Community Partnerships

The lack of an accessible information resource for the homeless is a major area that needs improvement. A previously homeless citizen from the Pitt County area recently noted that recovering from homelessness could be expedited if people knew where and how to access the many homelessness public services and programs. Like many other areas, Pitt County lacks a well-maintained, accessible, and functional information resource for the homeless. I have started discussions with local community organizations to develop a system to provide valuable information to local homeless individuals and families.

Education

Public policy, public service delivery, and citizen governance have been major interests in my education, professional practice, and community engagement. In 2008, I enrolled in two graduate-level courses relative to social change and public policy: civil rights history and public policy. The public policy analysis course introduced me to formal and scientific concepts of measuring the validity and impact of public policies. Contrarily, the civil rights course material further expanded my view of how participatory and grassroots efforts for social change differ from formal public administration efforts. The former sought to shift values and challenge the environment that bred inequality, while the latter sought to manage the complexity. In 2013, I plan to enroll in North Carolina State University’s Graduate Certificate in Public Policy program to attain a “strong vertical stack of capabilities that are relevant” to social problems where design could be of value to efforts in public policy, participatory action, community engagement, and citizen governance.[1]

[1] McCullagh, Kevin. “Is it Time to Rethink the T-Shaped Designer?” Core77, September 24, 2010. Accessed on June 4, 2012. http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/is_it_time_to_rethink_the_t-shaped_designer_17426.asp. “Without a strong vertical stack of capabilities that are relevant to their chosen problem domain, designers stop being designers–and join the legions of free-floating generalists,” argued McCullagh.