Gheens Community Engagement Mini Grant Program 

DESCRIPTION & ELIGIBILITY 

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REQUIREMENTS FOR PROJECTS 

• Include research, teaching, service, or outreach 
• Course affiliated projects must be led by faculty, and student projects led by a faculty or staff mentor
• Include students working collaboratively on the project 
• Project must either involve an external partner organization or clearly be in service to an external community  
• Project must demonstrate it is addressing a critical community need/issue 
• Project must be with underrepresented communities, which include immigrant/refugee, rural communities 
• Presentation on project at the spring Engaged Scholarship Symposium or the spring Undergraduate Arts & Research Showcase. 

BUDGET 

• Course connected grants may be in the $1000-$3000 range.  
• Student RSO grants may range from $250 to $1000. 

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION: December 13, 2024

APPLY HERE BY DECEMBER 13, 2024

Note: All projects must be implemented in spring of 2025 and be completed by June 1.

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2023 Awardees Listing 

Awardees	Unit(s)	Amount	Description and significance of the potential project
Andreas Stamatis, Molly Gillikin, and Rachel Lifson	CEHD, HSS	3000	The project aims to not only acknowledge but also actively respond to the deteriorating state of mental health within a Kentucky high school. By providing concrete, data-driven solutions and resources, we seek to create a safer and more supportive environment for the staff and students. This project is a crucial step towards fostering the well-being and academic success of this community, aligning with the school’s commitment to nurturing the holistic development of its staff and students.
Brandon Harwood, Mary P. Sheridan	Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society	2750	CCHS matches talented UofL students with local Arts and Culture Partners who have projects that push the boundaries of programming offered to the community. This can include centering historically marginalized voices from the archives, reinventing how the public can access and learn from our institutions through digital and open-access means, and creating new templates for historical reenactments and perspectives to inspire current and next generations of museum attendees. Such work materialized conversations about whose stories are told and whose knowledges are valued.  Materializing responses to these conversations highlights engaged problem-solving, a crucial practice for community partners and students alike.
David James Royer, Jenny Hogg, Nick Newton, Amber Priddy	Department of Special Education, Early Childhood, and Prevention Science	2964	Th
Emmanuel Kumah, Philile Dlamini	College of Arts and Science	829	This project seeks to explore transitional and lived experiences of non-English speaking African immigrant refugees in Louisville, KY. This qualitative study is important because it will help understand the challenges non-English African immigrant refugees face during their adaptation, job search, and overall life in Louisville and America.
Erica S. Ranade	Dept. of Special Education, Early Childhood, and Prevention Science	994	This study is designed to address gaps in services for immigrant and refugee children whose families are seeking Autism diagnoses by: (1) exploring the needs of clinicians who conduct autism diagnoses for native-born and linguistically diverse individuals in the community, and (2) providing targeted training about special education content based on clinicians’ needs. The purpose of this project is to provide training about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for clinicians working with families who have children identified with Autism who receive support from community diagnostic centers. The research questions guiding this project are: 1. What resources do community diagnostic centers currently have to discuss special education with clients and what resources are needed? 2. How do clinicians support families whose children are newly diagnosed with autism to learn about the medical, developmental, and educational supports available? 3. What are clinicians’ experiences sharing materials about IDEA with families? a. What are their experiences sharing materials with diverse families? (Additional description available in document upon request - text limit reached in form)
Grace De Souza, Paige Akers	School of Dentistry	2000	Th
John Gibson, Avery Kolers	A&S, Department of Philosophy	1000	The Department of Philosophy is partnering with local high schools to host a Philosophy Slam at the Chao Auditorium on November 16th (International Philosophy Day) from 6pm-8pm. The event will use the familiar model of a 'poetry slam' but applied to philosophy,  with (mostly) JCPS students taking the stage to improvise answers, in a fun and accessible way, to core questions concerning the nature of justice, the self, beauty, virtue, and so on. JCPS teachers and parents will be in attendance, and this will help establish a pipeline between local schools and Philosophy at UofL. Our undergraduate students will help moderate the event and award prizes, and the hope is that this will foster a broader sense of philosophical community that will serve both the Philosophy Major and local high schools.
Karen Krigger, Sydney Travers, Kaitlin Abel, Mohammad El-Ezz, Bhoomi Shah, Danial A.Malik	Office of Diversity and Inclusion Health Sciences Center	598	有限公司 S
Karlie Brockman	Undergraduate, College of Arts and Sciences	500	My service project will be creating an after-school creative writing program for JCPS third through fifth graders, specifically Cochran Elementary or Coral Ridge Elementary. The program will last eight-weeks with up to fifteen students. There will be two eight-week cohorts, in fall 2023 and spring 2024. There will be three to four UofL undergraduate students at each meeting. One will be primary leader for the week, while the others will be there to assist. The role of primary leader will change each week to distribute responsibility. UofL students involved in the service project will also meet weekly to discuss the program's progression.
