Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

The "Partnership" program has four aims: 1) To address the needs relative to substance use and mental disorders of people experiencing homelessness and those who are immigrants, including refugees; 2) To educate social work students at the bachelor and master's levels; 3) To empower people in the populations served to evaluate and advocate fro themselves and others in need; and 4) To engage in multiple community-based partnerships that intentionally include interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches.    

This is a university-school collaboration that offers Heritage Language Academy (HLA) to Spanish-speaking students and parents in Asheboro City Schools (ACS). The program is designed based on a two-generation framework through which students are engaged in Spanish heritage language development and their families are engaged in computer literacy and home literacy activities. UNCG faculty, doctoral students and teacher candidates collaborate with ACS teachers to conduct action research with HLA participants.

This partnerships began as an exploratory study to examine the application of restorative practices in youth sport. Our initial study revealed an opportunity to integrate restorative practices into youth sports, which would improve opportunities for relationship building in schools. Tawa College is our partner in this effort. 

Public libraries play an important role in many community issues. The starting question for many public librarians is "what can we do together" with others in our community to improve our community. The things that can be "done together" are practically limitless. This particular project focuses on how public libraries partner with individuals and institutions to support healthy communities, particularly in the domains of active living, healthy eating, and mental health.

Camp leadership and staff were trained on best practices to support children of varying abilities in existing summer residential camps.  Additionally, a comprehensive 3-year evaluation to determine the effects of these practices and success of the camp inclusion initiative was implemented over a 3-year time span.

My doctoral student and I are working with a charter high school (Henderson Collegiate, Henderson, NC) in the eastern section of North Carolina to assist their exceptional children's program in implementing an effective and appropriate Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and Individualized Transition Plan for a high school student receiving special education services. We are providing support to the exceptional children's program, the student, the family, and the teachers by working together to establish the most effective future plan for the student's post secondary education, vocation, and community activities. My doctoral student and I are able to learn more about an online curriculum for the NC Occupational Course of Study in which we will be able to share the knowedge we gain with our undergraduate teacher candidates.

I initiated a partnership with Greensboro Downtown Parks/LeBauer Park when it first opened to offer an event called "Crafts & Conversation." Every two weeks, on Saturday mornings throughout the year and including the summer, our research team prepares developmentally appropriate crafts that we make with kids/families in the park. Our team of dedicated graduate and undergraduate students helps to prepare the ideas for the crafts, with faculty supervision, and then execute them with the kids. As this takes place, my Lab Co-Director (Stuart Marcovitch, who is the Dept. Head) and I are on hand to talk about development with parents (who often want tips about things like language, social skills, or challenges that their kids are facing). Two additional faculty, Dr. Jasmine DeJesus and Dr. Shaylene Nancekivell, are now also involved as key faculty who attend the events. 

This partnership has been highly successful, and is the ideal community-engaged collaboration because we benefit from it by "advertising" ourselves/UNCG research to the community (we have sign up sheets on hand for those who wish to come to our campus lab and participate in a study). The community benefits from fun, free, child-friendly activities that we offer and information about development in general. Moreover, it has been a wonderful way for us to combine pedagogy with practice for our students: they get to apply what they have learned in our lab and in our classes "in the field."

Pasteurized donor human milk improves health outcomes and reduces health care costs in preterm infants who do not have access to their mother’s own milk. It is the recommended alternative feeding strategy of the American Academy of Pediatrics and other health organizations despite the fact that slower growth has been observed in infants fed donor human milk. Evidence shows that fat is the most variable macronutrient in human milk and it can be altered by many storage and handling practices. Currently, there are no published guidelines regarding how human milk should be decanted, pooled, and mixed in the context of donor milk banking to optimize nutrient retention and reduce variability. This research, approved and supported by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), will evaluate how milk banking processes impact fat retention and distribution in pasteurized donor human milk within the 27-member network. The goal of this research is to improve the nutrition delivered to preterm infants through pasteurized human donor milk and inform evidence-based guidelines within donor milk banks.

