| 2007-2008 CAPSTONE WORKSHOP INSTRUCTORS
"Linking students with community clients"
Candace Campbell <ccampbell@cdc-associates.com> - Green Jobs and Economy Project (PA 8081 Spring)
Designing an Economic Development Strategy for the Mayors' Initiative on
Green Manufacturing for Minneapolis & Saint Paul. The Mayors Initiative on green manufacturing is an outgrowth of the intense interest in supporting green jobs and a clean energy economy by the Mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul -- R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman. This initiative is an effort by the two mayors and a third party - the Blue Green Alliance (created by the US Steelworker and the Sierra Club) to develop and implement a plan to make the two core cities leaders in green manufacturing especially in green building products, green transportation and renewable energy. From June to December 2007, a develop team and 3 subcommittee working with course instructor and consultant, Candace Campbell, Principal of CDC Associates, have looked at market research, trends and best practices and are crafting a set of recommendations for implementation in 2008 and beyond. This Capstone will continue this work by doing further refinement, research and development on to: 1. help craft the details of a proposed JOBZ-E or GREEN ZONE(S) for a specific industrial /business park are to be delineated after analysis of land uses and existing conditions of opportunity sites in the 2 cities, including potential for each location or set of sites to meet criteria as "green site" to be proposed to the legislature or created by actions of both of the city councils to encourage green manufacturing in each city, 2. design a detailed plan for the development and implementation of financial products and other development assistance that would be made available to green manufacturers in each city meeting particular criteria, 3. assist in the further development of a targeted marketing plan for specific industry segments specified by the Mayors' Initiative in the final
report in December 2007, 4. conduct an analysis of the workforce capacity, needs, gaps and development strategy related to selected "green industries."
Anne Carroll <carrfran@qwest.net> - Minnehaha-Hiawatha Corridor Visioning(PA 8081 Spring)
The student team will support the public involvement work for the Minnehaha-Hiawatha Corridor Visioning project; the client is the Hennepin County Department of Housing, Community Works, and Transit.
Gary DeCramer <gdecramer@umn.edu> - Political Advocacy in the Public Interest (PA 8081 Fall)
Kathy Fennelly <fenne007@umn.edu> - Refugee Resettlement (PA 8081 Spring)
World Relief is a member of a consortium of organizations that have individual contracts with the Department of Human Services to do employment counseling and job placement for newly-arrived refugees. The purpose of this Workshop is to help the organization evaluate its employment program, recommend new strategies that would be likely to increase the rate of successful job placements, and to suggest possible sources of external funds for their work. Students will interview refugees, staff of resettlement agencies and experts in the field of refugee resettlement.
Lee W. Munnich, Jr. <munni001@umn.edu> and Kris Nelson <nelso193@umn.edu> - Economic and Community Development (PA 8081 Spring)
Kris Nelson and Lee Munnich will be offering an economic and community development capstone workshop during the 2008 Spring Semester. In the past Humphrey students have expressed interest in a capstone workshop focused on industry clusters. For the upcoming capstone they will use Michael Porter's Harvard course on "Microeconomics of Competitiveness: Firms, Clusters and Economic Development" with a team project focused on an analysis of a state economy and industry cluster within that state. The clients for these cluster projects will be state economic development agencies. So far, North Dakota, Wyoming and Washington states have signed up as clients. It is also possible that a team might do an international project if an appropriate client can be lined up within a country, and there are a sufficient number of students interested in forming a team around that country.
