Community and Economic Development

Collaborative Design of Built Environments and its Relationship to Social Capital and Community Health

This project team is developing and testing an interdisciplinary model to translate community visioning conversations into visual images of redesigned communities. The group is studying the relationship between these community visioning discussions regarding the built environment and the development of community social capital, and assessing its implications for public policy development. The team is also designing a learning-community model for collaborative, interdisciplinary university/community projects.

Eventually the design team intends to seek funds to implement the community's vision. They plan to involve a broader representation of campus expertise in providing a quantitative analysis of an integrated model for community economic and social development.

For more information contact: David Knaggs

Evaluation of a Comprehensive Community Initiative in Battle Creek

The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has initiated a comprehensive multi-phase initiative in its hometown to address racial and social inequities by targeting improvements in education and economic outcomes. During the first three years (Phase I), efforts focused on increasing resident readiness and capacity in three low-income neighborhoods. Strategies included funding resident-implemented minigrants, providing technical assistance through community organizers called neighborhood connectors, and gathering data to identify the issues important to residents. MSU's Department of Psychology and University Outreach and Engagement is providing the evaluation for the initiative and has become a full partner at the table.

For more information contact: Laurie Van Egeren

United Way of Allen County

At the heart of this outcome evaluation and capacity building partnership is developmental facilitation -- the work of building the knowledge, skill, and ability necessary to achieve the desired outcome. This approach is radically different from training, where the transfer of learning to the workplace is the total responsibility of the trainee. Through a series of developmental phases, and a lessons learned component, a framework was provided within which organizations began, and continue the process of, working systemically to improve the outcomes of individuals and families. This framework also enables community project facilitators to expand their own understanding of the unfolding capacity building process by examining it from the perspectives of individual intention, individual behavior, collective culture, and collective social systems.

For more information contact: Robert Brown

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