DARAJA
Appendix E: Proposal for New Initiatives (Complete for each new initiative)
Audience: Deans/Unit Administrators, PRBC, Foundation, Grants Committee, College Budget Committee
Purpose: A “New Initiative” is a new project or expansion of a current project that supports our Strategic
Plan. The project will require the support of additional and/or outside funding. The information you
provide will facilitate and focus the research and development process for finding both internal and
external funding.
How does your initiative address the college's Strategic Plan goal, or significantly improve student
learning?
1. Provide more opportunities for staff and students to participate in local and statewide Umoja
events and other culturally based field trips and service activities.
Daraja students have played a key role at Umoja conferences as workshop presenters, organizers,
and peer-led discussion leaders. The conferences promote personal and professional selfdevelopment with a specific emphasis on African-American history, social issues specific to the black
community with an emphasis on critical thinking and civic responsibility. Participants also gain
strong communication skills resulting from formal and informal discussions with peers and faculty.
We also hope to expose our students to more African/African-American centered events, such as
plays, museums, and community based events that promote greater self-esteem and a stronger
cultural identity. For instance, in the fall, students were fully engaged in a community mapping
project. They visited various agencies in their communities, collected key information, and
presented group projects. With adequate funding, we hope to develop this project into full servicelearning projects in the spring semester. By participating in these and other community events, our
students will continue to gain skills that align with our College Wide Learning Goals, especially those
critical areas related to developing the whole person and learning to be informed citizens.
2 Provide culturally sensitive learning support for students who struggle with writing challenges.
As a college, we can no longer ignore the challenges some students of color face when
attempting to produce quality writing using standard academic English. Most students in the
Daraja community are familiar with the conventions of standard English and manage to perform
well, but a significant number students in our community bring language patterns from home,
their individual forms of spoken English, informal language patterns from music, and other
harder to identify models that are appropriate in some situations but problematic when
attempting to write college-level prose. This request aligns with the College Wide Learning Goal
which addresses our common purpose as a college to produce thoughtful speakers and writers.
By offering culturally sensitive learning support, we hope to reduce and eventually eliminate the
stigma some students face as a result of their language usage.
Occupy Study Space initiative
We are working out a full-scale “study culture” initiative for next year. This will aim to move the
atmosphere up in EOPS from “kicking it” to “studying together”. We will utilize all the office hours
and 115 sections from our instructors, as well as library spaces and librarian expertise to
accomplish this. This will require all hands on deck to pull it off, meaning all the student assistants,
faculty and staff of the Daraja Project will need to be active and attentive to this shift to a “study
culture.” And it will take coordination with the staff in EOPS, Puente, the TRIO programs and the
library. In order for this endeavour to take hold, we will have to make a very coordinated and
concerted effort.
What is your specific goal and measurable outcome?
1. Attending conferences and culture-based field trips
To provide an opportunity for all students and staff to attend regional conferences and other
events by providing funds for conference fees, meals, and transportation.
2.
Writing Workshops/Learning Support for writers of Non-standard English
a. Collaborate with the English Department to design Writing Workshops for native speakers
of English who use non-standard forms.
b. Collaborate with the Learning Connection to identify WRAC tutors who have completed
English Grammar 107 and who have the expertise to support students who require
culturally sensitive support for grammar/usage problems.
What is your action plan to achieve your goal?
Activity (brief description)
Target
Required Budget (Split out
Completion personnel, supplies, other
Date
categories)
How will you manage the personnel needs? I
can’t check the boxes below, they
uncheck every time I move the cursor to a new spot. We need a fulltime counselor coordinator.
New Hires:
Faculty # of positions 1 Classified staff # of positions
Reassigning existing employee(s) to the project; employee(s) current workload will be:
Covered by overload or part-time employee(s)
Covered by hiring temporary replacement(s)
Other, explain
At the end of the project period, the proposed project will:
Be completed (onetime only effort)
Require additional funding to continue and/or institutionalize the project
(obtained by/from):
Will the proposed project require facility modifications, additional space, or program relocation?
No
Yes, explain:
Will the proposed project involve subcontractors, collaborative partners, or cooperative agreements?
No
Yes, explain:
Do you know of any grant funding sources that would meet the needs of the proposed project?
No
Yes, list potential funding sources: