2021 Outreach and Engagement Funded Grant Proposals

The following 2021 Outreach and Engagement grants have been selected for funding. This year, $215,493 was funded in the following categories:

Impact report of an existing university sponsored/facilitated outreach and engagement program, performance, exhibition or similar program;
Impact report of a community-based organization's program for the purpose of establishing a partnership or ongoing relationship;
Development of a public policy document or report; or
Support for team to develop a grant proposal or finalize a manuscript for publication submission.

Dawn Anderson-Butcher (College of Social Work/LiFEsports)

Funds will be used to support research and evaluation strategies across LiFEsports programming to create a final impact report for the upcoming fiscal year that summarizes efforts and documents multiple outputs and outcomes associated with the program. Evaluators expect to submit at least one manuscript for publication based upon the findings.

John Beacom (College of Arts and Sciences/Physics and Astronomy)

Funding will support students working on the SciAccess Initiative, an international project dedicated to promoting disability inclusion in STEM. The team is working toward a proposal for an NSF Research Coordination Network (RCN). The SciAccess RCN proposal to the NSF is being developed by Ohio State faculty and students in collaboration with Geneva Lake Astrophysics and STEAM (GLAS) Education, a leader in science accessibility. This project will allow the team to develop the RCN proposal hand-in-hand with the community of stakeholders essential to its success.

Erynn Beaton (John Glenn College of Public Affairs)

The Ohio Nonprofit COVID-19 Multi-Wave Survey has monitored the condition of the states public charities since the onset of the pandemic, showing that many organizations are struggling. The team will draw on this data aiming to (1) raise awareness of the challenges facing Ohio nonprofit organizations; (2) identify effective strategies to help local nonprofit organizations survive and renew, and (3) increase community support for the nonprofit sector to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Doug Berman (Moritz College of Law)

Funding will be used to analyze data and develop a report with specific policy recommendations that can inform state policymakers, drug courts, and on the ongoing drug policy reform debate more broadly. The goals of this report are (1) describe the variations among Ohio drug courts in respect to eligibility, supervision, treatment requirements, and other services offered; and (2) assess how particular features of drug courts relate to two key outcomes, completion of treatment and rates of committing new offenses. This project is possible due to the data provided by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Terri Teal Bucci (College of Education and Human Ecology OSU Mansfield)

This project will result in data and a report to use to assist in efforts to secure additional funding as the Math Literacy Initiative continues to grow. The OSU Math Literacy Initiative is one of only two K-6 Algebra Project Implementation groups in the country. Since its creation, the Math Literacy Initiative has worked with nine school districts in North Central Ohio and additional schools/districts in Flint, Michigan and Brooklyn, New York.

Alicia Bunger (College of Social Work)

Project builds on an existing partnership with Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO). The purpose of this project is to design and develop an online Cross-Systems Collaboration Toolkit, with short video summaries, case studies, infographics, and practice-relevant briefs. The toolkit is intended to translate the results of community based Aligning Systems studies for a broader audience of human service leaders responsible for establishing negotiating and supporting strong collaborative relationships.

Cynthia Canan (College of Pharmacy)

This project will support the growth, enhancement, and further evaluation of the virtual adaptation of the summer enrichment camp, Pills, Potions, and Poisons (PPP) in the College of Pharmacy. The project will result in (1) development of a survey instrument targeted toward virtual adaptation of PPP; (2) fully accessible digital content; and (3) initial impact report from summer 2021 and summer 2020.

Sarah Cole (Moritz College of Law)

The Divided Community Project (DCP) and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies published "A Practical Guide to Planning Initiatives for Working to Advance Racial Equity" in April 2021. Funding will be used to support engaging with community leaders and distilling lessons learned from domestic state and local truth and reconciliation commission style processes into the second edition of the guide.

Holly Dabelko-Schoeny (College of Social Work)

Funding will support the writing, designing, and printing of the 5-year Age Friendly Columbus and Franklin County Impact Report. The report will highlight the engagement and impact of Age Friendly Columbus and Franklin County over the past five years, with particular attention to the last three of implementation at the university. Ultimately the report will recognize the university and community partnerships, provide evidence-informed information to stakeholders in topics of interest, and lay the groundwork for the next five-year cycle.

Simone Drake (College of Arts and Sciences/English)
Grant proposal development for the Mellon Foundations Humanities Without Walls competition. The project considers the ethics and practice of urban community engagement in the context of humanities disciplines. The team aims to identify and compare how three institutions: (1) define and approach outreach and community-engaged work; (2) contend with obstacles and challenges in such work, and (3) develop models of ethical engagement and research.

Christopher Gelpi (College of Arts and Sciences/Political Science)

The Conflict 2 Peace (C2P) has partnered with the Colombian NGO, Proantioquia, to collaborate on an economic and social reintegration program for ex-FARC combatants. Funds will support the implementation of a baseline survey of the FARC combatant community that is participating in the Proantioquia program as well as surveys of non-FARC members of nearby local communities. This baseline study will become the foundation of a six-year collaboration with Proantioquia.

Wendy S. Hesford (Global Arts + Humanities; College of Arts and Sciences/English)

To foster best practices, this project is focused on developing tools for assessing the impact of community-engaged partnerships and pedagogy. Funding will be used to support the development of a suite of tools, including (1) Spheres of Impact Metrics tool; and (2) CollabORATE card deck tool. The Spheres of Impact Metrics tool is intended to help researchers articulate their project goals and plan and take stock of their progress over time. The CollabORATE card deck creates space for collaborators across disciplines and communities to become better acquainted with one anothers way of thinking and consider how they might work together.

