The Division of Community Development was awarded a contract to develop the evaluation protocol for the Outreach to Rural and Urban Communities (OTRUC) Project, a project funded by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. The federal agency has awarded contracts for outreach services to institutions of higher education that serve their surrounding communities. The purpose of this initiative is to provide information and services to community residents in order to reduce racial health disparities.
Benedict College is developing the evaluation protocol to measure outcomes of current outreach projects and to conduct the first rounds of evaluations. The instrument will be tested on sites in Maryland, Montana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas.
Mr. Ben Washington is the lead evaluator; joining him are Dr. Sheila Ards and Ms. Regina Doster.
The second research endeavor is the Project for the Expansion of Community Empowerment (PECE). The Division of Community Development continues to work with the University of Buea in Cameroon, Africa; on identifying outcomes in the communities served by the two institutions. Project personnel from both Benedict College and the University of Buea have visited each other's institutions. Project staff at Benedict includes Ms. Regina Doster and Dr. Sheila Ards.
