2019 Outreach and Engagement Funded Grant Proposals

Erasing the Space Youth Discourse and Civic Participation among Disparate Communities

The Kirwan Institute, OSU Extension, and Erase the Space (EtS), a local non-profit, seek to connect disparate students, teachers, and communities to foster public discourse and deliberate about community-centered problems. Erase the Space has created and facilitates a collaborative writing exchange between schools across the urban-suburban-rural continuum over the course of a school year. The exchange provides authentic experiences through writing prompts, analyzing structural spatial inequality, and an in-person meeting to develop ideas to bring people together. Erase the Space has proved their concept and seeks to scale up their program. The Kirwan Institute will design formal evaluations to collect data about the intended outcomes and administrative processes to inform future expansion and implementation. This grant will fund data collection across 14 classrooms and sites. OSU Extension desires to evaluate how the exchange, which is facilitated in a formal classroom, can be adapted for non-formal environments, especially for 4-H clubs across Ohio. Additionally, OSU Extension will connect adult mentors to youth participants seeking to implement the ideas generated through the exchange process. Scholarly outcomes include the creation of a toolkit for non-formal programming, a communications strategy for Erase the Space, at least two academic journal articles and submission of a conference workshop at the Community Engagement Conference. All three entities will be working together to foster productive public discourse, provide young people with leadership opportunities, and tackle the problem of structural spatial inequality in Central Ohio.

Team Lead: Glennon Sweeney, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Sharing Visions: Intergenerational Work in Appalachian Ohio

In partnership with faculty at Ohio University, staff at OSU Extension in Scioto and Perry Counties, and community partners in the region, The Center for Folklore Studies at The Ohio State University will document and promote cross-county, intergenerational relationship-building, capacity building, and succession planning for grassroots organizations in Scioto and Perry counties in Appalachian Ohio. The long-term desired outcome is longevity and flexible continuity for small community organizations in Appalachian Ohio. The overarching goal of this work is to both reinforce existing relationships and create new connections and structures that will sustain small community organizations in Appalachian Ohio beyond the life of the proposed project.

Team Lead: Cassie Patterson, College of Arts and Sciences

Summer Success Kindergarten Readiness Camp

This project expands on the Summer Success Kindergarten Readiness Camp developed by the Schoenbaum Early Childhood Center with support from the Office of Outreach and Engagement in Weinland Park. Summer Success is a four-week intensive readiness camp to develop readiness skills in low-income children in the summer before kindergarten. Impact evaluations show that Summer Success significantly increases kindergarten readiness skills in participating children. With this proposal, we partner with the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) to expand Summer Success to two low-income, high-need Columbus neighborhoods: Parsons and Northern Lights.

Team Lead: Laura Justice, College of Education and Human Ecology

Pay it Forward A Student Philanthropy Initiative

The Pay It Forward initiative is an established program focused on developing a new generation of philanthropists through an innovative course-based service-learning program that engages Ohio college students in hands-on philanthropy, grant-making, and volunteer service, while deepening faculty teaching and providing community nonprofits with much needed assistance. Participating faculty infuse the study of philanthropy as a core component into their courses. Each course receives real dollars to award to nonprofits. Students provide up to 15 hours of volunteer and research service to local nonprofits while simultaneously identifying community needs, establishing funding criteria, and engaging in group decision-making as part of each course experience.

Team Lead: Stuart Lishon, OSU Marion

Exploring the Association of Maternal Mycotoxin Exposure with Adverse Birth Outcomes

Mycotoxins, toxic metabolites produced by some fungi, are problematic in developing countries due to contamination of major dietary components. Fumonisins, a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium verticillioides, are found in maize-based foods and associated with increased risk for neural tube defects (NTDs) in mice (Marasas et al., 2004). This proposed study would provide strong preliminary data to support future research efforts, including applications to the National Institutes of Health. Further, this proposal seeks to continue growing meaningful partnerships between OSU and Guatemalan partners to catalyze engaged research, teaching, and programs that improve food safety while promoting healthy dietary choices during pregnancy. The proposed work will advance OSUs strategic and scholarly goals by improving the well-being of our global communities and fostering a culture of engagement between OSU and community partners in Guatemala. Specifically, this work will expand the capacity of OSUs Global One Health initiative (GOHi) through applied research and outreach in areas currently not served by GOHi.

