Gsu service/Education Center Review Survey

Name of Center: The Neighborhood Collaborative (TNC)

TNC was created in July, 1999 and was assigned to report to the Office of the Provost. A council of Deans of the GSU colleges was established to provide oversight for TNC. Dean Susan Kelley chairs this council. This designation has not changed. An advisory committee of faculty with interests in community service and service learning has met a number of times to provide guidance and to share information.

The reporting and evaluation of TNC director is managed by David Sjoquist, Ph.D., Director of Domestic Programs for the AYSPS.

There are two Advisory Boards that work with TNC. One is composed of representatives from each of the GSU colleges supplemented by a number of other GSU personnel that have responsibility and/or interest in service to the community, including service learning, student work study and volunteers.

TNC is interdisciplinary. Projects seek to bring a variety of university resources together to address service needs in the community. The intent of the GSUNC was to identify faculty and graduate student interests across the various Colleges and link them with community needs, interests and knowledgeable and committed residents for research and service projects that would benefit both the university and community. Many of the community projects would require interdisciplinary resources to adequately assess and research interventions. Most proposals and projects draw upon personnel from two or more colleges. One proposal that was not funded included personnel from all the colleges except Law.

No Georgia State University funds were used in the start up for the TNC. The Carter Center of Emory University was the original home of The Atlanta Project (TAP) and operated that program for approximately eight years. They raised approximately $30,000,000 and considerable in kind resources. On August 1, 1999, the Carter Center transferred approximately $1,000,000 in cash along with the furniture, equipment, supplies and records of TAP to GSU. At that time, four off campus locations housed the activity of TAP. GSU determined that seven positions would be established and funded by the money from the Carter Center. Recruitment for these positions was limited to the personnel employed by the Carter Center for TAP at the time of the transfer.

TAP has a thirty station computer lab with internet access. In addition to Microsoft Office software for training, the lab has a software package that supports the planning process by 1) allowing all participants to enter information at the same time, 2) providing several software tools for processing, structuring and prioritizing the information and 3) providing an electronic file that can be used to develop reports from the process.
TAP had contracted for data and policy analysis plus geographical information services from a professor at Georgia Tech. Considerable data from a variety of sources had been collected and maintained by TAP through this unit. The data and contract were transferred to GSU along with TAP. The resources described in this paragraph were used to initiate TNC at GSU and TAP became one of the activities within TNC.

Subsequently, one of the locations and one of the personnel were transferred to Clayton State University. The amount of cash sent to Clayton State was $68,000.

The TNC mission is to increase the capacity of communities and neighborhoods to improve the quality of life through collaboration, multi-constituent integration, partnerships and cooperation. The goals are:

The work of community capacity building begins with the development of trusting relationships within the neighborhoods and organizations that are seeking to improve themselves.

• 
  Establishment of new community based non-profit organizations
  
• 
  New and/or increased resources for community based agencies and groups
  
• 
  New and/or improved neighborhood improvement plans and projects
  
• 
  Residents with data and information necessary for planning and for requesting services from government
  
• 
  Residents with new and enhanced skills resulting from training, coaching and practice
  
• 
  Residents with knowledge of how and where to access resources needed to implement desired changes
  
• 
  Increased number of residents with hope and commitment to work for positive community change
  

GSU has an aggressive master plan to revitalize the neighborhood in which it resides that includes new and renovated facilities as well as a pedestrian friendly campus interwoven with the downtown commercial and residential neighborhood. In addition, GSU recognizes the advantages that community outreach offers for teaching and research, where communities can provide material, ideas, and opportunities for conducting research and for classroom learning activities. GSU has as a part of its mission a responsibility to use its resources and expertise to address social problems. The University has charged the TNC with developing an agenda to increase research, teaching, and service in partnership with the community. Such interaction will be mutually beneficial to the university and neighborhoods.

