SPOTLIGHT ON:
R&D for Social Change
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David M. Chavis, Ph.D., President/CEO, Community Science
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We usually don't think about research and development (R&D) as an important part of community change. R&D is often assumed to be just something that pharmaceutical and information technology companies do. From our very beginning, we have considered Community Science a research and development organization for social change. The primary purpose of R&D in an organization is to discover and create new knowledge about scientific and technological topics for the purpose of uncovering and enabling development of valuable new products, processes, and services. We have understood the importance of taking an R&D perspective in our work, given the potential critical impact of what we do on the well-being of children, families, and other people.
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Project Spotlight:
JourneyStart©: R&D on Building Cross-cultural Competency in Organizations
Kien S. Lee, Principal Associate and Vice President, Community Science
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Health and healthcare disparities continue to affect underserved populations in the United States. One strategy for reducing these disparities is improving organizations' cross-cultural competency. An organization that is cross-culturally competent means that it has written policies and procedures as well as practices that allow its staff to work effectively with people from underserved populations and from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.
Cross-cultural competency is "a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors among individuals, as well as policies and practices within an organization that enable effective work in cross-cultural situations."1 It's a way of operating that is sensitive and responsive to people from different backgrounds and ensures that health care is appropriate for them.
1Cross, T., Bazron, B., Dennis, K., & Isaacs, M. (1989). Towards a culturally competent system of care, Volume I. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Child Development Center, CASSP Technical Assistance Center.
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 Staff Profile: Jessika Bottiani
Jessika H. Bottiani, PhD, MPH, Associate at Community Science, has core content knowledge in the areas of culturally responsive mental health promotion and social environments in under-resourced communities. She has expertise in school, community, and health system-based approaches to reduce disparities in health and mental health outcomes and support more equitable, integrative, and culturally sustaining organizational practices. In schools, Jessika has particular fluency in youth violence prevention, supportive school discipline, and school-community partnership approaches to reduce school's disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline among Black/African American youth. Jessika's personal history includes swimming competitively in high school, serving as the editor of her high school literary magazine and winning awards for poetry in high school and college. She has spent time living in Russia and Taiwan.
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Local Voices Report Released
This month, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released a report written by Scott Hebert, Principal Consultant to Community Science, entitled Local Voices: On-the-Ground Perspectives on Driving Community Change in the Making Connections Sites. Making Connections was Casey's decade-long community change initiative that focused on building pathways to economic opportunity, connections to social networks, and access to services. The Local Voices report summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the initiative's effectiveness in enhancing these communities' ability to pursue their local change agenda on an on-going basis. You can download the report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's web site.
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Conferences of note:
Transforming Health Systems to Optimize Individual and Population Health
Cohosted by AcademyHealth and the National Institutes of Health
December 8-9, 2014
Bethesda, MD
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Shift Innovation: Community Development Conference
Hosted by Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
September 22-23, 2014
Kansas City, MO
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Hosted by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management
September 17-19, 2014
Austin, TX
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2014 Impact Summit
Data - Stories - Impact - Translating Indicators into Action
Hosted by the Community Indicators Consortium
September 29-30, 2014
Washington, DC
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Join Us!
If you are a motivated, conscientious professional
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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