Reporting Back to the Community

The Poverty of Poverty Intervention: Doing More with Less Reporting Back to the Community Prepared by Office of Community Engagement and Partnerships University of South Florida Jennifer Webb Research Assistant Lance Arney, Ph.D. Associate Director OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS University of South Florida • 4202 East Fowler Avenue, ALN 185 • Tampa, FL 33620 (813) 974-4829 • www.usf.edu/engagement • [email protected] Building Partnerships to Improve Our Communities The University of South Florida is a high-impact, global research university dedicated to student success. USF is a Top 50 research university among both public and private institutions nationwide in total research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation. Serving nearly 48,000 students, the USF System has an annual budget of $1.5 billion and an annual economic impact of $4.4 billion. USF is one of 40 public research universities nationwide with very high research activity that is designated as Community Engaged by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The Carnegie Foundation defines community engagement as “collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; pre- pare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.”1 1 http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/descriptions/community_engagement.php OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS University of South Florida • 4202 East Fowler Avenue, ALN 185 • Tampa, FL 33620 (813) 974-4829 • www.usf.edu/engagement • [email protected] Building Partnerships to Improve Our Communities Executive Summary The University of South Florida is a high-impact, global research university. Community engagement guides its mission. As Florida’s leading metropolitan research university, USF is dedicated to: . Research and scientific discovery to strengthen the economy, promote civic culture and the arts, and design and build sustainable communities through the generation, dissemination, and translation of new knowledge across all academic and health-related disciplines. Partnerships to build significant locally- and globally-integrated university-community collaborations through sound scholarly and artistic activities and technological innovation. USF created the Office of Community Engagement and Partner- ships (OCEP) in 2009. The mission of our office is to expand local and global initiatives that strengthen and sustain healthy communities, promote social justice, and help improve the quality of life for all. The OCEP carries out its mission by building mutually beneficial and re- ciprocal university–community partnerships founded on community engaged research, scholarship, and service-learning. On January 29, 2014, the OCEP held a half-day forum titled The Poverty of Poverty Intervention: Doing More with Less at the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County in Tampa, Florida. The forum was de- signed to foster more dialogue and collaboration between the university and the community in order to break through the invisible dis- tance between university researchers and activists in the trenches. We are all intent on reaching the same goals of understanding poverty and finding pathways for individuals and families who are struggling to get out of it. 3 Indeed, so many of us—in the community and at the university— are precariously teetering on the brink of financial distress, or have already begun falling into long-term financial despair. It is therefore crucial that we come together in solidarity, identify the root causes of such pervasive economic hardship, and take action to improve our quality of life by reducing poverty and inequality in our region. • • • This report presents some of the results of this forum. In particular, the OCEP responds to participant feedback and recommendations as to how USF can create constructive dialogue with the community about ways to build mutually beneficial relationships, as well as strengthen already existing partnerships, that address the causes, con- sequences, and best ways to reduce poverty and alleviate its symp- toms. Defining the Problem and Identifying Constraints on Provision of Services We have entered a new era for combating poverty—one of greatly increased demand for poverty related services as well as a growing scarcity of resources to meet those needs. We are in a period of new fiscal austerity that has greatly hindered efforts to alleviate these problems. Participants at our poverty forum are already well aware of these problems. They noted the negative impact that specific policies and budget cuts have had on the populations and clients they serve. Like- wise, they understand that austerity measures are straining each or- ganization’s operational and program budgets. Additionally, the ma- jority of forum participants reported that, in general, the provision of services is being harmed by a political culture and legislative language that poison the public discussion of social welfare. 4 Bridging the Apparent Divide between USF and the Community Forum participants described collaborating with USF in ways that could help bring about more systemic change. USF’s emphasis on research and scientific discovery were hailed as significant assets in the overall endeavor to improve service provision in Tampa and work to- ward reducing poverty and inequality in the region. Forum participants expressed a desire for USF to work with local service providers on the following objectives: . Identify common ground with local service providers and assist in building sustainable partnerships on areas of mutual concern. Encourage basic and applied research that will directly benefit low-income families and individuals in the region as well as those who work to improve their quality of life. Help initiate, or mediate, candid and courageous conversations about poverty and inequality with leaders and decision makers. Provide ongoing training to local service providers and primary and secondary educators using evidence-based principles, prac- tices, and research. Act as an incubator for innovative, paradigm-shifting ap- proaches to addressing poverty and inequality. Work with service providers to identify new funding sources; help make better use of current funding sources by joining community partners in advising funders on how best to allocate grant dollars based on actual community need; and help pre- serve and protect existing funding streams from exhaustion or termination. 5 Public Scholarship The university as an institution strives to be objective. This institu- tional neutrality, however, should not constrain the academic free- dom, social activism, and/or public scholarship of individual professors. Forum participants repeatedly expressed this expectation in a variety of ways. They want USF professors to: . translate research findings and scholarship into plain language so that it is more accessible to wider audiences (a process known as “knowledge translation”); . write op-ed pieces in local newspapers; . be more available to news reporters to provide expert com- mentary on the issues of the day; . develop collaborative research projects with service providers, and with more of an emphasis on application of research results in the local community; and . sit on the boards of directors of local organizations. Indeed, multiple groups expressed a strong desire for USF professors to take on the leadership role of public scholar on important social issues related to their research interests and areas of expertise, especially regarding issues of significance to the local region. Technical Assistance, Trainings, and Professional Development Forum participants spoke with nearly one voice in their request for technical assistance, trainings, and professional development. In particular, many organizations said they would like to seek assistance with doing needs assessments, program evaluations, and measuring impacts of their programs on the community. 6 Integrating Undergraduate Students in Innovative Ways Forum participants recommended that students be linked to organizations based on students’ particular interests. Once these con- nections are made, forum participants envisioned undergraduates fill- ing advocacy and direct service roles from letter writing and mobili- zation efforts to teaching parents about resources, assisting with out- reach, and tutoring, among other activities. Policy Centered Research Many forum participants called for systematic evaluation of the impact that certain policies are having locally, noting that by system- atically studying the disparate impacts of public policy, we can more effectively address the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. Action Groups Forum participants also recommended forming action groups that will “actually make something happen!” Service providers are looking to USF to help create sustainable partnerships to address poverty and inequality, as well as join the community in engaging decision makers and

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