Joe Nathan <jnathan@umn.edu> - Education Issues (PA 8081 Spring)
An Education Capstone beginning in January, 2008 will deal with two major issues. Humphrey Institute students participating in this capstone will have the opportunity to select among these two projects. For more information, please contact Joe Nathan, jnathan@umn.edu 1. The impact of a college scholarship program for low income students, in cooperation with the Optimist Club in St. Paul, and 2. Policies and procedure related to educating English language learners, and awarding of course credit for students learning English, in cooperation with a number of high school students and Children/Family Services College Scholarship Project: Preliminary discussions with the Optimist Club have produced these tentative questions for examination via surveys of students who received college scholarships. (These questions will be refined by HHH students) 1)Do you remember receiving a scholarship from the Optimist Club of St Paul's "Youth Appreciation" program? If so can you tell us about what this meant to you? 2) How has your pursuit of education helped you and your family? If so how? 3) If you had not received scholarship awards from groups like the Optimist Club would you have been able to pursue your education? Can you talk about how these awards made a difference? 4) What are you most proud of when you think about your education achievements and where do you hope your education takes you? English Language learning project: Do several area school districts have written plans for the education of English language learners? What are the implications of their plans (or lack of) for students and schools (i.e. segregation, meeting graduation requirements, school success, anddisparities in success when compared to other students)? Are their plans (or lack of) legal? Have other options for educating English language learners been proven successful by other districts/schools? New immigrant students involved in our School Change Action Committee want to receive credit for proficiency in their first language, which may include taking classes or testing for credit. Have any schools developed successful models for this? What are the benefits (or pitfalls if any) to the students when such models are incorporated into their education?
Jodi Sandfort <sandf002@umn.edu> - Nonprofit-Government Relationships (PA 8081 Spring)
Project #1: Ramsey County Workforce Solutions (http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/workforce/index.htm)** In 2003, Ramsey County Workforce Solutions' research identified significant disparities in employment, sanction, and exit rates for African American participants involved in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP). To increase the effectiveness of services in addressing these disparities, Ramsey County went to African American community elders for guidance. Their work resulted in the Self-Determination Kujichagulia Project, which is a unique partnership with the Powderhorn Phillips Cultural Wellness Center (CWC) to provide culturally specific services to African American MFIP clients. Although, traditionally, Ramsey County uses a 'top-down' approach to partnerships, the Kujichagulia Project represents a fundamentally different way for government to partner with the community. In this project, the consulting team will increase the overall learning for both the non-profit and government participants. Research will explore why and how the welfare system creates disparities, document the formation of the partnership, delineate program theory, and recommend feasible evaluation methodologies.
Project #2: Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (http://www.melf.us/) In 2005, the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) was created through a partnership of leaders from the foundation, corporate and civic sectors to address growing concerns about the lack of school readiness among many children entering kindergarten. MELF makes investments into various early childhood programs and evaluates what works best and most cost-effectively in promoting learning readiness among children of low-income families. MELF's approach is to take a 'systems look' at the early childhood learning and education field in Minnesota. Researchers from U of M are conducting the formal evaluation of MELF-funded programs; however, many questions remain about the current public funding systems and how they can be aligned to support the replication of program innovations on a larger scale. In this project, the consulting team will undertake such research about Minnesota's system of funding early education and care. Starting from conditions that support parents and nurture children's development, the research will make recommendations of how the existing system can be redesigned to maximize positive impacts for families.
Project # 3: Affirmative Options Coalition (http://www.affirmativeoptions.org/) Affirmative Options is a statewide coalition of more than 50 organizations who work on policy advocacy focused on creating opportunities for women, men and children to move out of poverty. To this end, Affirmative Options would like the consulting team assistance on two, related, projects. The first, focuses on the frontlines of the welfare system and documents the extent to which workers are devoting time to monitoring the behavior of low-income families. The analysis will focus on costing out this activity, documenting the core challenges parents face when trying to get and keep jobs, and examining how the system addresses those challenges. This will form the basis of a briefing to Minnesota's congressional delegation who is responsible for oversight of federal rules imposed in 2006. The second, focuses on interviews with key Minnesota leaders about the history of the state's low poverty rates and innovative public policies. This research will form the basis of a report to the members of the state Legislative Commission to End Poverty Commission, members of our Coalition and the broader public.
Joan Elizabeth Wilson <ewilson@umn.edu> - Climate Change and Technology (PA 8081 Spring) |
