Felicia M Sullivan

Community development corporations (CDCs) played a central role in addressing the housing crisis of foreclosures in America’s urban neighborhoods. The success of CDCs, however, is closely tied to market forces, neighborhood characteristics, and policies at multiple levels, as well as factors internal to CDCs. What factors support or impede the success of CDCs that operate in such complex environments? We examined the experiences of two CDCs serving three small, ethnically diverse cities in Massachusetts regarding resources, policy, practices and local markets related to neighborhood revitalization. We derived lessons about the factors internal and external to these CDCs that affected their ability to acquire and redevelop foreclosed housing in the target areas they serve.

Tens of thousands of youth in communities across the United States are engaged every day in out-of-school time (OST) programs. These young people seek opportunities
to recreate and socially engage, enhance academic and leadership skills, express themselves creatively, explore important issues in their communities, and work toward
affecting change. These programs provide important institutional learning environments in which young people begin to assimilate their roles as political actors and citizens. As
the delivery of social services and public programs has increasingly devolved from the government to the nonprofit sector, these programs also shape how young people come to
understand their role and function in the public policy arena.
Yet it is unclear what configuration of program designs and organizational environments might make for effective development of political engagement attitudes among youth participating in these out-of-school time programs.
Working with community-based organizations in Boston, this exploratory research looked at how out-of-school time (OST) program designs and implementations were related to the development of political engagement attitudes among youth age 14 to18. Using multiple case sites with multiple embedded units of analysis, the research examined the relationship between program features and elements, organizational environments, and youth served with an eye toward understanding more fully the interplay between these elements and the development of political engagement attitudes. The research looked at how organizational leadership, resource development strategies,
organizational values, program design, pedagogical approaches, organizational structures, and youth development perspectives work to create environments that communicate to young people what role or roles they might play in the political life of their community.

This study contrasted two out-of-school time (OST) programs with clearly articulated youth engagement development orientations (e.g., social justice youth development and community youth development) with two OST programs with no
clearly articulated youth development model. The research found that none of the programs was an exemplar. Programs that aimed to build strength in the individual, group, and community domains and those that used a variety of development models (not just youth engagement) were most likely to result in positive political engagement attitudes. Certain program and organizational features examined here also yielded positive results. This research is intended to assist nonprofit agencies, private foundations, and government agencies in evaluating programs that seek to strengthen and
improve the lives of young people through political engagement. It is also intended to illuminate how important policy domains that affect youth (e.g., criminal justice, education, workforce development, public health) might work to engage youth
constituencies through out-of-school time programming delivered by the nonprofit sector.

onprofit organizations are a vital part of the U.S. social safety net providing a wide range of services in the
modern welfare state. While many individuals and families turn to nonprofits for help during economically
challenging times, these organizations themselves often face turbulent funding environments and uncertain financial futures. Nonprofit stakeholders urge within-sector collaborations (with other nonprofits) and cross-sector collaborations (with for-profit firms and government agencies) as a means to achieve efficiencies in service delivery, stretch donation dollars, and increase the long-term fiscal sustainability of the nonprofit sector.
While increased financial stability is a presumed outcome of nonprofit collaborations, we know little about the
antecedent effect of nonprofit financial vulnerability on collaboration. Using data from a survey of nonprofit
executive directors in Boston, Massachusetts, this paper examines how nonprofit financial vulnerability influences nonprofit collaborations. We find that nonprofit financial vulnerability decreases the likelihood of
both within- and cross-sector collaborations. Resource dependence on private funding increases within-sector
collaboration with other nonprofits, while reliance on government funding increases the likelihood of
cross-sector collaboration. Cross-sector board linkages also increase the likelihood of collaborations. Nonprofit stakeholders should consider these findings when promoting collaboration as a path to nonprofit fiscal sustainability.

Civic engagement refers to the vast range of activities of people, at different levels, working to make a difference in the public life of communities. Getting involved in the electoral process, volunteer tutoring, organizing a community clean-up, and working to obtain affordable housing, are all forms of civic engagement.

