Promising Practices

The following project models may serve as promising practices of the type of successful collaborations that can be created through Community-Based Learning and Research. Search our Project Finder for a complete list of past CoRAL Network projects. 

Project: Flyouth Magazine
Partners: American University and Flyouth Organization
Time Frame: November 2004

Project Description: This magazine was created by FLY?s Youth Council as a response to the increasing violence in Anacostia and includes real life scenarios that people living East of the River face. It incorporates interviews with parents whose children were murdered by gun violence, a juvenile justice organizer, a gun law advocate, youth from Barry Farm, a police sergeant, and the owner of a large gun dealership, among others.

Project Outcome: The youth of SE DC created and developed a magazine called Why? Guns Killin Youngins.  The children wanted to get everyone thinking about why so many youths are victims of violence in our city.  The magazine is available at www.flyouth.org/pdfs/programs/anti_violence_magazine/whole.pdf

Project:   North Capital Community Database of Social Services
Partners: The Perry School and Georgetown University
Time Frame:  Fall Semester of 2004

Project Description:  The goal of the project was to create a database of social services in the North Capital community.  The Perry School Director and two Georgetown University  undergradute students worked together throughout a semester to research information for more than 200 organizations serving the North Capital area. 

Project Outcome:   The database is available at: http://www.perryschool.org/perryresources/. It is currently used by Perry School social service providers to provide references to available resources and services for clients.  One student involved in the project reflected that working on creating the database  "was a good opportunity to integrate real world and classroom experience." 

Project:   "Banding Together: Then and Now", An Oral History Exhibit 
Partners:  American University and CHIME (Community Help In Music Education)
Time Frame: Fall Semester of 2004

Project Description:   As part of their graduate service-learning course on "Oral History,"  three American University students where granted the opportunity to intern at the Smithsonian Institution.  The team of students partnered with CHIME, a nonprofit that works toward promoting music education in DCPS, to conducted interviews, collected photographs, memorabilias, trophies and other items relating to the history of music public education in the District of Columbia.   

Project Outcome: The exhibit is set to open in the fall of 2006 at the Anacostia Museum and at the Center for American American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution. The professor of the course shared that "not only are my students learning a lot about the community where they attend college, but they are also giving back to that community."  Read more at www.anacostia.si.edu/index.htm or http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/summerweb/060305_anacostia.html




Project:  CoRAL-Faithworks Project on Affordable Housing Development
Partners:  CoRAL, Faithworks, and the Anacostia Community Land Trust
Time Frame:  Spring 2005 - Present

Project Description:  The CoRAL-Faithworks Team is concerned about the affordable housing crisis in the District of Columbia and has started a number of collaborative research efforts to preserve and expand the stock of affordable housing in D.C.  Using public records, surveys, and mapping tools, the team has developed a number of protocols for identifying potential sites for building affordable housing.  Through outreach efforts and interviews, the capacity of potential partners in the community is assessed and follow-up interviews are conducted to explore common interests in developing affordable housing.  Once common interests are discovered, technical assistance and development expertise are mobilized by community-based organizations to begin the process of creating or maintaining affordable housing.  Project Summary Link

Project Goal:  A five-year goal of the CoRAL-Faithworks Team involves the establishment of a thriving Anacostia Community Land Trust that is stocked with several dozen properties for affordable housing development.  At the end of five years, the CoRAL-Faithworks team will have explored and identified research protocols to identify parcels of land and to assess the owner's interest in and capacity for housing development.  For more information refer to:

http://lumen.georgetown.edu/projects/posterTool/index.cfm?fuseaction=poster.display&posterID=1965