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Short Term 2014 - Vol. 6 , Issue 3
In This Issue
Kicking Off Short Term with a Block Party
Addressing Chronic Absenteeism with Lewiston Public Schools
Incorporating Meaningful Outdoor Acrtivities into Elementary and Preschool Curiculum
"Living Light" with the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute
Researching City Blocks and Property Conditions
Measuring Community Policiing Efforts Through the Lewiston Police Department
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Dear Friends,

 

In mid March, as class registration for Short Term started, I found myself wondering how I wanted to spend my senior Short Term. Community engagement and service work has been a large part of my Bates experience and I wanted to end my time at Bates working with the community I have come to love. I was able to combine my academic research interests and interest in the local community as a member of the Short Term Action Research Team (STA/RT). STA/RT gives students the ability to collaborate and work with local community partners on research projects over five weeks. The STA/RT program is unique because it allows students to produce great work for local community partners outside of the classroom without the pressure of grades. Over the past month I have been able to collaborate with the Lewiston School Superintendent on a research project about chronic absenteeism and was able to present to a room full of school officials and community members. The work I have done will impact the local community and guide the school department, which is an honor and privilege that you cannot get inside of the classroom. This project and Short Term have been one of my best at Bates and STA/RT played a large role in that.  I hope you enjoy this Harward Center newsletter featuring the STA/RT program.

 

Sarika Subramaniam

Class of 2014 

 

Kicking Off Short Term with a Block Party  
Andrea Meyer, STA/RT Fellow, Class of 2014

With the strong support of Harward Center Staff and other STA/RT members, Sarika Subramaniam and I were able to kick off Short Term with the Head Start Block Party on April 30th. We chose our activities in accordance with previous Block Party plans, making a few adjustments based on Head Start's recommendations. We shopped all over Lewiston for our supplies, buying everything from construction paper to live worms. After an intense afternoon of preparation at the Harward Center, we were ready to go.

 

We had seven activities for the day - five for toddlers and two for infants. The toddlers' activities were based off of the themes provided by Head Start: music and literacy; early math; things that grow; shadows and reflections; and a water station. The toddlers then played with and decorated their own rain sticks, searched for different quantities of objects in sandbox bingo, learned about worms through worm farms, looked at the shadows and reflections of several objects, and tested whether their classroom toys would sink, swim, or float in water. The infants had a similar sink, swim, or float activity in addition to playing with a series of homemade sand timers. Overall, we had 12 Bates students, and 38 Head Start students plus their assorted family members present. It was great to get so many parents involved, and we sent them home with booklets about other types of educational play.

 

Working with the STA/RT team to prepare for such an elaborate event under strict time constraints was definitely a feat, but the preparations put in place by previous STA/RT participants combined with the commitment of current STA/RT members made it almost easy. Though the cool, grey weather would have suggested otherwise, we were all able to have a great time getting to know the students at Head Start! I was appreciative for the exposure to age appropriate educational activities, and am grateful to have worked with such an important organization!

 

Addressing Chronic Absenteeism with Lewiston Public Schools
Sarika Subramaniam, STA/RT Fellow, Class of 2014

During Short Term I worked on a research project for Lewiston Public Schools. I helped Bill Webster, the Superintendent of Lewiston Public Schools, develop and implement a plan to address chronic absenteeism across the district. My research identified key practices in programming and successful case studies of schools that have increased their attendance rates and improved the academic performance of students. In addition to this research, I also reached out to local districts in Maine that have developed programs to combat chronic absenteeism. These conversations informed my research greatly.

 

This project was extremely interesting and rewarding, allowing me to learn how education initiatives develop and grow within school districts and how absenteeism affects public schools across the country. As a Bates student, I am excited and also appreciative to collaborate and work with members of the local community on a project that is both relevant and important for students, teachers, and families across the community. The final report and executive summary I presented to a committee of school administrators, school district members, and the superintendent was enthusiastically received!

 

Serving as a STA/RT member was a valuable and important experience for me. I developed important skills that I will take with me after my time at Bates, and my community partner received timely research and compelling recommendations for future consideration and action.

 

Incorporating Meaningful Outdoor Activities into Elementary and Preschool Curriculum
Jed Quint, STA/RT Fellow, Class of 2016

Throughout the five weeks of Short Term, my involvement as a member of the Short Term Action Research Team was both academically valuable and personally fulfilling. I was paired with WinterKids, a non-profit organization focused on providing children in Maine greater access to outdoor activities during the winter. While there are numerous programs implemented by WinterKids, I focused my attention on the WinterKids Challenge. The WinterKids Challenge encourages teachers to incorporate fun, active, meaningful outdoor activities into elementary and preschool curriculum in an attempt to develop healthy lifelong habits. This is the fourth year the WinterKids Challenge has been in existence, and everyone involved has only gotten more and more excited about it as the program has progressed. I was responsible for analyzing, organizing, and presenting the responses to surveys each teacher would complete after every lesson. I found trends in the data, and examined teacher participation across the four years the WinterKids Challenge has been running, as well as analyzed and summarized retention rates, recommendation rates, and levels of adaptation to the lessons. I also examined the relationship between time spent outside and its positive influence on the level of focus in the classroom. This proved exceptionally useful to the WinterKids staff, which is now able to support their assumptions about the benefits of outdoor learning with quantifiable evidence.

