Appendix Seven

Vignettes of UW Public Service and Outreach Activities

Current Public Service and Outreach Activities

This Appendix contains brief descriptions illustrative of the various ongoing public service and outreach activities at the University of Washington. While by no means is it exhaustive, this list does illustrate the breadth and depth of current projects. The projects described in this appendix are only a handful for which there was documentation readily available, from among the many the Task Force encountered during its work.

Other recent examples include the design of a playground by Architecture students; teaching of elementary school students and teachers about the Human Genome Project in local schools by the molecular biotechnology department faculty, staff, and students; the Partnership for Youth Project described in the body of this report; convening of a "Working Together" Forum for newly elected and appointed Puget Sound area leaders by the Graduate School of Public Affairs; the host of services provided by the University's hospitals, clinics, and programs of the Health Sciences schools; the libraries; seven legal assistance clinics; continuing education and summer programs; University Computing and Communications and their KUOW and UWTV stations; the Seismology Laboratory; inclusion of high school science teachers on the University's 274-foot research vessel to study underwater volcanoes; University theatrical and musical presentations; sports and recreational events and opportunities; and University Relations and its publications and speaker's bureau.

International Studies Outreach

High school teaching materials about Japan available nation-wide on multiple web sites. Teacher workshops about other countries and cultures in rural areas of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. An international video festival for elementary school students. Summer teacher institutes on campus and in Asia which combine multi-disciplinary perspectives on the world with innovative teaching ideas. Evening dinner discussions about the stories behind world news headlines. High school students linked with UW international studies graduate students in an electronic mentoring program. These are just a few of the many projects undertaken by the Jackson School Outreach Centers.

The UW is the home of more federally-funded area and international studies centers than any other university. The centers are awarded through a comprehensive and competitive grant process, so the seven area studies centers, the International Studies Center, and the Center for Business education and Research reflect UW's preeminent position nationally. This funding provides vital student fellowships, curriculum enhancement, and library support, plus underlying support for outreach programs and services. Drawing on the expertise of faculty in may different departments, the centers work to bring new and deeper perspectives on he world to K-14 educators, business people, the general public, and colleagues at other institutions.

The Carlson Office: Integrating Public Service and Student Learning

Since 1992, the Carlson Leadership and Public Service Office, a unit of Undergraduate Education, has supported individual faculty in a variety of disciplines throughout the University in their efforts to integrate public service into their courses to provide undergraduate students service learning opportunities. In 1995, with funding from a FIPSE grant, the Carlson Office and the Geography department began a partnership to develop service learning at the departmental or curricular level, with the goal of providing students opportunities across courses and over time that could deepen their investments and critical understandings.

In little more than a year the number of Geography faculty offering students service learning options has grown from three to eight, including Chair David Hodge, and four graduate teaching assistants have either supported or taught service learning courses. This curricular innovation has impacted not only undergraduate students, but the teaching and research interests of faculty and the professional goals of graduate students. For example, Prof.. Lucy Jaroszs service learning teaching experience has been instrumental in refocusing her research interests from agrarian change and food security in sub-Saharan Africa to how, gender, class, and race relations shape and are shaped by food production and distribution systems in the Yakima Valley and other areas, and how these systems impact development. As well, this departmental effort has forged strong, ongoing relationships between the community and the department, a foundation which has spawned creative initiatives neither could undertake alone.

Courses in the department which now include service learning opportunities are:


To cite one example of the innovations these campus-community partnerships and teaching initiatives can foster, Prof. Gunter Krumme, an active faculty participant in the UWired Project, combined service learning with instructional technology to engage students with community-based organizations lacking the funds or technical expertise to design web pages. The Carlson Office is currently exploring a multi-quarter project for the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) courses to assist the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) in its efforts to map demographic data more comprehensively onto the service distribution system for a review of SPS summer free and reduced lunch program which serves several thousand children across the city.

UWTV

UWTV's public service and outreach contribution has two important components. First, UWTV brings a selection of University events such as Commencement and Convocation as well as lectures and colloquia to roughly 750,000 viewers in Washington State. UWTV has been bringing the University into peoples' homes in Seattle, most of King County, parts of Snohomish County including Everett, and Tacoma and Pierce County for about two years. In October, 1996, UWTV became Channel 18 on the cable system in the Wenatchee Valley and will shortly become available in Spokane as well.

The second part of UWTV's public service and outreach mission is operating engineering and maintaining a cable channel, making it possible for Seattle Public Schools, Lake Washington Public Schools, and the Seattle Community Colleges to air programming of particular interest to their students. All of these institutions rely on UWTV's expertise to ensure that their programming can be viewed over the cable system. UWTV recently extended this same opportunity to Wenatchee Public Schools, Wenatchee Valley College, WSU, and Central Washington University. By operating maintaining, and engineering Channel 18 in the Wenatchee Valley, UW brought a new learning opportunity to the community and a new access vehicle to the other educational institutions serving that community.

Rural Girls in Science

For the past two years, the Northwest Center for Research on Women, an interdisciplinary center, hosts a two week summer camp for 29 girls from rural schools to encourage their interest in science. The girls come from 16 school from around the state, each with a student body of less than 400; a significant number of the girls are of Native American or Hispanic heritage. The girls are paired with a faculty member in their area of scientific interest. Their teachers and counselors also come for a one week course in order to support and mentor the girls after they return home. In each school, a program is also held to address parents' concerns. When the girls return to their home communities, a mentor from UW periodically follows up with them via phone and email.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the project is how University staff have developed collaborative working relationships with the rural communities. For example, in Neah Bay, a meeting with the elders was held as a way to recruit young women. UW staff have visited each school and have developed WEB pages for each school.

