Presenting Author: Julia Orchinik, MPH, Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health

ABSTRACT

Background: Drexel University's Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships is an “urban extension center” that opened in June 2014 in Philadelphia, PA.

Objectives: The monitoring and evaluation plan of the Dornsife Center includes community surveys conducted at three points in time over a 5-year period. The objectives are to assess neighborhood social cohesion, civic engagement, and Dornsife Center awareness, perceptions, intention to use, and actual use by residents of the surrounding neighborhoods over time.

Methods: Data collection consisted of interviewer-administered intercept surveys with community residents at central community locations at two points in time (baseline n = 367; midline n = 415).

Results: Results show that baseline and midline respondents were demographically similar except the midline sample was more unemployed, African American, and averaged lower educational attainment. There are some small but significant changes between the two time points: at midline residents are more aware of the Dornsife Center, more likely to have been there, and more likely to express both positive and negative opinions about Drexel. Minor improvements in neighborhood social cohesion and civic engagement were measured; it is unclear to what extent these can be attributed to the Dornsife Center.

Implications: The Dornsife Center is the first of its kind established by a private university in the United States. Continued monitoring and evaluation assesses the extent to which such a center is being implemented as planned and determine its effects on the community. This evaluation work can be used as a guide for similar university-community models.

Authors: Julia Orchinik, MPH; Suruchi Sood, PhD; Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH; Jessica Lopez, MPH, CHES; and Michelle Gordon, MPH.