November 9, 2020

IN THIS ISSUE

• Deliberative Dialogue Participants Highlight Impact of Pandemic on Minority Population Groups
• Organizers Call for Proposals for Seventh Annual Community Engagement Symposium
• Faculty Members Continue their Community Engagement Leadership Roles, Contribute to Program Success
• Students Encouraged to Contact Legislators Regarding Hunger Caused by Coronavirus
• Community-Engaged Scholarship: One of Seven Categories of Awards for Community Engagement

Deliberative Dialogue Participants Highlight Impact Of Pandemic On Minority Population Groups

Migrant Farmworkers Bear Brunt Of Covid-19

By Glenn Bowen

The coronavirus pandemic has affected Black and Brown communities disproportionately, exacerbating the longstanding problems of poverty and racial injustice. Migrant farmworkers are among those bearing the brunt of the pandemic in Florida.

Participants in a public forum focused on the impact of COVID-19 emphasized the extent to which the viral disease outbreak had affected lives and livelihoods. They drew attention to the economic and social effects, including job insecurity, inability to pay household bills, and high levels of stress.

The farming community is particularly “vulnerable,” said Leonel Perez, a staff member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Speaking through an interpreter, he said, “We have to shift our work to focus on protecting our families during the pandemic.” 

Perez said “farmworkers are essential workers … [but we are] living paycheck to paycheck.” 

Uriel Zelaya-Perez, a staff member of the Alliance for Fair Food, said farmworkers were “always the last to get resources” from the government. “To us, as an organization, it is important that essential workers be treated as essential in every way.”

The forum was the second in this academic year’s Deliberative Dialogue Series on “Race Matters.” Organized by Barry’s Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI), the forum was titled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Black and Brown Communities: Did So Many Have to Die?”

Nurse Practitioner Denise Lundy said COVID-19 had caused a “steady increase in depression” as well as high rates of suicide and alcohol use.

Farmworkers have experienced “a significantly high level of stress,” Perez said. One reason is that they have limited access to childcare facilities.

He talked about the CIW’s unsuccessful campaign to get a mobile hospital in Immokalee, the migrant farmworker hub in southwestern Florida. It takes 45 minutes to an hour to get to the nearest hospitals, in Naples and Fort Myers.

The CIW called on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Department of Health in Collier County to take all steps necessary to protect the community—an unincorporated community where overcrowded housing prevents people from self-isolating while fighting COVID-19.

Mentioning the CIW’s “constant battle with the county,” Perez told forum attendees that his organization had to turn to Doctors Without Borders for help in curbing the spread of the coronavirus. The CIW also took on the role of educating farmworkers about ways to protect themselves and their families, such as following official health guidelines, wearing masks, and washing hands regularly.

Zelaya-Perez said the Alliance for Fair Food was assisting the CIW in educating farmworkers so they would understand that, if they felt symptoms of COVID-19, “they should tell their supervisors and not fear retaliation.”

Roger Horne, executive director of Urban GreenWorks, spoke about the “compounding effect” of COVID-19 in putting people’s jobs and health simultaneously at risk. Similarly, Dr. Leticia Vega, professor of biology, referred to the “difficult social and political environment that compounds the stress of COVID in communities of color.”

Dr. Karen Callaghan, professor of sociology, spoke about the “insidious effects” of racism and exclusion. She said physicians were more likely to interrupt and not listen to people of color who seek medical attention.

Among others contributing to the dialogue were Barry alumna Asha Starks, who is studying global health at Emory University, and Barry Service Corps Fellow Dai’Jonnai Smith.

The forum facilitators were CCSI Associate Director Courtney Berrien and Dr. Sonique Sailsman, assistant professor of nursing.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the public forum was held remotely, on Zoom, the video conferencing cloud platform. The forum was streamed to Facebook Live, the real-time video broadcast system, with more than 1,000 people attending. Since then, there have been over 1,400 views online.

Deliberative Dialogue at Barry is a series of facilitated forums eliciting “voices and views from campus and community.” Students and alumni, faculty and staff, and community representatives take part in the forums, working toward a shared understanding of specific social issues and practical solutions to those issues.

The academic year’s series of four forums—two in the fall semester and two in the spring—“engages representatives of diverse social groups in productive and respectful dialogue about race,” a statement from the CCSI said.

For further information, contact Courtney Berrien, coordinator of the Deliberative Dialogue Series, at cberrien@barry.edu.

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Organizers Call For Proposals For Seventh Annual Community Engagement Symposium

Barry’s seventh annual Community Engagement Symposium will take place next March, and the organizers have called for presentation proposals.

The theme of the symposium is "Engagement in Purposeful Projects: From Awareness to Action.” In relation to community engagement, purposeful projects include experiential learning practices such as service-learning, community-based research, fieldwork, study abroad, capstones, and internships.

Proposals should address the theme of the symposium and identify the experiential learning practice that was implemented. Successful proposals will specify the course or co-curricular project, the social or community issue addressed, the related activities undertaken, and the actual learning outcomes. Proposals should also emphasize how the project was designed to be purposeful and how student awareness was translated into action.

Students, faculty and staff members, and community partners are invited to submit proposals for presentations by January 29.

In the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the 2020 symposium was cancelled.

Scheduled for March 25, the 2021 symposium will highlight student learning outcomes of community engagement practices in the context of Barry’s Quality Enhancement Plan titled “Fostering Personal and Social Responsibility through Experiential Learning.” Social responsibility is one of the key elements of the QEP.

The symposium will feature a nationally recognized community engagement scholar as the lead presenter. 

