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Professor Receives Federal Funding to Study Civic Engagement in Diverse Communities

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Associate Professor Suzanne Pritzker, has been awarded a $99,651 federal grant for the first year of her research project, Building Civic Engagement in the Post-Harvey Context: Exploring Facilitators and Barriers to Civic Activity in Four Hurricane-Affected Communities in Houston, Texas.

The grant was awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) with funding in part provided by the National Civilian Conservation Corps to support a participatory research study that will lead to concrete practical strategies to build civic engagement in diverse Houston-area communities. It will also inform research knowledge about how disaster crisis and recovery impact civic engagement after the initial crisis has subsided.

“Understanding barriers to civic engagement and identifying strategies to overcome those barriers directly aligns with the GCSW’s vision for political and social justice. This project emphasizes community voice in understanding and building meaningful community participation that represents the diversity within each community,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker is collaborating with Denae King, faculty member at Texas Southern University, along with four community-based organizations, each in a different hurricane-affected community in Houston in order to conduct the study. They will work in partnership with a group of community members who will serve as community co-researchers, contributing to the design and implementation of this study in a community-grounded way.