Historical Context

Accomplishments

For the past ten years, JWPC has worked with local residents, public and private sector leaders, and faith-based organizations to identify community needs and deliver innovative training and partnership programs in Tampa Bay. Additionally, these trainings and programs have provided community-engaged opportunities for students and faculty at USF. Some of JWPC's programs, research, evaluations, and presentations include:

• Grassroots Leadership Program with over 485 community graduates
• College Link/ENLACE Program with over 20,000 hours of Tutor and Mentoring to students in 7 high schools and 2 middle schools.
• Cooperative Association of States for Scholarship (CASS) and Central American Youth Ambassadors (CAYA) Programs-partnership with Georgetown University- graduated over 90 students from 6 Central American and Caribbean countries
• Youth Mentoring and Civic Engagement Training with over 85 youth graduates in the Tampa Bay Region.
• Grassroots Disaster Leadership Training provided over 40 community faith based, private, and public sector leaders an overview of the neighborhood asset based training at the Orlando Emergency Management Office.
• Neighborhood GIS Training Program in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy with 65 non-profit leaders trained
• Research Projects: Anti-Crime three year research in collaboration with University Area CDC and the Affordable Housing Task Force study for Hillsborough County.
• Evaluation projects:

- Tampa Housing Authority HOPE VI Belmont Heights
- Tampa Housing Authority Oaks at Riverview
- Hillsborough County Palm River WEED & SEED I & II
- LISC Homeownership Program
- CDC of Tampa JOLI program evaluation.

• Conference Presentations:

- US HUD COPC 10th Annual Conference
- State of Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference (invited to present for 6th year in a row)
- Wachovia Housing Conference at USF
- Neighborhood Annual Conference (Presented twice)
- International Research Conference on Service Learning and Civic Engagement
- State-Wide Anti-Crime Conference (presented in four Florida cities)
- Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) conferences (invited to present for seven consecutive years)
- Tampa Bay Latino Coalition
- Florida Association of Volunteer Managers

• Developed the University Partnership for Community and Economic Development (recognized by the State of Florida Statute 290.0056)
• University partnerships: Georgetown University, University of Florida's Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing, University of Rhode Island, Florida Atlantic Metropolitan University, and Emory University