Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

The STEM Scouts program was evaluated with the aim of increasing STEM-related educational opportunities for students in Gary Community Schools.

This mentoring/tutoring initiative serves students in 6-12th grades throughout Lake county. Students can receive online tutoring and meet with mentors for college readiness workshops.

Our shared purpose as a team is to take responsibility for effectively incorporating quality improvement across the schools and programs of the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) and to take on projects that address quality of care and social determinants of health across Northwest Indiana (NI) by organizing CHHS faculty, students, and NI communities while having fun, doing scholarly work together, and pushing forward to empower our students to drive change in their practice and personal lives by Fall 2020. This initiative will provide opportunities for:

• Co-curricular and extra-curricular inter-professional student activities
• Accomplishing scholarly activities between students and faculty
• Working together on activities related to quality improvement in healthcare
• Conducting local improvement projects within IUN's immediate communities
• Implementing curriculum enhancement at CHHS

This is a partnership between the Academic Success and Achievement Office/21st Century Scholars Program and the Gary Housing Authority.  The goal is for staff and students to interact with senior citizens through activities intended to encourage interactions and strengthen campus/community relationships.

The activity focuses on an educational program offered inside the Lake County Community Correctional Facility. Students in the program are a blended mix of incarcerated individuals and students enrolled in classes at Indiana University Northwest. The activity is of mutual benefit to both Lake County Community Corrections and Indiana University Northwest. Students, incarcerated women, and the instructor all grow intellectually, personally, and professionally because of the activity. 

The mission of the Calumet Regional Archives, part of the Indiana University Libraries, shall be to collect, preserve, and make available records from organizations and individuals to document the history of Indiana's Calumet Region (Lake and Porter Counties) for use by students, scholars, and the general public.

The Small Business Academy @ IUN is the result of a collaborative effort between the IUN School of Business and Economics, the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center and Innovate Gary, LLC. The program provides a comprehensive approach to foster the growth and development of entrepreneurship in Gary and the surrounding community. In addition, researchers and program facilitators have begun to work closely with program participants to identify barriers, as well as actively assist them in tackling their challenges.

The goals of this project are to:

1. Identify drug-related issues facing local organizations
2. Create artifacts (e.g., informational sheets, pamphlets, infographics, etc.) designed to help educate consumers/patrons of the organization on the drug-related issue

The IUN Urban Forestry Project is working to develop a campus forest structure that enhances the social and environmental health of the campus community, the local community of Gary, and the natural environment and ecosystems of Northwest Indiana. IUN is Tree Campus USA certified, a designation awarded by the Arbor Day Foundation to honor colleges and universities that establish and sustain healthy community forests. Together we strive to create a campus culture around the benefits of trees; one that integrates opportunities for education, research and service.

The Getting up Close and Personal With You project will support youngsters from Gary, Indiana and the Northwest region with high incidences of school suspensions utilizing a peer accountability approach. Youngsters, with the guidance of a facilitator, will have the opportunity to address barriers through re-enactments and reflective activities. Giving the opportunity to have a voice, participants will be challenged to take a closer look at why they deal with personal ordeals the way that they do while at the same time make strides leading to better choices in the long run. 

Annual virtual program for K-12 teachers and the community providing book recommendations of recent releases of children and young adult literature for those interested in advancing children's literacy.