Updated directory describes Brown’s community partnerships

An updated Community Partnership Directory describes more than 220 community service initiatives between the University and community.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University today (Tuesday, May 23, 2000) released an updated directory detailing its public-service collaborations with communities in Providence and throughout Rhode Island during a “Brown Celebrates Providence” reception.

The Community Partnership Directory is a compilation of more than 220 programs and projects involving Brown students, faculty and staff that impact the local community. Students alone contribute 77,000 hours of community service annually.

Intended to serve as a resource for those who seek greater access to the programs and to encourage other initiatives, the directory lists program descriptions and contact persons. It was first produced in 1996 and recently updated by the Office of Community and Government Relations and the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service.

“Here is a celebration of partnerships and collaborations that enrich both the University community and the neighborhood, city and state that Brown calls home,” said President Sheila Blumstein. “We have carefully cultivated these partnerships, recognizing how much all of us gain from building bridges and strengthening our connections.”

Editors: The Community Partnership Directory is available through the News Service.

Among the listings:

• The Deaf Literacy Program, the only one of its kind in the state, offers classroom instruction in English literacy skills to adult learners who are deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.
  
  
• Brown’s Ladd Observatory, one of the few observatories in the nation that allows the public to look directly at a planet or comet with a telescope specially designed and handcrafted for planetary observation, hosts more than 3,000 visitors each year. Programs include speakers, slide shows, and tours for schoolchildren, civic groups, scouts and other community groups.
  
  
• Improving Breast Cancer Screening Practices in the Urban Hospital is a curriculum development project based at Brown’s Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research. Center staff developed training materials to improve physicians’ cancer screening practices.
  
  
• Brown’s Legal Services and the Providence Community course focuses on the delivery of legal services to the poor. Students spend six to eight hours each week working at community agencies involved in issues such as child advocacy and domestic violence.
  
  
• Community Outreach Through the Performing Arts places Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students in arts classes at Providence after-school programs at public housing sites.
  
  
• Comprehensive HIV Care Within Prison, a program led by a Brown faculty member, provides care to HIV-positive men and women and preventive services to HIV-negative high-risk individuals in Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institute.