcome Senior Associate Joy Amulya, Ed.D. and Associate Zachary R. Miller, MPA, to the Community Science team! We look forward to their contributions and impact.

Out And About: CS in the Community

Last month, David Chavis was invited to speak at Collaborations in Early Care and Education:
Establishing a Framework for a Research Agenda, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.
The purpose of the meeting was to construct a framework for research and evaluation regarding collaborations in early care and education.

Dr. Chavis was invited to speak at the session entitled Defining and Measuring State-Level Collaboration in recognition of his research and evaluation work in this area.

Kien Lee Appointed to Statewide Commission on the Impact of Immigrants

Principal Associate Kien Lee was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to be part of a member Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland, including a study of the demographic profile, and the economic and fiscal impacts of immigration. The appointment is recognition of Lee’s work on immigrant integration for Community Science clients throughout the years. Continue to check back for periodic updates on the Commission.

NEW CLIENT: The Partnership for a Drug-Free America

Community Science to evaluate effectiveness of Parents: You Matter! for this nationally known organization

Community Science was recently hired for a 10-month engagement with The Partnership for a Drug-Free America to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the Partnership's "Parents: You Matter!" program -- a community education presentation designed to educate parents of 12- to 17-year-olds about adolescent substance abuse, as well as provide tools and resources to prevent it. For more information on this program, click here.

What Does Our Community's Growing Diversity Have To Do With Evaluation?

Like many areas of the country, Colorado's racial and ethnic populations have grown more diverse, particularly through an increase in immigrants and refugees. The Colorado Trust wanted to ensure that its grant making and evaluations continue to evolve to better serve people of myriad cultures. With that goal in mind, they engaged Community Science to help deepen their understanding about what it takes to do a cross-culturally competent evaluation.

Making a Difference: Community Science Pitches in to Help a Local Family

On March 23rd, 13 members of the Community Science team pitched in with Habitat for Humanity to give a local Maryland family a new start -- and a new home.

Principal Associate Ricardo Millett Speaks at the Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute's 2010 Conference

In March, Principal Associate Ricardo Millett delivered the Mary E. Corcoran Endowed Lecture at the Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute 2010 conference, "If Social Betterment Is the Goal, Are Evaluators Leading the Way?" Click below to read what Dr. Millett had to say.

Team Players: LaKeesha N. Woods, Ph.D.

As passionate about practice as she is about research, Dr. Woods is focused on cultural influences on the development and functioning of youth and families of color; and culturally congruent preventive interventions for youth placed at risk. Currently serving on the evaluation team for the The Colorado Trust's Equality in Health Initiative and as co-project director for both Nassau County Family Support System of Care, and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America Parents:You Matter!, Dr. Woods' contributions to the team and the community are seen first-hand on a daily basis. Click here for her resume.

A Murder in Broad Daylight

Greensboro, North Carolina. 1979. Five members of the Communist Workers Party, holding a Death to the Klan rally, are killed in broad daylight.The murders are captured by TV cameras, yet no one is ever convicted of the crime.

What's Happening: The Importance of Building and Measuring a Sense of Community

Colorado's Neighborhood Liaison Forum - David Chavis and Joy Amulya discussed the importance of building and measuring a sense of community in Colorado. Dr. Chavis has written about the five strategic factors for building community in this article and for measuring a sense of community here.

For more information about the study of a sense of community, visit senseofcommunity.com

How can evaluation improve community and other systems change initiatives?

At last November's American Evaluation Association (AEA) meeting, Community Science's David Chavis participated in an invited session on the evaluation of community change initiatives (CCI’s) within their context. He reported on a Community Science study that reviewed 11 CCI’s to identify factors related to scale, scope and sustainability. He also addressed the changing landscape of evaluation. A post-session discussion sheds light on how the work of community change will evolve in 2010 and beyond.

Share, Vote, Discuss + Influence

ChangeThinkers.com is a community of social change agents transforming the way ideas are shared -- not just for the causes we represent but for the way we practice and make change happen. We reconnect individuals, nonprofits and other community groups with funders and foundations to share information, from finding volunteers and crafting a great proposal to learning a new method.

Community Science Welcomes Three New Staff

Community Science continues to grow and in the past few months we've added three new people to our staff. Denise L. Baer, Ph.D., joins our staff as a Senior Associate with expertise in performance measurement and management. Zachary R. Miller, MPA, is Community Science's newest Associate bringing professional experiences pursuing social change throughout the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to our staff. And, Pamela T. Robb joins Community Science as our Project Manager responsible for ensuring that client deliverables arre on time, on budget, and are of the highest quality.

Kien Lee shares knowledge on the growing diversity of Montgomery County

Cultural diversity, intergroup relations, and immigrant integration are topics of continuing interest and exploration for Community Science's Kien Lee. She recently participated in a Senior Leadership Montgomery Diversity Day event at Glen Echo Park in Maryland. Her presentation, entitled Deevali, Mooncakes, Eid, Salsa, etc., explored what leaders need to know to lead in a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse community.