Examining the Public School System

Dr. Marge Plecki of the College of Education directs a study that examines the conditions of schools in Washington State. Her research group recently concluded a study sponsored by over 15 school districts and the State to carefully examine the status of public education in Washington. The findings have been presented to the Legislature, sponsoring school districts, and the community at-large. The report is the first state-wide analysis of school data and will help inform the discussion about public schools and shape educational policies.

Computing & Communications: Telecommunications Networking throughout Washington

As part of its public service and outreach mission, the University of Washington's Computing & Communications office has been working closely with various agencies in the Puget Sound area and around the State to engineer the development of sophisticated telecommunications networking throughout Washington. AS part of the public service commitment of the University, C&C is providing its extensive engineering and operating expertise to Seattle Public Schools, the City of Seattle, King County, and the developing K-20 Educational Telecommunications Network.

UW networking and telecommunications engineers are key contributors to the design of the Seattle Public Schools networking effort. Working closely with the Office of Superintendent John Stanford, the Alliance for Education, and the UW's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, C&C is creating a design to ring robust Internet and related connectivity to all of the Seattle Public Schools.

Also in Seattle, the UW is working with the City on a model fiber optic sharing agreement with the City as well as exploring the possibility of sharing SONET electronics with partners.

King County is also in the process of creating a fiber optic network linking schools, libraries, and other public agencies and institutions at high speeds in a cost effective manner. This opportunity arose out of the cable franchise agreement King County recently negotiated with TCI (in which UW also consulted with the County on, bringing the University's experience to bear in these negotiations as well). King County formally asked the University to guide the engineering of the network infrastructure in a standards-based, scaleable, and enabling direction, leveraging the UW's own experience in successes in the areas of Internet/intranet, cable distribution, and videoconferencing. AS a matter of public service to the community and with the goal of ensuring the best use of this opportunity, UW will be providing this service to the County.

In June of 1995, the Washington state Legislature appropriated over $40 million to the development of the K-20 Education Telecommunications Network. UW's Computing & Communications has accepted the lead role in designing this complex network. The goal of the first phase of K-20 is to connect all of the Educational Service Districts, the four-year colleges, and the research universities and their branch campuses. Given the sheer size of this effort and the short timeline (to be completed by June 1996), this is a substantial task requiring significant technical expertise and the ability to communicate complex engineering concepts to a group of people with widely varying expertise. UW is once again leveraging its experience to meet the public service goal of ensuring an interoperal network of networks enabling many user communities to collaborate, share resources, and teach using many flavors of technologies.

WEBSITE on the Columbia River

The School of Fisheries maintains a WEBSITE on the Columbia River, which provides citizens of the state with daily updates about natural/geographic and legislative changes associated with the Columbia River. Because of the conflicting interests associated with the Columbia River, the WEBSITE is intended to provide equal access to data for all stakeholders. The University is well positioned to provide tools and access to information to diverse constituencies throughout the state through such technology. In turn, the School of Fisheries also responds to citizens' questions about the Columbia River through the WEBSITE. The use of this information base is growing rapidly and presents the School with a challenge of how to provide more of what is known on the WEBSITE.

The Internet II Project

UW experts are part of the small team responsible for the design of the widely- publicized Internet-II project, which is intended to provide a suitable network infrastructure for next-generation research and education applications, as well as defining a flexible method for accessing a variety of services via "GigaPOP" exchange points.

The University of Washington has benefited over the years from the Internet's spirit of sharing and cooperation, as evidenced by the many software tools that are freely available over the 'net. UW has endeavored to keep that spirit alive by making some of our software freely available to others. One example is the Willow bibliographic search tool; another is the Pine messaging system. From its modest beginnings as a limited scope email project for UW administrators, the Pine program has become an international phenomenon. It is estimated that over 5 million people now use Pine in over 50 different countries. UW has also developed and made available several other related programs, and has been instrumental in development and standardization of an advanced client-server messaging protocol for the Internet called "IMAP." As a public service, UW hosts the IMAP Connection, information clearinghouse on the Web, and has hosted two international conferences on this subject.

Finally, UW staff participate in the Internet Engineering Task Force and are regularly asked to give talks at conferences on the work they are doing in messaging, distributed system architecture, advanced networking, and library automation.

Students Integrating Service with Education

A UW student interned at Project P.A.C.E. (Personalizing Autistic Children's Education) working one to one with an autistic child. This student learned what types of therapy improved the child's education, and emotional and social development while discussing and sharing these lessons with other therapists. To connect this service with her studies, the student worked with an academic sponsor to research theories of therapy.

A student in the Psychology Department assisted the Delridge Youth Group in creating and facilitating programs focused no community involvement, nutrition, interpersonal communication, the environment, and career exploration. Through this internship and with guidance from the academic sponsor, she was able to make a positive impact on the youth group, develop program management skills, and see how the theories learned in courses actually worked with the youth.

Another student worked as an intern at the Washington Environmental Council. She learned about the role of grassroots environmental organizations in local transportation, forest management, and water quality issues while developing skills in event planning and finance research under the joint direction of the organization's Development Director and her academic sponsor.

A student intern at the Union Gospel Mission established a relationship between the Mission's mentoring program and teenage youth in the community. To link the experience with her studies, the student worked closely with the Teen Director at the Mission as well as an academic from the University.

