For faculty who are interested in becoming a fellow in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), Service-Learning, or Public Scholarship through the Colin Powell Center, applications now being accepted. See the guidelines below. Deadline to apply:

• May 10, 2013 for Community-Based Participatory Research
• May 31, 2013 for Service-Learning and Public Scholarship.
  

• CBPR Guidelines and Application (PDF)
• Public Scholarship Guidelines and Application (PDF)
• Service-Learning Guidelines and Application (PDF)

Four Faculty Fellows and Their Projects:

Adeyinka Aakinsulure-Smith, Ph.D.
2010 Community-Based Research Fellow (Psychology)
In partnership with the United States Sierra Leone Association and the African Services Committee, Dr. Aakinsulure-Smith studies psychological distress of refugees and asylum seekers in New York City.  The immediate goal of this research is to systematically examine mental health challenges that African immigrant population in the NYC region faces and the impact of these challenges on their psychosocial functioning.

Over the long term, the research team will design or adapt mental health interventions specifically for African refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers in the New York Area that will take into account their multiple needs (e.g. legal, health, traumatic experiences, and to develop culturally informed therapeutic interventions.

Katherine Chen, Ph.D.
2011 Public Scholarship Fellow, 2012 Community-Based Research Fellow (Sociology)
Dr. Chen is partnering with the leader of the Cooperator’s Advocacy Program (CAP) at Masaryk Towers, a Mitchell-Lama complex located in the Lower East Side. Masaryk Towers is a low to moderate income housing complex; its multi-ethnic, multilingual residential population includes longtime residents and recent immigrants.  This community-based study will identify how the organization will need to grow or restructure programs and projects intended to support older adults aging in place, in order to meet the ongoing and future needs of current and anticipated members and clients. The results of the study will help policy-makers understand how supportive programs can help promote healthy living among residents.

John Krinsky, Ph.D.
2011 Community-Based Participatory Research Fellow, 2012 Public Scholarship Fellow (Political Science)
Dr. Krinsky partnered with community organization, Picture the Homeless, to design a course entitled Land, Housing and Community Ownership in New York City, investigating Community Land Trusts (CLT), a form of community-based landownership that can be used to develop housing for people with very low incomes. The course consisted of CCNY students and Picture the Homeless members and staff in a joint effort to better understand the issues and potentials for CLT-based housing that might be affordable to homeless people and to those most at risk for it. Together the groups took on service projects mapping Central Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant, Central Brooklyn, and the South Bronx.  They also conducted a nation-wide survey of community land trusts. Krinsky and Picture the Homeless have formed a larger working group to develop a community land trust as a non-profit entity to renovate and preserve vacant and troubled housing.

Susanna Schaller, Ph.D.
2012 Service-Learning Fellow (Public Administration)
Graduate students enrolled in Dr. Schaller’s course, Grassroots Power: Local Economic Development Workshop, at the Center for Worker Education partnered with the director of lending for the Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union (NTFCU) to examine how the lack of access to affordable financial services and products impacts different populations and explored some strategies to overcome these barriers and challenges.

The students also conducted a study of the financial needs and behavior of City College students and provided a report of the findings to the credit union upon conclusion of the course, in order to inform the credit union’s future affordable products and services.