Below is the text of the summer internship announcement we used to recruit four students who are conducting the research on Trenton and New Jersey public policy issues.

SUMMER RESEARCH INTERNSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

The College of New Jersey is seeking highly motivated college students to participate in a paid, public policy research internship this summer. Students will be working in a team conduct research on a wide range of local issues, including hunger, homelessness, literacy, housing, immigration services, urban environment, and youth development. This research will be provided directly to local community and government agencies who have requested it, as well as published on a website.

The summer internship is a pilot effort of the PolicyOptions.org initiative and has received funding from Institute for Interactive Journalism's New Voices Program and will utilize Bonner AmeriCorps funding for eligible participants. For more information, please visit http://www.policyoptions.org/Archives/2006/October/TCNJreceivestwoyearstart.html and www.policyoptionswiki.org

If you are interested, please contact one of us with your questions. If you are applying, please email us your resumes, a cover letter (within the email is fine), and answers to the questions below.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

1. Why are you interested in this internship?
2. What relevant classroom and work/internship/service experiences have you had while in college?
3. What public policy issues most interest you and why?
4. What is your availability this summer (please provide a start date, end date, and vacation days)? Please note that our preference is for full-time summer interns who will work 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday each week. However, we will consider candidates who can only work part-time. If you fall in this category, please describe when you would be available in terms of what weeks and how many hours per day on what days.

Below is a rough workplan that our interns have been following for their initial research tasks in the first month on the job:

(1) KEY ORGANIZATIONS & KEY INDIVIDUALS

Identify and input into the website the organizations and key contacts for government agencies, non-profit, foundations, media, higher ed institutions in Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, and select national.

(2) CURRENT POLICY

Identify and profile currently funded programs in budgets of the City of Trenton, Trenton School Board, Mercer County, and area Foundations and the United Way (for the later two we'll focus only on funding that relates to Trenton specifically). Later we'll identify & profile the public laws that authorize these programs.

(3) SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM & PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

We need to get specific policy option questions from area non-profits (Pat, can you help here?) that we can assign to each intern to search out the statistics that define the problem and then search nationally (internationally?) for a range of policy options or model programs that are successfully addressing that problem. Once these are assigned, we'll go over the Issue Brief Writers Guide in greater depth. Also, we'll hopefully meet personally with the non-profit staff who are requesting the research so we can better understand the research question and get insight from them on what information they can point us to as you begin.

(4) NEWS

Catalog and set up a system for monitoring news sources as it relates to Trenton (funding, legislation, regulations, meetings, publications, court action, executive action). Here we will need to figure out what sources we'll need to do one or more of the following with:

• subscribe to listserv
• subscribe to RSS feed
• visit website regularly
• put ourselves on email or mailing list for press releases and other announcements, & annual reports
• other?

We'll have to prioritize what issue areas we want to track, as well as determine how best to coordinate our efforts in inputting what we find into the website. This work will be continued during the school year by TCNJ student interns, so we'll also need to write a job description and guide for those interns.

(5) RESOURCES

At some point, we search for resources for the various areas currently listed on the site:

• Advocacy
• Civic Action
• Collaboration
• Communications
• Evaluation
• Finance
• Fundraising
• Higher Education
• Legal
• Libraries
• Nonprofits
• Philanthropy
• Social Entrepreneurs
• Technology
• Volunteers

These resources will include: books, conferences, movies, articles, reports, magazines, training modules, best practices, periodicals, and websites. As with the news section above, we'll need to determine how best to track new resource opportunities for input into the website. This will also become part of the school year interns' job description.

(6) FEEDBACK ON POLICYOPTIONS.ORG WEBSITE

Throughout the above research, writing, and data entry we will be de-bugging and refining the PolicyOptions.org website. It will have many little bugs and components that aren't available or finished, so everyone will be identifying problems as they occur (via an email to me) and features or screens that need to be created or refined (via an email to me and through group discussion of these). This is a critical part of our summer work since our goal is to have a fully operational data entry and public website to launch Trenton.PolicyOptions.org in September AND to have a guide for other campuses to begin their own local PolicyOptions.org Bureau.