• 
  Students from all colleges engaged in a wide array of service learning opportunities and settings
  
• 
  Community residents and organizations forming partnerships with faculty and students to conduct research and provide technical assistance in a wide range of areas where knowledge can be increased
  
• 
  Faculty engagement in groundbreaking research that addresses the systemic problems that create cycles of community underdevelopment
  
• 
  Faculty and student involvement in evaluation areas related to social and community change where current knowledge is limited
  
• 
  Faculty and student implementation of demonstration projects to test findings from research
  
• 
  Faculty, students and staff engage with community residents in a range of community oriented volunteer service projects
  

Limited resources and services characterize urban neighborhoods. Business and government respond to the money and personal pressure from more affluent communities in providing customer friendly services. Urban families with limited income face multiple barriers in accessing services. These barriers include:

• 
  Geography – transportation is usually required as many services are not located in the urban neighborhoods and others are of lesser quality
  

• 
  Financial – families with lower income frequently can not purchase the type or quality of service they need or desire
  
• 
  Cultural – language and/or cultural barriers frequently keep urban residents from accessing needed services
  
• 
  Psychological - many needed services are not understood or have stigma attached to them in the urban communities
  

In order that urban residents gain access to needed services, TNC facilitates collaboration and partnerships among service providers and customers to reduce and/or eliminate barriers. Focus groups, community education and peer-to-peer communication are utilized to engage the residents. The convening power of TNC brings the service providers and government officials to the collaborative table to discuss, plan and propose alternative ways of delivering service. Education to increase public awareness leads to more enlightened and productive mutual planning. Providing accurate and useful data and information to both the provider and customer communities improves the effectiveness of changes in service delivery.

• 
  New service delivery sites in urban settings, i.e. health clinics in elementary schools; one stop government service sites; child care in local church or other neighborhood facilities, etc.
  
• 
  Increased numbers of children enrolled in government health insurance
  
• 
  Job training programs that lead to successful entry into jobs that have promotion potential and employee benefits
  
• 
  Community religious and school facilities open for use by service providers and community groups as sites for needed services, i.e. adult literacy programs; recreation; computer training and access; local theatre and other arts, etc.
  
• 
  Simplified policies and procedures for accessing government services
  
• 
  New and/or business locations in the urban neighborhoods, i.e. super markets; banks; department stores, etc.
  

As illustrated in these statements, the purpose of the TNC is to support and be engaged in the Atlanta community. It is the only office on campus that has as its mission engagement in local neighborhoods and with residents from disadvantaged neighborhoods. The opportunities for fulfilling this mission are limited by the lack of university funding so that energies of the director are consumed in seeking new grants and in expanding the activities of TNC. Without funding of the director, the TNC is unable to tell the world about the GSU engagement. There are no resources for newsletters, time to write stories or even disseminate internal reports of activities. TNC remains unable neither to effectively promote the neighborhood activity within the University nor to promote the University within the community.

The major resources from GSU that have facilitated achieving the TNC goals and objectives have been faculty and students. Faculty have joined in partnership to bring their expertise to bear on projects that have been funded. Students have learned and contributed community service in incredible ways. The University has made some financial contribution during each of the last three years.

The limited financial resources have caused TNC to seek most of its funding from grants and contracts. This has limited the time the director of TNC has available for engaging the interests of faculty and graduate students for research and learning in the community settings. The lack of a centralized repository of faculty research, teaching and service in relationship to the community makes it difficult to locate faculty with interest and expertise as funding opportunities come available.

The goals related to students have been achieved and exceeded. One student volunteer developed a project proposal that was funded. The student managed the project and implemented an unusually successful summer program for youth. The goal for involving faculty has had some success. The most difficult issue has been securing adequate funding. This is compounded when the director of TNC must conduct and manage funded projects while also seeking to engage the faculty and write the proposals.

