Gadsden State Community College Anchors Outreach Partnerships

Gadsden State Community College in Gadsden, Alabama is partnering with the city of Gadsden, the Greater Gadsden Housing Authority, the United Way, and the Gadsden City School System to establish a Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC). The COPC program is an initiative of HUD's Office of University Partnerships that provides grants of up to $400,000 for three years to foster partnerships between institutions of higher education and their surrounding communities. The Gadsden State COPC will support and serve east Gadsden and more than 4,000 low-income persons living in and adjacent to seven public housing communities within Gadsden. The COPC aims to:

• Reduce the prevalence and severity of complex urban problems that pose a serious and immediate threat to the health, welfare, and economy of the community.
• Design a comprehensive and effective welfare-to-work initiative.
• Empower residents and promote self-sufficiency.

To fulfill these goals, the COPC coordinates its activities around four major tasks: community capacity building, revitalization and beautification of neighborhoods, heal lies, and economic development.

Services Build on Earlier Success
Gadsden State is a historically black college serving the Appalachian region of northeast Alabama that includes 10 counties and a population of nearly 800,000. With the help of HUD and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) funding, Gadsden State is completing its fourth year of service to the public housing communities in west Gadsden. Establishing the COPC will extend the west Gadsden services and activities to east Gadsden, specifically targeting the two public housing communities in the area.

Overcoming Economic Strife in East Gadsden
Twenty percent of east Gadsden's population lives below the poverty line. Only 62 percent of Gadsden's adult population has any high school education, and just 38 percent has a high school diploma. The dropout rate in city high schools is 35 percent, and only 11 percent of the city's adult residents have a Bachelor's degree or higher. Since 1993, enrollment of migrant and other students for whom English is a second language has increased more than 10 times. More than 350 students in the city schools are homeless, and 24 percent of children under 18 have been found guilty of delinquent behavior.

Census data show that in parts of east Gadsden, 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Major sections are blighted and distressed with a prevalence of abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and underutilized public space. Two of Gadsden's seven public housing communities - Starnes Park and Campbell Court - are characterized by lower income levels, higher unemployment, and lower educational attainment than other Gadsden neighborhoods.

Building Community Capacity
To build community capacity, the COPC will engage Gadsden State students in both research and outreach activities. For example, the advanced statistics class will determine the level of resident involvement in community development projects and assess the grassroots organizing and training needs of residents. Making good on their service-learning commitment, students are working with the City's Development Office and the Gadsden Housing Authority to conduct community mapping and assets analyses.

Outreach activities include training courses designed to prepare and empower residents to take on leadership, advocacy, and fundraising roles in the community. Through the COPC, Gadsden State computer technicians and students have launched a Web site that posts all of the community's organizing activities, with links to member agencies and organizations. With help from the technicians and students, neighborhood and resident council members are establishing Web pages to promote their activities.

Revitalization and Beautification
The Gadsden State COPC is supporting revitalization efforts along the East Broad Street commercial corridor by providing resources, technical expertise, and student interns. With the assistance of Gadsden State's landscaping and aquaculture faculty and students, the COPC is boosting downtown revitalization efforts by planting trees, establishing a nature walk, conducting neighborhood clean-up activities, and transforming vacant lots into parks. The COPC has also mobilized residents and engaged Gadsden State landscaping faculty, maintenance staff, Job Corps, and student interns to help beautify the grounds of Starnes Park and Campbell Court.

Economic Development and Healthy Families in East Gadsden The COPC is addressing the housing needs of the elderly by establishing community service centers in Starnes Park and Campbell Court. The COPC also is working with the Family Success Center - another COPC partner - to collect and monitor data on family life in Gadsden and to develop and deliver workshops in parenting, wellness, and safety. As part of the life skills training classes at the Family Success Center, Gadsden State faculty offer classes in financial management, credit, debt reduction, savings, and budgeting.

East Gadsden's potential homebuyers are getting help, too. The COPC is educating educating them about impediments to fair housing in east Gadsden by disseminating written material and offering seminars, public forums, and regular workshops on homebuying programs, techniques, and strategies. A homebuyer mentoring program matches prospective homebuyers with low- and middleincome residents who have recently purchased a home.

Program Successes
To date, the COPC has set up computer labs for each of the two housing communities in east Gadsden. Residents are offered introductory computer classes such as word processing. Young parents are taking advantage of parenting classes that are offered several times a week through the Family Success Center; many of these same young people also attend classes in financial management and budgeting. The homebuyers' initiative is well underway, and one of the coordinators of the COPC program and a public housing resident have become certified housing counselors.

Elementary students are getting help with reading from four Gadsden State students who volunteered to bring America Reads into classrooms in east Gadsden. In addition, college statistics students continue to work with the city of Gadsden in assets analyses. Even though reports are not scheduled to be completed and disseminated until the fall, the Family Success Center is already using some of the data in planning their services.

For more information, contact: Brenda Crowe, Dean of Institutional Advancement, Gadsden State; Project Director, COPC program, (256) 549-8228, bcrowe@gadsdenstate.edu.