The performance:  The performance of Nomadas (The Nomads) occurred on October 29, 2017 in the historic UNCG Auditorium with over 750 audience members in attendance.  The audience included a wide range of ages; to my knowledge individuals from (at least) age 3 – age 87 were present.  Immigrants and refugees from over (at least) 18 countries were present.  I arranged seating for various diverse community members from FaithAction International House, Casa Azul, and The Center for New North Carolinians in order to create an environment of inclusion and respect:  each individual/ family requesting tickets was given a specific location in the house so they were not all grouped together as members/clients of any of the above organizations.  I personally delivered all tickets to each organization with the names of family members on each envelope.  It was my intention to create an integrated audience and to encourage interaction among community members who otherwise may not have the opportunity to do so.  I believe this was achieved as I observed the audience interactions pre and post-show. 

In addition, I reached out to various community and university leaders and encouraged their attendance (they all came); this included local political officials (such as NC House Representative Pricey Harrison), business owners (such as Neil Reitzel), community activists (such as Claudia Femenias), representatives of the Hispanic and Latino communities (such as Maria Gonzales), the Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and many others.  I wanted our community leaders to be exposed to the rich diversity that exists in Greensboro.  It was, by far, the most diverse audience ever in attendance at a UNCG sponsored performing arts event. 

You will see from the review of the performance (and the article in the upcoming UNCG Research Magazine), that it was a tremendous success.  High praise came from all various members of the audience, such as an unsolicited email from a colleague in the Global Engagement Office: 

“Hi Rachel, I wanted to let you know that Finn (7), Shay (5), and I all truly enjoyed yesterday's performance!  Looking at the video on Vimeo I wasn't initially sure if my kids were going to like it.  The most definitely did.  I'm so glad we decided to go.  It was awesome!” -- October 30, 2017. 

I have saved many other emails as well should you wish to have access to any of them. 

The residencies:  The company conducted three residencies during their time in Greensboro.  Two occurred at UNCG (one in conjunction with my Theatre-in-Education class and an evening residency involving students from across all four disciplines in the College of Visual and Performing Arts).  The last one occurred at The Doris Henderson Newcomers School (serving refugee youth from grades 3 -12).  This residency took place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7:50 – 9:15am with secondary school students.  It built community among students from various countries (who did not speak very much English at all), increased their repertoire of Visual Theatre techniques, expanded their ability to assess their own work, and strengthened their affective skills.  The two Artistic Directors of La LLave Maestra (Edurne Rankin and Alvaro Morales) and I collaboratively conducted the residency. 

I secured the space (the gymnasium) to accommodate the number of students in attendance (23).  This was due in part to the size of the classroom spaces.  They are quite small at Newcomers school and there was no room appropriate for the broad range of movement activities planned. 

I observed the students evolve throughout their time with us in residency.  It was inspiring to watch relationships form (even between students from different countries who did not speak each others’ languages), vocabulary increase, understanding of the roles of the theatre artists expand, and ability to reflect and assess work become more disciplined.  The thank you cards the students made at the end of the residency were simply stunning (I am including a photograph for your perusal). 

The UNCG residencies proved just as successful.  In a reflection written by one student, the learning trajectory is articulated beautifully in response to the question:  How did the workshop fulfill your expectations?

“It far surprassed my greatest expectations. We wasted no time whatsoever from the very first day – within minutes of the first class period we were jumping right into the play and investigation with little-to-no talking about it beforehand. Plunging right into the Deep-end without overanalyzing it or prepping it really set the tone for how we would work from then on – leaving our brains at home, bringing our imaginations and carefree spirit to the work. My largest lament before even entering into the workshop was that we would only have three weeks, and I was worried that I would leave feeling wanting; Though I did end wanting much more – I left those three weeks so much more fulfilled than I could have imagined. I still cannot believe how much I feel like I learned in such a short amount of time, and the rate at which I felt myself progressing with all of the concepts and growth from the first day to the last.”

Perhaps the most telling email (unsolicited) of all I received was from an undergraduate student in my Theatre-in-Education class.  I recieved this email after the post-show talk-back we held in the department on the Monday following the performance (October 30, 2017).  It reads as follws: 

“Hola Rachel,

 I just wanted to say that I am very happy that you helped bring an amazing company here. Seeing Nomadas and hearing la compania speak in the Q&A  today sparked a change within me. Last year I decided that I didn't want to do theatre anymore, because I felt so out of place in the department here. Sin embargo, after seeing La Llave Maestra, I have never been more inspired. Y por eso, muchas gracias. To you and them.”