In this introduction to civic/community engagement students will learn about the roles citizens can play to strengthen communities and work for the public good. They will learn about the history of civic engagement in the United States, the various roles they can take to engage with communities, the knowledge, skills, and values they need to be effective. Students will participate in a community based civic engagement experience and will reflect on the learning about civic engagement, the community, the issue, and about themselves. They will explore their options for responding to these issues.

Students will learn introductory skills and knowledge of civic engagement.  In the process they will increase their understanding of how their own social location and identity how that effects their engagement.  They define issues and think about root causes, look at power as a factor, identify community institutions and resources, and identify and describe types of leadership.  Through their engagement and reflections students will work on developing 21st skills such as listening, collaborating, empathizing, and negotiating to provide the foundation for future endeavors in civic engagement.

The ways in which we interact online and connect in the virtual world has fundamentally changed our daily “real” world lives. The potential to connect to a range of ideas, markets, images,
information, and people at times seems almost limitless. As we spend more and more time in online environments what it means to be a citizen and live in a democracy has shifted and
changed. Our ability to be more informed and engaged citizens has grown. At the same time, political boundaries meld as we connect with an increasingly global economy and society.
Networked technologies have provided us with the potential to play increasingly direct roles in decision-making that previously had only been possible through representative processes. The
social web facilitates the ability of citizens to deliberate with their fellow citizens and with elected and appointed officials to improve public policy. However, the democratic promise of the social web also comes with potential costs. The on-demand culture of the web allows us to receive instant gratification while we pursue our narrow and private interests. Some scholars argue that this makes it impossible to bring citizens together to solve common problems.

This course will explore this fundamental dilemma inherent in being a Digital Citizen. We will start by exploring some of the technical and communication fundamentals grounding the politics of the Internet. We will then discuss its use in the political process with a number of case examples
including the 2008 Obama campaign, the recent uprising of the “Arab spring,” the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements, and the rise of online pundits and bloggers all of whom have
leveraged online tools to mobilized, organize, communicate and increase political participation. Next, we will talk bout the promise of the web for development and social change work that seeks to improve our very real lives. We will also discuss the use of the Web in government at the local, federal and international levels. Finally, we will discuss the future of digital politics and range of opportunities and threats posed by technological change.

Most of our information about other people, different cultures, and social phenomena comes to us via the mass media, as they produce and disseminate the words, sounds and images that comprise our popular culture and permeate our daily lives. As such the media have become powerful tools of education, socialization, and indoctrination, able to shape our perceptions of ourselves and others and our understanding of the way the world works. In this course we will explore the complex relationship between the media and society and learn how the media communicate, persuade, and make meaning. As a
distance-learning course, we will make extensive use of online resources such as electronic reserves, web-based assignments, streaming audio and video, and online discussions.

Culture can be defined as the signs, symbols, values, beliefs, and behaviors that comprise a way of life for a given community. In all cultures there can be competing ways of interpreting cultural indicators and a diversity of meanings attached to them. Cultural hegemony is said to be
established when a high degree of consensus is achieved; conflict arises when consensus breaks down. Accordingly, the meanings that are attached to various cultural indicators—the ways in which these signs and symbols are “represented”—whether developed from within a community or imposed from without, can have a powerful influence on the ways in which the community is perceived and on the quality of life within that community. In an age when the words, sounds, and images that are used to define communities come to us primarily via the media, representation becomes the connecting link between media and meaning and a central practice in the construction of culture. Understanding how community cultures are constructed and the role of media representations in that process are the central concerns of this course.

Media and Community Building will explore the importance of media and electronic communication technologies in creating and maintaining community. The course will examine the expanding ensemble of practices and technological applications [print, audio, radio, video, television, computer communication and the Internet] now being put to use as means of
empowerment and communication supporting community building and social change. We will also explore the potential of these technologies to destroy communities through
misrepresentation, under representation and stereotyping, and fragmentation. We will also delve into the economic and regulatory policies that underpin both the creation and destruction of communities through the use of media and communication technologies.