Wednesday, July 28 at 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

This presentation will be led by a cohort of undergraduates engaged in the Community Research Fellowship sponsored by the University Honors College. The seven fellows will provide a Pecha Kucha style presentation highlighting their research focused on various aspects related to: Black adolescent and transition-youth mental health, an educational equity program that offers challenging exposure to a college preparation opportunity for high school students who otherwise may not have access, and lastly, food ecosystems, insecurity, and sustainability within the Pittsburgh region. These projects explore the relationship between the topical areas and systemic racism and how to create just, equitable communities. Audience members will learn how an asset-oriented approach in community partnered work can lead to the recognition of social systems that affect communities and understand the potential that engaged scholarship (and the work of their community-based collaborators) has to address inequitable policies and/or systems that impact a variety of communities. These projects provide examples to the potential role undergraduate students can have in research and evaluation projects that can demonstrate building partnerships between the university and the community to create vibrant collaborative structures related to mental health, educational equity, and food ecosystems.

Presenters

Stacie Dow

Program Manager of Student & Faculty Engagement at the University Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh

Jasmin Perrier (’22)

Measuring Mental Health Literacy Among Black Youth in Pittsburgh

The goal of this project is to conduct a survey of mental health literacy among Black youth between the ages of 12-25 throughout Allegheny County. This summer, my project for the Community Research Fellowship centered around adapting a mental health literacy measure (the MHLq) and creating a procedure for gathering qualitative data through cognitive interviews, in support of the dissertation work of my mentor from Steel Smiling, Dashawna Fussell-Ware. The overall purpose of this work is to measure the present knowledge and beliefs of Black youth concerning mental illnesses and treatment methods, with the intention of sharing the collected data directly with local community organizations. We aim to create a culturally appropriate measure that can aid in the creation of relevant mental health programming and interventions for black youth throughout the county.

Sydney Kelley (’24)

The Impact of Meaningful Community Engagement in Bridging Gaps in Education Inequality

This project explores how educational institutions can effectively develop community-engaged partnerships in a way that promotes educational equity. This research was conducted in partnership with A+ Schools, a Pittsburgh based educational equity advocacy group, and the Justice Scholars Institute, a program part of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. This project involved reviewing literature, census data, interviews, and school reports to identify sources of inequity and determine how community-engaged partnerships can play a part in reducing these inequities. The goal of this research was to determine how volunteers, faculty, and the institution as a whole can civically engage without inadvertently causing harm to the community or the community-university relationship.

Magdalena Mendez (’24)

Impact of Westinghouse Academy Involvement on Success of Justice Scholars Institute

Over the course of this summer, I have worked with the Justice Scholars Institute as my community partner, under the guidance of faculty mentors Dr. Osai and Dr. Campbell, and alongside CRF fellow Sydney Kelley. My research project is about educational inequity for Black students, factors that contribute to postsecondary student success, and how an urban college preparatory experience (like the Justice Scholars Institute) helps facilitate the college transition. I also am looking at evaluation data about the Justice Scholars Institute to help research how they can improve their very successful program.

Dylan Delapaz (’24)

Allegheny County Food Economy Analytics

Our research with Food21 consisted of two projects: Oasis Grocery Direct and the Allegheny County Food Economy Dashboard. Oasis is an online grocery initiative that brings affordable, fresh food into food-insecure areas. Caleb Shook, a fellow CRF scholar, and I interviewed the key developers to capture insights into how the project was formed. In addition, our project included adding data visualizations to the Food Economy Dashboard. Our contribution will help benchmark the findings, identify opportunities with the most potential, and expand the outreach to more regions. To help us in this process, our mentor, Sam Rose built the dashboard and guided us on how/which sectors in the food economy that need improvement.

Caleb Shook (’24)

Allegheny County Food Analytics Project

The Allegheny County Food Economy Dashboard is working to develop a dashboard of data across the food economy in Allegheny County to better understand its current state and create a benchmark for future comparison. The dashboard includes food abundance and BLS employment data alongside data on food producers, distributors, and retailers broken up by sector. Each sector includes geographic maps, profit estimates, and charts of business openings and closures over time. This forms a base of information for community organizations, food entrepreneurs, and investors to understand the current state of the food economy in Allegheny County and where the best opportunities for development, expansion and investment exist and can have the largest impact.

Amy Blanchard (’23)

Food Ecosystems Scholar Community, Mapping Major Stakeholders in Pittsburgh

My CRF summer research project focused on developing the Food Ecosystems Scholars Community. This community is intended to be a network of interested students, faculty, student organizations, and community partners, all of whom are invested in food access and food justice. Through asset mapping, literature review, and connecting with community organizations and stakeholders, this project aims to bring these different groups together. By uniting a wide range of people with a variety of viewpoints on the issues surrounding food ecosystems, the scholar community will advance and expedite meaningful university- community partnerships.

Heather Phillips (’24)

Food Ecosystems Scholar Community, Mapping Major Stakeholders in Pittsburgh

My partner this summer was the University of Pittsburgh Food Ecosystems Scholar Community and I focused on evaluating food ecosystems in the greater Pittsburgh area. Through the development of an inventory of food stakeholders, such as Food21, this project sought to create connections and cultivate opportunities for students to engage in projects that increase understanding of food ecosystems and production, sustainable food practices, and the intrinsic complexities and collaborative nature of advancing the region into a self-sustaining food ecosystem.

Aparna Ramani (‘22)

Expanding Her Voice: The Social Determinants of Substance-Use Conversation in the Health Care Setting

This summer, I am conducting a comprehensive review of patient accounts regarding their experiences with disclosure and/or management of substance-usage during their pregnancy period. This study intends to continue investigating the social stressors and social support networks of pregnant women engaging in substance-use, which allows healthcare providers to improve substance-use intervention strategies according to patient needs and refine healthcare outcomes for maternal and child health. Working alongside the Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance in which I am analyzing unmet public health needs within the Pittsburgh community, I am further investigating social implications of racial inequity at the core of human rights challenges in Pittsburgh from a human rights perspective by devising a policy report to the Gainey administration offering public health recommendations in local health policy. My community endeavors complement my ongoing understanding of racialized patterns contributing to the social determinants of health in the Greater Pittsburgh area. As I complete my project, I intend to raise awareness and contribute to equitable sociomedical in the Pittsburgh community.

Workshop Materials

CRF Diversity Forum.pptx

CRF Project One-pager.docx

Caleb - CRF_ Food Economy Dashboard.pptx

Caleb - Food Economy Dashboard Handout.pdf

Jasmin - County-wide Mental Health Literacy Survey for Black Youth.pdf

Sydney and Maggie - JSI.pdf

CRF Diversity Forum Presentation.pptx

Aparna PPT.pptx

Aparna - The Social Determinants of Substance-Use-1.png

Amy and Heather - The Western PA Food Ecosystem.pdf