TNC currently has six projects being conducted.

a. Retired and Senior Volunteer Program is operated in five counties, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett. Senior volunteers (age 55 and over) are recruited and deployed to work in public and non profit community service.

b. The Senior Corps Foster Grandparent program recruits, trains, deploys and supports senior volunteers (age 60 and over with low income) to work with disadvantaged children in agencies that serve these children (pre-school and public schools).

c. The Senior Companion program recruits, trains, deploys and supports senior volunteers (age 60 and over with low income) to assist elderly and disabled persons to live in their own homes.

d. TNC provides evaluation and Geographical Information Services to the Atlanta Community Access Coalition. Grady Health Services, Fulton County Health Department and other primary health care providers have formed this partnership to increase access to health care for the uninsured and under insured.

e. TNC provides evaluation for the City of Atlanta Weed and Seed program. This project is a coalition of law enforcement agencies joined by neighborhood residents and providers of human services that work to conduct joint intervention that addresses drug related crime and develops prevention programs that keep children and youth away form drug abuse.

f. TNC markets use of its computer lab and computer assisted group planning and facilitation for fees.

Five impediments have been most difficult to overcome.

The primary consideration when reviewing impediments is that TNC has the desire to reverse the direction from seeking grants to fund TNC to one that develops projects in concert with faculty and graduate students and then seek the funding for that work. This was the original approach, but has largely been overshadowed by the need to get funding for continuation of TNC. The return to the developmental approach with faculty and graduate students would require a source of funding for TNC director (other than conducting funded projects) that would allow for spending the time to develop the joint proposals. The advantage of this approach is that GSU can develop projects on issues that it has identified and has interest in, can design the project to generate greater publication possibilities, and can spend more time engaging faculty in projects.
The next critical concern is that it is difficult to carry out the mission of TNC being dependent upon grant funding. It is difficult to be both the “rain maker” and also manage and conduct the projects that are funded. The limited funding from indirect costs on grants does not provide sufficient funding for a director and thus the director must be heavily involved in conducting the project.

The third has to do with identifying faculty to join as partners in proposals. Frequently the funding opportunities have short time frames for developing the application and faculty have already committed their time and resources so that changing their commitments is not possible. In some cases, faculty have interests that do not coincide with the community based research and service opportunities that the Neighborhood Collaborative seeks to develop.

The percentage would be less than 5% in any fiscal year.

FY04 $ 35,000

FY03 $ 72,000

FY02 $ 69,000

FY01 $ 36,000

• 
  Steering committee member for Youth Summit developed by the Clayton Collaborative Authority.
  
• 
  Presented “The Retired Senior Volunteer Program in Clayton County” at the Human Services Orientation in Jonesboro, Georgia, August 2002.
  

• 
  Served on the planning and steering committee for the “Grandparents Raising Grandchildren” demonstration project sponsored by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of Children and Families and Administration on Aging. Three community forums were held throughout Metro Atlanta.
  
• 
  United Way Community Basics Board member
  
• 
  Member of DeKalb County Department of Health MAPP project
  
• 
  Member of DeKalb County Board of Health Medical Corps
  
• 
  Presented workshop on Grief Management at Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, October, 2003.
  

• 
  Points of Light Foundation Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, June, 2003.
  
• 
  Provided training on Outcome Measurement for Georgia Senior Corps Directors, Macon, GA.
  
• 
  Workshop facilitator at the Weed and Seed Planning Retreat in Atlanta, December 2003
  

Ruth Davidson

• 
  Board of Directors to ELM of Cobb County.
  

• 
  Hosted and presented on Community Capacity Building and The Atlanta Project to Professor James Waller and his touring class from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, January, 2003.
  
• 
  Presentation on Atlanta Empowerment Zone at the DuBois Institute at Clark Atlanta University, April, 2003.
  
• 
  Presentation on Community Capacity Building at Federal Home Loan Bank, April, 2003.
  
• 
  Hosted and presented on Community Capacity Building and The Atlanta Project to Community representatives from Devonshire, England, June, 2003.
  
• 
  Presentation on Evaluation of Community Services at Corporation for National Service Conference in Washington, D.C., June, 2003.
  
• 
  Presentation on access to Health Care to National Association of State Legislators, Atlanta, August, 2003.
  
• 
  Facilitated workshop on access to health care at Community Association of Health Care Conference, in Nashville, Tennessee, October, 2003.
  
• 
  Presentation on community based model for Protecting Children from Abuse and Neglect, Georgia Conference on Volunteerism in Macon, Georgia, September, 2003.
  
• 
  Hosted and presented on Community Capacity Building and The Atlanta Project to Government officials from Poland, October, 2003.
  
