Civic Engagement as a Catalyst for Community 

Change: 2021 Research Grantee Dialogue.

June 09, 2021

1

Incubators for Civic 

Engagement: Research for 

Equity and Power (REP)
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Andrea Robles, Ph.D.

Research and Evaluation Manager

Office of Research and Evaluation

Panel Moderator

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
3

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)

Brad R. Fulton, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs

Indiana University - Bloomington

Research For Equity and Power Project Team
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Do organizational member associations 

(OMAs) — like coalitions or councils — have 

more diverse participants than 

nonprofits with other organizational 

structures?

• They might: nonprofits with 

homogenous participants may join 

coalitions with demographically 

different organizations.

• They might not: nonprofits may join 

coalitions with demographically similar 

organizations.

Grantee Program Accomplishments

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
5

Data

• ~15,000 nonprofit organization profiles 

compiled by Candid

• Gender & Race/Ethnicity of board 

members, senior staff, & full - time staff

• Organizational structure from websites

• Controls for other org. characteristics

Results

• OMAs are more ethnoracially diverse

• OMAs might be more gender diverse

Grantee Program Accomplishments

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
6

Implications

• OMAs may be “the diversity layer” of 

civil society

• Governments, funders, and scholars 

seeking program partners that better 

reflect community diversity should 

consider OMAs.

• Non - OMA nonprofits seeking greater 

participant diversity could restructure 

to act more like OMAs.

For More Details

• baggettm@indiana.edu

• fulton@indiana.edu

Grantee Program Accomplishments

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
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Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)

Greenville College Access Network

Carol Cutler White, MPA, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Mississippi State University, Department of Educational 

Leadership

2018 Grantee
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• Community-engaged college access

• Building a network of supports

• Action research photovoice and Q 

methodology

• Question: How can Greenville increase the 

college going rate through trained 

community volunteers to assist residents 

with college and financial aid processes?

• Engage city leaders, Woodward Hines Education 

Foundation, community members, and youth in 

development of a model in the Mississippi Delta

• Resulted in the establishment of the Greenville 

College Access Network (CAN)

Grantee Program Accomplishments

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
9

The Greenville CAN mobilizes 

a rural low -income majority 

minority community in the 

Mississippi Delta to support 

college and financial aid 

applications to improve 

educational attainment.

Grantee Program Accomplishments

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
10

Mary L. Ohmer, PhD, MSW, MPIA

Associate Professor and COSA Chair

Katie Holler, BSW

MSW Student Intern and Researcher 

Donnell Pearl

Community Researcher and Homewood Resident

University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work

Shannah Tharp-Gilliam, Ph.D. 

Director of Research and Evaluation, Homewood 

Children’s Village

REP Project Began in October 2018

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)

Research For Equity and Power Project Team
11

Grantee Program Accomplishments

REP is a partnership between the Pitt School of Social 

Work and Homewood Children’s Village. Our goal is to 

increase civic engagement among youth and adult 

residents around equitable development by:

 Increasing residents’ knowledge and understanding of civic 

engagement and equitable development

 Strengthening Homewood resident’s ability to influence 

neighborhood change

 Engaging policy makers, local and city-wide organizations, and 

developers to meet with residents and talk about how residents 

can effectively influence equitable development and create 

positive neighborhood change in Homewood

We’re also replicating REP in the Hazelwood Neighborhood of 

Pittsburgh 

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
12

Grantee Program Accomplishments

REP is a Community - Based Participatory 

Research project that includes: 

Community Advisory Board and Pitt 

Community Researcher (all Homewood 

residents)

Community Conversations (with 30 

Youth and Adult Residents)

An Equitable Development Playbook

Dissemination of our ED Playbook, 

including a Citizen Training Academy

For more information see: 

h ttps://www.crsp.pitt.edu/community/rese

arch - equity - and - power -rep

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
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Our Equitable 

Development Playbook 

was created with 

Homewood community 

members as a result of 

our Community 

Conversations 
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Current Project Efforts

 Writing manuscripts based on the CBPR 

process and results in Homewood

Holding an in - person Citizen Training 

Academy in Homewood by this Fall! 

Replicating REP in Hazelwood, another 

neighborhood facing similar pressures 

from neighborhood change 

Connecting Homewood and Hazelwood 

Community Advisory Boards

Holding in-person Community Conversations 

with 30 youth and adult residents in Hazelwood

Creating a Hazelwood version of the Playbook 
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Rebecca Nesbit, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

University of Georgia

Grantee 2018

The Rural/Urban Volunteering Divide

Laurie Paarlberg, Ph.D.

