Eleven teams of first-year students at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service completed year-long Practicum projects in partnership with public agencies, community initiatives, academic ventures, and nonprofit organizations across Arkansas during the 2019-20 academic year. The 11 projects combined to produce 8,781 hours of project-based learning.
As part of the school’s Master of Public Service degree program, first-year students earn academic credit for their work on these team-based projects. The work of this year’s teams included researching innovative solutions for maintaining infrastructure in Arkansas’ rural towns and counties, developing a statewide plan for victims of child trafficking, and assessing the impact of a pilot transportation program for individuals experiencing homelessness.
The 11 projects were selected from more than 50 applicants and were part of more than 100 field service projects completed by Clinton School students throughout the year.
Below is a closer look at each project and the corresponding research and outcomes.
Arkansas Department of Education (ADE)
Students: Nikki Anderson (Fayetteville, Ark.), Farrah Beck (Conway, Ark.), Ryan Bell (Los Angeles, Calif.), Jacob McGuire (Tuttle, Okla.)
Project Location: White County, Ark.
Anderson, Beck, Bell, and McGuire analyzed attitudes and beliefs regarding family and community engagement in Arkansas public schools. The team’s research consisted of surveys, focus groups, and interviews in order to gain a more in-depth understanding about the opinions of various stakeholders within the community, such as business owners, parents, city employees, and educators.
The project was conducted in coordination with the Arkansas Department of Education Division of Public School Accountability in order to gain an understanding of how to better foster partnerships among students, families, schools, and community assets to minimize academic, personal, social, and health barriers to student success.
The research conducted answered questions about stakeholder awareness of engagement tools through the Department of Education, as well as their underlying beliefs and attitudes about engagement with their local schools.
Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas
Students: Mac Bolt (North Little Rock, Ark.), Courtney Heptig (Fort Worth, Texas), Brittany Moody (Bentonville, Ark.), Aisosa Osaretin (Benin City, Nigeria)
Project Location: Statewide
Bolt, Heptig, Moody, and Osaretin worked to identify current trends, existing support services, and gaps in services, and recommended best practices to develop a response plan for child sex trafficking in Arkansas. In addition, information was gathered from service providers through a survey, focus groups, and interviews. The team identified three broad areas of focus that emerged from its research: care services (including housing, mental health care, and case management), education, and data collection.
Downtown Little Rock Community Development Corporation
Students: Jennifer Browne (Little Rock, Ark.), Tim Campbell (Little Rock, Ark.), Kam Gomez (Jacksonville, Fla.), Cody McKinney (Nags Head, N.C.)
Project Location: Little Rock, Ark.
Browne, Campbell, Gomez, and McKinney conducted an analysis of the assets within the Pettaway Neighborhood in Little Rock, using asset-based community development techniques.
The asset analysis was concerned with both the skills of the neighborhood residents, as well as the physical assets of the neighborhood. The team reported on how Pettaway residents feel about the development and the future direction of the neighborhood. The participants were Pettaway neighborhood residents and stakeholders. Stakeholders included Pettaway property owners and non-residents from nearby neighborhoods who frequented the area.
The Clinton School team used a survey and focus groups to obtain the requested information.
Arkansas Faith-Academic Initiatives for Transforming Health (FAITH) Network
Students: Samantha Black (Fort Smith, Ark.), Taylor Donnerson (West Memphis, Ark.)
Project Location: Little Rock, Ark.
Black and Donnerson created a toolkit and implementation plan for incorporating end-of-life planning programs in faith communities, specifically in Arkansas.
The preliminary research was conducted through a review of relevant literature to discover best practices regarding end-of-life planning programs. Secondly, phone interviews were conducted with faith leaders and organizations across the nation implementing end-of-life planning on the benefits and challenges of implementing these programs. Finally, interviews of Arkansas faith leaders were conducted to assess the toolkit and assist the team in making it culturally relevant for local congregations if necessary. Ultimately, the team created a plan for implementing Five Wishes, an advance directive that includes spiritual preferences along with medical ones.
Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub
Students: Tamara Bates (Memphis, Tenn.), Patrick Isokpunwu (Benin City, Nigeria), Michael Morrison (Van Buren, Ark.), Jacey Winn (Wynne, Ark.)
Project Location: North Little Rock, Ark.
Bates, Isokpunwu, Morrison, and Winn addressed how to grow and retain membership and improve member experiences within the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. The students conducted surveys of current and past members as well as interviews with staff and gold standard organizations across the country to ultimately provide a series of recommendations to the staff at the Hub.
Phoenix Youth & Family Services
Students: Abraham Kahasay (Clarksville, Tenn.), Corrinne McClure (Memphis, Tenn.)
Project Location: Dumas and Crossett, Ark.
Phoenix Youth and Family Services is a youth development organization working to address many systemic issues. Namely, these issues include the school to prison pipeline, racial disparities in the juvenile court system, and the poverty enveloping the Delta region of Arkansas. Phoenix works to mitigate these problems through programming targeted toward youth, families, and community stakeholders in the area.
