Ten teams of Clinton School students will complete public service projects in partnership with public agencies and nonprofit organizations across Arkansas during the 2011-2012 academic year.
As part of the school’s Master of Public Service degree program, the students will earn academic credit for their work on the projects, which include efforts to improve childhood nutrition, study homelessness, expand sustainable business practices and help former foster children transition to adulthood, among others.
Organizations partnering the Clinton School on the projects include Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Immerse Arkansas, Metroplan, the Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas and others.
The projects are part of the Clinton School Practicum program, the first of three public service projects completed during the two-year master’s program.
Thirty-eight Clinton School students will participate in the projects while also completing in-class courses on communication, decision-making, ethics, leadership and social change during their first year at the school.
The program is designed for students to apply the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to their Practicum public service projects, said Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford.
“Our program is designed to give the students an opportunity to learn both in the classroom and in the field,” Rutherford said. “And these projects provide a wonderful learning experience for our students, while also making a major impact on the organizations and communities with which we work.”
Clinton School faculty members and officials with the partner organizations oversee the projects.
“We are grateful to all of our partners in this year’s Practicum program,” said Marie Lindquist, director of field service education at the Clinton School. “We look forward to seeing the impact our students and partners make throughout the year.”
On the jump: Descriptions of the 2011-12 Clinton School Practicum Projects…
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Capturing Stories to Advocate for Resources
Team: Mitchell Adams (Morrilton, Ark.), Sydney Shearer (Nashville, Tenn.), Rebecca Scissors (Ellicott City, Md.), Yana-Janell Scott (Little Rock, Ark.)
– Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is a nonprofit working to ensure that all children and their families in Arkansas have the resources and opportunities to lead healthy and productive lives and to realize their full potential. This Clinton School team will capture stories and short interviews from across the state to build a library of examples that will help the organization advocate for additional resources for Arkansas children and families.
Arkansas No Kid Hungry Campaign: Assessing Non-Congregate Food Programs
Team: Jordan Aibel (Miami, Fla.), Katie Longino (Lufkin, Texas), Dylan Perry (Memphis, Tenn.), Andrea Price (Monticello, Ark.)
– The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, in partnership with the Office of Governor Mike Beebe and Share Our Strength, is hosting a collective effort with nonprofit, business, state and philanthropic entities to end childhood hunger in Arkansas by 2015. This Clinton School team will conduct an assessment of non-congregate feeding programs in Arkansas that deliver food to people that they prepare and consume offsite. The assessment will include a survey of the types and amounts of food being distributed to children, focus groups with stakeholders, an analysis of backpack programs and a report with recommendations.
Delta Garden Study: Researching School Gardens in Rural Arkansas
Team: Will Hunter (Pine Bluff, Ark.), Stanley Luker (Wynne, Ark.), Veena Rangaswami (Memphis, Tenn.), Christine Sumner (Shreveport, La.)
– The Delta Garden Study is a cooperative project between the USDA Agricultural Research Service and Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute to examine the impact of school gardens on childhood obesity risk factors in middle school youth in the Arkansas Delta. This Clinton School team will conduct interviews and focus groups with students, teachers and administrators at four Delta Garden Study intervention schools to help develop a framework for sustainability for the gardens created during the study. This work will help ensure that the gardens become a permanent part of the infrastructure and environment of the schools after the study is complete.
Homelessness Partnership: Understanding Homelessness in Central Arkansas
Team: Francennett Herrera (Chicago, Ill.), Matt Lyon (Mobile, Ala.), John Vollertsen (Parthenon, Ark.)
– A partnership of organizations working on homelessness in Little Rock including Family Called Us, Rock of Hope, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Central High School, will partner with this Clinton School team to complete a study to better understand homelessness in Central Arkansas. The team will gather data on the homeless population and the services provided to them in the Little Rock area. They will review the gaps in the current system and offer suggestions for future solutions. Finally, the partnership will focus on raising awareness about homelessness in Little Rock through the Street Perspectives project, which will include performance, art, writing and singing as well as a focus on filming the homeless.
