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Delta State to offer workshops on exploring health and development in the Delta

By March 28, 2011General

Delta State University’s Institute for Community-Based Research (ICBR) and the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi recently received grant funding for a series of workshops to be held in June and July at the Coahoma County Higher Education Center (CCHEC) in Clarksdale, on exploring health and development in the Mississippi.

A press conference to announce the grant award will be held at 5:30 p.m., April 5, in the J.W. Cutrer House of the CCHEC. The event is free and open to the public.

The workshops are designed for undergraduate and graduate students along with community health practitioners working with nonprofit organizations. The “Planning and Evaluation Certificate Program” will consist of a series for four separate six-hour workshops mixing hands-on activities, guest presentations, and lectures. Supplemental online resources and activities will also be provided. The workshops will be held during the summer (June and July) at the Coahoma County Higher Education Center.

Within the workshop series, special attention will be directed toward “exploring health and development in Clarksdale, Coahoma County, and the Mississippi Delta from a grounded perspective,” states Dr. John Green, program director.

A culminating applied planning and evaluation project will be expected of students participating in the program for continuing education of college credit. Those students majoring in Community Development, Sociology, Social Justice and Criminology, Education, Nursing and related disciplines are highly encouraged to participate.

The purpose of the program is to enhance the University’s educational offering through the CCHEC in innovative ways. Combining the Clarksdale location with a place-based curriculum and processes that will bring diverse participants together around planning and evaluating efforts to improve health will result in important outcomes. These include: expanded knowledge of past and present health improvement initiatives in the Delta; foundational conceptual and practical knowledge in program planning and evaluation, including frameworks, methods and analysis techniques useful for health initiatives; and individual and organizational capacity enhancement for current and future health improvement initiatives.

The workshop series is being offered by the Institute for Community-Based Research. The Institute engages in projects to inform social change. This is done by working with people and their organizations in research, evaluation, planning, and organizational capacity building. The Institute is housed within the Center for Community and Economic Development in partnership with the Division of Social Sciences at Delta State University. Institute education and training programs are offered through a partnership between Social Sciences and the Office of Graduate Studies.

For more information or to register for the workshop series, contact Alshunda K. Quinn, LMDSC/AmeriCorps member at 662-846-4358