Laura Krauser, DJ Biddle	A&S, Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, Center for GIS	2000	在 While the students initially relied on Google Maps and photographs, the UofL Center for GIS (ULCGIS) and UofL geography students are in a unique position to enhance their geoinquiry process significantly. Our primary objective at the ULCGIS is to provide support for their central inquiries: 1) Identifying the areas in Louisville predominantly inhabited by Black and economically disadvantaged residents, and 2) Uncovering the extent of resource disparities for these Louisville residents. The ULCGIS will facilitate students in a series of workshops as they explore and analyze spatial data comprehensively, and construct a visually compelling, data-backed narrative that addresses this issue both qualitatively and quantitatively through spatial analysis. We aim to determine where the establishment of a new grocery store would have the most significant positive impact on those currently facing disadvantage and limited access to essential resources.
Lesley Harris, Andrew Winters, Rebecka Bloomer, Doroty Sato	Kent School of Social Work & Family Science	3000	Th
Melanie Gast	College of A&S, Sociology	2600	Americana World Community Center (ACC) is a local, non-profit organization, which provides holistic, comprehensive programs to immigrants, refugees, and low-income individuals in Louisville. Dr. Melanie Gast is a current Board member and Program Committee member for ACC, and so she is well connected to the ACC. Dr. Melanie Gast has collaborated and communicated with the Executive Director, Emilie Dyer and Youth Program Coordinator, Rehani Fundi about this SOC 450 course project. This is a community-engaged project where UofL undergraduate students will support and help develop the organizing and outreach for this ACC soccer/mental-health program where local teenagers and young adults from immigrant and refugee families participate in sports (soccer) and develop strategies for focusing on wellness, mental health, and community and social belonging, as part of Dr. Gast’s SOC 450 Immigrants & Identity Spring 2024 course.
Olive Dreckman, Eric Berson	Join project with International Service Learning Program (ISLP) and School of Engineering	1400	Th
Patrick C. Exmeyer	Department of Urban and Public Affairs	1500	Between a conservative budget appropriation from the Charlestown Common Council and small number of full-time employees (FTEs) for the Charlestown Parks Department, the formation and provision of an evaluation system design constructed by UofL Master of Public Administration graduate students aims to provide an essential tool for Charlestown Parks Department employees to regularly assess the effectiveness and efficiency of operations for the Arts & Enrichment Center and to better serve community members and organizations which regularly use the facility.
Rachel Singel, Erica Lewis	Department of Fine Arts and Department of Comparative Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences	1000	UofL Art Professor Rachel Singel and UofL Ph.D. student Erica Lewis are working together to plan a community event in collaboration with and hosted by the Portland Museum titled "CeLOUbrate Print." The event will take the traditional, historical medium of printmaking outside of its usual institutions of a university or for-profit print shop in order to teach the community about its history while opening up access to learning the art form itself. CeLOUbrate Print will encompass various stations of events, such as letterpress printing at the Portland Museum’s new community studio Beechgrove Press, live screenprinting t-shirts/posters, and a steamroller to print large carved relief blocks (essentially, very large hand-carved wooden stamps).
Ratchneewan Ross	School of Nursing	2750	Objectives: 1) Train healthcare providers in government healthcare facilities in Ghana in screening for depression and identifying predictors of depression in perinatal women (HIV-negative and HIV-positive); and 2) Evaluate the training program based on the CDC’s logic model using mixed methods methodology. Overall Activities: Using the CDC logic model (CDC, 2018), the team has engaged stakeholders (4 healthcare facilities in Ghana), planned for depression screening training activities, designed evaluation methods, and planned to gather credible quantitative and qualitative data along with data analysis and data dissemination.
Sri Mokshagundam, Beth Ackerman	Department of Medicine	600	The Compassion Clinic and the Redeemer Lutheran Church will host the Annual Block Party and Health Fair. The event includes multiple health screenings including screenings for prediabetes and diabetes.  Attendees who choose to participate will have a Hemoglobin A1c test completed.  This test will give an immediate result with interpretation from a medical student.  The attendee can take the result to his/her next provider visit for further review or follow up testing.
Tamara Sluss	The Graduate School, Urban and Public Affairs	2000	Louisville Grows’ Urban Agriculture program is designed to build capacity in community gardens by providing technical assistance, education and infrastructure. Healthy House programs, workshops and classes center on healthy living, healthy eating, environmental education or environmental equity. They are dedicated to restoring the urban tree canopy and providing environmental education opportunities that will lead to ending health disparities in our community. Louisville Grows’ outreach extends to all of Jefferson County and Southern Indiana. However, the focus audience is on serving 21 neighborhoods in west and south Louisville. These neighborhoods are most impacted by the Urban Heat Island Effect due to the loss of their tree canopy and are experiencing food apartheid. For this specific project students in Urban Agriculture will help grow and distribute plants to the local community, review community garden grant proposals, and collaborate to build infrastructure for an awarded community garden in need. Data will be collected on student learning before and after the proposed activities, number of plant giveaways, and student reflections.
Tiffany McPheeters, Grace De Souza	University of Louisville College of Dentistry	2975	Dental health care providers rarely visit patients’ homes. Thus, homebound patients have less access to care than patients who are mobile (Ohara et al 2020). In Japan, dental hygienists are allowed to visit the home of homebound patients for oral health management services for up to four visits per month (Ohara 2020). In the US, family caregivers, home nurses, and home health aides provide the majority of the daily support for oral health care. Therefore, it is of primary importance to professionally train and follow up with the patients care team, ensuring that disabled and medically compromised patients receive adequate oral care, thus giving them a better quality of life. With funding from this mini grant, our team will collect oral hygiene products and materials, and create audiovisual resources to pilot the training of home care providers on providing oral hygiene to homebound patients.

SLIDESHOW: Oct. 14 Awards Ceremony at the 2022 Community Engagement Luncheon