Center for Sport Leadership Presents Lobs & Lessons with $1,000 Donation

The Center for Sport Leadership proudly presented Lobs & Lessons with a $1,000 check on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 after raising money for the program through Kickin' 4 Kidz. The Kickin' 4 Kidz event, held on April 8, 2009, hosted more than two hundred children for a fun-filled day of soccer and other festivities at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond, Virginia. The children, from nine Richmond-area community centers including the Downtown YMCA, Peter Paul Development Center, Greater Richmond YMCA, Police Athletic League, Southside Boys and Girls Club, Southwood Boys and Girls Club, Capital One Boys and Girls Club, Central Boys and Girls Club, and West End Boys and Girls Club, participated in a morning of soccer skills instruction followed by an afternoon of soccer games. The soccer festivities were accompanied by a carnival-like festival consisting of entertainment activities including inflatables, face painting, and music and dancing from Radio Disney.

Through community donations, the Center for Sport Leadership raised funds to donate to the Lobs & Lessons program. Lobs & Lessons was started as a SportsCenter student project in 2004 and now operates under VCU's Division of Community Engagement. Lobs & Lessons promotes education and life skills for elementary school-aged, economically disadvantaged children through the combination of mentoring, tutoring and tennis. Center for Sport Leadership students provide more than 2,000 service hours each school year by working with Lobs & Lessons and other community service groups.

Hunter Leemon (Center for Sport Leadership student, class of 2009) and Carrie LeCrom (Assistant Director, Center for Sport Leadership) presented the check to Kathleen Bowles (director of Lobs & Lessons), and Elizabeth Frazier and Michael Frazier (CEO, Genworth Financial and program sponsor of Lobs & Lessons). "The Center for Sport Leadership is thrilled to make this donation to Lobs & Lessons and to continue to support the program by providing mentors," said LeCrom. "Our graduate students treasure their time with the Lobs & Lessons children while at the same time developing a servant leadership base that they can build on throughout their lives. The strong relationship between the Center for Sport Leadership and Lobs & Lessons is one that has brought both programs much success and we look forward to continuing this in the future."

To view story on VCU Center for Sports Leadership website: http://blog.vcu.edu/sportleadership/2009/06/center_for_sport_leadership_pr.html

VCU Council for Community Engagement awards grants to support community needs

Mike Porter
VCU Communications and Public Relations
(804) 828-7037
mrporter@vcu.edu
5/8/2009

Virginia Commonwealth University's Council for Community Engagement has awarded one-year grants totaling $100,000 to eight university-community programs.

The Community Engagement grant awards were announced at a reception at the University Student Commons on May 4.

Cathy Howard, Ph.D., vice provost for community engagement, told attendees they were playing a critical role in increasing the level of community engagement, which has been identified as a key theme in VCU's strategic plan.

"Over the past three years, the university has provided $300,000 in community engagement grants to support 25 university-community partnerships," Howard said. "The variety of these partnerships spans nearly every academic program on both campuses. These awards allow us to build sustainable partnerships with organizations in greater Richmond, which enhances our community's quality of life."

Grants were awarded to:

ICare CPR Online, a partnership between VCU's Department of Anesthesia, Department of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, the School of Medicine and Henrico County Schools to use an online and videoconferencing program to deliver CPR training and certification to high school students and their families in Henrico County through online PE.

Improving the Quality of Mental Healthcare for Richmond's Youth, a partnership between VCU's Virginia Treatment Center for Children, Department of Psychology, School of Social Work and Childsavers, a community non-profit group that addresses the mental health and developmental needs of children, to develop an interdisciplinary mental health program to increase service capacity, improve service delivery and reduce treatment drop-out for adolescent clients of Childsavers.

Caregiver Support Program is a partnership between the School of Allied Health's departments of Gerontology and Occupational Therapy and the "a Grace PLACE" adult care center. The pilot program will create a training curriculum and resource manual for caregivers in need of support. Students will follow up by phone to monitor stress in providing care for aging family members who are day clients at the center.

Peep This Film Camp, a partnership between the Department of African American Studies, the School of the Arts, the Department of Photography and Film, media, arts and text program, the Department of English and the East District Family Resource Center in which male adolescents in Richmond's East End will create documentary films relevant to Richmond history and their own community experiences. VCU students from the Afrikana student organization and the MATX will serve as mentors for these Family Resource Center clients.

