Strengthening Connections: An Assessment of the Impacts of the Neighborhood Network Center Model on Local Partnerships

Year Awarded: 2001
Project Leaders:
Pennie Foster-Fishman, MSU Department of Psychology; Shelby Berkowitz, MSU Department of Psychology; Judy Gardi, MSU Extension-Ingham County; and Patricia Farrell, MSU University Outreach

Project Description:
Collaborative initiatives to connect schools, neighborhoods and community support systems are becoming increasingly popular as a means to support youth and enhance community capacity. While these efforts have shown positive impacts at the neighborhood level, this project will research their broader impact on developing partnerships among stakeholders and promoting systems change. A primary goal is to assess the network of relationships within the local community service system, examining how local institutions collaborate and work together.

Recent Developments: (Article from Forum, September-October 2002

Creating and Sustaining Neighborhood Networks
In an effort to build social capital, rejuvenate community vitality, and promote an active urban citizenry, five neighborhood centers in Lansing have teamed up with community service agencies and MSU faculty.

With the aid of a FACT grant, this multidisciplinary MSU team is assessing how well these neighborhood centers are creating and sustaining ties between residents and community agencies. They call the project "Strengthening Connections."

"This project seeks to further our understanding of how organizations are connected throughout the community, what structures support the sharing of information and resources across organizations, and how collaborative partnerships could be improved between community-level organizations and the local neighborhood entities such as schools, churches, and neighborhood organizations," said Shelby Berkowitz, a research team member from MSU's Department of Psychology.

Some team members have sought not only to understand the dynamics of these neighborhood centers but also have become active participants, eager for the chance to examine how well their efforts have been paying off.

"As a broker of sorts, I've brought together numerous partners who, without any formal written agreements, are creating relationships and establishing trust," said Judy Gardi, team member from MSU Extension in Ingham County.

"With the FACT grant, we have the benefit of seeing the effectiveness of these trusting relationships and deciding if we are getting the results we want."

With the study well past the design stage, the team is now collecting data for further analysis. Some preliminary data was presented at the Community Development Society Conference in July. With the majority of data and analysis still to come, members of the research team believe their work will be an important addition to the scholarship on this subject.

"FACT funding has provided the resources needed to collaboratively design this project with the community and conduct our data collection, and will continue to be useful as we move towards working with the community to understand our findings and integrate learning into practice," said Berkowitz.