CBSC monthly news
Check out what is happening with the CBSC Fellows Program via our monthly newsletter!
2023 CBSC Program
2023 CBSC Learning Retreat to Boston
2023 CBSC Team selected and working toward a strong programmatic year
The 21st class of Community Building and Social Change Fellows have been selected and are already proving to be a strong class for the program. Our 2023 CBSC Fellows - Benjamin Cho, Danielle Davis, Grace Fraser, Yulia Gu, Sarah Kim, Skylar McGlockton, Hannah Nelson, Elisabet Ortiz, Grace Regnier and Sophia Yang - are now enrolled in the Spring 2023 CBSC course and skill-building lab to build their research skills and co-develop with partners a plan for the Summer 2023 implementation term. The 2023 class of fellows is working with the City of Decatur supporting their Climate Resilience Plan, We Love Buford Highway on connections to launch an accessible small business support system and Whitefoord, Inc. on better understanding the early education and health needs of the Edgewood area communities.
Welcome 2023 Fellows!
We are thrilled to have this strong group of leaders in both the students and valuable partners. The 2023 projects present a variety of learning opportunities across issues, partner organizational structure and community settings.
2022 CBSC Program
CBSC Wraps up a strong program year
Our fantastic class of 2022 CBSC Fellows completed their full year of work with the program. community projects. The focus of the spring term was to learn skills in the CBSC course and lab while co-creating a workplan with their partners. This plan served as the roadmap for the full time summer practicum, a ten week full time field-based implementation experience beginning late May 2022. Each fellow and team adapted to real world circumstances and kept the partners’ end goals in mind as they worked to deliver relevant and substantial outcomes.
cbsc 2022 fellows and projects
Our fantastic class of 2022 CBSC Fellows are now in teams matched with valuable community projects. The focus of the spring term is to learn skills in the CBSC course and lab while co-creating a workplan with their partners. This plan will serve as the roadmap for the full time summer practicum, a ten week full time field-based implementation experience.
CBSC 2022 Buford Highway team with their partners on first visit to the community. Lily Pabian, Sarah Brechin, Raya Islam, Khegan Meyers, Matthew Chupack and Vivian Liu.
We are excited to be working with We Love Buford Highway supporting small businesses and the Cross Keys Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative to document community priorities for the Buford Highway corridor communities. This effort will have CBSC Fellows working with both business owners and local supports to from hyper local business circles addressing common challenges of the business owners.
Continuing our long-standing connection with the Edgewood community, our second team of 2022 fellows is working with a coalition of local entities to identify resident visions for a reopened school in the community. In partnership with The Zeist Foundation and the Mayson Avenue Cooperative, our work will help to understand what the community, including families with future middle school students, want out of a a reopened community school. We expect to build on the work of a 2021 CBSC team connections to reach a broad section of the communities in and around Edgewood.
The 2022 CBSC Fellows visiting Pittsburgh Yards as part of a Westside Beltline site visit.
Welcome 2022 CBSC Fellows!
Matthew Chupack, Dylan Gandy, Ryan Gibbs, Raya Islam, Vivian Liu and Khegan Meyers
2021 CBSC Program
2021 CBSC Program Conclusion
The 2021 CBSC Fellows Program wrapped up late July. The two teams worked in a hybrid format that included key in person community engagement following Emory protocols paired with virtual opportunities when appropriate. The seven CBSC Fellows - Mikail Albritton, Elizabeth Beling, Jamie Constantine, Matthew Joesoep, Clare McCarthy, Cara Waite and Helena Zeleke – successfully executed projects meeting the needs of their community partners.
Several of the 2021 Fellows hope to continue their work in the Fall term, supporting the application of their CBSC summer projects.
Community Building in Edgewood
A coalition of community-engaged partners in the Edgewood community of Atlanta worked with a team of CBSC Fellows to better connect and align their work with local residents. Fellows conducted a survey, including over 180 individuals, as well as more in-depth information gathering as part of their work. The results are being used to match programmatic offerings to the preferences of residents and identify areas of collaboration across organizations.