 

In my time as a STA/RT member, I have learned an incredible amount. As an Economics major, data analysis has been an integral part of many of the classes I have taken. However working on the WinterKids project allowed me to apply the skills I have acquired in the classroom in a meaningful way outside the realm of academia. Such a program offers great benefit to everyone involved, and being part of such an incredible, innovative program was very fulfilling. Being able to offer my assistance to an organization intent on the betterment of the children of Maine, and being able to work closely with the WinterKids staff, the rest of the STA/RT members, and the exceptional people at the Harward Center has truly been an amazing experience.

 

"Living Light" with the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute
Naima Qambi, STA/RT Fellow, Class of 2015 

Over the past five weeks as members of STA/RT, Sarah Maneval and I worked with the "Living Light Program," implemented by the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute (CMHVI) at the Central Maine Medical Center. "Living Light" is a healthy lifestyle program created by a group of Nurse Practitioners, and the main goals are to provide nutrition and fitness education. By focusing on educating participants about cardiovascular disease and ways in which to live healthily, the program seeks to lower the risks associated with cardiovascular disease. Another aim of the program is to give participants the tools they need to lead a healthy lifestyle.

 

Our role as the Bates student researchers was to help the directors evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Part of our responsibility was in interpreting the data collected from the first cohort of participants in order to gauge the improvements made in their lives. Another aspect of the job was to create an executive summary for the directors to use in guiding their thinking about the program. This included data about baseline/final body mass index and average weight change, among other things. This summary was used in raising funds for the program and in presenting the data at various conferences.

 

Lastly, we had to create a brochure that would be used to advertise the program to a lay audience. One of the most difficult aspects of our research was in communicating with and meeting the needs of the program, but the final weeks were rewarding after the initial conversation. I learned a lot over the five weeks of Short Term, and the experience and skills that I have gained from participating in this program have been invaluable.

 

Researching City Blocks and Property Conditions
Emily Meade, STA/RT Fellow, Class of 2014 

During Short Term I worked with the incredible Naima Qambi to complete research on the physical conditions of downtown Lewiston. We worked with Community Concepts, a downtown non-profit organization, to determine the current condition of blocks and properties. Community Concepts conducted three separate surveys over the last year, using community volunteers, to assess the opinions and feelings individuals had about living downtown; the physical condition of blocks downtown; and the condition of land parcels downtown. Last semester, a Bates class considered the first survey, and Naima and I analyzed the second and third.

 

We found that, on average, the physical condition of blocks downtown is less than ideal. The public infrastructure in place, including the street surfaces and lighting, is not well-maintained and the buildings are also poorly maintained. On the positive side, the volume of trash in the city is low, indicating that a few bad properties and streets impact the image that the city has as a whole. One of the more interesting data points to look at was the condition of buildings within Lewiston. Although single-family homes are maintained better than others, multi-family buildings are relatively poorly maintained. Additionally, although a large number of properties within Lewiston are vacant, a high number of those properties are buildings, not empty lots. These buildings are not well maintained and are not sufficiently secured.

 

Naima and I were lucky to work with Shanna Cox at Community Concepts, as well as Jim from the GIS mapping office for the City of Lewiston. These two community partners were great! Ideally, within the next few months the data Naima and I analyzed will be mapped and available for the public to view. By mapping our data, viewers will be able to see which physical trends are city-wide and which are block- or parcel-specific. Knowing that our research will be used for real-world problem solving is so gratifying!

 

Measuring Community Policing Efforts Through the Lewiston Police Department
Sarah Maneval, STA/RT Fellow, Class of 2014

When I was first informed that I would be working with the Lewiston Police Department as a STA/RT Fellow, I was beyond excited. I had studied crime prevention and community policing in a sociology seminar this past semester and was eager to see local initiatives in practice. At our first meeting, Jed Quint and I met with Joseph Philippon, a police officer and a community resource officer at the Lewiston Police Department. We were given a tour and met with Michael Bussiere, the Lewiston Police Chief, Sergeant Robert Ullrich and several officers. Through this introduction and several other community meetings, Jed and I began to learn about the unique community policing measures taking place in Lewiston.

 

Two community policing initiatives that are being implemented in Lewiston are Project Hot Spots and Community Partnerships for Protecting Children (CPPC). Project Hot Spots began in 2012 in Lewiston in response to several shootings that occurred in the downtown area. The program works to increase the police presence downtown and has been so successful at reducing crime that the police have received grant funding to continue this community policing program to 2015. The Community Partnerships for Protecting Children (CPPC) is a partnership between local agencies, businesses, schools, parents and police to support children and families in the area. Jed and I sat in on a CPPC meeting and saw how the community can benefit from such partners working together to provide resources to families. During Short Term, Jed and I looked at different measures of success for community policing initiatives. We realized the difficulties of capturing intangible successes through quantitative data.

 

For the final report, Jed and I researched how other groups, such as the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, were able to measure the success of CPPC programs. In addition to gaining valuable insights into community policing, it was wonderful to help create long-term relationships between Bates College and the Lewiston Police Department. It is incredibly rewarding to see passionate individuals changing our community for better, even if it is difficult to measure such great work.

 

Support our Bonner Leader Program!
Bates is actively seeking funds to support its Bonner Leader Program.  If you have questions, or would like to support the Bonner Leader Program, please contact Ellen Alcorn at the Harward Center at 207-786-8235.

For more information about the Bonner Leader Program at Bates, please check out these videos (note that you will be redirected to the Bates College channel on Vimeo):

Video: The Bonner Leader Program - a passion for community service and civic engagement at Bates

Questions?
Please contact Kristen Cloutier or visit us online.