Immerse Arkansas: Studying the Transition of Foster Youth to Adulthood
Team: Nuno Almeida (Lisbon, Portugal), Kelly Ford (Little Rock, Ark.), Nathan Jesson (St. Paul, Minn.), Jamal Williams (Detroit, Mich.)
– Immerse Arkansas is a program of Vine and Village, a non-profit organization that helps Arkansas’s older and former foster youth transition to adulthood by surrounding them with a supportive network and connecting them to existing resources. Through focus groups, surveys, studying statewide data and meeting with stakeholders, this Clinton School team will document what is working and what could work more effectively both within the Immerse Arkansas program and across statewide services whose goals are aiding older and former foster youth. This project will focus on obtaining the perspectives of older and former foster youth.
John H. Chafee Foster Care Independent Program: Researching the Delivery of Services to Foster Youth Transitioning to Adulthood
Team: Todun Afolabi (Osun State, Nigeria), Dylan Buffalo (Las Vegas, Nevada), Russell Carey (Jacksonville, Ark.), Leslie Harris (Clarksville, Ark.)
– The Division of Children and Family Services of the Arkansas Department of Human Services administers the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independent Program. This program provides services to current and former foster care youth to support their successful transition to adulthood. This Clinton School team will research best practices for the delivery of the services offered by the Chafee Program, collect information about the current delivery of those services and recommend strategies for improving the program.
Metroplan: Developing the Central Arkansas Green Agenda
Team: Stephen Bailey (Charlotte, N.C.), Burt Hicks (Hot Springs, Ark.), Gina Lopez (New Orleans, La.), Britney Sink (High Point, N.C.)
– Metroplan, an organization that promotes regionalism for the Central Arkansas metropolitan area, recently adopted the Central Arkansas Green Agenda to provide a common vision for how to develop the region in a more sustainable way. This Clinton School team will inventory local governments’ policies, programs and projects related to the Green Agenda and help create a Green Community Certification guidebook and application process to encourage local governments to become more sustainable.
Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas: Assessing the Needs of the Sustainable Business Community
Team: Laura Crosby (Boca Raton, Fla.), Mark Eastham (McLean, Va.), Papy Muntumosi (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo), Kellen Utecht (Underwood, N.D.)
– The Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas is a membership-based organization launched in 2010 to serve the needs of the growing sustainable and green business community in Central Arkansas. This Clinton School team will help the organization gain a better understanding of the sustainable business community through studying the support and services needed by members and non-members, engaging the minority-owned business community and adjusting programming and services in response to what is found through the project work.
UAMS: Improving the Status of Rural Health in Arkansas
Team: Maggie Carroll (Little Rock, Ark.), Jake Coffey (Nashville, Tenn.), Katie Milligan (Searcy, Ark.), Eakpot Nimkulrat (Bangkok, Thailand)
– The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, through its Translational Research Institute and Center for Rural Health, is working to improve the status of rural health in Arkansas. This Clinton School team will investigate health disparities across the state, define limitations of the current healthcare system, identify cost-effective ways of delivering accessible, quality healthcare and provide rural health policy recommendations for decision-makers. The team’s analysis will be included in a published report on the status of rural health in Arkansas, which will be used as an organizational and legislative policy instrument.
The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas: Reporting on the Status of Women in Arkansas
Team: Patricia Flanagan (St. Louis, Mo.), Billie Jean Thomas (Little Rock, Ark.), Jillian Underwood (Topeka, Kan.)
– The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas works to help women and girls in Arkansas achieve their full potential. This Clinton School team will partner with the foundation to update a 1973 report on the status of women in Arkansas by updating old information and gathering new data though engaging focus groups to discuss current issues facing women in the state. The report will inform the foundation’s grant-making, policy and programming decisions and serve as a guide for the state’s lawmakers, service providers, schools and other organizations.