Food Leadership in Clarkston, GA
The Global Growers CBSC team gathered input from community members via online surveys, in person surveying and participation in community events. Building on a basic framework for a Food Leadership Training Program, the CBSC team crafted a curriculum to build leadership and opportunities for Clarkston area residents. Their efforts laid the groundwork for a Fall 2021 cohort of the program, with built in flexibility to craft trainings that match the interests of the participant group.
2021 CBSC Fellows in the field with Edgewood and Clarkston partners
Seven 2021 CBSC Fellows began implementing co-developed community building projects in the Clarkston and Edgewood communities in late March. Operating in a hybrid model, fellows are able to safely participate in community-based activities advancing the work of our partners.
Three fellows, Elizabeth Beling, Jamie Constantine and Helena Zeleke, are developing a leadership program for Clarkston resident farmers. Their work will help realize an effort by the Global Growers Network to not only expand the capacity of small farmers of color, many new Americans, but also establish a network of farmer educators to share skills among the community.
A team of four fellows, Mikail Albritton, Matthew Joesoep, Clare McCarthy and Cara Waite, are working with a coalition of Edgewood based organizations as they work to best partner with residents on their programs. Mayson Avenue Cooperative of the Zeist Foundation, Moving in the Spirit and the Wylde Center Edgewood Learning Garden are working with our team with plans to use the information gathered by the CBSC team to plan for future activities in the community.
2020 CBSC Program
The 2020 CBSC Fellows’ Winter Retreat
2020 cbsc fellows forge ahead with community building projects adapted for the current context
The nine students that make up the 2020 class of CBSC Fellows are completing their workplans for the summer project implementation term. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have moved to an all remote format but look forward to important work with the Coalition for a Diverse DeKalb, the Porter Sanford III Arts Center and the Cross Keys Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative.
The 2020 Fellows are: Natalie Frazier, Liz Greene, Rebecca Jackson, Faith Kim, Lauren Mahoney, Gracie Morris, Zoe Moskowitz, Gabe Samuels and Kassie Sarkar.
2020 CBSC Fellows performed at high levels despite shifting to all virtual format due to covid
The CBSC has just completed our year-long 2019-20 program year. This was, as for all things, a year like no other due to Covid-19. Fellows completed 9 course credits, including a spring course that shifted to virtual in March 2020, and a full-time project implementation summer experience also fully virtual. The nine 2020 CBSC Fellows rose to the numerous challenges presenting as they executed three substantial community-based projects over a teen week summer term.
Our three collaborative projects this year were with the Coalition for a Diverse DeKalb, the Cross Keys Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative and the Porter Sanford III Performing Arts and Cultural Center. In each project, fellows co-created a workplan with community leaders during the spring term which served as the road map for the summer field work.
The nine 2020 CBSC fellows are: Natalie Frazier, Liz Greene, Rebecca Jackson, Faith Kim, Lauren Mahoney, Gracie Morris, Zoe Moskowitz, Gabe Samuels and Kassie Sarkar. This was an outstanding class of CBSC Fellows that truly rose to the challenges presented in this very unique year.
Details on the 2020 CBSC Projects can be found here.
2019 CBSC Program
cbsc closes out 2019 program year
The CBSC Program year ended officially on Friday, July 26th, 2019. As with all projects, each of our CBSC teams presented their project to key stakeholders. Each team succeeded in delivering quality results with their collaborative partners. We celebrate with these eight CBSC Fellows in completion of their CBSC full year experience.
DeKalb Youth Prosperity Initiative in Co-Design
The five members of the DeKalb Youth Prosperity Initiative (DYPI) focused CBSC project, shared their findings and recommendations for the DYPI leadership in the Co-Design Phase of the program development. The recommendations were built upon field research and best practice analysis. The event included key leaders from the Atlanta Regional Health Collaborative for Health Improvement, DeKalb Schools, The United Way, Chris180, Grady Hospital, the DeKalb Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative, Emory University and others.