Development of a Chronic Care Model in an Underserved Population, a partnership between the School of Pharmacy, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU Health System and Cross-Over Health Center in which students and clinicians will develop and measure a chronic disease management model for the Cross-Over Health Center to improve care and treatment of diabetic patients.

Our Park, Our Environment, a partnership between the Department of Pathology, Department of Biology, the Center for Life Sciences Education, Powhatan Public Schools, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in which high school students will participate in the development and implementation of a longitudinal data collection and monitoring system prior to the opening of a new state park in Powhatan County.

Diffusion Theory to Promote Care in a Homeless Population, a partnership between the School of Pharmacy, the Department of Psychology, the School of Social Work and the Daily Planet, a non-profit service provider to the homeless, in which the team will implement and test the effectiveness of an innovative bracelet storage device to increase the medication reconciliation for a homeless, uninsured and underinsured population.

It's Time to Press Play, a collaboration between the department of computer science, EDEN (Enhancing Diversity in Engineering Nucleus,) the Mary and Frances Youth Center's Lobs & Lessons Program, the Division of Community Engagement, Richmond Public Schools and Hanover Public Schools to develop and implement a middle school summer camp at the Mary and Frances Youth Center that uses video game programming to stimulate an interest in math and science, while also offering on-site tennis and life skills activities.

The eight grantees were selected from a group of 19 proposals. Members of the Council for Community Engagement gifts and grants committee selected the grantees.

Home-life "upside-down?" VCU program provided advice for dealing with tough times

Mike Porter
VCU Communications and Public Relations
(804) 828-7037
mrporter@vcu.edu
5/19/2009

Virginia Commonwealth University's Council for Community Engagement and VCU HR Work/Life Resources hosted "What's Happening to My House? VCU Families: Coping with the economy in good times and bad."

The program provided VCU employees and their families with information for finding a job, improving personal and family finances and coping with stress. The program was held May 19 in the University Student Commons.

Organizers said ordinary problems can become even more challenging in a poor economic climate, turning a person's home life "upside-down."

"Even if you haven't personally been affected by the economic crisis, you probably know someone who has," said Catherine Howard, Ph.D., vice provost for the Division of Community Engagement. "What we wanted to do here is put together a program for the VCU and VCU Health System community that would bring the university's resources together," Howard said.

Workshops offered advice for retooling job skills, financing a child's education and organizing and maintaining a family budget. Other sessions focused on strategies for managing stress, reducing credit card debt and planning for retirement.

The "resume express" session allowed job seekers to get personal assistance on their resumes.

"I found that to be extremely helpful," said Evetta Bolling of Mechanicsville. "I got tips for shortening my resume and answers to my questions about the best way to update my resume," Bolling said.

Between sessions, more than a dozen vendors provided information about their goods and services to participants.

"A lot of people stepped up to the plate to make this work in a very short time," Howard said. "It's gratifying and speaks a lot to the spirit we have here at VCU. I think we're on to something and we want to hear from people to help us decide what programs to offer when we hold this again," Howard said.

Participants recognized during second 'Emerging Nonprofit Leaders' celebration
6/3/2009

The second "Emerging Nonprofit Leaders" class attracted 20 representatives from nonprofit organizations across Central Virginia. Class members participated in eight months of leadership training, which is provided by "Nonprofit Learning Point" and supported by VCU's Division of Community Engagement.

Damon Jiggetts of Communities in Schools of Richmond Inc. served as class speaker.

"The experience has allowed us to be honest with ourselves, identify our strengths and enhance our growth," Jiggetts said. "Our collective growth will allow us to better serve our agencies."

Please click here for the link to the Acts of Caring Nomination Form.

Carver Community Day brings VCU and the Carver neighborhood together
4/28/2009

Carver Community Day, sponsored by the Carver-VCU Partnership, was held on April 25, 2009. The neighborhood event featured health screenings, housing and safety information, food, children's activities and entertainment. VCU and community groups participated.

The Carver-VCU Partnership is a collaboration between VCU's Division of Community Engagement and the Carver Community, to create a shared urban community with a commitment to improving the neighborhood's quality of life, while extending the experience of the community into the classroom and the university.

To view article with pictures as posted on VCU View, see http://www.news.vcu.edu/vcu_view/pages.aspx?nid=2903