See below for an updated list of research/projects proposed by our current Scholar Shop community partners.

• A Little Help 
  • Research Design: What does it take to get younger volunteers (20 – 30 year olds) involved with ALH and sustain their participation? Currently we have a hard time retaining young volunteers. Many of them sign-up to volunteer, go through the required background check, but communication drops from there.
  • Information Dissemination: We need help reaching younger audiences (20 – 30 year olds) to recruit as volunteers. How can we use social media to market our organization and recruit volunteers? How can we reach and engage college students?
  • Information Dissemination: We would like someone to review our website and marketing materials and make recommendations to improve our messaging for a diversity of audiences. We have a wide demographic of potential volunteers but we are not sure what works and does not work for them when viewing and using our website/materials.
  • Program Evaluation: We would like to have students look at ALH’s process in how we intake applications, match folks etc. If possible, we would like someone to assess our Help Connect online system. Is the system and process working well for volunteers? Can we be doing something better?
  • Program Evaluation/Creative Work: We want help assessing our volunteer orientation process and training video. We want to collect feedback from our volunteers to learn what questions they need help answering and what methods of teaching/communication work best for them. How can we improve our orientation and training processes (e.g. have a weekly open house for volunteers to chat and ask questions)? What is the best way to get our training out there and encourage interaction among volunteers?

• Colorado Black Health Collaborative
  • Information Dissemination: We would like help turning our in-person trainings focused on health education and screenings into online/recorded training modules to increase our reach to community members.
  • Literature Review: We are interested in researching the unknown/buried history of Black/African Americans who have contributed to health and wellness of the Black community here in Colorado.
  • Creative Work (MATCHED): We would like a DU partner to create a miniature model floorplan and (if possible) a virtual tour of a barbershop/salon to showcase CBHC’s education and screening programs held in those locations.
  • Research Design: We are open to working with students who want to learn more about the Black community by respectfully engaging with our community and have self-directed research project ideas.

• The Empowerment Program
  • Research Design/ Data Collection/ Data Analysis: Our research embraces new thinking about the capacity for violence and is dedicated to the prevention of bullying, violence and trauma. We have developed a theory on the Prevention of Violence and Trauma and a screening instrument to increase awareness of an individual’s capacity for violence. We need help researching the instrument so the instrument can earn an evidence base. The instrument needs to be validated – this would include an IRB, regression analysis and other statistical expertise.

• The Episcopal Church in Colorado 
  • Research Design/ Data Collection (MATCHED): Conduct a Needs/Assets Assessment of all social ministries who are members of The Episcopal Church in Colorado (Especially as it is related to collective impact through the Anchor Institution model).
  • Literature Review: How do you create a social network of cooperatives that has community impact and exchanges services with one another?
  • Information Dissemination: Develop communication piece(s) to explain anchor institutions and address perceived barriers to achieving this mission for internal congregation leaders and members and for community members who are not direct members of the Church.
  • Literature Review: Research precedent anchor institutions that we can learn from and adapt to our Colorado community (e.g. faith-based anchor institutions?).
  • Literature Review (MATCHED): Research how churches can shift from a service model to an asset based community development model that impacts structural issues and inequities.
  • Policy Analysis: Analysis on institutional change to better understand what steps institutions can take to acknowledge past harms (e.g. racism), promote healing, and become more inclusive moving into the future.
  • Literature Design/ Data Collection: Study on Church-based land developments to address community needs (e.g. creation of affordable housing on church-owned land).
  • Literature Review/ Data Collection: How can congregations apply a Collective Impact approach to better understand community needs and strategies to address them?

