Overview: CUE has been involved with the South West Madison Community Organizers (SWMCO) and their associated work groups since fall of 2011. SWMCO is a group of southwest Madison residents, UW faculty and students, and Madison/Dane County Public Health Department nurses that work to build leadership in the community as a way to promote holistic health and well being. CUE began to participate when SWMCO expressed becoming overwhelmed with UW student and faculty requests for involvement in community-based learning & research.
Objectives: CUE’s role is to help SWMCO with documenting their community organizing process and model, and to act as a sort of “traffic cop” to coordinate and organize university requests for partnerships. Additionally, CUE is also identifying resource gaps and find ways that students, faculty and staff can help fill them.
Project Courses:
- Community and Environmental Sociology service learning capstone course on neighborhood free space; Spring 2012. [project course page] [syllabus]
- Community and Environmental Sociology service-learning capstone course on ….Fall 2012. [project course page] [syllabus]
- School of Human Ecology’s courses on community-based research, Fall 2012 [syllabus] and Spring 2013 [syllabus].
- Environmental Studies service learning capstone course on youth gardening; Spring 2013. [project course page] [syllabus]
Additional Information
- CUE Affiliates: Randy Stoecker, Sam Dennis Jr, Brian Christens, Shannon Sparks
- Community Partner: South West Madison Community Organizers
- Grant involved: Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin WI Idea Endowment, Morgridge Match Grant, Nelson Institute’s Zieve Fellowship
News/articles about Southwest Madison:
- Creating a Sense of Place in Southwest Madison: An Evidence-Based, Public Health Approach to Community Revitalization, presentation by Kim Neuschel and Jessica LeClair, 4-24-2008.
- Madison’s Meadowood: Time to Act, Paul Soglin, 8-24-2009
- City dispatches public health nurses to help Meadowood neighbors connect. The Cap Times, 1-30-10.
- Public Health Madison & Dane County turns attention to neighborhoods, violence prevention. The Isthmus, 12-15-11.