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from the issue of February 9, 2006
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Second grant keeps outreach center rolling
BY SARAH BAKER, FOR THE SCARLET
Getting along with the neighbors can either be a delight or a chore.
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| | | OUTREACH - Representatives of UNLCOPC stand outside Whittier Junior High School, home to the outreach office. Pictured, from left, are Michelle Waite (UNLCOPC advisory board co-chair), Peggy Struwe (Hawley Neighborhood Association president), Rodrigo Cantarero (UNLCOPC project manager), Wayne Drummond (UNLCOPC advisory board co-chair), Tim Francis (Hawley Neighborhood Association member), Jan Harris (staff assistant), and Miguel Carranza (UNLCOPC project manager and principal investigator to the "New Directions" grant). Not pictured is Dan Wheeler, UNLCOPC project manager. Photo by Troy Fedderson/University Communications.
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Thanks to the work of UNL's Community Outreach Partnership Center, relations between the university and its surrounding neighborhoods are much more harmonious than tumultuous.
Since 2001, the center - funded by an initial three-year, $400,000 grant from Housing and Urban Development - has created, worked on and successfully completed a number of projects centered on community health, Latino youth outreach and neighborhood leadership development
The center (UNLCOPC) recently received a second HUD grant, a two-year award totaling nearly $200,000, opening the door for another group of projects to further reach into the local community.
The program is at a crossroads - completed projects have been successes - and now it needs to move forward, said Miguel Carranza, principal for the grant and a professor of sociology and ethnic studies.
"We're one of only seven programs like this in the country, so we're fortunate to have this opportunity," he said. "We need to take what we learned through the initial projects and find creative ways to extend the programs in new ways and lead into different areas we want to explore."
The first project the group tackled as part of the initial grant was to get the center up and running. Located in the old Whittier Junior High School at 22nd and Vine streets, the center is a core tool used to reach into the neighborhoods, Carranza said.
Wayne Drummond, dean of the College of Architecture and UNLCOPC advisor board co-chair, said not only is the center an outreach tool, it's a redevelopment opportunity.
"This center was the first tangible step in a major reinvestment in this area of Lincoln," Drummond said. "This resource amplifies the value of a grant like this, and you can literally watch people work toward improving the quality of their lives in the neighborhoods."
Once the center got off the ground, the other facets began to take shape.
Two projects are complete. The Heart of Lincoln project encouraged home ownership in university neighborhoods and helped a number of residents revitalize their front porches. The Neighborhood GIS project developed a database of practical information, such as census data, and made it accessible to the community. The Lincoln Indian Center, Hispanic Community Center, Malone Center and Asian Community and Cultural Center have all made use of the information to write project grants.
The Latino Achievement Mentoring Program, housed in the center, is one of the most visible and is a long-term, ongoing commitment. Students from UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan and Union College serve as mentors to Latino students, ages 12 to 18, enrolled in Lincoln Public Schools.
"The whole idea was to set up the mentoring relationship and work on academic, personal and social success," Carranza said.
Currently the program has about 45 mentor-protégé pairs, and Carranza said he expects that number to grow as the project continues.
Another continuing project is the Neighbors Working Together program. UNLCOPC did a study to find some of the needs and challenges facing neighborhoods around the university and, once problems were identified, recognized emerging community leaders and started a dialogue on how to resolve the issues.
"We started to identify the people that neighborhoods really depend on - the neighbor who takes care of sick children so the parents can go to work, that sort of thing - and to educate them on interpersonal skills," Carranza said. "Those are the people that really create the cohesive community."
The training helps neighborhoods gather together and take proactive action - how to write a petition, for instance, or how to encourage other community- based action.
Another goal was to improve the relationships between these neighborhoods and UNL, Carranza said. Groups like NU Directions, which targets student drinking, have helped in improving relations, he said. Students make up a large part of the neighborhood population around the university, and Carranza said UNLCOPC hopes to find the best balance in helping the neighborhood's permanent residents get along with its temporary ones. This project continues to address issues facing Lincoln residents, one major one being the housing displacements as a result of the Antelope Valley project.
Maintaining UNLCOPC operations, the LAMP mentoring program and the Neighbors Working Together program are the central focus of the second grant, with a few new initiatives intermingled.
The LAMP program plans to broaden its scope to include protégés' parents in the activities. Carranza said the plan is simple - to get parents and other relatives actively involved in the success of their children at school. Activities based on what parents have said the issues are for their children at school, such as drugs, language barriers and health, are the focus of the meetings. The school principal and a school liaison, such as a teacher or counselor, will be there to meet with parents. The handouts are in Spanish.
"We hope that in the next two years, we will see these parents become actively involved in their childrens' education," Carranza said. "In the end, we will be less involved. They will be doing it on their own."
The Neighborhood Service Exchange: Pathways to Health project led by Rodrigo Cantarero is a new initiative that will focus on health care access. Lincoln's immigrant population is often lacking in basic health needs, Carranza said. This project will collect data and look at those basic needs that are not being met, eventually hoping to identify pathways to more appropriate health care opportunities. It will begin by focusing on the Everett and South Salt Creek Neighborhoods, and grow from there.
Carranza said the UNLCOPC program realizes it needs to find a focused path to stability in order to continue to make positive change in the future.
"We need to make an ongoing connection that remains after the money goes away," he said. "Originally, we asked 'How can UNL be a better partner?' and now we have to ask 'Are we creating permanent, positive relationships with the communities in which we live?' The original UNL grant has served as incentive to become more focused, and this one continues that commitment to be better neighbors."
GO TO: ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 9
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