6 minute read
PROGRAMS
Three university educational programs with significant community engagement orientation are located within the Office of Community Partnerships, including Legal Pathways, the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative (a partnership with Tacoma Public School District), and the Action Mapping Project.
LEGAL PATHWAYS Legal Pathways at UW Tacoma works collaboratively to generate equitable access to legal careers through pathways that connect students, faculty, staff, and other community members. We adopt a broad understanding of legal careers, grounded in social justice and a commitment to fostering student empowerment.
In the 2020-2021 academic year, Legal Pathways grew its existing programming, launched several new programs, and expanded its reach with students and alumni.
For students considering law school, Legal Pathways grew its “Exploring the Law” series for offering over 25 different workshops and panel events through the course of the year. The workshops were well attended by both students and alumni, with many law school applicants citing them as a source of support and information during the application process. Additionally, the program partnered with faculty and community leaders for the “Exploring the Issues” speaker series, hosting recent McArthur Fellow Lisa Daugaard; the protagonists of the award-winning documentary “Belly of the Beast” Cynthia Chandler and Kelli Dillon; and academic, author, and activist Dean Spade, among others. In addition to on-campus program offerings, Legal Pathways launched the Legal Pathways/ Pierce County Minority Bar Association Mentorship Program, matching current UW Tacoma students with practicing attorneys and other legal professionals in the South Sound. Over 20 students and mentors were matched in the first year and we look forward to an ongoing partnership for next year’s program. Most of our mentors are from underrepresented groups.
Recognizing the significant need for additional LSAT preparation and support, Legal Pathways launched the Legal Pathways Fellows Summer Cohort in the 2021 academic year. The program will support up to twelve UW Tacoma students and alumni intending to apply to law school for the fall of 2022. The Fellows programs will provide students with access to a commercial LSAT preparation course, an application success mentor, a series of application workshops, and ongoing support through the law school application process. Legal Pathways intends for the Fellows program to run annually, with the next cohort launching in summer of 2022.
Along with the Office of Advising and Career Services, Legal Pathways offered supplemental support to students preparing to apply for law school through advising on course selection; reviewing and providing feedback on resumes, cover letters, and personal statements; and meeting with students to discuss their career goals. The program saw a significant increase in the number of students and alumni seeking assistance in personal statement review and career counseling.
TACOMA WHOLE CHILD (TWC) Tacoma Whole Child transforms schools by creating safe, positive, engaging, and equitable learning environments through a mutually beneficial partnership between the University of Washington Tacoma (UW Tacoma) and Tacoma Public Schools (TPS). This partnership engages school district leaders, community agencies, school teams, and educators, and draws from research-based practices including trauma-informed, culturallyaffirming Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).
This year brought us all extraordinary challenges due to COVID-19 restrictions, heartbreaking losses, deeply disturbing racialized violence, and profound political unrest. Yet, challenges notwithstanding, the Tacoma Whole Child partnership endures, and we affirm our steadfast commitment to our work in meeting the rapidly increasing social-emotional needs of our diverse communities.
The partnership team meets weekly and functions as a think tank and hub for TWC activities, steering TWC efforts through the creation of innovative plans and the review and alignment of efforts across the Tacoma School District. The team reviews data and seeks input and involvement from stakeholders. Through bidirectional engagement of community partners, this team aims to identify and fill service gaps more proactively and effectively and identify areas of celebration and opportunity for productive collaborations.
We’ve navigated rapidly changing terrain over this past year, responding to the shift from in-person instruction to online, and then to hybrid and in-person instruction once again. At the same time, we have sustained our systems-level discussions and visionary leadership, not losing sight of the bigger goal for our communities. Some outcomes of our work include,
n Integrating SEL-focused goals into school improvement plans;
n Adding new screening and assessment tools to monitor students’ SEL needs;
n Planning for more equity-purposed teaming with more family and student voice;
n Planning for more supports to address the needs of TPS educators.
Each month, we now engage in deep reflection, creating learning reports to capture our insights as we develop deeper, more stable roots to support our partnership in these tumultuous times. We reflect on questions such as, “Whose voices are missing from our conversations? How do we better understand the current struggles and current realities of our communities? How can our students and families—particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)—have more authentic opportunities to provide input on important decisions? Are we accessible to them both structurally and relationally?”
While authentic collaboration and partnerships can be complex and require more time and work, the investment is worth it. Our communities need this commitment, perhaps now more than ever. We are grateful for the ongoing commitment and financial support provided by Tacoma Public Schools for this program. TWC is funded through a partnership agreement between Tacoma Public Schools and UW Tacoma.
Laura Feuerborn, Ph.D., NCSP
Mari Meador, M.Ed.
Matt Kelley, Ph.D.
ACTION MAPPING PROJECT The Action Mapping Project (AMP) is a youth-oriented and community-based project in Tacoma, Washington that fosters neighborhood change through data production, education, and direct action.
In 2020-2021, AMP conducted activities with a range of professional and community partners. Notably, this work took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and was focused almost entirely on the third pillar of AMP’s core mission: Action to improve livability by motivating neighborhood and community change. A list of the current projects and community organization and business partners are listed below.
n Tacoma Creates: Dashboard Development, COVID-19 Focus Groups, Content Analysis n Safe Routes to Schools Tacoma: Mobile App Development, Walking Audit, Data Analysis n Microsoft: Automated Digitizing of AMP Data n United Way Pierce County: ALICE Data Analysis, Impact Dashboard n Metropolitan Development Center: Displacement and Eviction Dashboard n South End Neighborhood Council, Safe Streets Tacoma, City of Tacoma:
South End Neighborhood Action Plan, AMP Youth Data Dashboard for Neighborhood Planning n League of Women Voters: 2020 Get out the Vote Data Analysis and Mapping n UW Tacoma Office of Global Affairs: Web Mapping
AMP is funded through a combination of gifts and service contracts, most recently funded by the Bamford Foundation, South Sound Together, the United Way, City of Tacoma’s Tacoma Creates and Safe Routes to Schools programs.
“Safe Routes to Schools” and the “South End Neighborhood Action Plan” are both incorporating AMP Youth Data into their ongoing decision-making processes. And not only were AMP Youth Data deployed for the first time in planning and policy-making scenarios during 2020-2021, but AMP also began to expand research, analysis, and data visualization activities with partners in new directions. For example, working with the Metropolitan Development Center, AMP is in the early stages of a project centered on the impacts of eviction and displacement related to COVID-19. AMP also worked closely during the pandemic to support Tacoma Creates efforts to understand the impact of the stay-at-home order on the creative and cultural sector in Tacoma. Similarly, AMP supported the League of Women Voters by developing a series of web-maps to inform get-out-the-vote efforts during the 2020 presidential campaign.
