2002 Award Program Applicants

Comprehensive Community Revitalization Programs

Central South Neighborhoods: Mercer University students and faculty from the college work with community members, neighborhood organizations, churches, local governments, the housing authority, schools, non-profit housing providers, social service organizations, and businesses to revitalize historic neighborhoods in Macon. Partners work together to strengthen the community through the increased ownership of affordable, high-quality housing; job training and health care programs; and mentoring and tutoring efforts in which students and faculty apply classroom knowledge to help change a neglected community.

KeyWe Housing Coalition: The city government of Valdosta works with Valdosta State University in efforts centered on neighborhood revitalization and improved housing. University faculty stress housing, community, and urban issues as major areas of research. The partners work together to plan for the systematic growth and development of the area.

Leadership Southeast Georgia: This regional leadership program brings together Georgia Southern University with citizens from nine rural counties to focus on the assets of the area and to provide training to community leaders. Workshops are held in areas of leadership skills, conflict management, team building, communication skills, and regional concerns including costal water management issues.

Morehouse College Revitalization Task Force: The Morehouse College Revitalization Task Force partners with 10 resident-based neighborhood organizations in Atlanta to build capacity in their communities through neighborhood planning, community development projects, grant writing training, access to computer networks, as well as the production of newsletters and web pages, and computer literacy training. Morehouse student interns serve as professionals in training and as community liaisons to community organizations.

Reynoldstown Revitalization Project: Southern Polytechnic University students and faculty work with local residents in the construction of arts-based facilities, including a summer theater, an artists' marketplace, a community park, and a garden designed and built on the site of a former garbage dump.

Physical and Mental Health

Archibold Medical Center Nursing Program: Darton College offers an off-campus RN program at the medical center to help meet the need for registered nurses in Thomas County and surrounding rural communities in Southwest Georgia. Nursing students complete training at the medical center, home health agencies, and in other facilities in the community where they continue to work after completing the program.

Cobb Health Partners Clinic: Cobb Health Partners Clinic provides healthcare for the homeless and disadvantaged in the area. Kennesaw State University School of Nursing works with MUST Ministries of Marietta along with the Cobb County Health Department and other partners to provide basic health services, medication, and appropriate medical and social service referrals to governmental and community agencies at no charge to the homeless, the working poor, and immigrant populations.

Relay for Life: Students, faculty, staff, and administrators from Georgia College and State University work with community members, local businesses, and the Baldwin County chapter of the American Cancer Society to plan, raise money for, and participate in the Relay for Life, an annual fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. Since the partnership began in 1998, contributions have more than tripled and participants have increased by 264 percent.

St. Stephen's Ministry HIV/AIDS Dental Care Project: St. Stephen's Ministry works with the Medical College of Georgia to provide oral health care to people with HIV/AIDS. The partnership focuses on issues including social stigmatization, limited access to dental care, financial barriers, and unusual health concerns and conditions that accompany the dental and oral health needs for people with HIV/AIDS.

Mentoring and Youth Education

Anti-Prejudice Consortium: The Anti-Prejudice Consortium works with Georgia Tech and the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University as a resource for middle schools and the community to proactively fight against prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance. In annual workshops, students and counselors from area public and private schools learn conflict resolution training and creative problem solving skills, which they use to create individual prejudice awareness programs in their schools.

Carroll County Services for Girls: The proposed program is a partnership between State University of West Georgia's Criminology Program and the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. The program will provide gender-specific services to girls who are under the supervision of the Department of Juvenile Justice or those who have been identified by the court or at school as being at-risk for delinquency. Plans include mentoring programs, life skills training, and career counseling and training.

Cool Girls: Cool Girls is an Atlanta-based non-profit organization that provides life-skills development, academic support, and technology skills programs for elementary and middle school girls in low-income neighborhoods. Programs focus on decision-making skills, academic achievement, health and wellness, and enhancing life opportunities. Faculty and students from Georgia State University's Department of Psychology work as researchers and consultants to help evaluate, plan, and expand the program.