Kahasay and McClure assisted Phoenix in collecting and analyzing the stories of program alumni, current participants, and stakeholders. This research shines a new light on Phoenix, shifts the narrative of the organization, and helps to broaden its reach within the communities it serves.
Arkansas STEM Coalition
Students: Kate Jenkins (Memphis, Tenn.), Liz Hall (North Little Rock, Ark.), Jaylin Sprout (Hope, Ark.)
Project Location: Statewide
STEM ecosystems are becoming a popular way to combine statewide STEM programs into one easily accessible information stop. Jenkins, Hall, and Sprout created a repository of existing STEM resources around the state so that families, individuals, and educators can know where and when STEM learning is taking place. This will allow the Arkansas STEM Coalition to assess the state’s current ecosystem environment. In a rural state such as Arkansas, a database of existing STEM programs in the state will create opportunities to locate existing and future gaps in access to STEM programs.
Transportation Alliance Program
Students: Cassidy Mitchell (Corning, Ark.), Katerina Noori (Chandler, Ariz.), Leslie Parker (Dierks, Ark.), Michael Webb (Overland Park, Kansas)
Project Location: Little Rock, Ark.
The Transportation Alliance Project distributes free bus passes to individuals experiencing homelessness as a method of intervention to exit homelessness. Transportation is a significant barrier preventing the homeless population from obtaining and sustaining permanent housing, maintaining employment, and accessing social services.
Mitchell, Noori, Parker, and Webb collected and analyzed qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with participating case managers, as well as current and past, or graduated, clients of the program, to measure its perceived impact.
The results of this evaluation study highlight the interdependent role transportation and case management has in overcoming homelessness.
Thea Foundation
Students: Lydia Grate (Russellville, Ark.), Connor Thompson (Little Rock, Ark.), Alec Zills (Gleason, Tenn.)
Project Location: Central Arkansas
Thea Foundation, a nonprofit organization in North Little Rock, Ark., advocates for the importance of the arts in the development of youth. Its Art Closet program aids educators in underfunded Arkansas schools by encouraging those educators to raise money for arts supplies on the Donors Choose crowdfunding platform and fulfilling up to half the full amount up front.
Grate, Thompson, and Zills conducted surveys and interviews of educators, administrators, and students in three local school districts where educators have received Arts Closet support to examine the benefits of increased access to the arts on students in Central Arkansas. Educators in Central Arkansas schools report that existing sources of funding for art materials from their schools and districts are often inadequate to meet their needs. The study also found that students with access to the arts reports increased confidence, interest in the arts beyond the classroom, and skills that are transferable to other academic and life domains.
The results of this study will be utilized by Thea Foundation for its advocacy efforts to expand investment in the arts in schools. It may also be used by the public school districts and other local stakeholders with an interest in the state of access to the arts in Central Arkansas schools.
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension
Students: Marlie Ball (Gravette, Ark.), Drew Coker (Russellville, Ark.), Brock Hyland (Waco, Texas), J. Dillon Pitts (Pearl, Miss.)
Project Location: Statewide
This report was a collaborative effort between the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension office in Little Rock, Ark. and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service Practicum team and will provide infrastructure recommendations to rural communities that have historically been forgotten and need revitalization. This revitalization can come from several different avenues, but infrastructure development can create permanent positive effects on economic and community development, giving some of these long-forgotten towns a leg up for the future.
To gather input and possible best practices recommendations, Ball, Coker, Hyland, and Pitts gathered qualitative and quantitative data from surveys and follow-up interviews with 20 elected officials from rural Arkansas communities.
Heart of Arkansas United Way
Students: Linda Dipert (Arlington, Texas), Blake Farris (Conway, Ark.), Nada Hamida (Aleppo, Syria), Baraka Kengwa (Mwanza, Tanzania)
Project Location: Pulaski County, Ark.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) represents an investment made by corporations in the relationship between a corporation and its stakeholders. This investment includes the company business activities and its contributions to improve business practices and social issues that align with the company’s core values.
Dipert, Farris, Hamida, and Kengwa evaluated the attitudes and perceptions of employees and managers towards CSR and identified the gap between practice and perception. Management interviews and surveys along with employee surveys were conducted to provide qualitative and quantitative data.
Findings show 78% of employees have some familiarity and are involved with CSR, and 21% are unfamiliar with CSR. Those employees with some familiarity with CSR have high expectations for their organization’s social responsibility. The majority of managers identified philanthropy and environment as the top two issues. Though the employees agree, they would like to see more emphasis on human services and fair trade. It was found that Pulaski County, Ark., has a limited number of corporate headquarters thereby posing a problem for local companies to make local funding decisions. Some obstacles when implementing CSR as noted by the employees are the need for a work/life balance, additional funding, and better internal communication.
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