Engaged College Newsletter
Thoughts from Dean Grant
As the 2015-2016 academic year comes to an end, CCPS
has a lot to celebrate. This past year, we embraced and
showcased our recognition as an engaged college. Our
websites, newsletters, and media coverage highlighted
just a small portion of the outstanding work you have
done in teaching, service, evaluation, scholarship,
training, consulting, and mentoring students. I want to
express my appreciation for all CCPS faculty, staff and
PSS for your combined efforts to support and transform
our college. I also want to recognize and thank our
student workers and GAs for all your hard work.
For our returning students, we are excited to continue
this journey with you. For our graduates, we know you
are
prepared to
create opportunities, elevate the
discussion, and lead by example. Please keep us updated
on
your
journey.
I want to thank each of you for being a Laker for a
Lifetime.
In this Issue:
Thoughts from Dean Grant
Faculty Spotlight - Lisa Sisson (HTM)
Engaged Service - Students Leaving A Mark (SPNHA)
Engaged Students - Spotlight on Graduate Students
Engaged Scholarship - Student Consultants Use Visual
Analytics to Identify Food Insecure Areas for Feeding
America West Michigan
Engaged Teaching - Blue Courage
Upcoming Events
Faculty Spotlight
Lisa Sisson
(Assistant Professor in the Hospitality and Tourism Management
Department)
Lisa Sisson and her team, including Melissa Harrington (Director
of Fulton Street Farmers Market), Betty Mills (Graduate
Assistant), and Tiffany Paige (Community Outreach Catholic
Charities West Michigan), presented an idea at the 5x5
competition held by Grand Valley State University. 5 teams were
given the opportunity to present their ideas in a 5 minute pitch,
which were voted on by 5 judges, who awarded $5,000 to the
winning
team.
"The Heartside community has very high levels of food insecurity,
meaning they don’t have access to food that will fit their
nutritional needs,” Sisson said. “About 76 percent of the people in
the neighborhood we interviewed experience hunger and food
deprivation. It’s considered a food desert by the USDA, meaning
there is low access to food and low income levels in the
neighborhood." Sisson said the prize money will be used to help
purchase a cargo van to collect and distribute food to residents in
the greater Grand Rapids community, and to increase distribution
throughout the year. Since 2014, Heartside Gleaning Initiative
(HGI) has collected donations from farmers and provided,
without charge, more than 37,000 pounds of fresh produce, which
amounts
to
Q:
more
What
than
50,000
servings.
influenced
your
idea?
A: I have always been familiar with the biblical concept of
gleaning so when Marge Parmelee, Executive Director of Degage
Ministries, talked about a couple who had gleaned from the Fulton
Street Farmers Market, before their retirement, and provided the
produce to Degage I thought this was something I could do. I was
quickly overwhelmed with the amount of produce donated and
decided
Q:
to
How
make
did
you
it
put
a
your
formal
program.
team
together?
A: I have been doing research and service in the Heartside
Community since 2007 and have developed relationships with
many people in the neighborhood, as well as people interested in
food access throughout Grand Rapids. The summer before I began
putting the team together I attended a Strategic Doing workshop
at the Johnson Center hosted by the CCPS Office of Community
Engagement. I implemented many of the ideas learned at this
workshop
Please
to
click
pull
on
together
the buttons
people
I
below for
already
knew.
more
details.
5x5
Heartside Gleaning Initiative
Grand Valley Lanthorn - HGI
Engaged Service
Students Leaving A Mark
This past March, students from PA 380 (Community Based
Learning) and Students Leaving a Mark (SLAM) traveled to Biloxi,
Mississippi to participate in their annual service learning trip.
SLAM is a student organization focused on providing its members
service and leadership opportunities. Many members of SLAM are
students pursuing degrees in Public, Nonprofit and Health
Administration. This year, the group was lead by: Anne London,
Senior Academic Advisor in the College of Community and Public
Service Undergraduate Advising Center (CCPS-UAC); Quincy
Williams, Program Coordinator for the School of Public,
Nonprofit and Health Administration; Megan Coburn, CCPS-UAC
Graduate
Student;
Jeff
Sykes,
Disability
Support
Resource Advisor; and Veda Hodges, Office Coordinator for the
College
of
Education.
The 24 students and 5 staff who participated in the trip began
their week by assisting residents at the Santa Maria del Mar
Retirement Community. Many of these residents do not have
consistent income and rely on assistance provided by Hands on
Mississippi, a local nonprofit. Students worked with Hands on
Mississippi staff to sort, box and deliver over 5,000 pounds of
donated food items to 170 Santa Maria del Mar residents.
Students were then invited back the next day to sit with the
residents and enjoy coffee, donuts, and good company.
In addition to working with the Santa Maria del Mar Community,
students assisted with preparing a community garden for
planting, cleaned out a local bayou still containing debris from
Hurricane Katrina, painted at the Jefferson Davis Museum, aided