GTEC K-12 Educational Program: Faculty and students from the Georgia Tech/Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues work with local middle and high school students and teachers in advanced study of bioengineering and bioscience. Students from the colleges make presentations at local schools and provide opportunities for hands-on learning with advanced science equipment and tissue engineering technologies. School students and teachers also visit GTEC labs for summer study camps for in-depth science and engineering training.

Emory Bigs Program: Students and alumni from Emory University work as mentors for disadvantaged elementary and middle school children involved in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta program. Students learn the value of community service and the responsibility of being a role model. Children in the program often come from single family homes and face educational challenges and language barriers.

Project Success: The project focuses on an alternative school program for at-risk youth with courses designed to improve their success in graduating from high school. Professors from Augusta State University, Paine College, and the Medical College of Georgia work with youths in a four-week summer college program. Other partners include the Augusta-Richmond County Opportunities and the Cities in Schools programs.

Post-Secondary Readiness Enrichment Program: Faculty and staff from Floyd College work with area middle and high school students to enrich academic standards and increase their college readiness skills. Activities are held throughout the year at schools and at an intensive summer camp. The program also involves school students in community volunteer work in soup kitchens, nursing homes, Habitat for Humanity sites, day care centers, and schools for children with disabilities.

Spivey-Hall Education Committee Partnership: Clayton College and State University works with community members to provide music education outreach programs throughout Metro-Atlanta. Spivey Hall, one of the Southeast's premier recital halls, provides an ideal setting for programs, including a choral workshop for middle and high school students, educational programs for orchestra students, a children's concert series, and master's classes featuring world-class performers working with area high school and college students.

Urban Debate League: Emory University's Barkley Forum works in partnership with ten public high schools and middle schools in Atlanta in an effort to make debate and its related benefits more accessible to populations that have traditionally been excluded. The goal of the program is to engage young people who could not otherwise afford to participate in debate as a means of leveling the playing field in education and to increase critical thinking skills and interest in information and computer research.

Immigrant Assistance and Literacy Programs

Alliance for Literacy: The Alliance for Literacy works to increase literacy rates in the area by promoting community efforts focused on literacy instruction, basic skills, GED preparation, English as a second language, and citizenship. The Lanier Technical College's Adult Learning Center provides free programs for adults without a high school education and for second language speakers of English. Other efforts focus on the educational needs of low-income families with young children through parenting and adult literacy programs and early childhood education classes for children.

Born to Read Literacy Program: The Augusta State University based program provides literacy services to the community including scholarships for literacy service providers and technology training for administrator, tutors, parents, and child care providers. The program targets children and adults in literacy programs so that they will learn to read, read better, and love to read.

Community Child-Care Partnership: Focusing on Spanish speaking people along the Bufford Highway corridor, the University of Georgia Extension Service works with Quality Care for Children, the United Way, and other civic groups to create accessible, affordable, quality child care for Spanish-speaking families. The partners also provide training, technical support, social networking, and other assistance for community residents to start and maintain home businesses including child care centers and work as nannies.

Live Oak Partnership: Georgia Southern University's Center for Latino Outreach and Research Services works with the Southeast Georgia Communities Project and Live Oak Migrant Education to provide educational, health, and social support services to a rapidly growing community of Hispanic families and migrant children in 38 counties. The partners provide educational programs to pre-schoolers and primary/secondary children and help migrant families meet basic needs including food, clothing, and healthcare. Georgia Southern students and staff work as mentors in community programs focused on healthcare issues, help to publicize events, and provide resources and support.

Multi-Cultural Committee Alliance: Faculty members from State University of West Georgia work with the Carroll County Community Foundation to improve literacy rates in the area. The program operates as an outreach and learning center for the immigrant population in the area, helping them to adapt and fit into the larger community while increasing community awareness of its cultural diversity.

