The Center for Social Development (CSD) at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis recently announced the 2005 grant recipients of its Civic Service Small Research Grants and Fellows Program. This program is part of the Global Service Institute (GSI) research initiative funded by the Ford Foundation.
“The goals of the Small Grants and Fellows Program are to support innovative social science research and to develop an international, inter-disciplinary network of scholars and researchers in the area of civic service,” says Amanda Moore McBride, Ph.D., assistant professor at the School of Social Work and CSD research director.
Civic service is a type of long-term, intensive volunteerism like AmeriCorps or Peace Corps in the United States.
“Civic service programs exist worldwide, but the knowledge base lags behind programming and policy,” McBride says. “This is the second round of the Small Grants and Fellows Program, the primary aim of which is to increase research capacity and impact worldwide.”
The 2005 grants will support 12 projects to be conducted in 19 countries. The awarded projects are diverse, covering topics such as international service, elder service, national service, service-learning, and comparative assessment. The research projects are:
1. Social Intervention Strategies and Volunteerism Characteristics: A comparative study of Chile and Brazil
Principal Investigator: Dr. Teresa Matus, Universidad Catolica de Chile
2. Service and Volunteering in Five Southern African Countries [in Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe]
Principal Investigators: Dr. Leila Patel and Helene Perold, Rand Afrikaans University in conjunction with Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa
3. Volunteerism and Civic Service in Latin America and Caribbean: Organizational elements that enhance long-term volunteerism [in Mexico, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Dominican Republic]
Principal Investigators: Dr. Terrance Jantzi, Dr. Caroline Kroeker-Falconi, and Dr. Fiorella Rojas, Eastern Mennonite University in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity International
4. Rise and Fall of National Service in Nepal
Principal Investigator: Chandra Bhatta (doctoral candidate), London School of Economics and Political Science
5. Measuring the Effectiveness of University-based Civic Service Projects in Turkey
Principal Investigator: Tara Hopkins, Sabanci University
6. Environmental Attitudes and Civic Programs: A critical study of engagement in the United Arab Emirates
Principal Investigator: Dr. Fares Howari, United Arab Emirates University
7. Study of Outcomes in the Bonner Scholars Program
Principal Investigator: Dr. Cheryl Keen, Antioch College
Junior Researcher: Sacha Ramirez, Antioch College
8. The Impact and Sustainability of an Intervention of the AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps into Communities
Principal Investigator: Danielle Vogenbeck (doctoral candidate), University of Colorado
9. The Paradoxes of International Service and Civic Nationalism [in Nigeria and the Gambia]
Principal Investigator: Wale Adebanwi (doctoral candidate), University of Cambridge
10. Assessing Intercultural Competence in International Service [in Ecuador, Great Britain and Switzerland]
Principal Investigators: Dr. Alvino E. Fantini and Dr. Todd M. Davis, Federation for the Experiment in International Living
11. International Volunteers in Community Science for Sustainable Development
Principal Investigators: Peter Devereux (doctoral candidate), Dr. Laura Stocker and Dr. Martin Anda, Murdoch University
12. Older Adults in Uruguay: Actors of volunteerism and civic service
Principal Investigator: Anabel Cruz, Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo
For more information about the GSI research initiative and the Small Research Grants and Fellows Program and the 2003 and 2005 grantees, visit http://gwbweb.wustl.edu/csd/service/smallgrants.htm.