• Generation Exchange
  • Internship: Work with Generation Exchange to design and implement a free pilot workshop at DU where older adult (40+) mentees are paired with DU student volunteer mentors to learn about technology of interest. From this pilot, we would like to explore potential for creating a DU Chapter that sustains free technology workshops through the year. 
  • Program Evaluation: We would like to improve our understanding of mentee needs and better inspire knowledge exchange between mentees and mentors. Some questions we want to explore include:
    • How can we enhance our Mentees self-assessment of which tech questions they will explore with their Mentors?  We wish to evaluate this approach in order to discover if we and they are missing additional fruitful areas of exploration because they “don’t know what they don’t know”.We’d like to evaluate and improve our process of pairing the needs of our self-directed older-adult Mentees with the resources and interests of our younger-adult Mentors. We’d like to evaluate our approach to reversing the Mentor / Mentee roles in our workshops and design more powerful techniques from that evaluation. We’d like to evaluate our current Mentor and Mentee outreach methodologies in order to design for broader application of outreach methods in other communities.
  • Research Design: We would like to conduct psychological research that explores Karl Groos’ notion of “the pleasure at being the cause” as it pertains to our older adult mentees by exploring their desire to have the ability to cause predictable effects in their world. We believe older adult’s loss of roles and technological literacy is a precursor to detachment from one’s own identity and thus subsequent experiences of isolation and depression. We wish to explore and possibly prove that: 1) Our assumptions about the correlation of “caused effect” with optimism versus isolation and depression are valid, and 2) Our techniques and methodology for enhancing “the pleasure at being the cause” are valid and effective. 

• Girls Inc. of Metro Denver
  • Research Design: We are open to discussing and developing a research project with faculty and students provided alignment of interests is mutually beneficial.
  • Program Evaluation (MATCHED): Faculty/student researcher would work closely with the Director of Training, Evaluation, and Advocacy to assess:
    • Is our method of staff/volunteer training successful? What are our gaps and opportunities for improvement?
    • What are the impacts of our engagement with the community? How can we better partner with the community to share our programs and support theirs?
    • Evaluation of middle school tutoring program
  • Curriculum Development: We are beginning to launch a more formalized advocacy program (advocating for the issues relevant to our girls on multiple levels) and would like help in understanding how to approach this.
  • Internship: We are looking for students who would like to serve as dedicated mentors to the girls in our after school programs (AY 2019 – 2020) and summer programs (2020).

• Mirror Image Arts
  • Creative Work: We are actively seeking diverse artists who share identities and lived experiences with the youth our program serves. We are always looking for Teaching Artists to be a part of our Finding Your Voice program that runs in and out of school time across Denver. Teaching Artists join facilitators in our spaces and take on the role of a character that engages in co-creative activities with the youth. It culminates in a 15 min performance that is about four middle schoolers dealing with bullying, mean moments, conflict, and joking that has gone too far. After the performance Teaching Artists lead small group mind mapping activities and then engage in Forum.

• My Quiet Cave
  • Program Evaluation: Would like to better assess the impacts of our 9-week Overcome facilitated group sessions on participants and facilitators (currently have a post-assessment and are interest in Qualitative evaluation methods).
  • Information Dissemination: Interested in learning how we can improve our outreach to faith-based leaders to engage in mental health education workshops and individuals with mental health issues to engage in Overcome groups.

• Nature Kids/ Jovenes de la Naturaleza  (ON HOLD FOR PARTNERSHIPS)
  • Program Evaluation/ Research Design (MATCHED): NKJN would like to better understand the higher-level impacts of our full continuum of scaffolded pre-k to high school, backyard to backcountry, and family integrated programming on participants. We would like a researcher to identify gaps in analysis from our current data (Year 1 Report available), suggest new research to measure additional program impacts, and confirm and/or contribute to evidence-based research exploring the impacts of human-nature connection. 
    Current areas of interest to NKJN include, but are not limited to:
    1. Health and Wellness (Positive Youth Development, mental health,pro-social behavior)
    2. Student Outcomes (achievement,motivation/concentration, cognitive functioning, identity towards nature/science, career and leadership, etc.)
    3. Community Engagement (involvement with env-related civic processes, belonging, motivation to care for community spaces)
    4. Access (actual and perceived, including nature identity and cultural relevancy)