Finally, the Undergraduate Research Program provides opportunities to enhance education through research projects for undergraduates. One recent example involved the study of gender roles within dance in an attempt to explain gender differentiation within society as a whole by studying Filipino Folk dancing.

The Council of Presidents' Cooperative Library Project

Computing & Communications is planning for timely access to library information resources with the other five State of Washington public baccalaureate institutions through the Council of Presidents' Cooperative Library Project. Based on work already done for the UW campus by C&C and the University libraries, Computing & Communications will be providing access to a full library catalog of the six institutions' holdings. Students of any of the institutions will have access to the holdings of any of the six libraries as will the general public when visiting those libraries.

C&C and UW Libraries are also providing students at the other five baccalaureate institutions access to primary bibliographic reference tools such as Medline, ERIC, and Current Contents for the other institutions. Robust search interfaces (such as the Willow suite of products) developed at UW for the X-Windows, Microsoft Windows, and character-cell environments are also being supplied to other campuses.

Revitalizing Two Small Communities' Waterfronts

For two years beginning in September, 1992, the coastal resources specialists of Washington and Oregon Sea Grant Programs collaborated on a small city waterfront revitalization national demonstration project, funded in part by NOAA's National Coastal Resources Research and Development Institute (NCRI). The project teamed the two specialists and other researchers, with the cities of Raymond, Wash. And Warrenton, Ore. And the Ports of Willapa Harbor and Astoria, to assist the communities to develop and implement revitalization plans for their respective waterfronts utilizing a planning model designed by the two PIs. In 1994 both communities adopted their plans and are implementing a series of waterfront projects.

On August 3, 1996, the city of Raymond dedicated its new downtown waterfront park. New activity on the river front includes: an historic tall ship-the "Krestine"-is moored at its permanent home at the new downtown public dock. An associated Willapa Seaport Museum will be located in an adjacent saw shop being refurbished by the city. A Rails-to-Trails bike/jogging trail connects Raymond's waterfront with South Bend, five miles down river.

On the opposite bank of the South Fork a $5 million private development complex is underway. An upscale grocery store with perimeter service businesses and a fast-food restaurant are now open; a motel, family restaurant, a service station, and quick-lube are planned for a later phase. The developer who has deeded the entire riverbank perimeter of the site to the city for public access stated that Raymond's waterfront revitalization plan was a major reason for investing in the community.

In Warrenton, at the Third Street River Park on Skipanon River adjacent to downtown, a small boat dock for kiyakers and canoeists has been completed. A pedestrian trail system with interpretive signage has been built atop the city's protective dike system and as dedicated last summer.

These improvements were the result of grants totaling over $1.5 million. In Raymond, grants to implement elements of the community's waterfront redevelopment plan included: Rails-to-Trails and adjacent street improvements ($1 million), maritime museum building repairs and improvements ($200,000), public boat landing and public plaza ($272,000), and interpretive program signs and brochures($30,000). Warrenton received a $20,650 Section 306A Coastal Zone Management grant for the Third Street waterfront park and $11,000 for waterfront trail and access way improvements. Each of these projects will produce short term construction employment.

Long term community economic growth will occur through the increased attractiveness of the communities to visitors, tourists, and retirees; new waterfront activity and the ripple effects of new expenditures in adjacent downtown business establishments. Non-economic benefits include enhanced community capacity to develop and implement successful community plans; improvements in the visual, esthetic, and experiential qualities of the communities' waterfronts; and empowerment of citizens to make their lives better through community improvements.

Teresa Ash, the research assistant supported on the project and supervised by Bob Goodwin, produced an instructional video, "Revitalizing Raymond's Waterfront," as the principal component of her non-traditional Master of Marine Affairs thesis. Partial production support for the slide-based video was provided by the Washington state Department of Ecology through a federal coastal zone management act Section 306 grant. The video, which documents the activities of Raymond's waterfront planning team during the first year of the project, was the cornerstone of a one day workshop conducted by Bob Goodwin for the Pacific Coast Congress of Harbormasters and Port Managers at its Spring, 1995 meeting in Eureka, California. The video was also featured in a "Tools of the Trade" poster session at Coastal Zone 85 in Tampa, Florida.

An extensive slide set, documenting both communities' planning activities and waterfront settings is available for future educational programming.

A two volume final report on the project, published jointly by NCRI and the Washington Sea Grant Program, is reported by NCRI staff to be in "higher than usual demand" for such products. The report, authored by Bob Goodwin and Jim Good (OSU Extension/Sea Grant) provides a detailed assessment of the demonstration project's successes as well as lessons to be learned.

At the 1996 World Congress on Coastal and Marine Tourism in Honolulu, Hawaii, with financial assistance from NCRI, Bob Goodwin presented a workshop on waterfront revitalization which featured the experience gained in Raymond and Warrenton.

A third year enhancement grant proposal for a national teleconference on small city waterfront revitalization submitted to NCRI in 1995 is in abeyance pending the results of a coastal community, recreation, and tourism development workshop NCRI will convene in 1996, if funds permit. NCRI's objective is to get guidance on future research directions before funding any more projects in his program area.

Community Health Services Development Program

The Community Health Services Development program (CHSD) helps rural towns and counties strengthen their health care. Program Director Peter House, of the University of Washington's Department of Family Medicine, believes that local problems are bet attacked by the local communities themselves. "The program empowers communities by helping them understand rural health care in general and their health care services in particular," House said. "This is followed by assistance in planning for better health care. While communities control their own destinies, sometimes outsiders can circumvent thorny issues."