Team Lead: Barbara Kowalcyk, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Improving the Quality of Life of Chronically Ill Individuals Through Financial Coaching

This project seeks to increase the quality of life of chronically-ill patients through one-on-one financial coaching provided to patients and caregivers. Our project is novel in three ways: First, we build on our teams expertise in financial coaching and leverage our existing relationships with Consumer Credit Counseling Services, the Financial Planning Association of Central Ohio, WesBanco Bank, UW-Center for Financial Security, and the Kirwan Institute. Together we create a new collaboration with an outpatient unit at OSU Hospitals, the Chronic Brain Injury (CBI) Rehabilitation Program. Second, we adapt a recent, innovative financial coaching program to fit CBI patients and their holistic financial needs. Third, we employ a novel longer-term approach to coaching, combining in-person and telephone-based methods, for CBI patients whose needs are particularly pressing because their earnings potential is severely compromised during peak wage-earning years.

Team Lead: Caezilia Loibl, College of Education and Human Ecology

Greater Hilltop Resource Mapping

Columbus is known as resource rich but coordination poor. Case in point, the Greater Hilltop, an expansive and predominately low-income Columbus community, has a plethora of social services of which many neighbors in-need are unaware or unable to access. The City of Columbus does not have the capacity to create detailed resource guides in every community. This project will put the power to create neighborhood resource guides in the hands of community members. Through a community-based participatory partnership between Hilltop residents and community organizations, OSU student organizations ENCompass and Smart Campus, The City of Columbus, Neighborhood Design Center, and The Kirwan Institute (KI) for the Study of Race and Ethnicity will map existing resources in the Greater Hilltop and create a Community Resource Mapping Toolkit. The Greater Hilltop Community is vast, encompassing 12.5 square miles and stretching on Columbuss west side from I-270 on the West and South, to the CSX Railroad on the East, and I70 on the North. By piloting a physical and online resource map in the Greater Hilltop, we will establish a method for tracking resources, designing and printing physical resource maps, and using a the city of Columbuss ESRI ArcGIS HUB, meaning that the city of Columbus will host the Greater Hilltop Communitys Resource map. These methods will be made publicly available through the Community Resource Mapping Toolkit. The Kirwan Institute is committed to working with other Columbus communities to test the toolkit and the City of Columbus has committed to hosting additional resource maps.

Team Lead: Glennon Sweeney, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Linden Worker-Owned Business: A Community-University Partnership for Social Justice, Local Food and Community Economic Development

This project will be the first of a number of worker-owned businesses, aims to leverage the local and sustainable food purchasing initiative of Ohio State University in order to create living-wage jobs and generate wealth for people with criminal backgrounds and other disadvantaged residents. Furthermore, this project, which is a collaboration between OSUs Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT) and Building Responsibility, Equality and Dignity (B.R.E.A.D.) a nonprofit coalition of 40 diverse religious congregations in Franklin County, addresses both a practical and a research problem. The practical problem is to determine how to improve community health and wealth in the Linden neighborhood of Columbus.

Team Lead: Kareem Usher, College of Engineering (Knowlton School Architecture)

Creating Healthier Communities through Meaningful Partnerships: A Model from the National African American Male Wellness Initiative OSU Partnership

Chronic diseases, particularly diabetes (DM), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer, pose a tremendous burden for Ohio residents, health systems, and employers. This burden is not equally distributed and mortality from these diseases is greatest among African American (AA) men. The National African American Male Wellness Initiative (AAMWI) was established in Columbus, Ohio in 2004. Using an annual walk with health fair, the AAMWI aims to reduce premature mortality among AA males. It has become the largest health initiative in Central Ohio for AAs, spanning 5 cities in Ohio and total of 16 nationally. The Ohio State University (OSU) partners with the AAMWI to advance health equity in DM, CVD, and cancer. Through our partnership, community health workers (CHWs) and health coaches (HCs) will aim to activate at-risk AA men to embrace wellness by 1) facilitating engagement with a primary care provider and addressing social determinants of health that present barriers to wellness; 2) improving participants Lifes Simple 7 (LS7) American Heart Association metrics (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, smoking, body mass index, physical activity and dietary intake) through a community team-based intervention; and 3) increasing participation in clinical trials.

Team Lead: Darrell Gray, College of Medicine

Bushel and a Peck: Healthy Food and Health Coaching for Central Ohio

This project will expand healthy food distribution and wellness programming throughout campus and the local community to impact 1,000 community members over one year. The grant will support expansion in several ways. First, it will allow expansion to a third location as well as increasing the number of participants at current locations. Second, it will subsidize food for underserved participants while new locations are created that will support a need based, tiered pricing system to make the program sustainable. Third, funding will be used to train wellness coaches among student volunteers to provide sustainable wellness coaching at BFFs main weekly food distribution site at Scott House.

Team Lead: Robert Cooper, OSU Health Plan

Collaborative Development of 100% Solar-Driven Adsorption Air Conditioning

We believe we have developed a path to 100% solar driven, sorption-based air conditioning system that is an extension and integration of three previous disparate efforts. Connect and Collaborate funding will allow us to generate a prototype of our device, validate our concept, and quantify the savings available with such a system in various climates. We expect this proof of concept will enable us to generate a great deal of follow-up funds from interested parties nationally and worldwide, including the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, The Rocky Mountain Institute, and private sector partners. Furthermore, we will strengthen collaboration with the group we have assembled.

Team Lead: Jordan Clark, College of Engineering (Civil, Environmental and Geodetic)

Expanding the Universitys Role in Addressing the CAE Skills Gap: Continuous Learning and Workforce Development

Workplace trends toward an increasingly virtual product development cycle is driving the need for engineers capable of using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools to solve complex engineering problems. These problems include virtual crash safety, light-weighting, smart material characterizations, emissions improvements, development of autonomous technologies, and various other requirements that are historically expensive and time consuming to validate with physical prototypes. CAE tools are the next evolution of engineering carried forward by the tech boom and advances in computing power. These recent advances in CAE capabilities have occurred over a short period of time, and undergraduate curriculum redesign is challenged to keep pace of industry needs for graduates with meaningful exposure to CAE. Considering that most engineers enter the workforce with an undergraduate degree, alternative models to traditional graduate school should be explored. The proposed Certification in Practice of CAE will be a program which is specifically designed for working professionals and considers their unique needs. Utilizing a distance education format along with learning strategies that promote deep learning, this project will contribute to the development of the high-tech workforce of the twenty-first century. This enhanced accessibility to graduate level education will increase technical literacy in CAE tools, and will serve both individuals as well as employers in identifying and engaging in collaborative research partnerships with The Ohio State University.

Team Lead: Shawn Midlam-Mohler, College of Engineering

A Virtual Reality Intervention to Improve Youth Concussion Recognition and Reporting

The goal of this project is to develop and test an innovative, VR mobile-based application (app) that can be used to teach youth about the common signs and symptoms of concussion, the potential dangers of concussion, and the importance of reporting. To make our VR app appealing to youth, our designed app will allow youth to experience concussive events and symptoms without the risk of actual injury, and learn to identify when a concussion occurs from the first-person perspective. Building on the progress of our proof-of-concept VR concussion app, in this phase of the study we will optimize our VR app by implementing a developmentally appropriate and interactive medium to educate youth about concussion.

Team Lead: Ginger Yang, College of Medicine and Nationwide Childrens Hospital

Drumming Dance Rehabilitation (DDR): A Novel Therapy Program for Parkinson's Disease with the Columbus PD Community

This proposal aims to offer innovative solutions for PD treatment by combining rhythm performance with choreographic movement, namely, Drum-Dance Rehabilitation (DDR) program. DDR provides an outstanding platform for PD treatment, in which the patients intensify dopamine release by enjoying inherent pleasure that music and dance render. Regularly participating in DDR at no cost, patients can reduce the substantial economic burden due to life-long medication. Most importantly, DDR will increase the well-being of PD patients and their caregivers by engaging them in music and dance activities.

Team Lead: Yune Lee, College of Arts and Sciences (Speech and Hearing)

Growing a Farm to School Community in Wayne County

Growing a Farm to School Community in Wayne County is a unique collaboration between the non-profit A Whole Community, Inc., Northwestern Local Schools, Wooster City Schools, the College of Wooster, The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute, Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center, and Wayne County Extension. Using a multi-faceted approach that will increase local produce on school menus and create a flourishing Farm to School culture in the school and community, this project will: (1) Expand the supply chain partnerships to offer a diverse array of local produce for schools to purchase; (2) Implement an Individualized Farm to School Plan for each school to identify barriers and create solutions, including providing food service staff with training, menus, recipes, and kitchen supplies; (3) Amplify and build off OSU Wayne County SNAP-Ed existing and ongoing programming; (4) Implement Farm to School Ambassador Clubs, led by school staff and college interns, that are student driven and parent supported, as they host experiential nutrition education activities.

Team Lead: Shoshanah Inwood, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Connecting Communities through the Arts at Urban Arts Space

Urban Arts Space, as The Ohio State University's arts and culture hub beyond campus, is uniquely situatedboth geographically and via its missionto facilitate and serve as a connector for timely, purposeful, and impactful partnerships between town and gown, leveraging available resources to create relevant arts-based engagement with the community. This proposal positions Urban Arts Space as a hub for arts and culture initiatives through the establishment of a strategic plan and a steering committee composed of key stakeholders from town and gown. The steering committee and corresponding strategic plan will address sustainability and optimize arts and culture engagement that delivers impactful educational reciprocity, enhances day-to-day life, and feeds into Columbus arts and culture economy.

Team Lead: Merijn van der Heijden, College of Arts and Sciences