Project Goals and Objectives
Altoona Housing Authority and Penn State Altoona:
Establishing a Community Academic Partnership
The purpose of this project is to establish an academically-focused Community Outreach Partnership among Penn State Altoona, the Altoona Housing Authority, and a network of affiliated human services organizations in Blair County, Pennsylvania over a three year period. Our goals are to:
- Improve the quality of education for university students in fields of study preparing to work directly with community-based clients;
- Improve the quality of life of Altoona Housing Authority residents through a series of education and service programs targeted at high priority needs of health promotion and care, education, and neighborhood revitalization;
- Establish feasible governance and management systems to sustain the community outreach effort among Penn State Altoona and participating community agencies.
We emphasize three levels of community experience, which improve academic preparation of current students: early volunteering community service, significant credit-earning course projects, and full-time "capstone" internships for the most advanced students. The activities we will be utilizing can best be summarized as involving students and faculty in face-to-face relationships with community residents, in planning and delivering educational and community improvement interventions, and in evaluating the effect of those programs.
The projects respond to three Housing and Urban Development Themes for the Community Outreach Partnership Program: Neighborhood Revitalization, Health Care, and Education. Programs include consumer economic skills, crime prevention, active lifestyle and nutrition for children, nutrition obesity and chronic disease for older adults, identity and helping networks for seniors, and expansion of computer resources in the communities.
Details of project activities are found under each faculty member's link.