To date the program has consulted with 56 towns and counties in Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Most are small places with only a handful of physicians. The program's methods are based on the findings of the Rural Hospital Project completed a few years ago.

A functioning and strong small town health system can be a magnet for new physicians. The converse, a town where the hospital is failing, the Board and the doctors are fighting, and patients are going elsewhere for care, has little appeal to doctors seeking to set up practice.

The program staff surveys the local residents, studies the health care system, including its market share of patients, and presents the results to community leaders. The townspeople determine what to do with the information. Many participating towns have undergone a turnaround and are creating a more solid base for the provision of health care. (Medicine Northwest, Vol. VIII, #2, 1993, p8)

Washington MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) Program

Washington MESA served 3,396 students in the 1996 academic year program. Services provided to pre-college students include MESA middle level mathematics and science classes, high school careers class, study groups, Saturday Academy and workshops, tutoring, SAT preparation, and family math sessions. Washington MESA currently partners with 24 business and industries in Washington, 62 public schools, 12 community agencies, and 14 Universities and colleges in Washington. MESA'a vision is Washington State's underrepresented students achieving and contributing their full potential

in mathematics, engineering, and science.

Young Scholars Program

Frank Ashby, Seattle MESA Assistant Director, is preparing 40 8th grade boys for the Washington Science and Engineering Contest planned for February 17th, 1997. This is one of their follow-up activities from their 4 week summer science camp held on campus. The program focuses on the Physics of Robotics and included an introduction to computers, the study of machines and electricity, and the construction of robots. The College of Engineering and CH2M Hill have a partnership that supports Frank's work in the MESA program.

KidREACH and the Carlson Office

Since 1992, the Edward E. Carlson Leadership and Public Service Office has supported after-school tutoring programs at local elementary schools. Initiated by two undergraduates who recruited fellow students to tutor children at Bailey-Gatzert elementary, the project now includes programs at Whittier and Stevens elementary schools. All three programs are run by teams of undergraduates in collaboration with Kid REACH, a citywide tutor training and referral service.

More than 100 UW students and 150 elementary students participate in the three programs each year. A number of the children's families are struggling with homelessness or the disruptions of unstable housing. Student coordinators work with teachers and Atlantic Street Center caseworkers to identify children for the program. UW students travel to the schools to work with the children two days a week, providing assistance with homework, creative activities, and a nutritious snack.

A simple idea with precious impact, these programs provide an adaptable model for other students interested in working with kids to foster learning and healthy development. This year, the UW chapter of Phi Eta Sigma, a national service honor society, has begun a similar partnership with Meany Middle School and other student groups are exploring similar initiatives.

The Institute for Public Policy and Management

The Institute for Public Policy and Management (IPPM), housed within the Graduate School of Public Affairs, initiates and conducts major applied research projects. Through research, consultancy, conferences, publications, and training, the Institute enhances the ability of public servants and the general public to understand major public policy issues and to make sound public management decisions. The Institute has developed a reputation as the leading university-based applied public policy research center in the region and has a national reputation for its excellent record both in designing analytical procedures that are beyond reproach and in broadly communicating the results of such studies.

The Institute regularly provides critical assistance to policy makers and citizens throughout the state. It acts as a catalyst in helping Washingtonians identify and implement strategies to shape the future, and as a bridge between university scholarship and the needs of communities. The Institute draws upon the resources of University faculty members, maintaining ties with the UW Graduate School of Business Administration and the Schools of Social Work, Public Health and Community Medicine, and the College of Education, faculty from other academic institutions. The Institute and center directors also have an extensive network of informal advisors around the state, including public and private leaders, experienced and knowledgeable practitioners, other sources both within the state, nationally and internationally. No major project is initiated without extensive consultation with critical constituency groups.

The Institute has developed several innovative strategies for disseminating the results of policy studies, including mock trials, teleconferences, convening contending parties and mediating solutions to major public problems. Over the years, IPPM's work has influenced policy makers on the state, regional and national levels and the Institute has developed a distinguished reputation for producing analyses and fostering constructive community debate about major policy issues.

Current Institute Projects

Report on Transportation Corridor Management

-- Roads are part of a larger ecosystem that interacts with natural environments, wildlife, and human communities. While there is increasing attention to the connections between transportation, land use and the environment, and broader definitions of ecosystem management, there are few models of local, regional, and state efforts to manage and protect transportation corridors. The report resulting from IPPM research, Transportation Corridor Management: Are We Linking Transportation and Land Use Yet?, finds and presents examples where local, regional and state levels of government have formed new ways to coordinate transportation and land use authority. Reports are now being marketed and distributed to policy makers, citizen activists and transportation and land use professionals and their constituents nationwide.

Assessment of Tacoma's Enterprise Community Initiative

-- The Institute has been working with community leaders throughout implementation of the city's Enterprise Community (EC) initiative. The assessment, which began in March 1996, will continue through September 1997 and will involve a series of key informant interviews, interviews with other civic leaders and a series of focus groups. Through this process, the Institute has been able to provide valuable feedback on program successes and areas for improvement. Researchers have also gathered valuable baseline data against which to measure the impact of the EC initiative.