We began researching general issue briefs on these six topic areas:

1. Affordable Housing
2. Education
3. Homelessness
4. Hunger
5. Immigration Services
6. Senior Services

We have been using the PolicyOptions Wiki for these draft issue briefs. Click here for the current versions.

June 13, 2007

Recipient Name

Address line 1

Address line 2

City, State/Province and Postal Code

Email address.com

Dear Friend,

On behalf of the Bonner Center at The College of New Jersey, I am writing to request an interview to discuss the programs your agency employs. We are summer interns working to develop a Community Think Tank dealing with Trenton and New Jersey policy news, research, and program models. Our goal is to create a database which non-profits, government agencies, students and the general community can use as a resource to address specific policy issues. We would like to collect information regarding __________ because it is one of the main issues of our research project.

We strongly believe you would be a valuable resource. In particular, we are interested in learning more about the following:

• Studies and other data sources that describe the scope of the problem in this issue area
• What the current government programs are addressing this issue, their annual budgets, sources of funding (if non-City funds), and what organizations, if any, are receiving funds from these programs.
• If there have been any evaluations of these programs, or any that are planned for the future.
• Names of other individuals and organizations working on this issue in Trenton who we should contact.

We will be contacting you by phone in hopes of scheduling a time we could meet.

Sincerely,

Alessandra Mikic

Michelle Hawkins

David Greenblatt

Joshua Blount

The interns researched the key organizations involved in Trenton. These included government, public schools, foundations, non-profit organizations, colleges and universities, and media of various types (print, web, radio). The local, county and state level government agencies were thoroughly profiled. For the non-profit and foundations and research institutes, we've looked at local, state, and national organizations.

To help visualize the key organizations and individuals, the interns created post-it note organization charts which they pasted up on the wall of the basement office (see below).

What's great about this approach is that when we need to figure out who we should be talking to or where a program is housed, we can walk around and point to the specific department or division in government or the relevant non-profit organization or funder. We have a group of foundations (not displayed) and still need to put up the significant media and research oriented institutes that support or focus on Trenton.

Trenton City Government

Trenton School Board

Mercer County Government

Trenton Area Non-Profits (a few)

New Jersey State Government

Good job with drafting questions. Below I've reworked them, so take a look and improve them as you see fit.

Next, please draft an introductory letter/email requesting a chance to meet with individuals in the Trenton and County government. We'll talk to the non-profit leaders once we've coordinated things with Pat.

Also, flesh out the draft issue briefs on these six topic areas using the PolicyOptionsWiki.org pages we set-up for:

• Affordable Housing
• Education
• Homelessness
• Hunger
• Immigration Services
• Senior Services

Finally, begin to identify the individuals you'll want to contact for a meeting. You should be able to go on some of these meetings as early as next week.

Bobby

-------------

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO GATHER MORE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

[1] Government agency staff:

• We're interested in current statistics and other information (surveys, studies, or data) that describe the scope of the problem for this issue?
  • Are there key reports on the past?
  • Any statistics that show a trend over time, including future projections?
  • What other issues are related to this particular issue?
• What local government program(s) are in place?
  • How much funding is being placed into the program?
  • What is the source of the funding? City funds? County? State? Federal? Foundation?
  • What law or ordinance authorize the program(s)?
  • Has there been evaluation on the effectiveness of the program(s)?
  • Are any of the city programs considered "model programs"?
  • Have you looked at model programs in other cities?
• Who are the key local, county, or state government agencies or non-profit organizations that address this issue in Trenton?

