2024 Workshops and Features

Deans' Panel (9:15 to 10:30 a.m.)

Senior administrators often must consider many points of interest and investment as part of their responsibilities to recruit, appoint, and retain high-quality hires and students, create business plans that are sustainable and successful, and enact forward-looking vision and goals.

This session highlights the perspectives of four University of Pittsburgh deans on what is the current state of community-engaged scholarship at Pitt, the challenges in highly-engaged academics moving at the speed of relationships, and what we must aspire to do and be in order to reach the depth and complexity of engaged scholarship that is best suited to address the complex, multi-faceted challenges facing our communities.

Panelists:

• Anthony Delitto, Dean, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
• Adam Leibovich, Bettye J. and Ralph E. Bailey Dean, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and the College of General Studies
• Maureen Lichtveld, Dean, School of Public Health
• Carissa Slotterback, Dean, School of Public and International Affairs

Moderator: Lina Dostilio, Vice Chancellor, Engagement and Community Affairs

Plenary Session (10:45 to 11:30 a.m.)

Empowering Black Families: Community-Led Mindfulness and Racial Socialization for Parental Healing and Resilience

Recent years brought to light the immense challenges and enduring traumas for Black parents due to systemic injustices like pandemic disparities, police violence, and various structurally oppressive forces. There is also a profound absence of evidence-based resources intentionally tailored to help Black caregivers navigate racialized parental stress and the recurring impacts of racism on themselves and their children.

In response, the Race and Youth Development team at Pitt’s Center on Race and Social Problems partnered with two other community organizations—Awaken Pittsburgh and Homewood Children’s Village—to integrate their resources and infrastructure to establish Mindful Connections for Black Families (MCBF). MCBF exists at the intersection of racial justice, human development, and mindfulness and equips caregivers with tools for resilience, stress management, trauma identification, and raising thriving Black youth. This session provides an interactive platform to explore community-led initiatives, shared leadership, and problem-solving in Black family empowerment and community resilience, using MCBF as a case study to foster healing and disrupt cycles of oppression.

Plenary Speaker: James Huguley, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, Chair, Race and Youth Development Resource Group (RaYDR), Center on Race and Social Problems, University of Pittsburgh

Additional Presenters:

• Monica Henderson, Research Coordinator, Race and Youth Development Research Group, Center on Race and Social Problems, School of Social Work
• Walter Lewis, President & CEO, Homewood Children’s Village
• Brandon Phillips, Parenting While Black Community Co-Facilitator, Pittsburgh Public Schools
• Stephanie Romero, CEO, Awaken Pittsburgh

Keynote Session (11:45 a.m.)

Join Erin McDonald, Lead for the Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, for her keynote session at the 2024 Community Engaged Scholarship Forum.

Keynote Speaker: Erin McDonald, Lead, Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience Plan, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health

Workshop Block 1 (1:45 to 2:30 p.m.)

Special Session with Erin McDonald

Join 2024 CESF keynote presenter Erin McDonald, Lead for the Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, for a small group work session with local leaders to dig into the Vital Conditions framework, as well as additional information on how cross-sector collaborations across the country have been able to advance community resilience and well-being through multisolving. Join us and consider how your organization can serve as a catalyst to greater interagency coordination and action in Southwestern Pennyslvania.

Presenter: Erin McDonald, Lead, Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience Plan, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health
Facilitator/Moderator: Jamie Ducar, Assistant Vice Chancellor of The Engaged Campus, Office of Engagement and Community Affairs

Engagement in Community-based Participatory Research: Strategies and Lessons Learned

Community engagement is critical to community-based research projects, particularly community level intervention research. However, achieving genuine engagement in research projects can be challenging. This session will focus on strategies for community engagement in our county-wide violence prevention project: Community Thriving: Enhancing Resiliency of Communities after Stress and Trauma (ReCAST).  ReCAST is a collaboration between the School of Social Work, The Pittsburgh Study and the Department of Pediatrics, and community partners at the county level (UrbanKind Institute and Neighborhood Resilience Project) and community level (currently, Community Forge in Wilkinsburg and Operation Better Block in Homewood).

In this session we will focus on community engagement strategies for our county-wide Steering Committee which provides overall guidance for the ReCAST project, and for our Collective Efficacy Intervention that is being implemented in 10 neighborhoods over five years. Our project uses community-based participatory research methods that involve collaborative efforts between multi-sector stakeholders who gather and use research to build on the strengths and priorities of the community (Wallerstein, Duran, Oetzel, & Minkler, 2018). Our CBPR methods are illustrated in the roles for community partners and residents in our project. In each neighborhood site, our project is guided by a Community Advisory Board that includes a community-based partner and three residents who work as community facilitators.

