The Cincinnati Project (TCP) uses the social science expertise from the faculty and students at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Arts & Sciences to help disadvantaged communities and the agencies that serve them. The group’s tagline is “Working for Equity through Research.” As such, TCP conducts social research to promote economic justice, health equity, racial equality, improved conditions for women, and for other equity issues. TCP faculty engage with Cincinnati area community members, non-profits, governments and agencies to form partnerships in order to solve problems and meet the needs of the disadvantaged in the community.
The Cincinnati Project’s mission is to, “promote relationships between community partners and A&S faculty and students to produce research that directly benefits disadvantaged people in Cincinnati,” says Dr. Jennifer Malat, Director of TCP. Malat goes on to say TCP is essentially made up “matchmakers” connecting UC Arts Arts & Sciences with those who need assistance, particularly those with marginalized voices.
Some of TCP’s partners include, CAIN, Cincinnati Children’s, City of Cincinnati Health Department, Cradle Cincinnati, ReSource, YWCA, and more. “Over 200 A&S students and faculty have worked with over 20 community groups,” Dr. Malat says. TCP uses classroom-community research to help community partners.
A recent example of TCP’s work was in Communication Department course taught by Professor Shaunak Sastry during which students conducted research and prepared health communication strategy options for a local food pantry. Additionally, Leila Rodriguez, a professor from the Anthropology Department worked with Su Casa Hispanic Center to serve minors arriving from Central America through her research. Finally, Political Science’s’ Brian Calfano partnered with Iris Roley, Al Gerhardstein and others to create a survey used in the community that evaluated the Collaborative Agreement. According to Cincinnati-oh.gov, the Collaborative Agreement is a social conflict resolution policy that steers away from focus on blame when the community shares different perspectives, specifically when it comes to Police Community Relations.
According to thecincyproject.org, these types of experiences allow students to gain experience that will carry beyond the classroom. Working with the community also enriches the experience of faculty members and helps them build additional skills as professors.
The Cincinnati Project uses students and faculty to build relationships between the community and UC for mutual progress. To promote these efforts, TCP chose WordPress as a website building platform due to its ease-of-use. Unlike some enterprise-level website building platforms, a WordPress site is highly flexible and customizable. Providing guest user access is straightforward in WordPress. As TCP grows, it will be easy to expand the WordPress website to meet growing organizational needs. To learn more about TCP, you can follow them on Twitter @TheCinciProject .