Study on Workplace Violence

-- Workplace violence is defined as a physical or sexual assault upon an employee resulting in psychological and/or physical injury. It includes not just physical acts of violence against an employee, but also tampering with equipment, graffiti, writing, bullying, verbal harassment, intimidation, threats, stalking, hate crimes, and suicide. Increasingly, workplace violence is being recognized as a significant part of the continuum of interpersonal violence in the United States. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, each week in the United States, an average of 20 workers are murdered and 18,000 are assaulted while at work.

The Study on Workplace Violence, conducted in cooperation with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, is a three year project now in its initial stages. The study will identify levels of awareness and attention to workplace violence and its consequences among Washington State employers, and in turn will identify model prevention and crisis response plans which may be adapted to meet specific needs or risk factors of employers, employee groups, and work situations. A unique and important distinction of the study design is demonstrating the importance of recognizing the link between workplace violence and interpersonal violence -- and in particular, domestic violence, in the larger community. The study results will include descriptions of model programs which can be tested before widespread implementation and will identify targeted interventions to reduce and prevent violence for specific workplace situations. The interventions will include 'good practice guides,' as well as conferences and symposia on risk factors and underlying causes of violence.

Collaboration with the Washington State Department of Corrections

-- Since 1993, the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) and the UW have been working together to improve services for mentally ill offenders with a focus on prevention, treatment and reintegration into society. The collaboration has involved the efforts of individuals in the departments of Psychiatry, Psychosocial Nursing, Social Work and the Institute for Public Policy and Management at the UW. The Institute has played a vital role in convening state agencies, local service providers and other key stakeholders to improve intersystem understanding and collaboration with respect to the treatment and supervision of mentally ill offenders. During the last year, the Institute has facilitated the development of a state-wide workplan to improve the provision of necessary treatment services to mentally ill offenders upon their release into the community.

The Northwest Policy Center

The Northwest Policy Center, established in 1987, is dedicated to improving public strategies which foster the vitality of Northwest communities, the economic well-being of the region's people, and the health of the natural environment. The Center is a unique resource providing quality research, analysis, and counsel to leaders in the five Northwest states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

As an observer and forecaster of the changing economic and social climate, the Center seeks to enhance the region's understanding of the complex and dynamic relationship between economic and environmental forces.

As a catalyst for change, the Center challenges policymakers and practitioners to reexamine traditional responses, to ask hard questions and to approach critical issues in new ways.

As a convenor and facilitator, the Center works to form unique collaborations and develop regional networks, linking people and ideas across traditional barriers.

As an evaluator of promising initiatives and a student of model policy approaches in other states and nations, the Center promotes and shares "best practice" throughout the region.

As a link between policy and practice, the Center informs and helps shape the policy agenda in the Northwest.

Program Areas

The Center's efforts focus on five program areas. Working within these areas and at the intersections between them, the Center conducts policy research and designs innovative responses to the often competing demands of the region's people, communities, enterprises and ecosystems.

Regional Economic Trends

-Strategies to improve economic performance while protecting and enhancing environmental quality cannot be devised without a clear understanding of regional economic trends. Thus, the Center provides data and analysis of economic trends at the local, state, and multi state regional levels.

Entrepreneurial Vitality

-Support systems for dynamic small businesses are a crucial aspect of the economic development infrastructure. The Center helps economic development professionals in their efforts to aid firms in becoming more competitive by devising strategies to foster networks of businesses; build strong, service-oriented industry associations; and develop sectorally focused assistance centers.

Rural Community Development

-With two thirds of the population of the Northwest living outside its major urban centers, the health of the region's smaller towns and rural areas are crucial to the vitality of the region as a whole. The Center works as a catalyst for innovations in policy and practice designed to help rural citizens and enterprises respond to economic transformations that might otherwise overwhelm them.

Workforce Development

-The skills of workers and the organization of work are key to the region's economic vitality. The Center's work focuses on advancing several workforce development strategies, including those aimed at expanding work-based learning opportunities, building business and labor capacity to be partners in workforce and economic development, diffusing technology and reorganizing work, improving service delivery, organizing communities to meet their workforce challenges, and linking workforce and economic development to grow high wage, high skill jobs.

Community and Environment

-Environmental quality is one of the strongest and most cherished characteristics of the Northwest. True economic progress must strengthen, not compromise, that environmental quality to pass the test of long term sustainability. Through examination of local best practice, the Center seeks to discover the keys to long term synergy between economic vitality and environmental quality, and to turn those lessons into improved public policy for resource management and economic development.

The Northwest Policy Center communicates its work to the policy community in a number of ways, including producing reports and publications on specific policy initiatives and hosting conferences, workshops, and colloquia. In addition, the Center publishes an annual economic forecast and review, and its newsletter, The Changing Northwest: Strategies for a Vital Economy, that reports on issues affecting the region as well as activities and publications of interest to policymakers in the Northwest. Center staff also frequently contribute articles to regional and national publications and provide expert commentary to print and broadcast media.

The activities of the Center are shaped and guided by the Northwest Policy Center Leadership Council. The Council meets twice a year to share information across the region, to review major substantive issues the Center is addressing, and to help the Center meet its goals and reach its target audience.

The Human Services Policy Center

The Human Services Policy Center (HSPC) was established in 1990 as a collaborative effort, drawing upon faculty expertise at the graduate schools of Public Affairs, Education, Communications, Social Work, Nursing, Public Health and Community Medicine. The goal of HSPC is the better integration of human services, facilitating interdisciplinary and interagency linkages and cooperation. major projects within HSPC include the Training for Interprofessional Collaboration (TIC), Washington Kids Count and the Child Health Initiative.