[2] Non-Profit agency staff:

• We're interested in current statistics and other information (surveys, studies, or data) that describe the scope of the problem for this issue?
  • Are there key reports on the past?
  • Any statistics that show a trend over time, including future projections?
  • What other issues are related to this particular issue?
• What program(s) do you have in place to address this issue?
  • Do you serve certain neighborhoods and communities?
  • Has there been evaluation on the effectiveness of the program(s)?
  • Is your program considered a model program?
  • Have you looked at other model programs?
• Who are your major funders?
  • Do you have an annual report we could read?
• What other government programs and/or non-profit organizations address this issue in Trenton?
• What changes would you recommend for specific government current programs/policies?

We'll be meeting with Pat in the next week or so to define specific issue briefs topics requested by area non-profit and government staff.

Below are a few potential research questions Pat Donohue wrote up earlier this year:

• Access to Employment for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals: residents with records have a difficult time finding employers that are willing to give them a job or a second chance.
• Protection of Identification Records for Prisoners: individuals who are arrested claim that one local law enforcement agency destroys their identification cards (e.g., drivers licenses) upon their arrest, which causes significant problems upon their re-entry into society and efforts to access services.
• Access to Services by Children of Illegal Immigrants with Developmental Disabilities: some illegal immigrants living in the area have children with developmetnal disabilities and their status appears to prevent them from securing necesssary services.
• Access to Higher Education for Undocumented Immigrants: barriers are preventing children of undocumented residents from entering college after they graduate from high school (expand on draft PolicyOptions Issue Brief on this topic; localize to New Jersey)
• Economic Development & Low-Skill Jobs: there are too few jobs available for Trenton city residents with low to moderate skills and education.
• Economic Development and Colleges/Universities: how could area colleges and universities do more to foster the economic development of Trenton.
• Gang Prevention: too many young people are joining gangs and turning to violent methods for resolving conflicts.
• Parent Participation in Urban Education: more parents could be involved in the education of their children and/or interacting with educators.

I'd like to try using the wiki to organize some of our research plans, and probably lessons learned and start-up guide for other bureaus.

Using the United Way questions as a starting point, I created a page you can link to here:

http://www.policyoptionswiki.org/index.php?title=The_College_of_New_Jersey

David, you should join in this, too.

Also, for everyone else, use the Talk page (one of the tabs at the top of the page) on David's draft Lead Poisoning Prevention to give him feedback, ask questions, etc.

http://www.policyoptionswiki.org/index.php?title=Lead_Poisoning_Prevention

Finally, you all can use the Watch tab on the top of every PolicyOptionsWiki.org page to have an email sent to you when it's been edited by anyone else. For now, you might 'watch' the general issue brief pages, David's one on Lead Poisoning Prevention, and the new notetaking page.

September

• Catch up daily scan for January-August for Govt sources
• Begin regular daily scan for govt & key non-profit sources

October

• Continue daily scan

November

• Continue daily scan

December

• Continue daily scan

January

• Continue daily scan

February

• Continue daily scan

March

• Continue daily scan

April

• Continue daily scan

May

• Continue daily scan

June

• Continue daily scan

July

• Continue daily scan

August

• Continue daily scan

- Senior Reporter coordinates assignments with Managing Editor for other reporters.

• Sends email to reporters with links to source and notes for how to handle.

- Each reporter covers designated issue areas/departments.

- Managing Editor will review & approve entries for publication.

• Reviews list of new entries, reviews and approves (if more work needed, sends reminder email)

Trenton PolicyOptions.org Interns,

In reading the new United Way funding plan,

http://www.uwgmc.org/community_needs_assessment.html

take notes on the following so we can incorporate this information into our website:

• How they define and group the issue areas?
• What statistics they use to quantify and prioritize those issues? (note data sources, too)
• How they define their overall strategy (i.e., emphasis on collaborative initiatives, addressing root causes, advocating for policy change, etc.)?
• What other 'players' are mentioned (i.e., other non-profits, government agencies, funders, including individual people and their affiliations)? Do we have these organizations and people in our database?
• Examples of model programs or policies? (e.g.,

From Appendix D: One initiative, for example, the Housing First Initiative, has already been identified under Fostering Self-Sufficiency as a special demonstration project that leverages UWGMC resources with resources from the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), Mercer County, City of Trenton, several state agencies, foundations and corporations. This proposal, modeled after United Way of Rhode Island’s, will create permanent supportive housing for homeless people and wrap services around them in order to reduce the homeless population of Mercer County over time.

