Thank you to our partners:
- NYSED
- U.S Department of Education
- Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania
- United Way of Broome County
Faculty Projects
School Mental Health Grants
The U.S. Department of Education granted $9.3 million to BUCS, aiming to expand mental health services for students and families. Simultaneously, it facilitates innovative training for school-based social work students. As part of our university-assisted community school approach, these funds will broaden the availability of mental health services for families and youth through in-person and tele-mental health opportunities, and foster family confidence and capacity to actively participate as partners in the education and well-being of their children. These initiatives have commenced in the following school districts: Chenango Forks, Harpursville, Maine-Endwell, Owego-Apalachin, Whitney Point, and Windsor.
Telemental Health
Dr. Youjung Lee, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, teaches Masters and Bachelors level Social Work interns. As part of her faculty role, Dr. Lee launched a pilot telemental health project in collaboration with Dr. Laura Bronstein, Dean of the Binghamton University College of Community and Public Affairs, and Kelley Cook, a licensed clinical social worker and Assistant Faculty in the Department of Social Work. This project linked required field experience to mental health needs within partnering schools in Broome County where social work students were trained to provide valuable mental health support to middle and high school students while building skill-rich clinical experience for emerging social work professionals. This project provided a foundation for the School Mental Health Grants.
Full Service Community Schools Grant
Liz Mellin, Associate Professor in the College of Community and Public Affairs Department of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Leadership, leads the Full Service Community School grant. This grant includes Deposit and Whitney Point to support family engagement and early childhood education. This funding allowed both districts to build capacity and infrastructure to support students and families.
Engaging Rural Youth in Multidisciplinary Inquiry through Archaeology
The Public Archaeology Facility partnered with BUCS to bring their archaeology summer program to Harpursville, Windsor and Whitney Point through after school programs. This grant provided STEM education using archaeology while also helping youth to understand the rich history of Broome County through an archaeological lens. This project was funded through the National Science Foundation.
Maker’s Spaces
Amber Simpson, Assistant Professor in the College of Community and Public Affairs Department of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Leadership, partners with schools to create hands-on learning experiences for K - 12 students and their families through a grant with the National Science Foundation grant. The goal of this grant is to develop, implement, and refine mathematics-related making and tinkering activities for families with lessons that are grounded in cultural, community, and everyday practices designed to build mathematical connections and experiences across community, home, and school learning environments.
Youth Financial Literacy
Sarah Young, Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work, and Komla Dzigbede, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration, have a research focus on the financial myths associated with living in poverty. Using our Summer Zone staffing structure, they piloted focus groups with young people to explore concepts associated with financial literacy. We used this opportunity to follow up with young people and provide financial literacy education through our Summer Zone programming.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Youjung Lee, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, leads family engagement with grandparents who are raising their grandchildren in partnering community schools. She partners with the school and the Physics Department to connect and serve grandparents as well as the children they are raising through programming that connects science content with social-emotional needs in a low stress cafe model. This work has informed schools on the needs of kinship care families.
Asthma Education
Judy Quaranta, Assistant Professor in the Decker School of Nursing, brings asthma education to schools with her nursing students through the American Lung Association Open Airways for Schools.
