"People's challenges don't come in neat little packages. Once a family walks through our door, we will help them acquire any and all services needed."
-Louise Skolnik, DSW, Director of Human Services, Nassau County, New York |
Interested in the study of Sense of Community?
Interact with other people who have a scientific or professional interest in the study or application of a sense of community. Community Science has relaunched
a "virtual" meeting place that brings together international scholars
and practitioners to post and exchange ideas which advance the work on sense of community.
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How Constructive Trouble-Making Can Pay Off
"The role of the social sciences is to be troublesome, to disconcert the habitual arrangements by which we manage to live along, and to demonstrate the possibility of change in more adequate directions . . . like that of a skilled surgeon, [social scientists need to] get us into immediate trouble in order to prevent our present troubles from becoming even more dangerous. In a culture in which power is normally held by the few and used offensively and defensively to bolster their instant advantage within the status quo, the role of such a constructive troublemaker is scarcely inviting."
~Robert Lynd, 1939, Knowledge for What? The Place of Social Science in American Culture
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Conferences of Note
2009 Summer Evaluation Institute
June 14-17, 2009
Atlanta, GA
For information:
The Evaluator's Institute
Classes and certificates program July 13-25, 2009 Washington, DC
3rd Annual New Connections Symposium
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation June 25-26, 2009 Princeton, NJ For information: RWJF
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Empowering Latino
Communities through Education
Community Science has received a contract to compile the community assessment report of Centro Familia and Centro Nia's grant application to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, related to early childhood education and support.
Centro Familia and Centro Nia empower Latino and other immigrant families through early childhood education, advocacy, workforce training, small business development, women's leadership and community building.
We'll have more on this exciting project in an upcoming newsletter.
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| Greetings!
In this month's e-newsletter, we bring you a preview of No Wrong Door, an integrated approach to reaching and saving youth with serious emotional disturbance. Also, see how children across the country can get a better understanding of the plight of refugee children.
We also highlight a few upcoming seminars you may find of interest. If you are aware of a seminar or workshop you'd like to share with our community, please email us at Community Science.
We hope you find this issue useful and welcome your feedback.
Sincerely,
David Chavis, President and CEO |
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 SAMHSA 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.
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| New Employee Spotlight
Nadra Tyus, DrPH
Community Science is pleased to welcome Nadra 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.
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