• Deadline dates for RFP submissions and award announcements?
• How much money do they award annually and to what programs? Can we get annual figures for the last, say, five years? What is projected for the next funding cycle beginning January, 2008?
• How does the United Way's funding level compare with the existing funding from government and foundation sources being applied to these issue areas? Are they a major player? Will their change in funding priorities have much an affect on the decisions by Mercer County non-profits? Also, how might their new emphasis on collaborations rather than individual programs ('core services') complement or hurt other the funding and policy strategies of the local government and foundations?
• Figure out what staff and volunteer leaders (those on their advisory boards) you should interview at the United Way of Mercer County? Also, can we find out who the 'experts' where that they interviewed in each of Key Informant Focus Groups?

In your upcoming interviews of government and non-profit staff, you might consider adding a question about what they think of the United Way's new funding approach and whether they are involved in it somehow?

Based on how they define and prioritize the issues, how might we define a series of PolicyOptions issue brief topics that could be of use to groups applying for funds? Remember, we focus an issue brief using a title (i.e., gang violence prevention) and a goal statement (what they call a vision statement).

Finally, you'll notice that their focus groups had different results in Trenton, Hamilton, Lawrence and Hightstown. Should we consider making the Mercer County PolicyOptions.org be a 'public website' (it is currently hidden from public view so attention is focused on Trenton)?

Ok, that's enough for now. This will keep us busy for awhile!

Bobby

...........................................................................................

The Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation

10 Mercer Street * Princeton, NJ 08540

(609) 924-6663 * (609) 683-4626 fax

www.bonner.org

...........................................................................................

This week, we've had to create stationary for the project since several government agency staff require that we fax over our interview requests in writing.

Creating stationary isn't too difficult, but it has forced us to think about our tag line, a short phrase that would go underneath the logo or title of the stationary and would summarize what we're about.

Up till now, we've been describing this effort as creating a "local community information bureau with an emphasis on policy and programmatic activity." Not only is that too many words for a tagline, but it doesn't convey clearly enough the gap we're trying to fill. So, we're now trying this as our tagline:

What do you think? Does it work? So far everyone who has heard it has approved it, but we'd like to hear from you, too.

By the way, the footer of the stationary gives the permanent address for the Trenton branch of the PolicyOptions.org network:

ALESSANDRA MIKIC • Daily Research Log

Monday, May 7, 2007 — 8 hours

• Looked at Trenton’s city and school budgets
• Found Trenton’s city government website and entered data about departments, etc.
• Created Trenton Government Organization Chart
• Read articles on truancy
• Went over Guidelines for Writers & Editors from PolicyOptions Wiki

Tuesday, May 8, 2007 — 8 hours

• Read about City Council members, looked at City Council meeting agendas, and looked for list of committees
• Entered more data about Trenton’s government departments
• Called several departments to find out how public is notified about grants
• Spoke to Nancy Diehl (Coordinator for State & Federal Grants) about grants and public announcements made for them
• Made Trenton City Council Organization Chart
• Read about Bonner Foundation’s partners and other New Jersey foundations
• Researched private organizations (non-profit and corporate)

Wednesday, May 9, 2007 — 8 hours

• Entered data about foundations, corporate foundations, newspapers, policy research/think tanks, and community-based foundations
• Made Trenton school board organization chart
• Searched for information using Google searches “truancy solutions” and “truancy in Trenton”
• Started outline for truancy brief

