Community Partnerships
Community Partnerships: Healthy New London
A partnership with Lawrence & Memorial Hospital and the City of New London to be a catalyst within the new London community to promote health and enhance the quality of life. Faculty and students have designed, implemented and analyzed health surveys for this partnership. Teams of students, staff, faculty and community members have created and implemented a variety of community events and projects including health conferences, health fairs with free screenings, monthly lunch and learn series, parish nursing programs, downtown health trail, smoke free environment legislation, and teen pregnancy prevention initiatives. Lawrence & Memorial Hospital has allocated $100,000 a year in its annual operating budget to this initiative and numerous public and private foundations support the work.
Project Kids, Books and Athletics
A partnership among the Holleran Center, OVCS, the Connecticut College Athletic Department, the New London Public Schools and area after-school programs to address the issues of literacy and physical fitness and obesity with area children and youth. Teams of trained students travel to schools and community based organizations to lead sessions of structured exercise. The students then organize the participants into groups to share water and healthy nutrition information and read multicultural stories. The participants represent a wide and rich diversity of cultures and the project provides a positive forum for people to connect across differences. Through project KBA, the college students have the opportunity to be in an urban school environment and practice teaching and coaching skills. The middle school students in the project travel to Connecticut College each week for their KBA sessions in the College’s Athletic Center. The goals are to increase literacy and the love of reading and reduce obesity and increase physical fitness. The Community Foundation of Southeastern Connecticut has provided support to this project within its Let’s Read initiative.
Science Educators Group
This is a collaboration with the New London Public Schools that brings trained Connecticut College students into school science classrooms and after-school tutorial programs to provide innovative science education. The SEG provides outreach that benefits both public school students and undergraduate science majors, while also promoting science teaching as a career choice. Connecticut College science faculty work with the College students and they also produce science fairs that bring the local children and youth to the campus for day long science activities. Meghan Hewitt, Class of ’06, developed this project with support of a Holleran Center Social Entrepreneurial grant. The local Frank Loomis Palmer Fund also provided a grant to support this project.
The Shelter Associates
This is a collaboration led by Professor Sunil Bhatia in the Human Development Department and the Non-Governmental-Organization (NGO) Shelter Associates based in Pune, India. This project works with the urban poor, particularly women in informal settlements, to facilitate and provide technical support for slum rehabilitation and infrastructure projects. Their community toilet program has been particularly innovative and successful. The partnership develops internship placements for Connecticut College students, research opportunities for faculty/students, fundraising and education.
Last Modified: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 8:13