a family who had experienced a home fire, and assisted RSVP
(Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) with construction of a
clothing and food pantry. The week also included a trip to the Civil
Rights Museum in Memphis Tennessee, as well as sampling
culinary
treats
from
the
south,
nightly
reflection,
and
teambuilding activities. In the words of Austin Hunt (SLAM
President, 2016-2017), “we went in with the same goals as we do
every year: give as much help back to the local community as we
can in that short week, broaden our cultural experiences and
witness the local life at ground level, and to bond as a group of
friends that are sacrificing their potential week on the beach to do
something
bigger
and
more
noble
than
ourselves.”
Link to the SLAM Facebook Page
Engaged Students
Spotlight on Graduate Students
With the 2015-2016 school year coming to an end, we wanted to
acknowledge some of the many students who have demonstrated
excellence in various graduate programs offered within the
College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State
University.
Graduate Students that Received the Graduate Dean's
Citation Awards Winter 2016:
Colin Cumming - Graduate Student
in Master of Public
Administration program, received a "Service to Community or
Profession"
Award
Kari Oliver - Graduate Student in Master of Criminal
Justice program, received "Excellence in the Degree Program"
Award
Represented the School of Social Work in the Graduate
Showcase
2016:
Mallory McFarren, Ken Ford, and Ouen Hunter
-
Represented the School of Social Work with their work on
the Impact of the Frequency of Simulation Center Trainings on
Social Work Students' Interviewing Performance
Engaged Scholarship
Student Consultants Use Visual Analytics to Identify Food
Insecure Areas for Feeding America West Michigan
Through
the
School
of
Public,
Nonprofit
and
Health
Administration (SPNHA)Student Consulting Center (Center),
student consultants Blake Ferris and Mary Jo Beeby worked with
Professor Stephen Borders also of SPNHA to identify areas likely
to suffer from food insecurity for Feeding America West Michigan
(FAWM). The Center is a faculty led, student centered program
designed to provide healthcare and nonprofit organizations in
Michigan the opportunity to work together in solving real-life
challenges.
In the Winter 2016 semester, FAWM entered into an agreement
with the Center to provide analytical and Geographic Information
Services (GIS) services of the 40 county service area. Using data
from the American Community Survey, the student consultants
analyzed potential indicators of food insecurity, such as poverty,
households without a vehicle, unemployment and those with
limited English proficiency. Analyzing data at the Census Tract
level permitted the two to drill down within each county to
identify areas with particularly acute needs. A Census Tract
has between 1,200 and 8,000 people. In Kent County, there are
128 Census Tracts. In addition, the student consultants also
geocoded the location and amount of food FAWM distributed to
local
food
pantries
over
the
past
year.
The student consultants’ analysis resulted in a series of online
maps, such as this map of Kent County depicting the poverty rate
by each Census Tract and the pounds of food distributed to each
pantry during 2015. Their analysis identified several areas
throughout Kent County where potential needs are high (high
levels of poverty that are shaded in darker blue) and where FAWM
has low levels of distribution (few and smaller orange
circles). The efforts of the student consultants are being utilized
by FAWM to work more effectively with local food pantries within
the 40 county service area to distribute more food in these areas,
and to better target locations where needs exist for FAWM’s fleet
of mobile pantries. The student consultants will conclude their
work in the coming weeks with a presentation on their findings to
FAWM executive staff.
Engaged Teaching
"Blue Courage" - Williamson Wallace
GVSU's Police Academy is leading the way in Michigan! The Police
Academy has been asked to pilot a program called Blue Courage
during 2016 - 2017. This isn't a change or addition to the
curriculum, but rather a change in the "way" the curriculum will
be delivered. A philosophical change. The program is sponsored
by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance.
Blue Courage is a way of being, a philosophy that inspires one to
embody the noblest of character and unquestioned devotion. To
act with practical wisdom, to exude vitality, and to hearten human
connections.
Blue Courage is a transformational process focused on the human
development of a police officer. It draws on relevant, proven
literature
and
research
on
human
effectiveness,
positive
psychology, leadership development and neuroscience. The goal is
personal and cultural transformation through institutionalizing
the heartset, mindset, skillset, and toolset of our police officers.
It is a blend of many disciplines drawn upon to address the
"Whole Person" development, engaging the heart, mind, body,
and sprit. The process is designed to address many of the personal
challenges police officers face such as: cynicism, relationships,
identity, integrity, health, and stress issues.