Presenters:

• Mary L. Ohmer, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, Co-PI, ReCAST
• Tracey Joiner, Director of Community Health and Support, Neighborhood Resilience Project
• Zinna Scott, Homewood resident, Community Facilitator and Steering Committee Member, ReCAST
• Theresa Jenks, West Side resident, Community Facilitator and Steering Committee Member, ReCAST
• Community Partner, ReCAST

Workshop Block 2 (2:45 to 3:30 p.m.)

Pitt Horizon Scholars: Broadening Horizons While Empowering Youth

The Pitt Horizon Scholars program is an emerging initiative designed to provide comprehensive support to youth and young adults who have experienced the foster care system, guiding them to and through their educational journey at Pitt.

This collaborative effort to shape a Campus Support Program for the Horizon Scholars is led by the Office of the Provost University Educational Outreach Center, in conjunction with the School of Social Work, the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid and many others. This program aims to tackle the distinctive challenges that impede the persistence, retention, and post-secondary completion of Horizon Scholars. The Horizon Scholars program builds from ongoing national requirements and efforts with the Fostering Success Initiative as well as existing programming at Pitt to facilitate access to Pitt and to provide supports through college.

The Pitt Horizon Scholars panel will raise awareness about the program to foster support and collective action to ensure the academic success of potential and current Pitt students within the foster care system.

Moderator: Daren A. Ellerbee, Director, Educational Outreach Center
Introduction: Betsy Farmer, Dean, School of Social Work
Panelists:

• William Battle, Educational Liaison, Department of Human Services
• Xavier Littlejohn, Program Assistant, Educational Outreach Center; Current Horizon Scholar
• Helen Cahalane, Principal Investigator Child Welfare Education and Research Programs, School of Social Work
• Cindy McCarthy, Horizon Scholars Endowment; Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Human Genetics, School of Public Health
• Mary Rose “Rosie” Hogan, Pathway Development & Outreach Coordinator, Educational Outreach Center

Partnering Globally to Achieve Better Outcomes Locally

The University of Pittsburgh has engaged in strategic partnership with Newcastle University (UK) that includes a focus on inclusive innovation in university-led innovation districts.

In 2023, Pitt faculty and community partners from Hazelwood traveled to the UK to learn from colleagues in Newcastle, particularly around the Newcastle Health Innovation Neighborhood. In 2023, Pitt and Newcastle researchers are expanding the partnership to explore connections with universities in the Global South. 

This project highlights the ways in which universities can mobilize global partnerships and international networks to achieve better outcomes for hyper-local (neighborhood) projects.

Presenters:

• Sabina Deitrick, University of Pittsburgh
• Heidi Ward, University of Pittsburgh
• Louise Kempton, Newcastle University (joining remotely)
• Dr. Danielle Davis, Davis Consulting Solutions

Workshop Block 3 (3:45 to 4:30 p.m.)

Community-based Participatory Research and Praxis at the Nexus of Food, Water, and Energy Justice in Puerto Rico

This project consists of community-based participatory research and practice in the community of Corcovada, Puerto Rico, where recurrent climatic and non-climatic hazards, including hurricanes, earthquakes, and pandemics, create complex risks across interconnected food, energy, and water (FEW) systems.

Our research-community partnership maps community social capital, co-develops and validates a survey on community health risks and vulnerabilities, and engages in a participatory budgeting process where the community has direct involvement and decision-making power over project funding allocation.

The project continues to sustain and deepen relationships with the community of Corcovada by identifying resources that community members can draw from to exercise agency and make decisions on a program best suited to improve their community’s public health needs. Ultimately, by utilizing this bottom-up, community-centered approach, we seek to support community cohesion, reduce FEW-related public health risks following disasters, and strengthen community resilience.

Presenters:

• Fernando Tormos-Aponte, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
• Anaís Roque, Co-PI, Ohio State University
• Corcovada community leaders

Realizing Regional Resilience: Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative

A cross-disciplinary group of University of Pittsburgh students will collaborate with the Fayette County Cultural Trust (FCCT) and other key stakeholders in developing a county-wide asset map and recommendations toward sustainable economic development.

The project builds upon last year’s work to address the so-called “brain-drain” that greatly affects the Appalachian region, as the capacity of the region to remain economically competitive suffers with the outmigration of skilled human capital.

Presenters:

• David Sanchez, Assistant Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Associate Director, Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation
• Bryan Schultz, Director of International Programs, Pitt Business
• Kristin Kanthak, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
• Michael Glass, Director, Urban Studies Program
• Fayette County Cultural Trust
• Uniontown city and community leaders