International Public Service Project 2020
An important and rewarding course requirement at the the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service is to complete an International Public Service Project. The goal of a Clinton School student is to provide meaningful and substantial assistance to an organization that has a public service focus to its mission.
About Taylor Donnerson
Taylor Donnerson is a Masters of Public Service Candidate for May 2023 at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her background and interests are in psychology, religion, community development, and social change. Taylor decided to work with the Little Rock Congregations Study because of their dedication to research and community engagement.
About Little Rock Congregations Study
The Little Rock Congregations Study examines the influence of congregational community-engagement on congregation members and aims to better understand the impacts of faith-based community engagement. An ongoing, community-based study that has been collecting data since 2012, the 2020 LRCS is expanding their research to examine the effect of congregational community-engagement on the mental, physical, and spiritual health of members; on their personal political activity and community engagement; and on their attitudes towards racial tension and reconciliation in Little Rock.
Meet Our Team
Dedicated to LRCS
Dr. Rebecca A. Glazier
Program Supervisor
Dr. Kirk Leach
Program Coordinator
Dr. Gerald W.C. Driskill
Program Coordinator
Jennifer Barrett
Graduate Assistant
PROJECT CONTRIBUTIONS
Contact Congregations
One of Taylor's tasks was to contact congregation leaders about the research study and invite them to participate. She had a large amount of contact with the community by reaching out to religious leaders, conducting interviews, and building relationships. She also emphasized to participants why their participation was important to the LRCS research.
DELIVERABLES
RECRUITMENT TOOLS
LRCS has spreadsheets of the congregations contact information. Their primary form of recruitment is through emails. After three rounds of emails and a decrease in participation, Taylor knew that LRCS had to implement a new form of recruitment. She suggested that they make phone calls to those who had participated before and then those who had not responded. It was hard to keep up with who had been called and what interviews had been scheduled, therefore, Taylor created a call list and interview schedule spreadsheet for the team. The call list spreadsheet consisted of the team member contact requirement, congregation contact information, and the status of the call.
ENGAGEMENT PLAN
One way that the LRCS recruits participants is through adding links of their research and involvement to the emails. The links could include blog posts, quotes from city leaders who support our research, charts, or other research results. Current issues such as the pandemic, police brutality, and race relations has affected everyone in some way. LRCS decided to get involved and speak on the matters. Taylor was able to edit and provide feedback for the Facebook blog post on race relations. After the post was picked up, Taylor was then interviewed by Arkansas Democrat Gazette (link below) where she was able to speak more about the research. The LRCS was then able to add the publicity to their recruitment emails.
MARKETING STRATEGY
One of Taylor's creative focuses was revamping the LRCS's social media presence. She suggested that they become more active since most of the congregations had Facebook. Taylor contributed by reviewing and editing Facebook posts. She also made sure that the LRCS added all the congregations that had a Facebook so they could increase current and future participation. The congregations would be able to see blog post and how their participation has been beneficial to LRCS's research. Taylor also suggested that they send facebook messages to the congregations who did not have emails or who had not already participated. The link below is to the LRCS facebook page.
CONTACT
Taylor Donnerson
MPS Candidate May 2023
If you have any questions about this website, please feel free to contact Taylor Donnerson at the email address listed.
University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service
1200 President Clinton Avenue
Little Rock, AR 72201