Takes officer survival far beyond tactical and critical
incident survival and ensures the "readiness" of officers to
both prevent and survive the incidents and the aftermath.

Develops a mental toughness, allowing for the essential
"resilience" officers and leaders must have.

Develops leaders from initial academy orientation and
continues throughout an officer's career.

Instills a sense of, and commitment to, the purpose and
nobility of the policing profession to ensure an absolute
service and guardian heart-set.

Develops a culture of learning, critical thinking, open
mindedness, respect and intellectual curiosity.

Develops a moral compass and the requisite courage to do
the hard and right thing in any circumstance that ensures
justice, fairness and ensuring legitimacy and procedural
justice.

Ensures that officers understand, embrace and embody the
trusting interdependence that is essential for effective
partnerships with the community and the justice system.
Expand Your Engagement Knowledge
Collective Impact
Collective Impact is the commitment of a group of important actors
from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social
problem.
Collective
impact
initiative
involves
a
centralized
infrastructure, dedicated staff, and a structured process that leads to a
common agenda, shared measurement, continuous communication,
and mutually reinforcing activities among all participants (Kania, J., and
Kramer, M., 2011).
Embracing
Emergence:
How
Collective
Addresses
Impact
Complexity
Under conditions of complexity, predetermined solutions can
neither be reliably ascertained nor implemented. Instead, the
rules of interaction that govern collective impact lead to changes
in individual and organizational behavior that create an ongoing
progression of alignment, discovery, learning, and emergence.
(Kania, J., and Kramer, M., 2013, p. 2).
Upcoming Events
WGVU-CCPS Community Connections
In support of our efforts to spread the word about all the great
engagement work done in CCPS, we now have a regular feature on
the WGVU Shelley Irwin Morning Show. On May 2nd at 10
a.m. Shelley Irwin featured Dr. Brandon Youker – Assistant
Professor
Got
a
in
the
good
story
School
to
of
share?
Social
Contact
ccpsdean@gvsu.edu
In the February Newsletter
Work.
us
at
In our last ‘Engaged College’ newsletter we neglected to share
the credit for the outstanding work undertaken by our School of
Social Work team in planning of their ‘Teach In’ event held last
November. In addition to the work undertaken by Dr. Scott
Berlin, full credit should also have been given to Dr. Elaine Schott
and Professor Lois Owens for all their contributions to making the
day so successful. We apologize for this oversight.
Copyright © 2016 www.gvsu.edu/ccps, All rights reserved.
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