Derek Houston (College of Medicine/Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery)

Proposal author is the co-founder of a statewide community collaborative (Childrens Hearing and Language Development Resource Network of Ohio) focused on improving Ohios Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) system. The team will follow-up the initial discovery phase with the community-engaged action of developing a parent-to-parent mentoring program and evaluating its effectiveness. Grant proposals will be developed, with stakeholders, to support the participatory action research.

Ayaz Hyder (College of Public Health)

Funding will support a community-directed evaluation of the COVID-19 Analytics and Targeted Surveillance System for Schools (CATS). The evaluation will be conducted in partnership with the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Evaluation Studies (HOPES). Central Ohio school districts, with support from local health departments and OSU/HOPES, have been using CATS since July 2020 to monitor different data indicators related to COVID-19. Project evaluators will use human centered design principles which centers "users" in the evaluation process.

Douglas Jackson-Smith and Elena Irwin (College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences/School of Environment and Natural Resources/Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics)

This project will use the DRFEWS NSF-funded participatory modeling project to assess outcomes and long-term sustainability and replicability of the team engagement activities. The team created Participatory Modeling Advisory Teams (PMATS) and a large Regional Advisory Council (RAC). The team will conduct detailed qualitative exit interviews with RAC and PMAT members; interview project team researchers; and conduct virtual workshops. Specific ways in which early and sustained stakeholder involvement produced outputs that were more useful, trusted, and impactful on real world actors will be identified.

Lyn Tjon Soei Len (College of Arts and Sciences/Womens Gender and Sexuality Studies)

This project on the private harms of gendered and racialized hate speech will result in the analysis of data and writing of a scholarly manuscript to disseminate community engaged research that is part of a collaborative project with two feminist legal scholars/activists located in the Netherlands. The manuscript will build a conceptual and legal framework that aims to identify, explicate and explore the meaning of private harms of gendered and racialized hate speech as experienced by the targeted community.

Arati Maleku (College of Social Work)

The BRAVE project, a multidimensional Community-Based Initiative (CBI) was started in March 2020 by the Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio (BCCO). This specific project, working with BCCO, will result in (1) an impact report on BRAVE; (2) action plan for BRAVE expansion, including feature additions to the BRAVE app; and (3) a draft of a grant proposal to NSF to complete Phase III of the study.

Lisa Miller (College of Arts and Sciences/Psychology)

Through the Dementia Project, the project will explore the effectiveness of Silent Discos that are used widely in the UK for dementia therapy. The project will support ongoing work that shows individuals with declining cognitive abilities are able to slow the progression of the disease via interaction, music, and physical touch.

James L. Moore, III (College of Education and Human Ecology)

Project will support the research for and development of a public policy infographic report documenting the successes and future opportunities for community-oriented service providers in Franklin County (Ohio). The report aims to foreground the work of local community-oriented organizations that work directly with boys and young men of color in central Ohio.

Timiya S. Nolan (College of Nursing), Darrell Gray (College of Medicine) and Joshua Joseph (College of Medicine)

This grant will support our community-based research and resources initiative, called Partnering in Negating Statistics (P.I.N.S.) for Black women, aimed at bringing health and wellness to the forefront of the Black community in Columbus, Ohio. The funded project will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a series of programs established through partnerships between the Ohio State University, National African American Male Wellness Agency, historically Black sororities, the Columbus Chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society (CCONS), local churches, and other community organizations. The P.I.N.S. for Black Women programs will feature workshops and education on American Heart Associations Lifes Simple 7 (LS7), cancer prevention, mental health, and smoking cessation; as well as services like LS7 assessment, COVID-19 vaccinations, and cancer screenings.

Carol Smathers (College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences/OSU Extension, Family & Consumer Sciences)

Funds will be used to support the development of a policy paper to be issued by the Ohio Farm to School Network (facilitated by OSU Extension) focusing on: (1) legislative structures needed in Ohio to sustain a full-time Farm to School position within a state agency; (2) previous policy-related efforts to support local procurement at Ohios schools; (3) case studies from other states to illustrate how regulatory challenges can effectively be addressed; (4) projected impact of local food purchasing; and (5) revisions needed to increase spending flexibility and sustain local food purchasing by schools in Ohio. The Farm to School Network will use this document to work with partners at state agencies and it will inform decisions made by leaders within school nutrition programs and state agencies, and by Ohio lawmakers.

Laureen H. Smith (College of Nursing)

This project will result in the submission of an NIH/NHLBI R01 grant that will seek to test the effects of the Mentored Planning to Be Active+Family Reinforcement intervention on physical activity outcomes and health outcomes. Additionally, using data from a pilot middle-school project as well as the Smith and Petosa NIH funded R01, the team will finalize and submit manuscripts for publication. This project builds on a successful research agenda focused on understanding and influencing the health challenges of youth residing in Appalachia.

Michael Stamatikos (Collge of Arts and Sciences/Physics and Astronomy OSU Newark)

Project will seek to quantitatively assess the impact of SciDomes current Informal Science Education (ISE) programming. As a result of the funding, the team will develop a formal impact report, based upon specific QR codes that will link to online Qualtrics surveys, for professional focus groups (K-12 educators) and public participant surveys (secondary students and continued adult learners). A key area of interest is investigating secondary student engagement in studying science and enrollment in elective sciences courses.