Full Professor

University of Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis

Grantee 2018

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
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Research Questions: How does 

community context affect volunteering? 

How do the community - level 

determinants of volunteering vary across 

rural and urban places? 

Data: Current Population Survey 

Volunteering Supplement (2002 - 2015), 

with access to the all of the county fips

codes through a Census Bureau 

Research Data Center 

Why is this important? Communities in 

the United States are rapidly changing. 

We need to understand how these 

changes affect civic engagement. 

Grantee Program Accomplishments

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
17

Some interesting findings: 

• Volunteering rates have been higher in 

rural communities, but rural volunteering 

rates are falling faster than urban 

volunteering rates 

• Drivers of volunteering in rural places 

are different than in urban places, 

particularly personal and community 

resources

Future directions:

• Try to understand what is driving the 

“volunteering cliff”

• Investigating how pathways into 

volunteering vary across rural and urban 

places

• Investigating how community age 

structure affects volunteering across 

rural and urban places

Grantee Program Accomplishments

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
18

James ‘Jim’ Witte, Ph.D. 

Professor of Sociology and Director, 

George Mason University, 

Institute for Immigration Research

2018 Grantee 

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)

Immigrant Civic Engagement and Economic Opportunity
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• Online surveys of 4,000 immigrant 

professionals in six cities

• Boston

• Detroit

• Miami

• Philadelphia

• San Jose

• Seattle

• Follow - up with 68 in - depth qualitative 

interviews

• Supplemental funding

• IRS 990 data to map immigrant serving non- profits

• Pilot mobility history survey

• Comprehensive literature review

Immigrant Civic Engagement and Economic Opportunity

Grant #: 15REHVA001 

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
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How many friends and family upon whom you could rely for support...

Immigrant Civic Engagement and Economic Opportunity

Grant #: 15REHVA001 

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
21

Quantitative findings

• Studies show that civic engagement and 

economic success go hand in hand. It is 

important to determine if this relationship 

holds for New Americans as well.

• Economic success, but also volunteering is 

gendered

• 25% of males were economically successful

• 19% of females were economically successful

• Women immigrant professionals have higher 

levels of US education and English proficiency 

than males.

• Women are just as likely to volunteer with a 

neighborhood, business group.

• Economic benefits of volunteering vary by 

gender.

• 34% of men who volunteer are economically successful

• 23% of women who volunteer are economically successful

Immigrant Civic Engagement and Economic Opportunity

Grant #: 15REHVA001 

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
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Qualitative findings

• Immigrant professional civic engagement is 

closely tied to professional and vocational 

interests/skills.

• Professional networks and community ties 

facilitate professional advancement and

civic involvement. 

• Immigrant professionals participate in both 

formal and informal community - based 

groups, and many are transnational and 

trans - local in scope. 

• Pathways to civic engagement are 

culturally and institutionally mediated and 

linked to professional pathways. 

• Being able to access networks and formal 

organizational support channels during the 

period of settlement eased transition and 

settlement, which in turn spurred later civic 

involvement. 

Immigrant Civic Engagement and Economic Opportunity

Grant #: 15REHVA001 

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)
23

Andrea Robles, Ph.D.

Research and Evaluation 

Manager, 

Office of Research and 

Evaluation, 

AmeriCorps

Panelist Discussion and Q&A

Carol Cutler 

White, MPA, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Indiana University - Bloomington

Donnell Pearl

Community Researcher, 

REP

University of Pittsburgh 

School of Social Work 

Mary L. Ohmer, Ph.D.

Associate Professor/COSA 

Chair

University of Pittsburgh 

School of Social Work 

Kate Holler

MSW Student Researcher 

University of Pittsburgh 

School of Social Work 

Brad Fulton, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Indiana University - Bloomington

Incubators for Civic Engagement: 

Research for Equity and Power (REP)

James ‘Jim’ Witte, 

Ph.D. 

George Mason 

University

Rebecca Nesbit, 

Ph.D.

University of Georgia
Closing Statement

Tuesday, June 8, 2021 – Thursday, June 10, 2021

Civic Engagement as a Catalyst 

for Community Change: 

2021 Research Grantee Dialogue

24

Mary Hyde, Ph.D.

Director, 

Office of Research and Evaluation