USC ENGAGE/Trojan Neighbors

HISTORY

 

How and when did ENGAGE start?

 

ENGAGE was founded by Jesus Diaz, the

resident advisor (RA) of USC's Occupational

Therapy (OT) House in Spring 2007. The

program was initially created to engage

middle school students in different activities,

or occupations, on a weekly basis. This

stemmed from two experiences:

1) The RA observed outreach programs for

    elementary and high school students, but

    none for middle school students.

2) For one of his OT courses, the RA 

    administered an assessment with a middle 

    school student from the local community 

    and realized the adolescent was not familiar with many activities

    mentioned on the survey.

 

Why isn't it only middle school children now?

 

1) Community Need:

    Many middle school children could not come because they had to stay

    home and take care of their younger siblings, so their younger siblings

    were invited to come as well. Also, some families wanted to enroll their

    elementary school-aged children.

2) Volunteer Interest:

    Many of the residents at the OT House were interested in working with a

    younger population.

 

How did it become ENGAGE/Trojan Neighbors?

 

A few kids were playing around after school and accidentally shattered a student apartment window. Luckily, Renée Burwell was the graduate student RA of that apartment. She used her social work curriculum to create an outreach program for the childen in the neighboring building. Her program met weekly for one hour to provide homework help. Both RAs, Jesus Diaz and Renée Burwell, merged their programs together. Hence, the two-hour weekly meetings comprised of one hour of homework help and one hour of participation of an activity. With funding from the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS), weekly dinners and field trips were also made possible for the students.

 

 

Citation for information above:

Pyatak, E. A., Diaz, J., & Delgado Jr., C. (In press). Engage/Trojan Neighbors: A community service partnership between an academic division and a residential community. Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, and Rehabilitation.