Community Science welcomes new Associate Vera Miles

Community Science welcomes new associate Vera Miles

Vera Miles, MA, has recently joined our staff, bringing more than ten years of diverse experience in the mental health field in both clinical and analytical capacities. She has conducted clinical assessments, provided crisis intervention counseling and therapy, and conducted mental health intakes. On the analysis side, she implements evaluation procedures, maintains information management systems, and provides technical support. She is experienced at collecting and analyzing data for evaluations, ensuring quality and consistency of data.

David Chavis to present at the AEA Conference

Community Science's David Chavis will address ways to make a large scale impact on complex social problems in communities, when he presents at a session called Community as Context: Evaluation of Comprehensive Community Initiatives, at November's American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference.

Boosting the Impact of a Foundation

Community Science helps measure progress

How does the work of Community Science directly impact a foundation's efforts to help its grantees? We talked to Jane Mosley, PhD, Program Officer for The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (HCF), which works to eliminate barriers to quality health care for uninsured and underserved in its service area.

The Change Agent: What particular obstacles does HCF face in working with grantees?

Jane Mosley: One of our key issues, a key obstacle, is in our ability to report on what the grantees are doing. Grantees are great at providing services, but collecting data and information to actually quantify their impact - that's a challenge for them. That's a need for them and not just for us.

To find out how Community Science is helping HCF overcome data reporting challenges, click below to read the full Q&A with Jane Mosley.

Community Science Principals Participate in National Health Disparities Plan Consensus Meeting

In 2006, the Office of Minority Health (OMH) sponsored the inaugural National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health. A direct outcome of the Summit was the formation of the National Partnership for Action (NPA) to end health disparities for minority populations. OMH asked Community Science principals to participate in a consensus meeting to advance the NPA's first national health disparities plan, with David Chavis serving on the Evaluation Advisory Group and Kien Lee on the Implementation Planning Group.

Special ASDC 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.

Currency through Diversity

Foundations that believe in a just and equitable society must do more to address diversity and equality issues -- or risk failing in their missions.

Community Science's Dr. Ricardo A. Millett recently prepared a case study for Diversity in Philanthropy, a group committed to increasing field-wide diversity through open dialogue and strategic action to increase effectiveness and impact.

A New Model to Fight Childhood Obesity

Among the more challenging issues facing our poorest communities is childhood obesity. Marginalized communities face formidable barriers to healthy dietary habits and lifestyles including access to healthy foods and to recreational spaces for exercise.

Community Science has just completed an evaluation of a public education campaign intended to combat childhood obesity.

In The Community

Community Science's Kien Lee has been selected to the Leadership Montgomery Class of 2010. Leadership Montgomery identifies a diverse spectrum of leaders in the community and provides a forum for them to address issues and effect positive civic change.

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.

Enlisting a Community to Fight Childhood Obesity

Being black and poor in Washington D.C.'s Ward 8 increases the probability of obesity, particularly in young people. A 2008 Rand health study found that 71.2% of Ward 8 residents were overweight or obese, the highest rate of any Ward in the city. A survey of teens and adults conducted by the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation revealed that awareness of obesity as a health issue in the Ward is very low. The Ward also gets the lowest marks in the city for access to grocery stores, availability of community gardens and little organized community effort to educate residents to consider healthier lifestyles.

Culturally Competent Capacity Builders: What will it take?

How are changing demographics and growing diversity affecting the nonprofit workforce? The task of helping nonprofit leaders manage diversity and, subsequently, improve their ability to comply with antidiscrimination laws, leverage differences, and practice inclusivity, requires the expertise of professionals or capacity builders, trained to help nonprofit leaders understand how diversity can lead to effectiveness.

In the Community... Excel Beyond the Bell

Supporting children and keeping them safe and engaged in a variety of out-of-school settings are goals of Excel Beyond the Bell, a partnership program in Maryland established by the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families.

New Employee Spotlight: Nadra C. Tyus, DrPH Joins Community Science

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.

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.

Also In the Community... A Renewal of Support for New Americans in Maryland

In December, 2008, Governor Martin O'Malley signed an executive order to create the Maryland Council for New Americans. The council aims to help integrate new immigrants into Maryland's workforce and civic life.

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

Kien Lee, Ph.D., Community Science Principal Associate, to speak on civic engagement of immigrant seniors

The Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning is facilitating a national conversation on the civic engagement of older immigrants and refugees. We are convening practitioners and policy makers in the fields of immigration, civic engagement and aging to discuss the findings and implications of a new report entitled, Community Treasures: Recognizing the Contributions of Older Immigrants and Refugees.

For more information, click here