Projects

The Temple NEST is involved in a variety of projects that assist nonprofit organizations throughout Eastern and Central Pennsylvania build capacity, evaluate outcomes and generate research that offers new and valuable information to society.

Each project is led by a member of the Temple NEST team. For more information on a particular project, please contact the Principal Investigator (PI).

Offender Reentry Projects

Dauphin County

TempleNEST collaborates with the Firm Foundation of PA, Inc. on a Life Skills and Mentoring project funded by the PA Commission on Crime & Delinquency (PCCD). The project provides a comprehensive Life Skills training to ex-offenders using the Living In Balance curriculum of Hazeldon Associates. The Firm Foundation staff also provide supportive assistance with transitional housing, vocational training, job placement, and addiction recovery services. Firm Foundation

TempleNEST is engaged in a wider scope of offender reentry initiatives through the Capital Region Ex-Offender Support Coalition, Inc. (CRESC). TempleNEST created a website for CRESC at ReentryNow, an email campaign management system, grant writing support, and evaluation designs for select programs. Graduate students from Temple´s MSW program are also engaged in studying the Mentoring process conducted by member agencies of CRESC. The graduate study initiative includes a youth mentoring project conducted by UpLift Inc.

Schuylkill County

The Clinical Outcomes Group, Inc. (COGI), in Pottsville PA is conducting an offender reentry project in conjunction with the County´s Drug & Alcohol, Prison, and Probation/Parole Departments. The Schuylkill County project concentrates on reentering offenders with a history of addiction problems. The project provides a comprehensive case management and supportive counseling to help offenders succeed in reentry. Clinical Outcomes

Education Projects

After School Program(s)

TempleNEST collaborated with the Lower Paxton Youth Center LPYC to secure a 21st Century Community Learning Center grant from the PA Dept of Education. The project provides an after school program in the Swatara Middle School during the school year, and a Summer Academy day school. The programming of the project provides for homework assistance, tutoring, scaffold learning opportunities, and a life skills program called "Why Try." Results from the Summer Academy showed significant gains in self-esteem using the Youth Self Esteem Inventory of Coopersmith (1967). Other measures in use during the school year include the 4Sight battery, PSSA, grade point averages, attendance, and behavioral incident reports.

The Coordinator for the program is a recent graduate of the Temple University Harrisburg MSW program, Katie Kopco Warner.

Alternative Education

The Institute for Cultural Partnerships ICP conducts a program called "Art of Many Voices" in a alternative education school of the Harrisburg School District. The project arranges for master artists from various fields as, poetry, dance, music, drama, folk lore, to lead students in creating original projects. A finale performance or exhibition is presented at the William Penn Museum each year.

This year, the ICP and TempleNEST collaborated on a grant to The Foundation for Enhancing Communities TFEC for support to evaluate the project. The application was funded so the project will measure gains in self esteem, art rubrics, critical thinking, and performance in the academic curriculum.

Tobacco Cessation

Central and North Central Pennsylvania

The Clinical Outcomes Group, Inc. COGI secured a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to provide interventions that help tobacco users quit. The project covers 17 PA Counties in Central and North Central Pennsylvania. The services include outreach, education, coaching/counseling, and regimens of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT). TempleNEST is assisting with the evaluation of the project. Assessments are conducted at intake, mid term intervention, and follow up for 30 days, 90 days, and 180 days. In addition to measuring basic parameters of cessation, a number of possible intermediary variables are also surveyed.

NEST faculty (Zanis and Hollm) have published a number of studies pertaining to cessation outreach strategies, readiness for change factors, and motivational enhancement interventions. Ronald Hollm was recently "invited" by the Eastern Evaluation Research Society to present this work at their annual conference May 1-3, 2010.