2020 CO+RE Research Projects Selected

The purpose of this collaborative project (Youth Olympians Program) is to jointly develop a novel sport for development (SFD) program to help youth in the Champaign/Urbana area develop socially and academically. The project will be designed and led by UIUC students and faculty in close collaboration with staff at the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club (DMBGC) in Champaign. The research component will examine the effects of the program on youth participants’ socio-emotional learning (SEL) and academic efficacy. Additional aims of the project are to ascertain which program components evince specific outcomes, and to explore how being involved in the program influences adult leaders’ socialization and career preparation. The main issue addressed is helping youth in Champaign and Urbana develop socially and academically, needs which have been identified by the community partner and the local school districts. Youth (ages 5-16) will take part in this 8-month program designed to utilize sport, physical activity, the cultural arts, and educational workshops to address the stated outcomes.

This project is an equal collaborative effort between faculty in the Departments of Recreation, Sport and Tourism (RST) and Kinesiology and Community Health (KCH) as well as staff from the DMBGC. The DMBGC has a need to provide high quality programming for youth, particularly to those who come from communities affected by poverty and struggle in school. The DMBGC wants to expand its programming to include evidence-based pedagogies, and to develop a robust evaluation scheme. The proposed program directly addresses the ongoing needs of the community partner by enabling faculty and students at UIUC, who have the latest knowledge and training in sport and physical activity pedagogy, to work alongside DMBGC staff in designing, implementing, and evaluating the Young Olympians Program.

The proposed project furthers UIUC’s mission of discovery, engagement, and innovative learning in several ways. First, it provides a direct avenue for public engagement for students and faculty to design and evaluate a program aimed at addressing community needs. Second, the project establishes an innovative learning environment for UIUC student leaders as they work collaboratively with DMBGC staff, directly applying knowledge gained in the classroom to practice. Finally, the project allows all partners to discover design components that are linked to outcomes. The project will directly benefit both UIUC researchers and the community partner. It will enable researchers from RST and KCH to collect longitudinal data that will be publishable in top tier journals and which can be leveraged for external funding. The DMBGC will benefit by having a theory-driven, pedagogically sound program delivered and evaluated to help it achieve its mission of enabling all young people, especially those residing in communities affected by poverty, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.

• Jon Welty-Peachey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Charles Burton, Jr., Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club
• K. Andrew R. Richards, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Julian Woolf, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Insect declines threaten global biodiversity by reducing the vital services provided by ecosystem services, including pest control, pollination, and nutrient cycling (Potts et al. 2010; Hallmann et al. 2017). These declines also can destabilize entire ecosystems as insects serve as primary food sources for numerous birds, mammals, amphibians, and other animals (Hallmann et al. 2017). One of the primary limitations to addressing these declines is adequate data on species distributions, declines, and preferences. Citizen science, the process by which citizens contribute to scientific research by assisting with data collection, provides an opportunity to tackle the data limitations that prevent conservation efforts (Dickinson et al. 2010). By building a partnership between researchers, extension, and citizens, the I-Pollinate program will improve data collection for insect conservation efforts while engaging and educating citizens.

• Alexandra Harmon-Threatt, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Morgan Mackert, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• David Zaya, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Kelly Allsup, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Christopher Evans, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Candice Hart, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• I-Pollinate partners will be recruited through the University of Illinois Extension

The Maya Illinois Initiative aims to develop a collaborative hub connecting researchers, community social service professionals, and indigenous Latin American (primarily Maya) immigrants and refugees in east-central Illinois. We seek funding to develop this initiative in pursuit of four primary goals:

1. To establish models of best practices, consistent with ethical guidelines, state-of-the-art examples of collaborative research, and recognized standards of indigenous community rights, that will serve as a resource for members of the university community seeking research or engagement connections with the Maya community.  Because the practical and ethical challenges of work with this community differ significantly from more conventional research, extension, and engagement work across our campus, we see this not only as a resource for prospective researchers and engagement specialists but also for campus oversight boards such as the IRB.
2. To serve as a clearinghouse helping to connect and align research and engagement efforts from across our campus, to minimize duplication, and to more effectively leverage existing skills, experiences, and outcomes from previous and ongoing work.
3. To develop a sustainable campus-community platform that will facilitate the development of collaborative research and outreach work generated by community members, regional institutional stakeholders, and campus researchers and extension agents.
4. To make this project a model for other sorts of campus-community collaborative infrastructures at the University of Illinois and comparable work with indigenous Latin American and other vulnerable communities elsewhere.

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies serves students, faculty, and scholars from across the University of Illinois campus, along with communities from across Illinois and the Midwest, by promoting innovative research, specialist teaching, and public awareness of the Latin American region and its complex connections to the United States and other parts of the world. Community engagement is core to the Center’s mission and is evidenced by a robust set of activities serving K-14 educators and their students, business and professional groups, local social service agencies, and the general public. This proposal builds on the Center’s longstanding engagement with service providers who work with Latinx migrant communities in the CU area so that they can offer more culturally and linguistically sensitive and effective support to the indigenous (primarily Maya) migrant communities in Champaign County.

• Katherine Szremski, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Julia Albarracín, Western Illinois University Andrew Orta, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Ryan Shosted, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Alejandra Seufferheld, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Margarita De L Teran-Garcia, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Engagement in physical activity (PA) and exercise yields important benefits for those with chronic disease and disabilities. Although many barriers contribute to low participation (e.g. distance, cost, scarcity, inaccessibility, isolation), people with chronic conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) desire and would benefit from PA and exercise programs that are inclusive, appropriate, evidence-based and convenient. Further, adults with chronic conditions and disabilities often feel alienated in exercise spaces and desire condition-specific exercise programming in their local community. The present study aims to design, develop, implement and sustain an MS-specific PA program. Our research team has been involved in the implementation of the community program MOVE MS for the last 2.5 years in central Illinois. We have identified challenges that can be addressed with the current proposal to ensure successful continued collaboration.

• Brynn Adamson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Chung-Yi Chiu, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Ashley Dennis, Urbana Park District Kay Hankins, National Multiple Sclerosis Society
• Elsie Hedgspeth, Urbana Park District Stacy Kirkpatrick, teacher in Bloomington/Normal
• Toni Liechty, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Laura Rice, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign