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Programs

Community Development, Health, and Human Rights

The Swearer Center is working with Making Connections, a collaborative effort to build resident leadership and community capacity in Providence, and develop a strategy that would engage Brown students and faculty in this work. Making Connections Providence (MCP) is a ten-year initiative (now in its sixth year) funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation . The initiative focuses on low-income, multi-cultural neighborhoods in South Providence, the West End, and Elmwood. These neighborhoods are among the most diverse in Rhode Island and among the most economically depressed areas in the state. The goal of MCP is both neighborhood development and child/family support.

One component of this initiative is to offer Community Grants to Making Connections Providence Residents to carry out the mission and strategies of MCP. The focus areas of this grant project are geared towards art, education and healing, Brown students will be instrumental in implementing educational strategies specifically geared towards the CHAPPS (Children Healthy and Prepared to Succeed in School) Result Team strategies of MCP. Our target population is elementary school children grades K thru 6.

The Jubilee Career Center for the Performing Arts, a non-profit after-school organization, was created to bring Education, Art, and Healing to inner-city children and their families. We work to build the confidence and competence of children, positively impacting their social, emotional, intellectual and physical well-being, with a focus on their overall growth and development. Through various collaborations and social networks, families receive free high quality after-school programming, education, and exposure to the cultural arts and inner-healing.

The Swearer Center is sponsoring a paid internship, consisting of teaching and learning, working directly with Jubilee and Making Connections to provide overall organizational support and supplementary literacy instruction to elementary school children in the area of reading, writing and/or math. For more info, please contact: Judy Perry, Director, @ 868-8129

Another program to come out of this effort is a financial literacy program, MONEY SMART KIDS CLUBS.

John Hope Settlement House is a collaborating partner with MCP in the “Family Financial Success” Initiative. Part of this effort is financial literacy training for children and youth. The Money Smart Kids Clubs Program is based on a financial education curriculum developed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a K-12 curriculum developed by Citigroup Financial Services. Beginning in the 2007-2008 school year, Swearer Center volunteers will deliver the financial literacy curriculum at three local sites. Coordinator: Claudia DeCesare
Contact: Claudia_Decesare@Brown.EDU

Other Swearer Center Community Development, Health, and Human Rights programs include:

PROJECT FOR HIV/AIDS SITE-BASED EDUCATION (PHASE) / DOMESTIC ABUSE ADVOCACY PROJECT (DAAP)

Project for HIV/AIDS Site-based Education (PHASE) and Domestic Abuse Advocacy Project (DAAP) work collaboratively with community-based organizations that provide HIV/AIDS and domestic abuse prevention/education to adolescents and young adults. Volunteers are trained to implement and develop curricula in various locations, with the guidance and supervision of professionals. Coordinators: Jessica Ratner, Daniela Rodriguez DaSilva
Contact: Jessica_Ratner@brown.edu

AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVOCACY and ACTION (AHAA)

AHAA is a student think tank devoted to addressing the affordable housing crisis in Rhode Island. Members meet every week for 1-3 hours with elected officials, heads of NGOs, service providers, and other relevant people at sites on and off College Hill. At the end of the semester, the group both sponsors events for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week and produces a report for at least one relevant agency in Providence, the content of which will be determined by the group. This semester’s focus is the broad but critically important idea of homelessness prevention. Coordinator: Fiona Heckscher
Contact: Fiona_Heckscher@brown.edu

HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE EVERYWHERE (HOPE)

Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE) grew out of a 2004 Break Project and has as its mission building solidarity with the homeless community in Rhode Island. Students engaged with HOPE work closely with People to End Homelessness to support their advocacy efforts. HOPE participants also provide direct service to soup kitchens, shelters and other community agencies and help support the Street Sights Newspaper. Coordinators: Megan Smith, Christopher Mendez
Contact: Megan_C_Smith@brown.edu; Meghan_Phillip@brown.edu; HOPE@brown.edu

GO! KIDS

Go! Kids is an obesity prevention program that works in collaboration with Head Start, utilizing the parent and children curricula of the Children’s Aid Society. Through a year long series of lessons, the program seeks to convey the most crucial aspects of obesity prevention, including: how and why we need to eat the various food groups, portion sizes, listening to your body, exercise, body image, the food pyramid, shopping for affordable and healthy food, and the importance of drinking water. Coordinators: Alex Peyser, Sarah Garcia
Contact: Alexander_Peyser@brown.edu; Sarah_Garcia@brown.edu

PROVIDENCE ALLIED CPR EDUCATION

PACE provides low cost CPR education in collaboration with volunteer instructors and community organizations in Providence. The project stresses the benefits of health and youth leadership development in their teaching. Coordinators: Joshua Teitelbaum, Ruby Shah
Contact: Joshua_Teitelbaum@brown.edu; Ruby_Shah@brown.edu