Please click on the links below to get in-depth summaries of TUCC's initiatives, as well as resource materials:

Course: Youth Violence in America - A Seminar in Policy Review and Development

The TUCC Youth Violence Prevention working group brought together interdisciplinary faculty from fields such as health, social policy, child development, and education to address the widespread ramifications of youth violence. The group focused on both the prevention of violence and the promotion of positive child and youth development; and provided the early framework for the development of an interdisciplinary course.

Youth Violence in America: A Seminar in Policy Review and Development has been offered through the departments of Child Development and Urban and Environmental Policy since the spring of 2001. The course is taught by Dr. Howard Spivak from the Tufts University Medical School and an interdisciplinary group of co-faculty. Each course has focused on a different aspect of youth development. Please follow the links to course materials:

2001: Schools
2002: The Media [link under development]
2003: The Juvenile Justice System [link under development]

Child Advocacy Initiative

Click here to view information on the Advocating for Children course.

With an ever changing global economy, children continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty, inadequate healthcare, poor nutrition and neglect. As a result child advocacy has emerged as a dynamic and expanding field with a wide array of active, well-respected organizations providing policy review, analysis and materials. Many of these thoughtful efforts provide vital information to families, consumers, legislators and other policy makers. On the other hand, academic institutions have been reluctant to provide much help to grass-roots advocacy organizations. There is well founded concern that advocacy can politicize and bias solid academic pursuits. However, there is an urgent need for rigorous scholarship, research and training in methodology, policy analysis and outcomes evaluation in order to assure that policies and programs improve the lives of children. The time is right to formalize this emerging scholarly discipline.

As two of Tufts’ signature programs, TUCC and the University College of
Citizenship and Public Service are uniquely positioned to assume leadership for a science-based advocacy initiative. TUCC facilitates collaboration among Tufts distinguished faculty, with a record of service and scholarship on behalf of children and youth. The University College assures that the values and skills of active citizenship are a hallmark of a Tufts education. The advocacy initiative will help students, faculty and communities understand how theory, research policy and practice work together to promote social change.

Initiative Purposes:

• To infuse child promoting values in all Tufts schools and departments,
• To translate research to practice,
• To help promote a value-based intellectual agenda at Tufts University,
• To help faculty identify avenues for the application of their work,
• To provide/disseminate findings of existing research to strengthen current and future advocacy practice,
  
• To promote bi-directional/iterative research, i.e. meaningful research collaborations with people affected by the study,
• To educate students to listen, speak and do research.
  

Proposed Initiatives and Activities:

• Needs assessment and asset mapping:
  o Survey students about their interest in advocacy and their educational needs
  o Survey Tufts faculty about their advocacy research and teaching interests
  o Survey community agencies about their need for advocacy training resources
  
• Develop significant research initiatives to study advocacy tools and strategies, and generate evidence-based guides for training and technical assistance,
  
• Develop and implement skills-building child advocacy curricula based on existing Tufts courses, similar courses recently launched by our UCLA and University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS) partners, and new courses with state-of-the-art pedagogy,
  
• Provide advocacy fellowships for students and faculty,
  
• Establish "brown bag" series and advocacy fairs for students, faculty, and community partners,
  
• Develop a series of workshops and other training strategies for staff from community-based organization,
  
• Develop new mentoring models based on University and community collaboration,
• Establish an endowed chair in interdisciplinary child advocacy,
  
• Build on participatory models for training and program/policy evaluation.
  
  

Committee:

The following are members of the TUCC Advocacy Initiative Planning Committee:

Community of Scholars

Culture - Opening the Black Box
An Interdisciplinary Conversation on Negotiating Cultural Realities with Children

The study of children presents us with a unique opportunity to discover analytical common ground among the social sciences. It is in the intergenerational transmission of social capital that the re-negotiation and creation of cultural norms is on display.

In the Spring 2002 Semester, a group of faculty from various departments across the university put together a seminar series focusing on children and culture in international relations. The series had two goals: to share the interdisciplinary ideas and research that were being developed, and to link with people who had similar interests. A whole spectrum of international children's issues was encompassed, including immigrant children, cultural differences, and children in conflict.

COS seminar series flyer (pdf)

Three of the faculty members who participated in this COS seminar series - Jayanthi Mistry (Child Development), Paula Aymer (Sociology), and Rosalind Shaw (Anthropology) - were also featured at TUCC's 2002 Conference, "On Behalf of Children: Scholarship and Active Citizenship." They presented three research vignettes that analyze the fundamental determinants and processes through which culture is created. Drusilla Brown (Economics) facilitated the presentations and responses from President Bacow and the audience.

For more information, contact Lois Wainstock or Drusilla Brown.

Brain Development Working Group

In February 2003, TUCC held a conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Brain Development in Children. The conference brought together many faculty and students from all of Tufts' campuses, as well as other interested parties from the community. For more information on the conference, click here.

The Center will convene a group of faculty interested in collaborative research on Brain Development during the Fall of 2004. If you would like to participate in the Brain Development Working Group, please click here.

Course: The Natural World - Applications for Therapy and Education

Now in its fourth year, this course provides an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary theories and applications for engaging the natural world in educational and therapeutic environments. It aims to facilitate an understanding of the value of developing a connection with nature as a foundation for human health and development. Child development and life-long learning are addressed in this context, as well as an examination of the interaction of nature, animals, humans and the cultural arts.
Natural World flyer (pdf)

For more information on this course, please contact Lisa Brukilacchio or Lois Wainstock.

Student Project Initiative

This initiative seeks proposals from undergraduate and graduate students for projects on children or youth, with a particular interest in projects that are interdisciplinary or that have some focus on active citizenship and scholarship. Click here to go to the section of the website.