The North Carolina Theatre for Young People (NCTYP) exists to celebrate the art of live theatre for young audiences, to enrich the lives of young people and their families, and to connect the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with the community.  The North Carolina Theatre for Young People realizes this vision through:  producing plays; facilitating outreach programs in schools and the community; and educating Theatre for Youth graduate students to apply knowledge in practice in area schools and community organizations.  

A core value of NCTYP is to elevate the status of young people in the broader culture by engaging young voices in dialogue surrounding theatre arts.  This is achieved through a variety of means:  post-production workshops, in-school drama and theatre residencies, and selection of literature that reflects authentic experiences of young people.  Additionally, NCTYP believes in cultivating relationships with young people in their home environments.  To this end, NCTYP produces a touring production every year that is performed in over 24 venues in the region.  Play selection includes a broad range of titles; pulling from the existing canon of literature for young audiences while also encouraging the development of new plays, NCTYP offers main stage and touring opportunities for new works.

The North Carolina Theatre for Young People aims to embrace all community members in its offerings.  NCTYP believes in promoting diversity, inclusion, and acceptance.  Producing work for Deaf audiences, bi-lingual audiences, and refugees from around the globe, NCTYP works to educate, expose, and expand its audience base.  Founded in 1962, the North Carolina Theatre for Young People has reached well over one million young people with fully mounted main stage productions as well as touring shows that have traveled as far as rural Maryland and Washington, D.C.  The touring shows alone engage more than 15,000 children every year.

Guilford Parent Academy is a school district-community collaboration developed to promote parent engagement and to assest families by providing online and face-to-face access to resources to help raise a successful healthy child. 

GPA Video Overview

The project, called "So much potential:" Stories from students with DACA, was a research collaboration between a UNCG faculty member (Laura Gonzalez) and several community organizations (Faith Action, the Latino Community Coalition of Guilford, the Center for New North Carolinians, Let's Learn Triad).  People in our region were invited to talk about their experiences navigating the educational system with their immigration status (DACA, undocumented, mixed status families, etc.).  The interviews were turned into posters to highlight the key aspects of their stories, which we want to share with the community at large and with key decision makers in education in particular.  We hope all who see the posters will be moved by the stories and consider ways they can support the cause of educational access for all.

To improve the marketing aspect of the HorsePower community to appeal to those interested in HorsePower and participating in their events/programs. Central Goal: To create new marketing strategies/materials and improve existing materials.

Arts After School provides an opportunity for children in low-income communities at the Salvation Army and Boys and Girls Club to participate in out-of-school arts instruction and to share their work in the community. The program offers lessons in violin, guitar, percussion, piano, and cello at Caldcleugh Multicultural Arts Center, Central Branch of the Boys and Girls Club, and at Hickory Trails Club. Instructors are selected from the undergraduate and graduate student populations of the School of Music at the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Arts After School is a unique partnership between UNCG, the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Club of Greensboro, Greensboro Parks and Recreation, and City Arts.

This project focused on partnering with A Simple Gesture to work to minimize the food desert in Guilford County. UNCG students and our community partner increased awareness of A Simple Gesture through contacting various businesses to increase partnerships, networking further with individuals, attending and speaking at community events, and preparing and leading a concert in Greensboro while tabling with resources.  Another aspect of this project included UNCG students increasing awareness about food insecurity by reaching out to the UNCG Community, placing different food collection bins around campus, creating a challenge for which group or residence hall could collect the most food and then donating all food to A Simple Gesture. 

Senior design students worked collaboratively with the Duke ALS Clinic to select a site and craft a design for a potential clinic that meets the unique needs of individuals with ALS. 

Each summer, UNC Greensboro graduate students gain clinical practicum experience over two weeks while running a therapeutic riding camp with HORSEPOWER since the its inception in 1994. The program offers 30 hours of free, individualized therapy to campers. The graduate students work two-to-one with the children, who range in age from three to eight years old.

UNCG faculty in the School of Health and Human Sciences and staff and volunteers of The Partnership Project are working to increase health equity by expanding anti-racism training to faculty and students. This partnership supports and promotes the participation of faculty across the School of HHS in anti-racism training, developed (and will teach) a multi-disciplinary class that integrates anti-racism training into undergraduate course work, and is working to develop a faculty toolkit for effectively addressing health equity using anti-racism and community engagement principles.

A three-year, community-based, multimedia collaboration, None of the Above explores the intersection of race, poverty, educational policies, and incarceration through the voices of those most affected: students, teachers, administrators, parents, attorneys, juvenile justice officials, the incarcerated, school resource officers, advocates, and others. Based on interviews and workshops in more than 20 counties, the performances, interactive exhibit, and digital media bring these North Carolinians center stage to share their experiences with this school-to-prison pipeline and to offer their best solutions for dismantling it.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world.  More than 2.2 million people are behind bars. Add to that total those on probation and parole and we have more than 7 million people living under some form of correctional supervision.  The numbers of children affected is staggering, the racial disparities stunning.

A child with a single juvenile court appearance is four times as likely to drop out of school. A high school dropout is nine times more likely to end up in prison than a high school graduate.  What educational policies help move children from the school system into the criminal justice system? Who benefits? Who is harmed?

Hidden Voices 

Hidden Voices is a radically inclusive, participatory, and co-creative collective committed to creating just, compassionate, and sustainable relationships. This network of relationships connects communities across difference and provides pathways for global change.

http://hiddenvoices.org/

This project supports librarians and peer educators to learn about technology that will support student learning. It is facilitated through two Youtube channels (Tech15 and ResearchXpress) to introduce online tools that can be used in instruction and practical use. 

Well Crafted NC began in Fall 2017 as a community documentation project focused on the history of beer and brewing in Downtown Greensboro. Since then, the project has grown to a statewide collaboration including brewery owners, brewers, and brewers guilds and associations throughout North Carolina. Erin Lawrimore, Richard Cox, and David Gwynn from the University Libraries work with breweries to ensure that their history is preserved. This is done through providing long-term preservation options for records of historical value as well as through oral history interviews with key individuals in the industry that help in telling the story of beer and brewing in North Carolina. Brewery owners and brewers contribute their knowledge and records to help form an online resource for anyone interested in learning more about how the craft brewing industry evolved in this state. UNCG University Libraries uses its expertise in digital preservation, archival methodology, and oral history to ensure the records are preserved and accessible. Through this collaboration, researchers and the general public are able to access information documenting the history of beer and brewing in North Carolina, and the records of this important industry are preserved for the future.

See Media related to this activity:

• The History of Local Beer (Winston Salem City Guide; 2018-2019)
• Breweries making huge impact on North Carolina communities (Fox 8 News; May 23, 2018)
• Erin Lawrimore: Archiving NC's Beer History (Western North Carolina Woman; Vol. 17, #5; p.51; May, 2018)
• Gate City Chatter Ep. 6 - Beer History with Well Crafted NC (Greensboro Parks & Recreation; April 16, 2018)
• Spectrum News; April 14, 2018
• From Single Brothers to Little Brother: New UNCG project documents N.C. brewing history (Greensboro News & Record; April 10, 2018)
• Well Crafted NC To Hold Lanch Event in Downtown Greensboro (UNCG NOW; April 9, 2018)
• CRAFTING HISTORY: Two Historic W-S Breweries, The Well Crafted N.C. project digs deep into the history of local beer. (Winston-Salem Monthly; April 3, 2018)
• History of brewing in the 'Boro (1808 Greensboro; March 30, 2018)
• Greensboro has rich history of brewing (Fox 8 News; March 21, 2018)
• Biere de Femme Showcases Female Brewers in North Carolina This Saturday (IndyWeek; February 28, 2018)
• In Depth: Biere De Femme Festival Showcases Women in Beer (Spectrum News; February 20, 2018)
• Beer Scout: Pink Boots empowers women brewers, plans second Biere de Femme festival (Mountain XPress; February 14, 2018)
• A Well Crafted NC (The Carolinian; February 14, 2018)
• Greensboro's beer history documented in new online project (Greensboro News & Record; January 30, 2018)
• UNC Greensboro University Libraries Launches Well Crafted NC Project (Society of North Carolina Archivists; January 29, 2018)
• University Libraries to document history of brewing in Greensboro (UNCG NOW; August 3, 2017)

Rocky Mount is an area with unique needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Recently, as it has begun to recover from several decades of de-industrialization, dis-investment, and population flight, it has started to look at addressing dilapidated surplus housing, blighted neighborhoods, and cost-burdened households. Our proposed sub-market analysis, community-based planning process, and evaluation plan will help Rocky Mount residents, local government, real estate developers, housing advocacy organizations, investors, and other stakeholders define their priorities and develop plans to address deficits in the Rocky Mount housing stock. Cost-effectiveness, projected population change, housing stock and market data, vacancy rates, legal mandates, and community input are all considered in the process. Parcel-level data will be used to identify potential sites for housing improvement. Moreover, baseline data and an evaluation plan will be created to track short, mid, and long-term outcomes of the Initiative.

