Tools for Transformation
Funded Proposals
Graduate School of Public Affairs
GSPA will develop a pilot clinic program over a two-year period to allow students to assist public and non-profit organizations in the community, and to connect their activities in applied policy analysis and evaluation research to real organizational settings. Several pilot community partnerships with key organizations will be established in which a variety of joint GSPA and community organizational activities would occur. This program benefits non-profit organizations, the community, students and GSPA by leveraging resources that will help bridge critical service gaps and build capacity.
| Contact: |
J. Patrick Dobel Associate Dean Graduate School of Public Affairs pdobel@u.washington.edu |
| Allocation: | $100,000 |
| Date Funded: | September 1998 |
PROGRESS REPORT
The Strategic Plan of the Evans School of Public Affairs emphasizes that the Evans school will seek to integrate its teaching and research mission in a manner that supports the public and nonprofit community of the region. It further sees the Evans school as a hub of activity within the University and the wider community that links issues of public management and policy with the needs of the community and research. The Evans School funding from Tools for Transformation seeks to achieve these goals in three ways articulated in the strategic plan. These are:
The Evans school plans to use the funds over a three-year period. In this time it will seek to accomplish three objects. First, create a framework by which clinics, joint programs, and partnerships can be evaluated and created. Second, launch a clinic program. Third, initiate a series of joint degree programs with professional schools.
The Evans School proposal for the Tools for Transformation support proposed a three-year time line. In year one, the School would create a framework for the partnerships and clinics and launch a prototype clinic. In year two, it would evaluate and establish the clinic courses and create two partnerships. In year three, it would continue the clinic and have developed external support for the clinics, as well as creating two new partnerships.
I. Report on Clinics & Partnerships
In autumn 1998 the Dean created the Ad Hoc Committee on Clinics and Partnerships
chaired by the Associate Dean. The committee brought together representatives of
the faculty and research centers to develop a general approach to these two
areas. The committee met from September 1998 through February 1999. The report
was submitted to the Dean in February and accepted by the Dean in March 1999. It
authorized the creation of the clinics and described the operational parameters.
On partnerships, the report defined what institutional partnerships should be
and developed criteria and processes to evaluate them.
With this work done, the school is ready to proceed more directly in establishing the clinics and searching for potential institutional partnerships. During the academic year 1999-2000, the school will create an inventory of existing partnerships within the school as a benchmark to develop institutional partnerships.
II. Clinics
Goals of the Evans School Public Service Clinics
In 1998-1999 the clinic program proceeded on two fronts. Senior Lecturer Dan Carlson was hired to launch a prototype clinic for the academic year. During the summer of 1998 he developed a preliminary client base and mission statement. In the autumn he recruited students and in Winter 1999 started the first clinic with 10 students. At the same time, his RA researched best practices at other public affairs schools who ran clinics.
His initial efforts enriched the discussion of the Ad Hoc Committee on Clinics and Partnerships. The report provided a careful framework from which to expand future efforts and recommended creating a clinic coordinator to run the program. On the basis of that report the clinics were authorized as a part of the curriculum. This report lays out the clinic option, faculty responsibility and calls for the creation of a Director of Clinics to coordinate the program.
The clinic prototype ended in Spring 1999. The school is presently evaluating the first clinic. On the basis of the preliminary evaluation, we are implementing a number of revisions for next year. In particular, it was decided to have two focussed clinics to build in great intellectual support among students and to provide a strong initial orientation and methodological support. Finally, the Director will attend more carefully to the stability of the agencies to whom students commit for producing their project.
1999-2000
Using tools money, Senior Lecturer and IPPM Research Consultant Dan Carlson has
been hired for two years as Director of the Evans School Public Service Clinics.
He will work with faculty and students to oversee the quality of clinics and
create a network of potential clients. He is also charged to work aggressively
to find independent funding for the clinic support position by academic year
2001-2002.
The Evans school will have three separate clinics of ten students each for the next academic year. Senior Lecturer Dan Carlson will offer on in Community Building and Development. As part of their regular Evans School teaching load, Assistant Professor Stephen Page will offer one on Delivery of Social Services, and Assistant Professor John Madison will offer an open Clinic in which students of diverse interests will work on their projects.
The Director will have a supplementary budget from the tools fund to hire an RA to work on developing client relations and support the clinic professors. The Director is negotiating with the Director of Internships about putting this position together with money the Internship program has to create a stronger synergy between the two groups and perhaps link internships to future clinic work.
The plan is for the School to increase the number of clinics to four or five in 2000-2001 subject to student interest. At the end of that time the tools money will run out and we hope that the position of the Director of Clinics and the RA will be funded by external funding.
III. Partnerships and Concurrent Programs
After the creation of the Ad Hoc Committee’s Report on Clinics and Partnerships,
the program initiatives took a different tack. Most of the effort on creating
partnerships focussed upon the work of the Forum which had obtained substantial
funding for the partnership efforts. Internally, the Associate Dean decided to
focus the tools funded efforts and support upon creating internal partnership
and programs. During the strategic planning process, the school had identified a
target of creating 3 to 5 concurrent degrees over the next five years.
This
expanded the school’s vision of putting itself at the center of management and
policy needs for other professional schools in the university.
Supported by staffing financed by the tools funds, the School created a committee to discuss creating a Concurrent Degree Program with the School of Forest Resources. The committee met over nine months and researched other programs as well as their own internal program. After much hard work, the committee produced a draft document. This summer the document will be forwarded to the graduate school for consultation.
The concurrent degree proposes a new and innovate approach. Right now the common concurrent degree involves taking two parallel programs and cross counting twelve hours. The committee created a program that focuses upon eliminating duplication and recognizes each school’s core classes when they overlap. The proposal also eliminates the need to do both a degree project and masters thesis and defers to the masters thesis. It also creates a cohort by identifying a set of courses that each entering group should take together and creating a new course designed exclusively for the joint program cohort.
The work of the committee expands the innovative approach the school is taking to making itself a hub of managerial and policy expertise that can support other professional schools. We believe that educated individuals who have expertise in defined areas such as wildlife management or urban planning and possess strong management and policy skills will enhance their ability to work and contribute to the public good. The proposal will go before both faculty in early autumn. Next year Evans School will launch a similar set of negotiations with the School of Community Medicine and Public Health supported by staff funded by the tools money.
Tools for Transformation
Funded Proposals
