Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

Duquesne students in Communication work with the Homeless Children's Education Fund each semester to put on an art installation to raise awareness about the 4128 Allegheny County students who were identified as homeless during the 2017/2018 academic year.

In collaboration with the Center that CARES, an afterschool program in the Hill District, Duquesne University's Psychology Clinic provides culturally-informed, art-based workshops to 4th and 5th grade students to enhance wellness based afterschool programming.  Drawing on African and African-American art traditions, CHAAT facilitates positive relationships and self-expression.

The Duquesne University Honors College is a diverse collection of students and faculty from each of Duquesne’s nine undergraduate divisions, dedicated to achieving exceptional standards of personal and academic excellence. Its size (approx. 600 students) and multidisciplinary nature make it the perfect fit for Duquesne’s first “Signature Partnership” – a long-term, single commitment to the August Wilson House (a project of the Daisy Wilson Artist Community).

In 2011, the partnership began in an inspired meeting between Paul Ellis, Executive Director of AWH, and Kathleen Glenister Roberts, Professor and Director of the Honors College. We framed the enterprise around opportunities for young people in the Hill District and in the Honors College to break out of typical expectations. Drawing on Duquesne’s Spiritan Catholic identity, Honors College students dive into the poetry and drama of August Wilson, think deeply about how they can contribute to the transformation of his childhood home, and are humbled in a spirit of reciprocity with their neighbors on the Hill.

Launched in 2018 with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the Inaugural Fellow, the Duquesne University/August Wilson House (DU/AWH) Fellowship provides opportunities for artists of color in varied media to engage in cultural and artistic expression.  The Fellowship  advances the Fellow’s work and serves the joint interests of Duquesne  University, August Wilson House, and the community. The Fellowship is designed to bring national and regional artists and scholars into a collaboration between the famed playwright's Hill District neighborhood and educational and artistic institutions.

Supported by a grant from the Nancy Jones Beard Foundation, DU/AWH Fellows serve as artists/scholars-in-residence.  Fellows live on Duquesne’s campus while developing their own creative work and participating in educational events with the University, the August Wilson House, and the community.

Together with community partners from the Hilltop South neighborhoods we have developed and piloted a training in trauma and resiliencer care for staff of afterschool programs who work with children in communities that have expereinced poverty and public violence.  In collaboration with Steel Smiling, a neighborhood organization that focuses on mental health issues in predominantly African American communities, the program is being expanded to include adult trauma as well and to work with different contexts, such as the public defender's office and potentially prison environments.

This project is an advocacy project on behalf of juveniles who have been incarcerated with life sentences with or without parole.  My community engagment/qualitative research lab, PlaceLab, has developed a documentary film which interweaves the qualitative data about the context of gang violence in Pittsburgh and its effects on communities and children, with the personal story of a juvenile lifer incarcerated without parole, and with the psychological research  on adolescent brain and social development.  The film is an example of a mediation video produced for a particular court hearing, but is in the process of being expanded to a full length documentary about adolescent's expereince of community violence and its fall-out and the movement to community restorative justice.

Duquesne University students met with three community exemplars to learn about creativity and careers in the arts.  Convened in conjunction with Duquesne University Signature Partnership (Honors College), the Center for Career Development, August Wilson House, Eleven Stanley Productions, and Knotzland Bowties.

Fall 2019 August Wilson House Fellow, Njaimeh Njie, offered a public lecture based on her photography project in Uptown.  She also received official recognition in an awards ceremony as the latest Duquesne University / August Wilson House Fellow. 

Fall 2019 Duquesne University / August Wilson House Fellow, Njaimeh Njie, met with undergraduate and graduate students from three different English classes at Duquesne to discuss documentary poetics, women's and gender studies, and having an impact on social justice issues as scholars.

The scholars volunteer for numerous community organizations that are fighting for food, education, homelessness justices. Scholars are commited to supoorting each organization in unique ways. Although the responsibilites differ, all scholars' work with their organizations for a full academic year while learning about community engagement in a weekly seminar. The community engaged scholar's curriculum includes lectureres and speakers from the community. These indivudals provide narratives to explain the issues and adversities within Pittsburgh communities. 