The People Not Property project is a collaborative endeavor between the UNCG University Libraries, North Carolina Division of Archives and Records, and North Carolina Registers of Deeds among others. Working as an addition to and evolution of the Digital Library on American Slavery, the project is leading towards a unique, centralized database of bills of sales indexing the names of enslaved people from across North Carolina. When complete, People Not Property - Slave Deeds of North Carolina will include robust metadata, high resolution images, and full-text searchable transcripts. We hope to open the project to states beyond North Carolina, creating a central location for accessing and researching slave deeds from across the Southern United States.

See Media related to this activity:

• Researchers helping people find ancestors, learn history of families (Fox 8 News; Sep 26, 2018)
• UNCG Slave Name Database Ensures The Past Is Not Forgotten (WUNC The State Of Things; Aug 21, 2018)
• Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Aim to Preserve Slave Records (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education; August 06, 2018)
• UNCG libraries working to compile slave deeds from North Carolina counties (Spectrum News; August 01, 2018)
• Documenting slavery (Greensboro News & Record; July 30, 2018)
• UNCG To Digitize Slave Deed Records From Across The State (WFMY News 2; July 28, 2018)
• UNCG To Digitize Slave Deeds (NPR; July 26, 2018)
• Grant to help digitize North Carolina slave records (Chicago Tribune; July 23, 2018)
• Grant backs project to digitally preserve slave deeds across North Carolina (Asheville Citizen Times; July 23, 2018)

The Guilford County Solution to the Opioid Problem (GCSTOP) serves residents of Guilford County. The program was initiated with funding from the State General Assembly to Guilford County’s Emergency Services for the purpose of addressing the County’s increasing incidence of opioid overdoses and opioid related deaths. The funding is being used to support the development and initial implementation of a Post-Overdose Response Team (PORT) intervention, which is designed to prevent repeat overdose and to counsel persistent users to enter treatment or adopt evidence-based harm reduction practices. We also provide syringe exchange, harm-reduction training, and community overdose response education.  The program serves some of our community’s most vulnerable populations: people who have overdosed and others who are at high risk for opioid related mortality.

UNCG CHANCE provides Latinx rising high school juniors and seniors with the opportunity to engage in an intensive five-day college preparation and leadership skills development experience. Area high school students, as well as students from surrounding counties within the state, are encouraged to attend a creative mix of days in the life of typical college students. These experiences include:

• Attending mock class (across several disciplines)
• Mock course registration
• Leadership development
• Team building activities
• Campus organizations
• Cultural experiences
• Sports activities
• Civic responsibility

Participants engage with university professors, students, and staff to develop a peer/professional network forging positive, healthy mentorship connections focused on academic success and personal growth. This program encourages Latinx students to attend college by increasing their awareness of higher education and showing that it is well within their reach. Contact Caleb Cuthbertson at clcuthbe@uncg.edu if interested in either assisting with the program or attending it.

In collaboration with faculty from Guilford College and the Homeless Union of Greensboro, this project explores the effects of criminal ordinances on those experiencing extreme poverty (i.e., homelessness) as well as the resources available, and needed, to improve their situations. 

Moss Street Partnership School is a laboratory school in Reidsville, NC, operated as a collaboration between UNC Greensboro and the Rockingham County Schools. The Partnership School's theory of practice focuses on experiential learning, differentiated instruction and accommodations for all students, standards-based formative assessment, and restorative practice. Class sizes that average 18 students combine with grade-level teaming, flexible grouping, a fully inclusive approach for all students, and a well-supported instructional technology infrastructure to create opportunities for students to experience individual and small group instruction that is tailored to their needs as learners. The foundation of our approach is that our job is to teach students what they need to know when they need to know it--when they are learning the content of the authentic, standards-based curriculum and the important life lessons that emerge from their curiosity, interests, and motivation.