The TIC project addresses the need for services to be delivered in a cohesive, client-responsive manner by teachers, social workers, health professionals, administrators, and policy analysts who work in collaborative teams with children and families. This project delivers a new model of in-service and pre-service training to instill knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for interprofessional collaborative service provision. The Collaborators' Network facilitates interagency collaboration and cooperation amongst educators, health care professionals, social/family service providers, administrators, and elected officials across Washington State. The Network offers a database of people and organizations involved in collaborative service in the state and a Faculty Matching service, which matches people's areas of interest with research expertise among University of Washington faculty. The Network also organizes conferences to address a broad range of policy issues related to collaborative service delivery, including school-linked services, guns and violence in our communities, and the working poor.

Washington Kids Count

works to improve the health and well-being of children by helping to strengthen public policies and community strategies in the state of Washington. The project identifies, monitors, and analyzes data on the health, education, and socioeconomic conditions of children and families, and makes this information widely available to the general public, community leaders, and state and local

In conjunction with the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine, issues an annual report on The State of Washington's Children. The report examines indicators reflecting the well-being of children in five areas: family and community, economic well-being, health, education, and safety and security. Policy makers are able to use these indicators to provide more effectively for children's health and education needs.

The Child Health Initiative

is a demonstration project designed to improve the delivery of health services to children with multiple health care needs through better surveillance of child health and improved care coordination. HSPC administers grants to nine public and private nonprofit organizations across the country to pursue locally-developed strategies to improve health services for at-risk children in their communities.

Fiscal Policy Center

Established in 1993, the Fiscal Policy Center is a primary resource to state policy makers and advocacy groups on issues of state tax and spending policy affecting low-income and vulnerable populations, and is funded by major grants from the Ford Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Northwest Area Foundation. The Fiscal Policy Center's research and communications strategy is designed to inform and stimulate a vigorous public policy debate on fiscal policies among public policy makers and a wide array of advocacy groups.

During the first two years of its operation, the Fiscal Policy Center's research helped shaped the initial response of the Governor and the Legislature to proposals for balancing the federal budget, and is helped to frame the debate over the need to change state spending limits.

In the fall of 1995, the Fiscal Policy Center used a series of reports to initiate a public dialogue on state fiscal policy issues, beginning with an assessment of the impact of proposed federal budget cuts on Washington state, and in particular, the impacts on programs and institutions that serve those with the lowest incomes. The report was cited by Mayor Norm Rice at a National Press Club speech before the U.S. Conference of Mayors (of which Rice is president) and by the state budget office in its own report on the impact of proposed federal budget cuts.

Subsequent reports analyzed state spending and tax policies in the context of Initiative 601, which limits state general fund spending to a growth rate equal to inflation plus population growth, culminating in a fall conference on 'The Collision Course: Shrinking Resources and Growing Needs?" This conference featured a mock trial of Washington's public policy makers in the year 2005, charging them with failure to adequately anticipate the impending fiscal crisis and threat to public services. The conference also featured an address by the chair of the State Senate Ways and Means Committee, and included several editorial writers. The conference was taped and rebroadcast several times on TVW.

Like most state legislatures, the Washington Legislature focuses its greatest attention on how to survive the current legislative session, the current budget cycle, and the next election. Overcoming the inertia of this institutional incrementalism is perhaps the greatest challenge in affecting the nature of the debate over fiscal policy and its role in helping people out of poverty, particularly since the real significance of these policy changes can only be seen over time. Through its timely reports, the Fiscal Policy Center has been able to characterize these policy changes in terms of longer term policy priorities -- before the short term, incremental problems they present can be characterized as insignificant and lost in the emotional arguments of the day. This approach has proven to be particularly effective in shaping the direction and tone of the debate.

FCC's latest project, conducted in cooperation with the Human Services Policy Center Washington Kids Count project, is tracking the local impact of recent fiscal policy changes on federal and state policies and programs that support working families, as well as the impacts of welfare reform on children and families in the state welfare system. Last Spring, FPC co-sponsored a well-attended conference, "A Working Puget Sound: Meeting the Welfare Challenge," with the state Department of Social and Health Services and the federal Region X Administration for Children and Families. Recently FPC has held briefings for the Washington Attorney General's office and other groups on the impacts and implications of welfare reform, and has worked with several state legislators in helping them identify policy options for responding.

Cascade Center for Public Service

The Cascade Center's mission is to promote innovative and effective leadership in public service by providing leaders in public and nonprofit agencies with opportunities to strengthen their management skills and judgment. Cascade accomplishes this mission by conducting executive education programs, developing and distributing interactive teaching materials to other universities and training programs, supporting effective teaching in universities nationwide, and conducting other research projects dedicated to effectiveness in public service. The Center was launched in 1984 as part of the Institute for Public Policy and Management, in the Graduate School of Public Affairs and since then has trained nearly 3,000 managers and elected officials in state and local government and nonprofit organizations in the Northwest. Below are three examples of public service work conducted by the Cascade Center.

Leadership Training for Public and Nonprofit Managers

Each year the Cascade Center attracts nearly 300 public and nonprofit leaders from the Northwest to a variety of management training courses. Recognizing the substantial experience and expertise that mid-career managers bring to the classroom, the Cascade Center has designed course curricula that challenge these professionals by using interactive teaching tools to help build judgment and give practical experience in analyzing problems and developing solutions.

