Connect, Communicate, Collaborate - Summer 2020

FROM THE DIRECTOR: The Center for Community Research and Service (CCRS) continues, along with most of our colleagues across the University of Delaware, to work remotely and expects to do so through much of the summer. This has not, however, kept us from continuing our research and working with our partners in the community. Notably, KIDS COUNT has released its annual fact book; Public Allies Delaware has set up an infrastructure that has let Allies continue their work with their placements remotely while providing Allies with ongoing support; and we have started projects that include examining opioid services provided through Medicaid in Delaware, and spatial correlates between eviction and health. CCRS researchers continue work on the impacts of COVID-19 on housing, eviction and homelessness in Delaware, and we are examining ways in which to more directly align our ongoing work on inequalities in health and housing with urgent calls for racial justice. Finally, we are proud of all the students, from BA to PhD, who we work with. Congratulations to all who have recently won awards and fellowships, and best wishes to those who have just graduated and now take their much-needed talents and skills into the community.

STUDENTS

CCRS has always been fortunate to work with a cadre of dedicated, enthusiastic, and high-performing students. We wish the graduates all the best and look forward to see the returning students in the fall.

Congratulations to the graduating CCRS research assistants: Christy Arrango-Kautz, BA; Momar (Talla) Cisse, MPA; Alexandra Guterbock, BA; Olivia Malinowski, BS; Hira Rashid, PhD; and Sarah Warkentin, MPA.

Congratulations to those CCRS students receiving Biden School Honors Awards this year:

Biden School Directors Citation:  Hira Rashid and Sarah Warkentin; Marvin S. Gilman National Housing Endowment Scholarship:  Joshua Solge; George & Renee Raffel Endowment for Excellence & Opportunity:  Kalyn McDonough; James H. Sills Scholarship:  Dakota Edwards; Daniel & Nancy Rich Excellence in Community Engagement Award:  Olivia Malinowski; Timothy Barnekov Excellence in Public Policy:  Christy Arrango-Kautz; Timothy Barnekov Service-Learning Award:  Alexandra Guterbock

Congratulations to Kalyn McDonough for winning the Universitys 2020 Graduate Student Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement Award

Congratulations to Rachel Romond, CCRS Public Allies Program Manager, for being awarded the Biden Schools Barry R. Morstain M.P.A. Mid-Career Prize

RESEARCH

DelCAN Evaluation

CCRS, in collaboration with the Center for Drug & Health Studies, the Department of Sociology, and the University of Maryland, enters its 5th year of a six-year evaluation of DelCAN, a Delaware intervention aimed at increasing access to contraceptives and decreasing the unintended pregnancy rate.  

During this summer, we will be working on several presentations and papers related to our Del-CAN work:

Gifford, K., McDuffie, M.J., Knight, E., McColl, R., Boudreaux, M., Rendall, M. S.Postpartum contraceptive method selection among Medicaid-covered women in Delaware before and after LARC-promoting initiatives, 2012-2018, accepted for presentation at the American Public Health Association 2020 Annual Meeting & Expo in Fall 2020.

Boudreaux, M., Gifford, K., McDuffie, M.J. "The Effect of Delaware Contraceptive Access Now on LARC Uptake in Medicaid", submitted to the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management Fall 2020 conference

Gifford, K., McDuffie, M.J., Rashid, H., Knight, E., Boudreaux, M., McColl, R., Rendall, M.S., Postpartum contraception method type and risk of a closely-spaced birth in a state Medicaid Population, in final internal review.

Medaglio, D., Rendall, M., Martin, S., Gifford, M., McDuffie, M.J., Holton, S., Angell, K., Zhang, Z, Wilson, S., Selection of Long-acting Reversible Contraceptives Immediately Postpartum by Medicaid-covered Women, in final internal review.

Delaware SUPPORT Project

CCRS has received two contracts to work on the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistances planning grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under section 1003 of the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act.  The grant is intended to increase the capacity of Medicaid providers who deliver substance use disorder treatment or recovery services.  CCRSs policy scientists Mary Joan McDuffie, Katie Gifford, and Eli Turkel, along with Biden associate professor Katie Fitzpatrick, will be working on this project.