In the Grove Street, Peoples Market project student teams work to grow and sustain a market located in the Glenwood Community. Students assist our community partner (Liz Seymour) and local vendors with implementing basic business practices which include marketing, technology/social media, entrepreneurial training, customer engagement, and partnership development. The original intent of the market was to address food insecurity issues in the community. However, as the market developed over the years, the market has become more of a small venture open-air incubator for vendors who have meager resources. These entrepreneurs include artists, bakers, cooks, and craftsman selling their work to the public.

The Montagnard community has been resettled in NC in the US, after the Vietnam war. They are mostly concentrated in NC, where they are the largest group outside Vietnam. They do not figure in any official data collection efforts at the Federal, State, or Local level. Thus, the community does not have an accurate, updated estimate of their numbers, and they are invisible to policy makers and planners. Moreover, their neighbor communities are often unfamiliar with them. To address these issues, the Montagnard Dega Association / Montagnard American Organization is leading a self-census effort, called the Montagnard Population Count Project. UNCG is partnering to provide technical assistance. I (HDFS Dept) am involved as are other faculty in PHE, and graduate students from these departments and from PCS.

This community-engaged collaborative project’s goal is to conduct fact-finding and education events on elder abuse and neglect (EAN), for older adults in 2 diverse language refugee communities in Greensboro in Spring 2019, namely: Bhutanese/Nepalese, and Congolese. This collaboration is between (1) Dr. Narayan Khadka (Exec. Dir., Institute for Peace and Harmony, a non-profit that assists refugees resettled in the Greensboro area), and (2) Dr. Sudha Shreeniwas (Assoc. Prof., Dept. of HDFS, UNC Greensboro, research foci include community-engaged research, gerontology, immigrant/refugee families, and family violence).  We will further collaborate with 2 community service-providing non-profits: (1) Creative Aging Network NC, who puts a table in the June 15th Annual World Elder Abuse Day event of the Piedmont Triad Regional Center / Area Agency on Aging in Greensboro. We propose to sponsor the table to highlight EAN in diverse communities in Greensboro. (2) Kiran Inc, an NC organization that provides free family violence and crisis services to people with ties to the Asian community. We propose to invite them to conduct an information event on EAN resources for the 2 communities.

This effort stems from the observations of Dr. Khadka, who has worked with diverse refugee communities in Greensboro, including volunteering, working at the Senior Resources of Guilford Greensboro-High Point, and non-profit activities. Several community members mentioned to Dr. Khadka that EAN might be occurring among them. There is currently almost no documentation of EAN, or supportive resources, for refugee/immigrant seniors in  Greensboro. This project’s purpose is to conduct information sessions with elders in the 2 communities, to document EAN if occurring, raise awareness about it, share information on helping resources, and build community knowledge and capacity.

The Montagnard Hypertension Project is a community-based participatory research project that emerged from Montagnard community elders seeking to address the issue of growing household burden and costs of management and care due to high blood pressure. The project started in 2011 with a call from a Montagnard medical professionals, a former doctor trained in Vietnam, with a proposal, "The Early Hypertensive Detection Project in the American Community". Through a series of conversations and events, this proposal led to a community-academic partnership with UNCG's Department of Public Health Education, the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Department of Nutrition. The purpose was to begin to collect much needed data on hypertension and other life style factors that impact health of this community. The project includes 3 phases: hypertension terminology, focus groups on household and cultural issues, a biological and behavioral assessment.

NanoBus is an after-school program to promote STEM education by visiting Middle and High Schools in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The activities include hands-on experiments demonstrating science and engineering concepts and an introduction to nanotechnology.

Six JSNN graduate students and a staff member will travel to your school and present up to 10 science and engineering experiments. The program runs on Wednesdays during the Fall and Spring semesters.

Reclaiming Democracy draws on multiple academic disciplines to examine and model democracy. To understand democracy, we explore the different traditions of participation that drive public policy, governance, and citizen engagement. As we turn our gaze toward democracy in Greensboro more specifically, we consider the city’s rich history in civil rights and economic justice, as well as the even more powerful desire for civility that has impacted our ability to have deep, community-wide discussion of the area’s struggles.