• PCs for People
  • Program Evaluation: Implement a pre- and post-assessment to measure the impact of providing computers in students homes who did not have the money to purchase one and did not have one previously
  • Data Collection: What information and/or experience helps a person feel confident in purchasing internet and technology?
  • Literature Review/ Research Design: What level of education/competence is needed to make computer use most beneficial? Are there certain best practices that allow a person to use that technology better (e.g. resources, classes)?
  • Policy Review: What government policies for internet inclusion would grow the market for low cost internet on refurbished computers? (e.g. San Antonio has a goal for 95% of families to have internet in their home by 2020.)
  • Policy Review: What are some effective policies that would influence CO to recycle e-waste? CO currently has a 12% e-waste recycling rate vs 30% average in the nation.
  • Literature Review/Data Collection: How do you get more corporate entities to donate technology waste? Do they need green goals? Do they need to better learn the value of their technology? How do we rethink corporate giving? (e.g. Case studies for current corporate tech donators)
  • Research Design: Environmental scan to see what types of refurbishing and e-waste recycling is happening across the country. Create a set of criteria to identify current efforts, established recycling orgs, and identify what needs they have (e.g. software needs, full recycling effort)
  • Literature Review: What makes a trailblazer city within the digital inclusion/digital equity movement (according to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance)?
  • Research Design/ Data Collection: How do you set up connection points for technology and internet access in Denver Metro? Are there small technology hubs that people are accessing and that PCs for People can help resource (e.g family resource centers, recreation centers)?

• Project Helping
  • Research Design/Program Evaluation: Develop a research study of our members measuring the health and wellness benefits of practicing gratitude and kyndfulness. We would like to develop a scalable way to measure the impacts of wellbeing that explore correlations with healthcare spending, productivity, employee turnover, retention and recruitment etc.

• Realm of Caring
  • Information Dissemination: The Creative Intern helps plan and complete projects to support fundraising, graphic design, marketing, social media, and website initiatives. Projects may involve any media (print, audio, web, video, etc). Under direction of various staff members, the Creative Intern must understand what is needed, produce quality deliverables, and accept comments to reach a final design. This position reports to the Outreach Director.
  • Grant Writing: The Grant Writing Intern seeks out and applies for grants pertaining to Realm of Caring’s mission. The intern will learn about key business operations, cannabis science, broad healthcare issues, and essential funding sources for non-profits. The Grant Writing Intern reports to the Operations Director.
  • Information Dissemination: The Social Media Intern crafts and executes engaging campaigns and posts to effectively communicate Realm of Caring’s mission with the world. The intern completes their responsibilities with direction and cooperation from other team members, while also monitoring relevant statistics: reach, followers, etc. This position reports to the Outreach Director.
  • Information Dissemination (MATCHED): The Realm of Caring is reorganizing and rethinking their current website. A Web Strategy Intern would contribute to website design and functionality. In collaboration with other team members, the intern defines and implements upgrades and modifications to the website front end, back-end, and underlying framework while prioritizing a friendly user experience. This position reports to the Technology and Data Director. 
  • Research Design (MATCHED): Data Analyst and/or Psychometrician Intern would work under the guidance of our Research Coordinator and Technology Director, contributing to one or more of the five ongoing collaborative initiatives with Johns Hopkins, Thomas Jefferson University, Colorado State University, Harvard University, UPENN, and Palo Alto Veterans Affairs. They would be assisting in our recruitment and potentially analyzing existing data sets. We currently use several validated measures in an active and ongoing Observational Research Registry, but there is an opportunity for a psychometrician intern to work with our research team on some current measurements, especially around cannabinoid therapy and health outcomes. 
  • Internship: The Business Intern position is an opportunity to gain real-world experience while being a productive member of a non-profit. Interns will learn about key operations with approved quality product companies that pass a rigorous quality checklist, cannabis science, and broad healthcare issues. They will gain understanding of the functions, goals, and workings of the nonprofit sector. The Business Intern reports to the Operations Director.

