SPOTLIGHT ON:
Immigrant Integration: From Melting Pot, to Mosaic, to Community and Systems Change
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Kien S. Lee, Principal Associate and Vice President, Community Science
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Community Science has been involved in immigrant integration work since 1999 when we provided technical assistance and other support to a national effort funded by the Ford and Mott Foundations in partnership with six local foundations to build relationships between long-time residents and newcomers. In 2005, we evaluated The Colorado Trust's Immigrant Integration Initiative. That same year, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees commissioned Community Science to write the evaluation-related sections of a toolkit that included a wide range of resources to meet the information needs of foundations that sought to support immigrant integration work. In 2012, we partnered with Welcoming America (WA) to assess WA's efforts to transform communities into more welcoming and integrated places. In 2013, we began working with the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) to facilitate its effort to promote immigrant integration, as well as with World Education, Inc., to implement the Networks for Integrating New Americans sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE).
We are a nation of immigrants, and immigrant integration has always been part of our political, social, economic, and cultural landscape. It has been described as assimilation, adaptation, and now, integration. Sometimes it was embraced, and leaders and advocates worked hard to help immigrants assimilate, adapt, or integrate; other times, it was rejected, and nativist groups and anti-immigrant activists did what they could to stop its progress. What has changed over time is the way integration is conceptualized and practiced - from regarding immigrants as passive recipients of attempts to make them "like us" to the recognition that both immigrants and receiving community members have to work in concert for the sake of their communities.
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Project Spotlight:
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services
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In 2013, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) decided to focus more extensively on immigrant integration. One of its units, the Children Services Unit (CSU), engaged Community Science to assist in aligning its efforts with the organization's immigrant integration agenda. We worked with CSU staff to apply a child welfare lens to that agenda. The process included redefining the integration outcomes in child welfare terms, determining the outcome measures, and examining the degree to which CSU's current work supports immigrant integration. We assessed the unit's existing data collection to gauge how it could inform the staff's immigrant integration efforts and any additional data needed. LIRS also engaged Community Science to assist with the analysis of data derived from a survey of refugees regarding their social connections and sense of belonging to the United States. Kien Lee, Principal Associate and Vice President, serves as advisor to the LIRS Board's Outcome Committee.
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Project Spotlight:
Incenting Healthy Food Choices
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Ricardo Millett, Principal Associate
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In May of 2014, Community Science shared the results of the SNAP Healthy Food Cluster Evaluation at a Healthy Food Incentive workshop organized by the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR). The mission of this public-private partnership, which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is to "improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and application of childhood obesity research" and to apply data to halt and reverse its impact through enhanced coordination and collaboration. Leading healthy food practitioners were invited to provide their perspectives from the field that could inform effective practices and policies. Partially due to the Farm Bill's authorization of $125 million for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), SNAP healthy food practitioners (including those in our cluster evaluation) were there to tell their story regarding their role and potential to address the health and nutritional needs of America's least advantaged.
Thanks in part to our cluster evaluation experience, Fair Food Network, Roots of Change, Wholesome Wave, and Market Umbrella were well positioned to share their collective findings with attendees with a great deal of confidence.
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 Staff Profile: Sinead Younge
Sinead Younge, PhD, Managing Associate, has expertise in adolescent and young adult health, sense of community, substance use, health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, economic development, and community change initiatives. She is experienced in collaborative and participatory research and evaluation methods, and with collecting and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. Dr. Younge works with the Community Science health equity programs and delivers evaluation capacity building services to community-based nonprofits. She is currently working on the evaluations for the Connecticut Health Foundation, the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities, and the Youth Violence Resource Center Project. Before joining Community Science, Dr. Younge designed and implemented health equity research projects in the southwest region of Atlanta, Georgia, and was an associate professor in the department of psychology at Morehouse College. Her current work focuses on health equity programs.
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In Print:
Framework for Evaluating Community Change Now Available!
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David M. Chavis, Ph.D. and Scott Hebert were the primary authors of a recently released publication by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), entitled Evaluating Community Change: A Framework for Grantmakers. The publication is based on Community Science's work with the GEO's Community of Practice on Evaluating Place-Based Grantmaking as well as the summation of the lessons learned from our experience and other studies we have conducted of placed based and other community change initiatives. The publication offers a framework of measures and potential indicators that can help grantmakers evaluate and ultimately improve their work. You can download a copy of this interactive document by clicking on this link: Evaluating Community Change: A Framework for Grantmakers.
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New Client:
Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS)
Community Science has been awarded, out of a highly competitive field of organizations, a 5 year blanket purchase order (BPA) by the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent Federal agency that encourages community involvement through volunteer programs including Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, VISTA, and the Social Innovation Fund, and leads President Obama's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. Together with partner and subcontractor, Campaign Consultation, Community Science will provide CNCS with a broad range of services, not limited to research and evaluation, training, digital learning development and organizational capacity building in support of CNCS's strategic goals. David M. Chavis, PhD, President/CEO stated, "This award opens up a new relationship for us with one of the most important agencies for promoting stronger communities and social change. As the only small business awarded this BPA, it reflects a recognition of our and our partner's demonstrated expertise and commitment to community and systems changes as well as the dedication of our staff to high quality work, on time, and on budget."
Click here for more information about CNCS
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Conferences of note:
Wednesday July 9, 2014
12:00 PM
Free Webinar
In an increasingly challenging donor environment, funders want more meaningful reporting of success and outcomes by nonprofits. The ability to effectively communicate impact can mean the difference between scaling up - or dialing down - vital initiatives. Join expert panelists in the field of metrics reporting for an informative webinar.
This webinar is sponsored by Onyx Pharmaceuticals and hosted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
September 29-30, 2014
Washington, DC
2014 Impact Summit: Data - Stories - Impact - Translating Indicators into Action
Capacity Building for Collective Action
Alliance for Nonprofit Management
September 17-19
Austin, Texas
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Join Us!
If you are a motivated, conscientious professional
To learn more about each position, or apply now, visit
the Community Science CAREERS page.
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About Community Science
Community Science is an award winning research and development organization that works with governments, foundations, and non-profit organizations on solutions to social problems through community and other systems changes.
To learn more, visit our PROJECTS page.
To discuss how Community Science can collaborate with your organization, contact us at 301-519-0722 or info@communityscience.com |
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