The Office of Commuter Affairs compiled information from various campus offices & community partners in order to design publications for our off-campus students.  The guides contain a wealth of useful information for students who live in the South Side and other areas of throughout the City of Pittsburgh. A hard copy of the guides and the City of Pittsburgh Environmental Services Newsletter are sent to each address where students reside. A PDF version is emailed to all students residing in South Side, Uptown, Oakland and Mt. Washington.

Members of the Commuter Council and some of our freshmen commuter students volunteered at the Uptown Partners' Community Summit in November, 2019.

Commuter Council and other commuter students joined Uptown Partners to do a clean-up in the Uptown area. We have many commuter students who reside in Uptown.

The Director of Student Conduct meets with students who have been reported to possibly have engaged in prohibited behaviors off campus.

Students are held accountable for behavior that occurs both on and off campus.  Our goal is to promote safety as well as to uphold community standards and promote good citizenship.

Duquesne University School of Law's Civil Rights Clinic hosted an expungement clinic at A Second Chance, Inc. to allow grandparents and other relatives caring for grandchildren to overcome the hurdle of a criminal record that might prevent them from acting as foster caregivers.  This increases the ability of children in foster care to remain with family when their biological parents are unable or unwilling to care for them.

Members of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority volunteered to support the Parkinson's Foundation of Western Pennsylvania Walk/5K.

Members of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority made Valentine's cards that were delivered to children at UPMC Children's Hospital as a holiday project.

BYOL: Be Your Own Leader

The Auberle 412 Youth Zone bears the mission statement of helping to build strong individuals, families, and communities. The vision of the organization includes providing positive outcomes for every individual who is served. The goal of the 412 Youth Zone is to help youth become self-sufficient adults (Who We Are, n.d.). The proposed program has adapted mission and vision statements, as well as goals and objectives, to align with the ideals of the Auberle organization. The mission of BYOL is to create self-advocating and autonomous leaders within the Pittsburgh community with the appropriate skills for obtaining, maintaining, and sustaining employment. The vision of BYOL is to offer a safe space for youth to build self-advocacy and leadership skills to promote employment readiness. The goals of BYOL are to prepare youth for educational and vocational opportunities; increase self-advocacy; increase self-reported feelings of competency in employment roles and responsibilities; promote leadership and community engagement; and increase independence and self-sufficiency. Overall, the purpose of BYOL is to provide each youth with the requisite soft skills for gaining and maintaining employment.

In this program, initial occupational therapy (OT) services aimed to increase the girls’ at Gwen's Girls emotional intelligence, self-concept, and self-advocacy skills in order to better control the classroom environment. This was achieved through establishing a behavioral management system in which the girls would be positively reinforced for exhibiting appropriate behaviors within a token economy system. Without sustaining this behavioral management system, staff will continue to experience burnout and ultimately leave Gwen’s Girls, decreasing the quality of support and relationships the girls are receiving in the after-school program.

Action Plan: In order to address this need, the proposed program, Professional M.A.G.I.C., will initiate change at multiple levels within the organization: leadership, the individual after-school site staff, and the girls served. The behavioral management system from previous OT programming will be continued in each classroom with the girls. In addition, the individual site staff will have opportunities to attend weekly sessions with an OT. Sessions will focus on facilitating open communication, practicing stress management and coping strategies, and educating the staff on creating an innovative curriculum as well as refining classroom management skills for behavioral outbursts. Monthly meetings involving all Gwen’s Girls staff will also be held, with the intention of fostering an open, supportive work environment and establishing consistency across the entire Gwen's Girls community. Overall, the program will aspire to build team values, educate staff on behavioral management, and prevent burnout by utilizing stress-reduction techniques. By strengthening the interpersonal support and communication among staff, we hope to build cohesion among the organization that will be more effective in managing negative behaviors.