• Soccer Without Borders
  • Curriculum Development: SWB currently has a curriculum for socioemotional learning and development. They would like to adapt their curriculum (perhaps through developing focused skill modules) to apply to their league competitions.
  • Internship: SWB would like support delivering their trauma-informed education and academic support program in Aurora.
  • Curriculum Development: SWB is interested in developing a Leadership Program for new high school youth soccer camp counselors and would like support creating a more robust training/curriculum for these youth.

• Tinsae Single Moms Organization
  • Grant Writing (MATCHED): We would like a student to assist us with grant writing to support our Educational Program. Through various classes, this program aims to teach and encourage the single moms to overcome crisis following the divorce/family loss and help them to become successful in their future life with their children. The intern will work directly with the Executive Director.
  • Internship: The intern will assist us with our fundraising efforts for our Educational Program. Through various classes, this program aims to teach and encourage the single moms to overcome crisis following the divorce/family loss and help them to become successful in their future life with their children. The intern will work directly with the Executive Director to develop a fundraising strategy for the organization, identify potential donors, plan fundraising events, etc. 
  • Information Dissemination: We are looking for a self-motivated communications intern to manage the organization’s internal and external communications. This includes updating and maintaining Tinsae’s social media presence, creating and managing an online blog, designing event flyers, updating the Tinsae website, etc.
  • Internship: The Nonprofit Management Intern will directly support the Executive Director (ED) with administrative and operational tasks in support of Tinsae’s mission. The intern will manage the ED’s schedule and appointments, plan and execute events, provide general support to visitors, collaborate with ED and Board Members on new ideas for the organization’s direction.

• Westwood Unidos
  • Data Analysis: We are in need of research support to clean and analyze available data from the Sheriff’s Department to determine the number of evictions occurring in a particular zip code (80219) where our organization is based. Work on this project can begin in Fall 2019.
  • Internship: We would like technical support creating and customizing a new database using Salesforce to help us manage our organizing work.
  • Information Dissemination: We would like help creating a brochure to promote and share information about our organization with the public.

• Women’s Bean Project
  • Information Dissemination: We would like help updating our strategic communications by creating personalized value propositions applicable to today’s hiring landscape for current and future community partners and potential employees. We’d like to update our collateral (e.g. flyers, website, social media, etc.) to reflect these identified value propositions for each audience.
  • Program Evaluation: We want help measuring the efficacy of programs offered at WBP. We have quantitative evaluation data that we need help synthesizing from some of our programs. Are the learning objectives being met? What is the value? How can we measure all program impacts from our diverse partners? What’s working and what needs to change?
  • Research Design / Data Collection: We would like someone to continue the work of a previous consultant who focused on answering the following research question: What is keeping women who hear the WBP presentation from applying, or who are asked to interview from showing up on the first day?
    • One recommendation includes hosting a design thinking-inspired workshop with WBP participants to gather information about word of mouth referrals, ideas for info sharing, potential incentives, and the competitive advantage (i.e. “magic”) of the organization in comparison to other comparable community organizations. More information provided upon request.
  • Internship: Help us create a new process flow as we redesign a more expedited program process for hiring at WBP. We would like help working with our partners to prepare and plan for this change as well. Our goal is to make sure our new hires are able to take full advantage of our partner’s available programs (Dress for Success, Financial Literacy, free Eye Exams) without having to wait months to a year for the next program session.

• Women of Denver (ON HOLD FOR PARTNERSHIPS)
  • Research Design/ Data Collection: We’re partnering with the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame for a spring research project to gauge Colorado women’s confidence when it comes to their career and financial picture. We would compare the data on a generational level to consider if confidence varies by generation.
    • Questions in the survey would include things such as: Have you in the past 5 years asked for a raise at work? Do you feel you’re earning what you’re worth? Are you comfortable discussing your achievements with leaders and peers? Do you feel you are worthy of a higher level career or job? Do you regularly speak up in meetings?