Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement
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Special Project: PolicyOptionsTCNJ has joined another national network that is on the cutting edge of connecting the resources of the higher education world with the needs and interests of the local community. It is the lead institution in the region for the PolicyOptions project and will be in charge of the “Trenton Bureau”—one of many city-based divisions that have been established around the nation. A student or team working on an issue brief will clarify the extent or scope of the problem in the area as well as what policies are in place to address it. They will then look into what alternative policies or approaches exist in other jurisdictions and attempt to present 3 alternative approaches visually via a “learning tree”. Eventually, the issue brief would provide a recommendation to the non-profit staff as well as identify model programs—so the local nonprofit community can learn from their peers in other places. This project is unique because local nonprofit partners will be able to access this information—and much more (e.g. legislative updates, conference announcements, funding notices etc…)---via the web. They will do so by going to ________________ and selecting the link that is most relevant to their agency’s mission. In addition, this is a wiki project; meaning that our higher education colleagues from other colleges/universities will be able to build upon our work over time—for all to see---thereby providing increasing amounts of information and expertise to Trenton area leaders trying to address some of society’s most challenging issues. For more information on this project, please contact Janet Mazur (jmazur@tcnj.edu) or Patrick Donohue (pdonohue@tcnj.edu). The founder of this project is Bobby Hackett, Vice President of the Bonner Foundation—located in Princeton, New Jersey. You can reach him at rhackett@bonner.org.
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As part of this project, professors and students will primarily work on “issue briefs” in response to questions that are posed by the Bonner Center’s community partner organizations. One agency, for example, is interested in the issue of reintegrating individuals with criminal records into the workforce; another wants to learn the different strategies to develop the life skills of urban adolescents.