COPC MEETING

May 31, 2005

 

In Attendance: Tracy Soska, Sabina Deitrick, Joyce Holl , Jim McCrea, Corrie Ulrich, Sungsoo Hwang, Kelly Hoffman, Laura Halula, Ruth Feathers, Terina Hicks, Matt Galluzzo, John Wilds, Merrille Weissman

I.  Regional COPC/New Directions Conference.

 

Discussion is underway within the schools that house COPC’s/New Directions grants to hold a “regional” conference (early March 2006 or so) before the national COPC conference (April) next year.  Schools that will hopefully be participating are:

 

Duquesne University

Point Park

Robert Morris

Edinboro

Penn State-Altoona

Cleveland State

Case Western

Lorraine Community College

Akron

Youngstown State

University of Pittsburgh

 

Also, to be invited are Slippery Rock, Chatham, and Allegheny College, which are both in the process of applying for COPC’s.

 

The institutions are looking to put together a day long event that would include institutional partners, community partners as well as Congressmen (9 districts total).  Sabina and Tracy would like to have feed back as to what format both community partners and institutional partners would find the most helpful and informative.  Panel discussions, a national level speaker and breakout sessions were all suggested.  Topics include:

 

1.  Economic situations – de-industrialized communities and regions

2.  Housing (student housing, affordable housing, public housing)

3.  Job creation and the Universities efforts

4.  Neighborhood Organizing around public safety

5.  Research and how it is applicable to the small agencies

 

Speaker suggestions were as follows:

 

1.  Congressmen in attendance

2.  Mayor

3.  President/Chancellor/Provost

4.  State leaders

5.  MPO’s – Metropolitan Planning Organizations

6.  Community Health leader

 

Discussion followed in what people would get out of the conference: networking, interaction, and a discussion of challenges COPC’s/New Direction grant institutions have faced.

 

The National COPC Conference will be in Washington, DC in 2006 and will focus on bringing in other federal departments and offices to the university-community partnership agenda.  Tracy noted that our regional conference might help to position our COPC for opportunities that might come out of the national COPC effort.

 

Tracy and Sabina also would like partners to think about funding sources to offset costs.  Discussed today were: HUD, participating institutions, Allegheny Conference, bank partners (i.e., National City), USX.

 

Tracy and Sabina would like a group from our COPC to volunteer to help put this together: Kelly Hoffman, Laura Halula, Ruth Feathers and Joyce Holl all volunteered.  Something would need to be finalized by September to make sure the conference could go forward next spring.

 

IF ANYONE HAS ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH TRACY OR SABINA.

 

II.         COPC Speakers

 

Tracy and Sabina would like to have speakers come to campus starting next year to lecture on Campus/Community partnerships.  They are looking for suggestions from partners on what they would find interesting and helpful:

 

1.  Speaker who has just had a book released.

2.  David Maurrasse

3.  Gus Newport

4.  Serina Seyfert

5.  Piggy backing the Center for Minority Health

6.  Angela Blackwell

7.  John Powell

8.  Bill Strickland

 

IF ANYONE HAS ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS, IDEAS PLEASE CONTACT SABINA OR TRACY.

 

III.       Pittsburgh Identity

 

We will be forwarding Ken Thompson’s proposal with Ken presenting, hopefully, at the next meeting.  Also, circulating will be a piece that Merrille Weissman had sent out from the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

 

IV.       Announcements

 

Terina Hicks gave an update on the Oakland Farmer’s Market which will be starting on July 1, 2005.  The location will be Sennot Street between Myeran and Atwood from 3:30-7:30 p.m.

 

Ruth Feathers will have the newsletter ready to send out hopefully next week.

 

Jim Richter announced that this year Hazelwood will have a farmers stand, the 5K race will have the theme of neighborhood safety.  He is also encouraging community members to attend the June 16, 2005 Design Advisory Team meeting at the Wyndham hotel.

 

Matt Galluzzo announced that the Main Street Project will sponsor a 35 x 35 ft. mural on the side of Darling’s Pharmacy (similar to Oakland’s Mural).  There will be a meeting of the Hazelwood Initiative Planning Committee and they will have Tom Janake there to speak with them.

 

Laura Halula announced that OPDC is co-sponsoring a Health Fair on June 24, 2005 from 11:00-3:00 p.m. at Dan Marino Field House.  The focus will be on education but featured will be: Food, bingo, vision screenings, osteoporosis testing, health report cards.  Children’s Hospital and UPMC representatives will attend.

 

Tracy passed around a VISTA job description to work on environmental health and safety issues in Hazelwood.  We are recruiting now for a VISTA who will start end of August.  The job description will go out in email.