In 1997, the Cascade Center will conduct the Cascade Management Series, a set of six week-long courses, that delves into specific management topics critical to the success and advancement of mid-level managers; the Cascade Public Executive Program, a two-week intensive course for senior managers and elected officials that covers the managerial and policy issues that face all senior executives; and the Executive Management Program, designed in conjunction with the Washington State Department of Personnel to address the needs of top-level managers in state government.

Nonprofit Outreach Project

At a time when the responsibility for designing and delivering public services is shifting from the federal level to the state and local level, it is imperative that community leaders are exposed to effective tools and techniques for managing agencies that provide vital public services. Better management in public and nonprofit agencies results in more effective programs and customer service, improved board-executive-staff relations, more stable finances, and greater community involvement.

With more than ten years of experience in designing and delivering executive education programs for managers in public agencies, the Cascade Center for Public Service launched the Nonprofit Outreach Project to improve the management and viability of nonprofit organizations throughout the Northwest. An advisory committee of leaders from local nonprofit and public agencies and businesses was established to guide the project, which consists of case writing, course scholarships, and course design and delivery.

To improve the quality and availability of teaching materials for graduate and executive-level nonprofit management training, the Cascade Center researches, writes, and distributes case studies that showcase innovative relationships between nonprofit organizations and state and local government agencies.

U.S. Department of Labor Task Force on Excellence in State and Local Government Through Labor-Management Cooperation

As a testament to his expertise in labor issues facing the public sector, Cascade Center Chair Jon Brock was chosen by U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich to serve as the Executive Director of a national task force dedicated to finding innovative solutions to labor-management issues in the public sector. The work of the Task Force has recently been published in a report titled "Working Together for Public Service: Report of the U.S. Secretary of Labor's Task Force on Excellence in State and Local Government Through Labor-Management Cooperation".

The Task Force conducted the majority of its research by visiting over fifty public sector sites across the country and by holding hearings in five regions of the country, along with an additional seven public hearings in Washington D.C. In the Northwest, the Task Force either visited or heard testimony about innovations in labor-management relations from: King County's Transit Department (formerly METRO), the King County Waste Water Treatment Facility, the City of Mercer Island, the City of Seattle, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, and several agencies in Portland, including the Portland Water Bureau. With this collection of site visits, public testimony, and the response to a survey sent to hundreds of public agencies nationwide, the Task Force developed a set of guidelines that seem key to building effective labor-management relations in the public sector.

Locally, the City of Seattle then asked Professor Brock to participate in the City's launching of a new labor-management structure. By providing information about the Task Force findings to Mayor Norm Rice, council members, and staff, Professor Brock was able to illustrate to the City of Seattle the types of labor-management structures that have proven effective elsewhere, as well as the types of services that can best be re-examined when labor and management decide to enter into new types of negotiations.

Over the next two years, Professor Brock will be involved in the dissemination of the report to both practitioner and academic audiences nationwide (to date, over 15,000 reports have been distributed). Since this Task Force and its report is the largest investment in labor-management relations in the public sector in almost twenty years, it is critical that every effort be made locally and nationally to share this valuable information.

Center on Reinventing Public Education

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) seeks to develop and evaluate methods of public oversight that can allow individual schools to be focused, effective, and accountable. The research program, which was established in 1993, is based on research into the current governance arrangements in public education, which found that the most productive schools follow coherent instructional strategies in an environment free of regulation and compliance imperatives. The Center pursues a national program of research and development on such proposals as charter schools, school contracting, choice, and school system decentralization, via alliances with the Brookings Institution, the RAND Corporation, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Chicago. It also conducts research into reform initiatives in Washington State and the Seattle Public Schools.

Some of the Center's current projects relating to Seattle and Washington State include:

The Washington State Forum on Education

-On a monthly basis, the Center convenes the Washington State Education Forum, a group of citizens-educators, business people, public officials, academics, parents and interest group leaders-who meet to discuss the needs of K-12 education in Washington State.

The Charter Schools Project

-Recently, the Center has been actively involved in the Washington State charter school reform discussion, acting as a resource to the business community, the state legislature and school and community organizations. The Center has published a series of reports on charter school options for Washington state, including What are Charter Schools, How Does the Washington State Education Code Compare with the Charter School Statutes of Other State?, and Point Paper: A Comparison of Initiative 177, 173 and Charter Schools.

Contracting

-The Center is exploring how school boards can create "contract schools" that will be legal entities operating under specific arrangements with school boards. Paul Hill, the Center's Director, and Larry Pierce, a Senior Researcher at the Center, are co-authors of a forthcoming book on contract schools, Reinventing Public Education: How Contracting Can Transform America's Schools.

Evaluation of the Seattle Public Schools

-At the district level, the Center has presented research findings to district policy makers and local business coalitions with an interest in reform strategies. The Center has also published an assessment of private contributions to the Seattle Public Schools, Random Acts of Kindness? External Resources available to Seattle Public Schools and will lead the Consortium on Seattle Schools Research, which will track the effects of Seattle education reform efforts via school-based surveys and analysis of student outcomes. Two Center staff members are also co-authors of a forthcoming book on school decentralization efforts in Seattle, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Charlotte, and Denver.

