Reaching Out to the Community

As a wonderful illustration of positive town-gown relations, Penn State Altoona and the Altoona Housing Authority are working together for both better education for students and improved quality of life for Housing Authority residents. The purpose of this project, which kicked off during the fall 2005 semester, 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 over a three-year period.

"Since the program began, faculty members have been working closely with students to integrate aspects of their classroom curriculum into the partnership and are working together to enhance and promote community-based learning for the students," notes Daniel Lago, assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) and the grant coordinator of the project. "At the same time, we're helping to improve the quality of life for residents at Altoona's Green Avenue and Eleventh Street Towers and Fairview Hills Project. In fact, during the project's first year of implementation, twenty-two courses were offered in which a significant portion of a student's grade was based upon a project focused on the needs of public housing residents."

As one component of this partnership, two Penn State Altoona students developed a summer leadership and recreation program focusing on at-risk youths who reside in Fairview Hills, a low-income housing project located near campus. Students Sarah Ciaverella and Mike Bacher worked with the Central Blair Recreation Commission this past summer to develop "Survivor Week" for adolescent-age youths, consisting of activities to promote leadership and teamwork as well as drug and alcohol education and prevention programs. They also coordinated activities throughout the summer for younger children residing in Fairview Hills, including trips to Prince Gallitzin State Park, a learn-to-swim program, fire safety, hands-on science learning, and an intergenerational ice cream social.

The start of Penn State Altoona's fall semester brought with it many exciting projects for the partnership. HDFS major Ashley Hautz created an after-school program for the Fairview Hills youths, which kicked off with a baseball game on campus between the Penn State Altoona baseball players and the kids. Other students in Lago's classes helped to search out Web sites on topics of interest to public housing residents, which were included on the grant's main Web page for easy access.

Safety is the name of the game in assistant professor of Criminal Justice Sharon RedHawk Love's class, as students worked to develop pamphlets on bullying, gangs, and conflict resolution. In addition to developing the informational materials, the class also will be providing parents with assistance on how to talk to their children about these topics.

While many classes offer educational or safety-related programs for the elderly or prevention programs for youth, others provide another much-needed service: fun and laughter. Assistant Professor of English Laura Rotunno and a small group of her students from the college's Literature Club helped to spread holiday cheer by reading and acting out short stories for the residents of the Housing Authority during the Halloween and Thanksgiving seasons. The students had fun interacting with the residents, who shared some of their own stories with the students.

The Community Outreach Partnership is funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development through 2008, and more projects are being planned to help enrich the lives of both Altoona residents and Penn State Altoona students during that time.