Chicago Department of Public Health
(Winter 2018 - Winter 2019)
This project is an evaluation of an expandable and replicable private/public partnership pilot project to maximize health care coordination for pregnant and parenting mothers residing in supportive housing, a population that has experienced the complex health impact of homelessness. This is in collaboration among Housing Opportunities for Women (HOW), the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL). The program evaluation completed by CURL is a key component of this pilot project by HOW and CDPH. The evaluation is trifold: (1) to understand the process a public health entity engages in to secure coordination with a private non-profit supportive housing agency; (2) to understand nuances of care coordination for moms, infants and toddlers within this context and (3) to study the impact of infant and toddler-focused health education services provided within a supportive housing environment.
Research Team:
T. Neumann, CURL
C. George, CURL
T. Latimer, Undergraduate Fellow
L. McCauley, Undergraduate Fellow
K. Williams, Undergraduate Fellow
I. Abbott, Undergraduate Fellow
Community Partners:
The Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) collaborated with The Sargent Shriver National Center for Poverty Law (Shriver Center) to collect stories from parents and early childhood education providers to better understand their perspectives and experience of publicly funded early childhood services in the state of Illinois.
Read More
CURL is performing research and evaluation for HEART Women & Girls’ 2017 initiative. The initiative is composed of a series of trainings for Muslim college students and student leaders on up to five college campuses. The students will come together to understand sexual violence, learn how to support victims, and develop victim-centric approaches, polices, and best practices that address and prevent sexual violence in student organizations.
Read More
The Greater Roseland West Pullman Food Network (GRWP) is developing a sustainable model to address food insecurity in the Roseland and West Pullman communities, with the Greater Roseland Sustainability Initiative (GRSI). The GRSI is a collaboration between community, university, and business partners utilizing urban agriculture and social enterprise to increase access to fresh produce, improve STEM skills, and prepare youth for a “green collar” economy.
Read More
Chicago's Fifth House Ensemble (5HE) partners with local non-profits to offer music education residencies to vulnerable populations throughout the city. Recent residencies include Teen Living Programs, a homeless youth services provider; Deborah's Place, homeless women services provider; and Nancy B. Jefferson Alternative High School, an alternative school located within the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. The Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) and Brian L. Kelly of Loyola University Chicago, School of Social Work, are working together to evaluate the benefits of these residencies, by measuring their effects on participants' mental health, professional skills, engagement with the community, and other dimensions of social and personal life.
Read More
Chicago Public Schools launched the Global Citizenship Initiative (GCI) in 2012-2013. GCI provides rigorous curriculum aligned with high standards, supports high quality pedagogy that meets the needs of diverse learners and reflects best practices in civic education, and generates multiple external learning opportunities throughout the city of Chicago.
Read More
CURL started an evaluation partnership with Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) focusing on their recently awarded multi-year grant from the Kellogg Foundation. The process evaluation examines the implementation of COFI’s parent leadership program - Family Focused Organizing - in four Illinois communities that are building collaborations to improve access to and quality of early learning programs. Family Focused Organizing develops parents as leaders in their communities so they may advocate on behalf of themselves, their families, and their communities.
Read More
The purpose of this proposed research is to develop specific strategies for using whole school climate prevention to support the morale of staff when experiencing unexpected change which increases teacher’s stress and may have a negative impact on student’s learning. These findings will be the result of a mixed method study of an urban middle school that was targeted for downsizing in a large urban district and is now implementing school-wide prevention for behavior problems.
Read More