Housing and Homelessness in Delaware

Dr. Steve Metraux is working in collaboration with the Housing Alliance Delaware (HAD) to analyze data in Community Management Information System (CMIS) in order to better understand Delawares homeless population and how they use services. This work will provide a foundation for structuring homeless services to more effectively meet the needs of this population. We are also looking to expand this project to analyze the use of Medicaid reimbursed health services by persons who have received homeless services and, conversely, to assess the incidence of homeless services use by Medicaid-eligible individuals and families.  CCRS policy scientists Mary Joan McDuffie, Erin Lynch, and Eli Turkel, along with Alexa Timmreck, PhD graduate research assistant, will be participating in this project.

Alexa Timmreck and Steve Metraux are also partnering with HAD on a brief that examines racial and ethnic disparities related to who experiences homelessness in Delaware. 

Steve Metraux has been awarded a faculty award from the Partnership for Healthy Communities to investigate, along with recent BA graduate Alex Guterbock, the Geography of Eviction in Delaware looking at spatial patterns of eviction and related health outcomes. This follows the release of the Eviction in Delaware brief that is available on the CCRS website. 

Steve Metraux and graduate student Mimi Rayl, in partnership with Julia OHanlon and Sean ONeill from the Biden Schools Institute for Public Administration, are preparing a brief and a webinar on the impact of COVID-19 on housing in Delaware, and the potential impacts on evictions, foreclosures and homelessness. Materials related to this will be coming out soon stay tuned.

On April 28, Steve Metraux participated in the webinar Housing and Justice: Avoiding Homelessness after Incarceration. This webinar, organized by Abt Associatess Center for Evidence-based Solutions to Homelessness, brought together experts from the fields of homeless services and criminal justice to discuss evidence on how people reentering society from jails and prisons can avoid homelessness. Steve discussed the effectiveness of reentry programs in securing stable housing for reentering individuals. 

DE KIDS COUNT

The Annie E. Caseys national KIDS COUNT Data Book will be released on June 22nd. KIDS COUNT in Delaware will release a companion piece What Would it Take [to be #1 in the nation] at the same time.  Kids COUNT is currently working on revising an Overview of Medicaid brief which will be released during the summer.

SERVICE

Public Allies

CCRSs Public Allies Delaware is seeking applicants for its paid 10-month AmeriCorps Program. Program participants apprentice at a nonprofit organization and receive ongoing coaching and training, a living stipend, student loan forbearance, and an education award. Please refer recent grads, alumni, family, and friends! More information can be found at https://publicallies.org/be-an-ally/. Please email cjusino@udel.edu with any questions.

Introduction to Nonprofit  Management - New non-credit class

CCRS is offering a new non-credit class in Nonprofit Management starting in September 2020.  The goal of the class is to give participants a better understanding of nonprofit organizations and the issues that managers face in this impactful and growing field. This course is designed for early career professionals working in the sector or mid-career professionals transitioning from other sectors.  Participants will be exposed to several areas of responsibility for nonprofit leaders including strategy, board governance, budgeting, fundraising, grant writing, managing employees and volunteers, and more.  Class will meet in person if possible or transition to online platform if necessary due to pandemic closures.  For more information, visit https://www.bidenschool.udel.edu/ccrs/service/nonprofit-training/introduction-to-nonprofit-management or contact Signe Bell at signe@udel.edu.

Strategic Doing

Signe Bell and Roger Hesketh are now Certified Workshop Leaders through the Strategic Doing Institute! Have you heard about Strategic Doing?  It offers a concise and structured process to form action-oriented collaborations quickly, move them toward measurable outcomes, and make adjustments along the way.  It yields replicable, scalable, and sustainable collaborations based on a simple process.  With the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic creating much uncertainty for the context in which organizations and communities will operate over the next weeks and months, it is the perfect time to "think outside the box", rethink "normal" and innovate together.  Strategic Doing is an innovative, structured process for any group working in a setting in which there is a degree of collaboration needed, and/or the environment in which they're operating is dynamic.  The workshop can be adapted to a virtual environment if necessary.  Contact Signe Bell (signe@udel.edu) or Roger Hesketh (rogergh@udel.edu) for more information or to discuss how Strategic Doing can help move your organization and/or community forward!

^06/16/2020