Thursday, May 10, 2007 — 8 hours

• Subscribed to mailing lists/newsletters of foundations and entered more data about them: schedules, issue areas, annual budget
• Sat in on first half of Bonner Foundation overview for Eastern Mennonite University
• Continued working on truancy policy brief
• Had meeting to discuss current progress/plans
• Bought office supplies

Friday, May 11, 2007 — 8 hours

• Continued entering data about foundations and subscribing to their newsletters
• Sat in on second half of Bonner Foundation overview for EMU
• Made Mercer County Government Organization Chart
• Researched Mercer County Government — budget, etc.
• Continued working on truancy policy brief

Week 1 Total: 40 hours

Friday, May 25, 2007 — 8 hours

• Caught up with what has happened in the past two weeks
• Worked on defining main issue categories with David, Josh, and Michelle
• Looked at how other organizations categorized issues and decided what was relevant

Week 2 Total: 8 hours

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 — 8 hours

• Put up sticky notes for local foundations
• Looked at progress on Trenton.policyoptions.org
• Researched policy*and advocacy-oriented organizations, specifically those advocating for senior services, education, and human rights
• Reviewed 2007 Trenton budget, started working on table of contents for budget, researched the organizations that were allocated money from budget and entered data

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 — 8 hours

• Finished researching organizations found in Trenton budget and logging data
• Entered non-profit organization data and contacts into Policy Options Trenton
• Began entering governmental organization data and linked contacts to them (at Policy Options Trenton)
• Noted where problems occurred Policy Options Trenton
• Went to career services with Michelle to pick up payroll and direct deposit papers

Thursday, June 1, 2007 — 8 hours

• Continued entering governmental organization and contact information into Policy Options Trenton and linked contacts (finished for Trenton)
• Came up with list of additional questions to ask during an interview with a non-profit and chose additional organizations that we would like to interview
• Continued noting where problems occurred on Policy Options Trenton and compiled list of all problems, which was sent in an email

Friday, June 2, 2007 — 8 hours

• Created school board organization sticky note chart on wall
• Made To Do List and hung on wall
• Went over original draft of questions for interview with organizations with Bobby and then redrafted and grouped questions based on suggestions
• Split up list of organizations to enter into PolicyOptionsWiki.org
• Continued with data entry on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
• Drafted introductory letter/email to meet with government officials on city and county level
• Identified people to interview and created list of names and contacts

Week 3 Total: 32 hours

Monday, June 4, 2007 — 8 hours

• Read United Way funding information and took notes according to questions outlined by Bobby
• Read over lead poisoning issue brief to give feedback to David
• Started logging data and contact information for foundations on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org

Tuesday, June 5, 2007 — 8 hours

• Finished logging data and contact information for foundations on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
• Logged data and contact information for Mercer County government and Trenton School Board on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
• Started sending emails to individuals we want to interview this week
• Attended hunger forum, helped set up beforehand, took notes on PowerPoint presentation

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 — 8 hours

• Split up state government and began entering data and contact information on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org

Thursday, June 7, 2007 — 8 hours

• Finished entering state government data and contact information on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
• Entered grant information on USA.PolicyOptions.org
• Went over rough draft of intro letter with Bobby
• Taped up Mercer County map
• Figured out who to call for an interview tomorrow morning

Friday, June 8, 2007 — 8 hours

• Called and emailed government agencies to set up interviews
• Entered Hunger Forum slides onto PolicyOptionsWiki.org
• Went to administrative services building at TCNJ to pick up time sheets from payroll and filled out timesheets
• Continued researching hunger in Mercer County

Week 4 Total: 40 hours

Monday, June 11, 2007 — 8 hours

• Found another contact to interview, sent e-mail
• Worked on fleshing out hunger issue brief
• Researched hunger statistics
• Found, saved and read hunger issue briefs
• Read homelessness issue brief and took notes on it