Team Newton
The Newton County Housing Team provided a thorough accounting of their project and research findings. The full room that included Georgia Conservancy Leaders, the Director of the Covington Housing Authority, Emory University leadership and several of their CBSC peers appreciated learning about the opinions gathered from residents and other stakeholders in the community about housing in Newton County, GA.
2018 CBSC Program
2018 CBSC Co-Learning Retreat to the Twin Cities
The 2018 CBSC Fellows' summer term is well underway. Fellows and partners are busy implementing projects planned over the spring term. To enhance the summer experience for our fellows and partners, the CBSC organizes a series of professional development activities. These include weekly dinners and Friday site visits with Atlanta-area leaders to explore a particular topic, issue area or project. In addition to these weekly events, the fellows program leads a multi-day immersion trip allowing our group, fellows and partners, to learn about community building initiatives in a context outside Atlanta. Each city is unique, building on the "Start From Local Conditions" principle studied in the CBSC coursework, so we all learn a great deal from this trip.
This year, we had a fantastic visit to the Twin Cities in early June 2018, digging in for 3 long days in Minneapolis and St. Paul engaging with a wide range of community builders including high-level city staff, neighborhood based economic development leaders and executives from long-time large scale neighborhood support organizations. Fellows reflected that being able to see the work they have studied on the ground helped them to get the real stories. They appreciated the importance our hosts placed on history of the work in each setting and found many connections to their own CBSC work. Partners, Sarah Brechin from CPACS and Edna Lora from PAHL, each connected with our site visits and reported taking away ideas to introduce in their work in Atlanta.
Here are a few photos from our time in the Twin Cities. Enjoy!
CBSC 2018 program underway
Partners in Action for Healthy Living is launching a Youth Farm Team beginning in the late spring of 2018. A team of CBSC Fellows will work with PAHL on an evaluation plan to measure and identify success, build the curriculum for the personal development components of the Youth Farm Team and provide overall best practices for connecting generations utilizing gardening and the produce it creates.
The Cross Keys Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative, led by the Center for Pan Asian Community Services is hosting a team of CBSC Fellows to dig in to the housing pressures being felt in the CKSNI communities. This project builds on past work by Emory, CKSNI and the CBSC. The goal of the CBSC Fellows is to establish the conditions and changes that occur in when affordable apartments are lost to gentrification. Fellows will conduct research on residents and areas where complexes have already been sold as well as those likely in danger of being sold for future development.
The 2018 CBSC Fellows are in their Spring course, which includes course-based assignments that build into a summer workplan and numerous opportunities to work with collaborative partners on project development. We have a fantastic group for the 2018 CBSC Fellows' Class: Samantha Flaugher, Hannah Fleischmann, Julia Glickman, Charles Mann, David Nifong, Owen Mattocks
The 2018 Fellows will be working on two collaborative community projects, planning over the spring and implementing their project over a ten week summer practicum term.
CBSC 2018 kick-off
Despite the summer often being seen as the busiest time of the year for the CBSC, it takes a full year to make the program. On August 23rd, 2017, Dr. Michael Rich welcomed the incoming class of potential CBSC Fellows for the Fall course - POLS/SOC/ENVS/CBSC 370A. We have a great group of students enrolled in the course representing a diverse set of academic programs, personal backgrounds and areas of interest. This group, along with others that have completed this course in a previous year, will be able to apply for the January-July terms to completed the full fellows program this fall.
2017 CBSC Program
2017 CBSC CONCLUSION
The 2017 CBSC Fellows Program Year came to a close on July 21st, 2017. As you will read on the CBSC Projects page of this site, our teams had a productive year working on three valuable collaborative projects. Reflecting on the 2017 year, the CBSC was privileged to work with an amazing group of growing leaders and three organizations dedicated to positive community change.