• 
  Organized, facilitated and presented at the annual Weed and Seed Planning Retreat in Atlanta, December 2003.
  
• 
  Presentation to the Fulton County Government Senior Citizen Program, May 2004.
  
• 
  Presented on Community Capacity Building, Public Housing changes and The Atlanta Project to public officials and representatives from several communities in Ireland, June, 2004.
  
• 
  Committee member for Ph.D. candidate in the College of Education at GSU
  
• 
  Organized and facilitated the “Education in Atlanta Issue” at the Metro Group Annual Issues Forum in Atlanta, November 2002.
  
• 
  Presentation on Community and Neighborhood Development to Atlanta Skyline Civitan, June 2002.
  
• 
  Presentation and Workshop on Collaboration and Partnerships to Atlanta Federal Executive Board Conference at Calloway Gardens, Georgia, November 2002.
  
• 
  Served as Principal for A Day at Miles Elementary School of Atlanta Public Schools in the program sponsored by the Metro Chamber of Commerce.
  
• 
  Served as Honorary Co-chair of the BEST campaign to educate the community and advocate the passage of the Special Local Option Sales Tax in Fulton and DeKalb counties to fund school facility construction and renovation.
  
• 
  Worked with EDUPAC to review credentials and certify the qualified candidates for election to the Atlanta Public School Board
  
• 
  Served on the Coalition for Atlanta Public Schools that included the Metro Chamber of Commerce, Metro Group, 100 Black Men of Atlanta, and Concerned Black Clergy.
  
• 
  Member of the Homeless Census Advisory Council for Tri-jurisdiction.
  

• 
  Community Housing Resource Center.
  
• 
  Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.
  
• 
  Georgia Security Link/Metropolitan Atlanta Crime Commission.
  
• 
  Operation PEACE.
  
• 
  United Way Fulton Advisory Board.
  
• 
  Kids Voting Atlanta.
  
• 
  Atlanta Fulton Coalition for Health and Wellness.
  
• 
  Atlanta Community Access Coalition.
  
• 
  Advisory Board for the Institute for the Study of Disadvantage and Disability: The Impact of the Broader Environment of Economic and Social Disadvantage on Child Health and Development
  
• 
  Advisory Board for Kilpatrick Stockton project to study Technical Education and High School Dropouts.
  

• 
  Served as Principal for A Day at the Alternative High School for Atlanta Public Schools in the program sponsored by the Metro Chamber of Commerce.
  
• 
  Served on The Core Team to establish the Atlanta Fulton Family Connection.
  
• 
  Chaired the Education Task Force for the Metro Group.
  
• 
  Worked with EDUPAC to review credentials and certify the qualified candidates for Special election to the Atlanta Public School Board.
  
• 
  Served on the Coalition for Atlanta Public Schools that included the Metro Chamber of Commerce, Metro Group, 100 Black Men of Atlanta, and Concerned Black Clergy.
  
• 
  Member of the Homeless Census Advisory Council for Tri-jurisdiction of Atlanta, DeKalb and Fulton.
  
• 
  Planning committee for the Hosea Williams Award at GSU.
  
• 
  Steering Committee for Community Knowledge Project to provide easy public access through the Internet to existing data and information from government and non-profit sources.
  
• 
  Served as Principal for A Day at the Peterson Elementary School for Atlanta Public Schools in the program sponsored by the Metro Chamber of Commerce.
  
• 
  Served as Guest Teacher for Third Grade class at West Manor Elementary School for Teach For America Program.
  
• 
  Advisory Committee for United Way and Ad Council of America project to build community consensus and synergy for positive community change.
  

• 
  Member, Coalition of Advocates for Georgia Elderly (CoAge)
  
• 
  Member, Senior Adult Victims Advocate (SAVA)
  

• 
  Served on the planning and steering committee for the “Grandparents Raising Grandchildren” demonstration project sponsored by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of Children and Families and Administration on Aging. Three community forums were held throughout Metro Atlanta.
  
• 
  Member of “Bridge Builders” planning for seniors in DeKalb County community planning team.