The Alliance for Education School to Work Project

For the past 2 years Professor William Zumeta has supervised the evaluation of a school-to-work training program run by the Alliance For Education and numerous major Seattle employers (Boeing, Group Health, Nordstrom, UW Medical Center, etc.), mostly for girls and students of color who are juniors in Seattle public high schools. The program involves after school work skills training sessions put on by corporate trainers, a summer computer "camp" run by Boeing Computer Services and summer jobs for the students. In each year a current Graduate School of Public Affairs student or recent graduate did much of the work and in one case the report formed part of the student's degree project. Betty Jane Narver has also played a supervisory role and the project is funded via a small donation to Institute for Public Policy and Management. The evaluation has been designed to be formative in nature and has helped improve the program such that Superintendent Stanford has asked the Alliance to expand the program from 90 to 150 students this year.

The HUD Community Development Work Study Program

The HUD Community Development Work Study Program, administered by theGraduate School of Public Affairs and the Department of Urban Design and Planning, has provided 8 UW graduate students over two years with funding to complete a series of community development internships in the Seattle area, at no cost to the internship agency. This program is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (first award-1995-1997; second award 1996-1998), and is intended to recruit and train economically disadvantaged, minority, and/or disabled students for careers in community development. The program provides valuable professional experience to selected UW graduate students and offers graduate internship assistance at no cost to several local government agencies and nonprofits that receive community development funds.

Current projects include siting, locating and developing an open space/green space park area within the confines of the International District for the International District Housing & Social Services agency, collecting information that describes cooperation among city departments to implement neighborhood plans and identifying & reporting on policy issues that emerge from a review of the neighborhood scopes of work for the City of Seattle, and assisting in the development of the public participation element of a "Transfer of Development Rights Market Study" for the King County Department of Natural Resources.

Other agencies utilizing the skills of CDWSP interns over the past two years include the Sunnyside Housing Authority (Sunnyside, WA), the Seattle Tenants Union, the City of Seattle Human Rights Department, the City of Seattle Office of Management & Planning, and Southeast Effective Development.

Revitalizing the King County Ethics Board

In 1985 Professor J. Patrick Dobel was asked to Chair the King County Ethics Board. It oversees all ethics legislation in King county and issues advisory opinions as well as serving as the collector of disclosure forms and the board of appeals for people indicted for ethics violations by the ombudsman.

In his first two months Professor Dobel found out that after 17 years of work the Board had no full-time staff, no visibility and only five pages of records on file with no advisory opinions having been issued in the previous four years! When a newspaper came to us to find disclosure forms, it was discovered that the disclosure forms had been lost and we could only fine two years of them in unsecured location. During the first several months no one even came to us since no one knew we existed.

The next two years were spent working with the Board and Manager of Records and Elections to get staff, start promoting some visibility and professionalizing our service. After two years we actually had secured records and did a few advisory opinions. After three years we were able to hire professional staff, send out brochures, start a hot line and started doing about 10 advisory opinions a year. Then in one year several major ethics scandals broke the county looked into getting anew ethics Code. The Board developed a draft and became an active players in the writing a new King County Code which went into place five years ago. We then got full time staff and started doing regular advisory reports, issuing reports, writing newsletters and initiating an education program. Professor Dobel left after serving for nine years as Chair and although he kept resigning, he was asked to stay on by the County Executives. Now the Board is functioning fairly well and much more visible and respected with its own institutional capacity and political support.

The University Libraries

The collections of the University Libraries are open to the general public for in-house use. Individuals have access to over 5 million volumes, an equal number of microforms, 50,000 journal subscriptions, and the expertise of over 300 staff members. The general public makes extensive use of the Libraries, representing nearly 20% of overall library use. Borrowing privileges are provided to faculty and distance learning students from state baccalaureate institutions, government employees, graduate students from other institutions, independent researchers, UW Alumni Association members, and others. The Libraries Resource Sharing Service provided nearly 25,000 books and photocopies of journal and newspaper articles to libraries, individuals, business, and government agencies in the state of Washington during 1994/95.

Government Publications and Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries

The University Libraries is a government depository library. As such, the Libraries provides free access to US government publications and information. The Libraries staff provides service and user support for depository materials to the general public, government employees and information. The Libraries staff provides service and user support for depository materials to the general public, government employees and elected officials, and businesses. The Libraries also is a Patent and Trademark Depository Library and provides public access to patents and all other documents and publications provides by the US Patent and Trademark Office. A self-paced Web tutorial for patent searching is available through the Libraries home page at http://www.lib.washington.edu.

University Libraries Services to K-12

The University Libraries maintains an extensive collection of school textbooks, curriculum materials, and science kits that is used and loaned regularly to public and school libraries, teachers, psychologists, education administrators, and the general public. The Libraries also maintains the State's archive of children's literature and makes these materials freely available to public and school libraries and teachers. Several librarians teach sessions in ongoing in-service teacher training programs around the state. Others work with teachers enrolled in the Puget Sound Writing Program. Librarians from the Health Sciences Library and Information Center take an active role in a number of summer institutes for K-12 teachers and students, included the Making Connections Institute for 5th-12th grade health and science educators; UDOC, a six-week summer program for underrepresented high school students who are interested in medicine; RAP (Research Apprentice Program), a six-week program that helps prepare underrepresented high school students for careers in health care or scientific research; and Science for Success, aimed at 11th and 12th grade students.

Library and Information Science "Best Practices"

UW librarians and staff regularly present workshops and training and serve as consultants to libraries, businesses, and government agencies throughout the state on a wide variety of topics, including the Internet as consultants to libraries, businesses, and government agencies throughout the state on a wide variety of topics, including the Internet and World Wide Web; software development and testing; teaching and technology in libraries, cataloging, indexing and database construction; networking, management practices, international resources for K-12 teachers and librarians; and preservation.


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