As one matures through life, they desire independence, autonomy and right of choice. For the individuals of ACHIEVA, this concept is different, nonetheless. It is commonplace for individuals with IDD to be limited in their amount of independence in their daily life. The combination of day habilitation, residential staff, family caregivers and other supports that an individual with IDD encounters throughout the day warrant little choice for autonomy and right of choice. It is true that these individuals possess complex and unique needs and require daily support; however, statistics show that independence is valued and longed for in adults with IDD (Sandjojo, 2019, p. 37). Support staff and caregivers commonly view these individuals as being incapable of making their own choices and living more independently (such as living alone); therefore, the begin to instill learned helplessness within them. In viewing the bigger picture, Sandjojo (2019) states that “a greater level of independence has been related to increased feelings of happiness and satisfaction and higher quality of life” (p. 37) in individuals with IDD. Looking at our specific population at ACHIEVA, the potential for Program CALI (Clients at ACHIEVA Living Independently) will headstart a pilot study with a group of 15 individuals that work with ACHIEVA staff during the day and transfer to ACHIEVA staff for residential care. This decision was made to ease the communication barrier between day and night staff as this is essential to the program. Program CALI aims to meet the needs of its clients on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. This program looks to train the client’s staff on ways that they can increase the independence of the clients in their daily interactions so that their needs are being met on a daily basis. This program will also meet two times a week, as a group, for an hour at a time to work on increasing client independence in home management/living, medication management, community mobility, self-care skills, self advocacy/right of choice and employment. Monthly, the clients of Program CALI will check in with the OT on staff regarding how they view their overall satisfaction and quality of life in relation to the services this program is providing them. It is envisioned by Program CALI that this population to be served has growth potential as many individuals possess the skills required to live more independently when given the choice to exercise these rights.

An occupational therapist can be a valuable team member in carrying out SAFELY Pittsburgh at DOCS. Occupational therapists are trained in psychosocial care, which can be applicable to the residents of the facility. They focus on person-centered practice by demonstrating therapeutic use-of-self. The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework explains that the practice of therapeutic use-of-self “allows occupational therapy practitioners to develop and manage their therapeutic relationship with clients by using narrative and clinical reasoning; empathy; and a client-centered, collaborative approach to service delivery” (AOTA, 2014, p. S12). Occupational therapists working in this program will develop rapport with the clients and work with them to create unique individuals goals using the cognitive, behavioral, and psychological domains. Occupational therapists can work collaboratively with residents to create more productive thought processes, which will, in turn, change their behavior. Promoting positive behaviors will facilitate healthy lifestyle changes and increase self-efficacy and self-awareness that will be useful in the incorporation of self-advocacy efforts into daily living. According to scholars of Duquesne University, the model of practice-scholarship in occupational therapy is rooted in founding new partnerships and supporting new interests in research and service (Crist, Muñoz, Hansen, Benson, & Benson, 2005). With these ideas at the foundation of SAFELY Pittsburgh, occupational therapy services can be provided with best practice in mind. In the proposed program, advocacy for LGBTQIA+ youth experiencing homelessness through occupational therapy services may not only serve a population in need, but promote the profession of OT. This business plan will be rooted in occupation, as residents of DOCS will participate in safe, culturally-competent self-discovery through the performance of meaningful tasks. These tasks will include self-efficacy, self-expression, and leisure activities to support resident experiences during the transitory time of shelter living and emergence into community life. Additionally, social participation will be utilized through group therapy sessions in order to decrease isolation and promote social supports for residents during their stay at DOCS. Client-centeredness will be at the root of the services provided through this program, as interventions will be centered on the dynamic interests of the shifting residents of the facility. For example, more creative program activities will be available for residents with preferences for artistic expression. The overall program will be focused on addressing the residents’ holistic needs on an individual and group level, and trauma-informed care will be at the foundation of services. This ensures that care is not only available on a psychosocial level, but on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level.

The monument wars escalated after Dylann Roof massacred nine individuals at Mother Emmanuel church in Charleston, South Carolina in the summer of 2015. In August 2017, the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia related to the removal of the General Lee statue reignited the debate surrounding the Stephen Foster statue in Pittsburgh’s Oakland community. The city of Pittsburgh took steps that led to the removal of the Stephen Foster statue the same semester as my public history graduate course, Commemoration and Preservation, began and similar debates were taking place nationwide. The most common solutions offered to contested monuments are removal, reinterpretation, and replacement/balancing the space with another commemorative effort. The class conceptualized all three through the lens of the Stephen Foster statue. The assignments that I designed gave students experience in addressing a major controversy with long-term implications for the field and met the city’s needs as expressed to me by Yesica Guerra, Pittsburgh’s Public Art and Civic Design Manager. As part of the umbrella assignment Remove, Replace, and Reinterpret, seventeen graduate students dove into several small assignments related to the Foster statue’s removal.