Post-Secondary Readiness Enrichment Program: South Hall Middle School works with the Post-Secondary Readiness Enrichment Program at Gainesville College to provide a safe, structured environment where disadvantaged minority children, many of whom are second language English speakers, improve academic skills, build self-confidence, and work in community service projects. Education students from the college tutor children in the program and gain practical teaching and community involvement experience.

Georgia Project: Dalton State College works with Centro Latino, a community-based organization, and with local business leaders to meet the educational and vocational training needs of the local Latino community. Efforts include college preparatory programs for youths, as well as English languages classes for adults and children, along with regional educational seminars and workshops and academic exchange programs that bring native Spanish-speaking teachers to the area to teach in schools.

Latinos United of Carroll County:: State University of West Georgia faculty and graduate students work with members of the community, local civic and government leaders, and Latinos United of Carroll County, Inc. to coordinate and plan services for people in the marginalized Latino immigrant population. With a goal of empowering the community from within, projects focus on areas of critical concern including housing, immigration, employment, social services, and mental and physical well being.

Jobs Skills Training and Economic Development

Bread and Butter Café: The program provides culinary arts and life skills training to the area's homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless. Students are tracked after completing the program to measure their success within the program and in the community. The Bread and Butter Café is a collaborative effort between Union Mission, Inc., America's Second Harvest of Costal Georgia, and Savannah Technical College.

Cobb Microenterprise Council: Faculty from the Kennesaw State University work with the YMCA of Cobb, Cobb Family Resources, and the local United Way to help struggling women and minorities attain long-term self-sufficiency through entrepreneurship and small business development. The program includes continuing alumni support, a small business incubator, and access to a micro loan fund to launch new businesses.

Assistance for the Elderly and Disabled

People First of Georgia: The primary goal of the program is to promote self-advocacy for people with disabilities and to help them succeed in supported living and in employment. The program partners with the University of Georgia's Institute on Human Development and Disability to improve the lives of people in the community with disabilities and of their families and to advance understanding of the abilities of all people through education, research, and public service.

Gold City Nursing Home Project: North Georgia College and State University partners with Gold City Nursing Home to provide support to the staff and residents of the facility; aging-related educational experiences for students in diverse disciplines on campus; and opportunities for faculty research, practice, and community service. Projects have involved college freshmen and graduate students in physical therapy and public administration, and client care. Efforts have focused on repairs and upgrades to the facility and on supporting student activities involving staff development.

Student-Community Partnerships

Team Buzz/Reynoldstown Revitalization Project: Student, faculty, and alumni volunteers from Georgia Institute of Technology work in an annual service day to help restore the Reynoldstown community of Atlanta. Projects have included planting trees, painting houses, cleaning overgrown lots, and boarding up empty and potentially dangerous houses.

The Mural Team: This Savannah College of Art and Design student organization creates murals for non-profit organizations within Savannah and in surrounding communities. Mural themes are based on the vision of each non-profit. During the last seven years, students from the college have worked with more than 50 community organizations.

Cedar Grove Cemetery Project : Student researchers from Augusta State University work with faculty members and local government officials to reconstruct the history and contributions of African Americans to the community, to gain insight into the history of race relations in the area, and to create opportunities for greater community support and appreciation for a 200-year-old African American cemetery. Students work to make burial records accessible to family members and to make the cemetery a place of pride and comfort for family members of those buried in this historical cemetery.

University Involvement Index

Augusta State University
Clayton College and State University
Dalton State College
Darton College
Emory University
Floyd College
Gainesville College
Georgia College and State University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Southern University
Georgia State University
Kennesaw State University
Lanier Technical College
Medical College of Georgia
Mercer University
Morehouse College
Paine College
North Georgia College and State University
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah Technical College
Southern Polytechnic University
State University of West Georgia
University of Georgia
Valdosta State University