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 — 8 hours

• Worked on fleshing out hunger issue brief on PolicyOptionsWiki.org
• Searched for more hunger issue briefs to outline
  • Found Rhode Island food stamp program policy options
  • Outlined it at PolicyOptionsWiki.org
• Called Division of Food and Nutrition (New Jersey Department of Agriculture)
  • Left name and number
  • Emma Davis-Kovacs (director of Division of Food & Nutrition, New Jersey Department of Agriculture) called back
    • Gave her our websites
    • Wants to know more about us before doing an interview
  • Left message with Public Information Officer Lynne Richmond
    • Need to speak with her about publicity
• Called Mercer County Social Services
  • Left name and number, but they have a high volume of callers
  • Called back and told me to call David Rimley
• Printed two letters to be faxed to:
  • Mercer County Social Services
  • Department of Agriculture: Bureau of Child Nutrition Programs

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 — 8 hours

• Called David Rimley
  • Wasn’t there, left message
• Searched for more hunger issue briefs to outline
• Printed out letters to be faxed after reworking template

Thursday, June 14, 2007 — 8 hours

• Attended Americorps breakfast
  • Gave short presentation on what we do at Bonner
  • Learned what everyone else was doing and asked questions
• Added “global” to hunger issue briefs
  • Continued searching for and reading hunger issue briefs
  • Found more national hunger-prevention organizations
• David Rimley called, missed him, called back, but he was out at a meeting
• Attended meeting with interns from Project 55, Princeton University, and CBLI

o Talked about our individual projects and issues we have been dealing with

JOSHUA BLOUNT — Daily Research Log

Monday, May 21, 2007

• Found websites for area non-profit organizations
• Entered data about area non-profit organizations
• Looked at the budget for the city of Trenton
• Looked at the budget for Trenton Board of Education
• Went over J-Lab project info
• Looked for articles on truancy

Hours: 8

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

• Outlined Departments in NJ State Government
• Found funding sources for Non-profit organizations
• Began to compile comprehensive list of funding sources
• Read through research questions on CBLI website and made a list of those which are relevant

Hours: 8

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

• Posted flow charts of city and county gov’t
• Looked at Trenton city budget
• Looked at NJ state budget
• Outlined Departments in Mercer County gov’t

Hours: 8

Thursday, May 24, 2007

• Posted flow charts for NJ state departments
• Called budget office to find some sort of documents which analyzed Trenton’s budget
• Called Health & Human Services, Housing & Economic Development and Recreation Natural Resources & Culture Departments in Trenton to find information on budgets and press lists
• Visited City Clerk’s Office in Trenton to find Department Budgets
• Looked as city budget

Hours:8

Friday, May 25, 2007

• Read November Fifth information
• Went through and organized issue area categories
• Found info on state budget analysis

Hours: 8

Total Hours for Week 1: 40

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

• Compiled a list of State & County level Non-Profits by Category
• Tracked city programs to state funding using city budget
• Began data entry for city programs

Hours: 8

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

• Contiued tracing funds through Trenton city budget and entered the results in the FileMaker database
• Entered non-profit organization data into the Trenton PolicyOptions database
• Began entering Trenton government departments into the Trenton PolicyOptions database

Hours: 8

Thursday, May 31, 2007

• Continued entering Trenton government information into the Policy Options database
• Wrote interview questions
• Identified possible places to go for interviews and made a list of contact information

Hours: 8

Friday, June 1, 2007

• Redrafted &and Regrouped questions
• Posted school board org chart
• Drafted introductory letter
• Began fleshing out PolicyOptions Wiki
• Continued entering data in Trenton PolicyOptions.org

Hours: 8

Total Hours for Week 2: 32

Monday, June 4, 2007

• Read and took notes on United Way Resource Investment plan
• Entered notes on Policy Options Wiki
• Gave David feedback on his issue brief
• Continued entering data into Trenton PolicyOptions Website

Hours 7.5

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

• Continued entering data in Trenton Policy Options Website
• Listed potential interviewees
• E-mailed a potential interviewee
• Attended hunger meeting at TCNJ