Thirteen students in the undergraduate course Women in American History contributed to a guest label for the Frick Museum's exhibit Maker and Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry.

Currently, the veterans at Shepherd's Heart Veterans Home receive shelter and meals while staying at the shelter. During the time spent at the shelter, the men go to apartments at the VA and search for private living options. However, they receive very little individualized care, life skills training, exposure to leisure activities and few opportunities to practice establishing healthy relationships in the community. Without these individual services, the veterans unique needs remain unaddressed and continue to be barriers to their ability to sustain independent living in the community. The BRAVE Project is designed to help Shepherd’s Heart approach each veteran and their unique needs in a new, client centered way in order to make the transition to community living a more positive and meaningful experience.

The BRAVE Project aims to address these needs by providing the veterans resources and opportunities to facilitate personal development to prepare for successful community living. Once the veteran begins their stay at Shepherd’s Heart, they will be enrolled in the program and meet one on one with the OT to discuss their interests, goals, and areas of growth to create their individualized program plan. This plan will be revisited each week to track each veteran’s progress through check ins with the OT. Over the course of the program the veterans will participate in weekly educational sessions, community-outings and work or volunteer placements at local community organizations based on individual interests. Additionally, staff education will be provided to aid staff in facilitating community outings and education sessions. An additional component will include the opportunity for former Shepherd’s Heart residents to come back once a month during community nights to serve as a mentor to current residents. Following dismissal from the program the veterans will be provided opportunities to provide feedback regarding program effectiveness and potential improvements.

As part of the course objectives for Math 317-ACEL, students worked with the Allegheny County Department of Human Serices (DHS) to develop a mathematical model of the opioid epidemic in Allgheny county.  Students used data provided by the DHS to estimate model parameters.  The students used their models to study the impact of the opioid prescrition rate on overdose deaths, effective treatment programs for opioid addiction, and the impact of the increasing use of fentanyl in Allegheny County.  

From July 2018 through March 2019, I wrote a series of eight podcasts as part of a contract with the City of Pittsburgh’s Public Art + Civic Design Department. The scripts covered themes on the relationship between public art and the city’s neighborhoods. The project demonstrates Duquesne’s roll as a “flagship institution for community engagement through mutually beneficial partnerships that advance the city.” These podcasts were disseminated on the City of Pittsburgh’s GIS map of the public art inventory, the first site of this kind in the nation.

Women in STEM organized visits to Ringgold Elementary Schools to share STEM actiities with the 4th grade students and to engourage them to study STEM. Teams of DU faculty and students designed fun, hands-on STEM activities and then traveled together to the local schools.  K-12 students rotated between activities and were exposed to a variety of disciplines including biology, foresnic science, pharmacy, math, engineering, chemistry, technology, and more.    

During the Summer 2024 Semester, the John G. Rangos, Sr. School of Health Sciences enjoyed interacting with high school students interested in potential allied healthcare careers during the first Allied Health Exploration Summer Camp at Duquesne University! During this one-day exposure, the RSHS Community Engaged Learning and Service Team aligned with The Crossroads Foundation of Pittsburgh to provide a variety of hands-on activities in six of our allied health programs to community youth interested in healthcare careers. Faculty and student leaders in athletic training, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, public health, and speech-language pathology promoted the many career opportunities available in each career pathway, and more importantly, how these disciplines collaborate inter-professionally for ensuring client-centered care and building healthy communities. Along the way, this mutually beneficial program laid the foundation for future community-engaged programming on similar camp structures to promote awareness of STEM fields and health careers. 

We’re excited to be part of a national effort to strengthen our democracy by registering voters on this year’s National Voter Registration Day, which took place on September 17, 2024!

The event has hosted in the Unico Pavillion from 12-3pm. Our partners at League of Women Voters joined us to conduct voter registration, student were able to check your registration status and enjoy snow cones and cotton candy!

Sigma Tau Delta has been writing pen pal letters to ESL/ELL students at Brashear High School to aid in their comprehension of the English language.