Participants in the class learn together within a large classroom and also in smaller study groups. To set the tone for communal engagement, traditional academic learning is augmented with other learning experiences, includingmusic, stories, film, and other creativity activities.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) Greensboro is a democratic process that allows residents to decide how to spend $500,000 worth of City funds -- $100,000 per City Council district.

Each PB cycle lasts two years. During that time, residents submit ideas, PB volunteers vet those submissions and turn them in to project proposals, and then residents vote on which projects to fund.

PB Greensboro is organized by the City Department of Budget and Evaluation, with various City departments working to implement voter-approved projects. 

This conference, October 24-25, 2019 features scholarly and community contributions in the form of papers, posters, creative activities, and panels that recognize whatever benefits exist for the people in the democratic arena are ones people have struggled for through the exercise of free speech and citizen action that tap into, build upon, and reinforce strong measures of justice. Related, presentations call attention to undemocratic practices that are wittingly or not embedded in our institutions to advantage a relative few, concentrating rather than disbursing power for decision making. We feature research activity, engaged scholarship, pedagogical practices, and creative expression that boldly frame the issues of free speech amid attempts to chill and silence expressions of dissent.

UNCG Dream Camp is a therapeutic and recreational summer day camp for children and adolescents on the autism spectrum, and others who have challenges with social skills and developing friendships.  The main focus of the camp is to enhance social and friendship skills.  In additional, adolescents receive developmentally-appropriate life skills training.  Dream Camp is held at Gateway Research Park and includes enjoyable camp activities.

UNCG Psychology Spanish speaking doctroal students provide therapy with Spanish speaking families - implementing empirically supported treatments at El Futuro. 

In Fall 2019, 26 undergraduate students in GES328: The Water Planet completed a semester-long field-based research project on North Buffalo Creek. They conducted physical habitat assessments and made weekly measurements of water quality and suspended-sediment concentrations at five sites on North Buffalo Creek and its tributaries that are characterized by different types of urban land cover. The results for one of the sites, College Branch, are being used as baseline data for a stream enhacement grant submitted by our community partner, the Piedmont Conservation Council (PCC), as part of work being done on the final leg of the Downtown Greenway.

In Fall 2020, an additional 11 undergraduate students in GES328 did other urban stream research projects. One was based on North Buffalo Creek at Revolution Mill, where PCC is implementing another stream enhancement project. The physical habitat and water quality data we gathered will be used as baseline data for the stream enhancement project, and future GES328 classes will return to the site to do the post-project monitoring. The second project in Fall 2020 took place on an unnamed trbutary of South Buffalo Creek that flows through Bingham Park, the site of a pre-regulatory landfill for incincerated muncipal waste located in an environmental justice community in East Greensboro. The physical habitat and water quality data collected at this site will be used in community-led efforts to remediate and restore the stream.

This multifold project around the study of natural dye plants developed in Spring 2021 and was initially supprted as part of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Dean's Research Inititiave funding. Using the 2021-22 UNCG Sustainability Faculty Fellowship appointment, the project continues to generate dialogues and create community around sustainability in the arts. The ultimate goal of the project is to advance a long term workshop-lecture series focusing on incorporation of environmental studies into the performing and visual arts around the subject of plants that make natural dyes and pigments. The project includes foraged materials as well as plants grown in community and public spaces exclusively for this project.

Lectures introducing natural dyes have so far germinated collaboration and co-curricular interest with CVPA students, faculty, staff and guest artists. Events highlighting initial material research include lectures for THR Costume Crafts, ART 600X Color & Culture, and the UNCG Sustainbility Series. These events have helped to identify UNCG collaborations, test possible video tutorial ideas, and explore sourcing local materials.

The hope is that this natural dye research can serve as an access point conversation for emerging creatives and citizen scientists across our community. Undergraduate and graduate research assistants have provided key support in this activity, while learning about the process of using plants for future creative work. In person and video offerings could also eventually unfold into a full semester interdisciplinary class that is part of the regular curriculum for the CVPA.

Partnering with the Piedmont Fibershed for future community events starting in Summer 2022 will help realize the ongoing work on the proposed workshop-lecture series. Future events will focus on creative opportunities for campus partners wishing to explore how design in the performing arts and environmental studies might be interconnected through studies at UNCG and beyond.