Hours: 8

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

• Entered state department information in NJ Policy Options website
• Submitted documents to TCNJ payroll department

Hours: 8

Thursday, June 7, 2007

• Finished entering state department information in NJ Policy Options
• Entered Data in Policy Options Wiki
• Entered grant information on Trenton Policy Options website
• Decided which potential interviewees to call

Hours: 8

Friday, June 8, 2007

• Called and e-mailed Departments to schedule appointments
• Entered power point information on hunger in Policy Options Wiki
• Added to contact list for hunger
• Went to TCNJ Admin,. Building to get time sheets

Hours: 8

Total Hour: 39.5

Monday, June 11, 2007

• Read “What Will it Take to End Homelessness?” article
• Posted article notes on policy options wiki
• Added additional information to Homeless section on the wiki
• Reorganized Homeless section into Homeless Issue Overview
• Researched and added information to the Homeless Issue Overview and Issue Briefs

Hours: 8

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

• Set up interview with Ed Pattik
• E-mailed and called various non-profits and government agencies to request interviews
• Found more information on homelessness to enter in the policy options wiki
• Scheduled interview with Susan Jones

Hours: 8

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

• E-mailed and called government agencies to request/ set up interviews
• Schedueled interview with Cinthia Gonzalez
• Found/ Outlined Issue briefs pertaining to homelessness

Hours: 8

Thursday, June 14, 2007

• Met with Christen and Americorps students
• Met with research interns from Princeton University, CBLI and Project 55
• Read and began outline of Drug Courts issue brief
• Looked for more national homelessness organizations

Hours: 8

Michelle N. Hawkins : Daily Research Log

Monday, May 21, 2007

• Created data entries for non-profit organizations:
  • Visitation Home, Special Olympics of New Jersey, KidsBridge Children’s Museum.
• Created data entries for schools:
  • Trenton Elementary Schools and Trenton Community Charter School
• Hours Completed: 8 hours

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

• Created a list of research questions from CBLI
• Created a list of funding for non-profit organizations
• Created questions for PolicyOption website
• Created a list of different New Jersey departments
• Hours Completed: 8 hours

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

• Created a list of Mercer County departments (1st half)
• Helped to created the following charts:
  • Trenton and Mercer County
  • Created a mini-graph before the actual graphs were created
• Skimmed New Jersey budget to understand how it’s divided and saved it to server for others to read
• Hours Completed: 7 hours

Thursday, May 24, 2007

• Helped to create New Jersey Department graph
• Created a list of non-profit organizations and summaries
• In the process of creating a list of non-profit organizations to create a graph for the group
• Researched homelessness (briefly) and visited the following website to gain insight on current court cases and policy options:
  • Monarch Housing Association: Provides news and data on homelessness
  • Project Homeless Connect New Jersey
• Hours Completed: 8 hours

Friday, May 25, 2007

• I read the November Fifth Coalition examples of civic work and manifesto.
• Deleted information from the previous non-profit org. summaries and created a new document.
• Helped to create the non-profit graph.
• Brain-stormed with the other interns on how to create categories and issues for the website.
• Hours Completed: 8 hours
• TOTAL HOURS FOR THE WEEK: 39 Hours

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

• Created graph for foundations and helped hang them up
• Created a list of advocacy and policy organizations in the areas of:
  • Homelessness, Immigration, and Developmental Disabilities
• Started data entry for New Jersey Departments based on Trenton City Budget.
• Hours Completed: 8 hours

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

• Completed data entry and research for New Jersey Departments based on Trenton City Budget.
• Helped to complete the data entry for the non-profit organizations
• Started data entry for Trenton departments.
• Hours Completed: 8 hours

Thursday, May 31, 2007

• Continued data entry for City of Trenton departments
• Created questions for future interviews
• Created list of organizations/departments we might speak with in the future