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Health-literacy interventions traditionally focus on providing individuals with health information in multiple languages; using plain, nontechnical language (i.e., language at an eighth-grade level or below); and adding visuals to health-related information to make it easy to understand and apply to everyday situations. But what can you do to reach your service population when they are dispersed in a remote geographic area or rarely congregate in a central location? And what…

Community Science, in addition to our consultation, capacity building, and evaluation services, also works on local issues of national importance. There is an affordable housing crisis in Baltimore City, as in all American cities. Over half (53%) of city renters and 40 percent of homeowners pay more than one-third of their income in housing, putting them at risk for housing instability and even homelessness. In Baltimore on any given night,…

As one of the largest volunteer networks in the U.S., the Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS) Senior Corps Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) aims to engage volunteers aged 55 and over to support disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, and increase community resiliency. In 2013 and 2014, CNCS provided Disaster Services Augmentation Grants for several RSVPs. These grants focused on addressing the 2014 Hurricane Sandy recovery in New…

Evaluation capacity building for improved organizational and system learning has been part of Community Science's practice from our beginning. We see evaluation capacity building as having all the abilities and motivation to learn how to do better by systematically using data and others sources of reliable information to make decisions. Public and private organizations and public agencies have an obligation to continuously strive to equitably provide the best services and…

Community Science participated in its biannual day of service at A Wider Circle on September 18, 2015. A Wider Circle is a nonprofit organization with a mission to end poverty. Through programs targeting job preparedness, health and wellness, and housing, A Wider Circle addresses the needs of the whole person. One of their programs, Neighbor-to-Neighbor, provides beds, dressers, tables, and other large and small home goods free of charge to…

Within past decades, there has been a shift toward understanding community resilience, which is characterized by a community's ability to rebound and adapt following disruptions, such as natural and human-caused disasters. Although some assert that the term community resilience is a buzzword, Community Science views it as a useful framework for conceptualizing how key actors, including local residents and organizations, can strengthen their community's ability to prevent, withstand, and mitigate…