A student poster competition will be a highlight of the symposium. Entries will be on display in Room 112 of the Andreas Building on Barry’s main campus, and prize winners will be announced during the closing session of the symposium.

For additional information on the symposium, contact the CCSI at service@barry.edu.

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Faculty Members Continue Their Community Engagement Leadership Roles, Contribute To Program Success

Faculty members are continuing their leadership roles in community engagement. They are contributing to the success of specific programs, projects, and events such as the Service-Learning Faculty Fellows Program, the Campus Democracy Project, and the Community Engagement Awards.

Some faculty members serve as chairs of committees; others are involved as liaisons or leaders in the Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship. 

• Barry Urban Garden Committee—Co-chairs: Kaitlyn Gallagher (CCSI) and Dr. Ian Quamina (Education).

• Campus Democracy Project Committee—Co-chairs: Dr. Sean Foreman (History and Political Science) and Isaly Ortiz (Barry Service Corps).

• Community Engagement Awards Committee—Members: Dr. Stephanie Bingham (Biology) – chair; Dr. Pamela D. Hall (Psychology); Dr. Kevin Kemerer (Business); Nadie Mondestin (Haitian Youth and Community Center of Florida); Dr. Fabio Naranjo (Social Work); Dr. Lauren Shure (Education); and Dr. Glenn A. Bowen (CCSI, ex officio) – coordinator. 

• Community Engagement Symposium Committee—Members: Dr. Glenn A. Bowen (CCSI) – symposium chair; Dr. Sheila McMahon (Social Work) – proposal review chair; Dr. Sean Erwin (Theology and Philosophy); Dr. Ricardo Jimenez (Mathematics and Computer Science); Dr. Raul Machuca (Education); Dr. Maria Teahan (Social Work); Courtney Berrien (CCSI) – coordinator, general arrangements; Dr. Heather Johnson Desiral (QEP) – coordinator, poster session; and Stephanie Wong (CCSI) – coordinator, registration.

• Community-Based Research Incentive Committee—Members: Dr. Ruth Ban (Education) – chair, Dr. Laura Finley (Sociology and Criminology), and Dr. Lauren Shure (Education).

• Service-Learning Designation Committee—Members: Dr. Tamara Hamilton (Physical Sciences) – chair, Dr. Pamela D. Hall (Psychology), Dr. Kevin Kemerer (Business), Dr. Mitchell Rosenwald (Social Work), and Dr. Heidi Whitford (Education).

• Faculty Learning Community for Engaged Scholarship—Co-facilitators: Drs. Celeste Landeros, Pamela D. Hall, and Laura Finley (College of Arts and Sciences). 

• Faculty Senate Liaison: Dr. Luis Rodriguez (Podiatric Medicine).

• Service-Learning Faculty Fellows—Dr. Samuel Doss (Business), Dr. Katsiaryna Matusevich (Education), Dr. Ian Quamina (Education), Dr. Pawena Sirimangkala (Communication and Honors Program), and Dr. Mariely Valentin-Llopis (Communication).

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Students Encouraged To Contact Legislators Regarding Hunger Caused By Coronavirus

Some 35 students participated in Bread for the World’s Racial Wealth Gap Simulation last month and were encouraged to contact senators and members of Congress regarding three main issues: response to hunger and the coronavirus, child nutrition, and immigration policy. 

The simulation involved the use of an interactive tool to help participants understand the connections among racial equity, hunger, poverty, and wealth.

Participants examined 11 public policies and their consequences. In the process, they learned how the policies have created structural inequalities, such as in the area of education—and how those policies have increased hunger and poverty in communities of color. 

Florence French Fagan, a Bread for the World regional organizer, was the lead facilitator of the simulation. She guided participants to understanding why racial equity is important in efforts to end hunger and poverty in the United States. She expressed the hope that legislators and citizens alike would view policies and practices through “a racial equity lens.” 

Noting that Bread’s mission is to end hunger throughout the world, French Fagan referred to a Feeding South Florida report, which said that, since the onset of COVID-19, the agency has seen 600% increase in requests for food assistance.

CCSI Program Facilitator Kaitlyn Gallagher and Barry Service Corps Fellows Dai’Jonnai Smith, Javier Bracho, and Luca McLeod assisted with the facilitation of the event on October 17.

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Community- Engaged Scholarship: One Of Seven Categories Of Awards For Community Engagement

Community-Engaged Scholarship is one of seven categories of community engagement awards in which nominations are being accepted. The nomination deadline is January 29. 

The Community-Engaged Scholarship Award recognizes faculty members for significant scholarly work across the faculty roles of teaching, research, and service—including related publications and presentations—that addresses community issues.

Dr. Mureen Shaw, assistant professor of nursing, is the 2020 winner of this award. Shaw has not only employed service-learning in her teaching and research but has also engaged in direct service to communities at home and abroad. Over the years, she has made scholarly presentations at local and international conferences. 

The other categories of awards are Community Impact, Community Partnership, Community-Based Research, Community Engagement Educator, Service-Learning Faculty, and Engaged Department. 

The Center for Community Service Initiatives (CCSI) has issued a call for nominations for the 2021 Community Engagement Awards. Students, faculty, and staff members, as well as community partners, are invited to submit nominations by the deadline. 

The CCSI will host Barry’s eighth annual Community Engagement Awards Ceremony on March 31, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. It is likely that the 2021 event will be held remotely, the organizers say.

The nomination forms are available at the CCSI website <barry.edu/service>. For additional information, contact the CCSI at service@barry.edu.

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Contact Brittney Morales, Barry Service Corps program facilitator, at BriMorales@barry.edu.

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