Volume 8 - Issue 4 - Home Page

May 2016 | Volume 8, Issue 4

MSU Priorities

Community and Economic Development in the 21st Century

The Flint water crisis provides system wide challenges for civic leaders, local businesses, and area residents.
  • Laurie Van Egeren, Ph.D.
  • Assistant Provost for University-Community Partnerships
  • University Outreach and Engagement

Engaging Flint: Context and Connections for Faculty Involvement

The Flint water crisis has emerged as one of the nation's gravest contemporary situations, forcing issues of public safety, government competency, racial and economic justice, and aging infrastructure to the forefront of the social and political landscape.

Michigan State University researchers are playing a valuable role in Flint, and many more are interested in doing so. At a meeting on March 25, 2016 organized by University Outreach and Engagement (UOE), faculty had the opportunity to hear from Flint residents and organizational leaders and MSU representatives who are working in the community.

At the request of Provost June Youatt earlier in the year, UOE was designated as the central repository of information related to ongoing MSU projects in Flint, while the College of Human Medicine and MSU Extension are coordinating MSU activities within Flint ... read more

Featured MSU Engaged Scholars

The CrimFit Youth Program encourages bicycling as one of many enjoyable ways for friends to keep active together.
  • Karin Pfeiffer, Ph.D.
  • Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology
  • Center for Physical Activity and Health
  • College of Education

Healthier Kids in Flint with CrimFit Youth Program

Karin Pfeiffer has a special place in her heart for two things: sports and the city of Flint. As an associate professor of kinesiology and member of MSU's Center for Physical Activity and Health, she also has the expertise necessary to combine the two interests by working collaboratively with the Crim Fitness Foundation to incorporate and assess the organization's CrimFit youth programming in the Flint schools and surrounding area.

The CrimFit Youth Program focuses on physical activity, nutrition, and, more recently, mindfulness, the ability to be "present" in the moment, pay attention on purpose, and accept one's feelings and thoughts. Partly based on the Michigan Fitness Foundation's PE-Nut (Physical Education and Nutrition) curriculum, CrimFit complements the curriculum with a wide variety of physical and nutritional activities. Mileage Clubs, after-school sports programming, school gardens, nutrition education, and Brain Breaks, which incorporate physical activities with academic lessons to give the kids a chance to move around and be active, are offered by the program. ... read more

Jennifer E. Johnson, C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health in the MSU College of Human Medicine
  • Jennifer E. Johnson, Ph.D.
  • C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health
  • Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology
  • College of Human Medicine

Partnering in Flint to Research Suicide Prevention and Reduction

In 2015, more than 41,000 people committed suicide in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 15 and 34. While one of the main predictors of suicidal behavior is the presence of major depression, stressors play a role.

Jennifer Johnson is a clinical psychologist and principal investigator on a four-year, $6.8 million project awarded to MSU by the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute of Justice, and National Institutes of Health's Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research to study effective suicide prevention strategies for recently-released pretrial jail detainees. The Suicide Prevention Intervention for at-Risk Individuals in Transition (SPIRIT) Trial, will follow 800 recently released pretrial detainees from the Genesee County Jail in Flint, Michigan, and the Department of Corrections in Cranston, Rhode Island ... read more

Looking for Community Partners

Collaboration and partnership with communities are at the core of engaged scholarship. In all of its work, University Outreach and Engagement emphasizes university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, transformative, and anchored in scholarship. If you are a faculty or academic staff member wanting to establish a community partnership, University Outreach and Engagement may be able to help you. Our staff and researchers have connections across the state in areas such as education, mental health, human services, business, and government. For more information, contact Burton Bargerstock, Executive Director of the Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, at (517) 353-8977 or bb@msu.edu.

Feedback

We would like to hear from you. Contact us with comments, suggestions, announcements, or "engaged scholar" project information for future e-newsletters. Send to: engaged.scholar@msu.edu.

Resources

MSU Graduate Certification in Community Engagement
This program prepares graduate students for careers that integrate scholarship with community engagement. It offers students a transcript notation indicating that they have completed the program.

Community Engagement Toolkits
Designed by the Center for Community Engaged Learning to guide and support MSU faculty, students, staff, and community partners.

Transformations in Higher Education: The Scholarship of Engagement Series
Available from Michigan State University Press

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