Changemakers living or working in Connecticut — Do you center equity in your research? Are inquiry or evaluation efforts a part of your research efforts? Do you practice research with a community or engaged approach? Are you seeking a place to be and share with colleagues and emerging collaborators?
URBAN CONNECTicut is part of a national Urban Research Based Action Network, which focuses on supporting engaged research, collaborative inquiry, and equity centered methodology. URBAN CT extends these opportunities by connecting the region to a broader network of people, events, training and collaborative opportunities. These opportunities expand and deepen the practice of engaged research in service of equitable community-based change.
About URBAN CONNECTicut www.urbanct.org
Here in Connecticut, the URBAN node intentionally brings participants together from across focus areas and locations, all of whom engage at the intersection of equity and methodology (both broadly defined). Our core team is currently comprised of individuals who work in philanthropy, academia, and as nonprofit/community consultants, independent scholars and more.
We discuss deeply, amplify broadly, and hold space for solidarity…
What’s up in 2023
Based on input from the core team, URBAN Connecticut committed to supporting the following throughout 2023:
- Holding space for solidarity and genuine sharing of perspectives, experience, and capacity between our core members;
- Facilitating discussion — at the intersection of equity and methodology — from within our group and with invited guests and an expanding network or participants;
- Serving as a connection to the happenings and offerings of URBAN National and the sister regional nodes;
- Encouraging the linking and cross engagement of our team and participant networks.
- Partnering to energize and amplify the equity work of colleagues in Connecticut;
In June 2023, at the National Planning Retreat, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, URBANCT committed to facilitating the Philanthropic Initiatives theme to highlight conversations about equity and methodology in foundation funded change initiatives.
Communications Lead
This year, URBAN National, with generous support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is providing funding for each regional node to support a communications lead to help in building a collaborative structure for sharing information within and across regional nodes and the broader public.
Having spent the last two decades as a practitioner working in a variety of early care and education settings, Erin Kenney’s interdisciplinary work includes time as an early childhood teacher, administrator, professor, and researcher. Engaged in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, her published dissertation work ‘How would you describe grandpa? Mothers’ personal intelligence predicts personality talk with their children,’ included a critical examination of parent/child conversation at the intersection of social psychology, developmental psychology, and early childhood education. She earned her B.S. from the University of New England and her MEd from the University of Hartford. She earned her MA and PhD in developmental psychology from the University of New Hampshire including a cognate in college teaching.
Kenney’s dedication to bridging the gap between developmental science and developmentally appropriate practice includes a commitment to research practices that center participants as knowledge producers and values community engagement. A full-time faculty member in psychology, she also serves as the program development and evaluation fellow for the Center for Montessori Studies at the University of Hartford and is a contributor to national research as URBAN Connecticut’s officer of communications and online presence. Raised in Connecticut and now a frequent visitor to family residents, Dr. Kenney’s commitment to children and families spans multiple CT communities.
Our Chair
Building on the founding leadership of Paige M. Bray, director of the Center for Montessori Studies https://www.hartford.edu/academics/schools-colleges/enhp/research/center-for-montessori-studies.aspx at the University of Hartford and Co-Chair of the National URBAN Network, Angela K. Frusciante, has stepped into the URBANCT chair role.
Angela is founding director of Knowledge Designs to Change www.kd2change.com a research and strategy partner focused on foundation-funded change initiatives. Coming up through urban public schools, Angela stresses the importance of creating spaces where diversity in lived experience and the desire for change can be unapologetically brought together. She, herself, experiences multiple forms of privilege and is also keenly and personally familiar with the forces that prevent various groups – based on racial heritage, class, and gender – from accessing formal knowledge processes.
Angela is a former academic, current independent scholar, member of the National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers, alumnus of the Council on Foundation’s Career Pathways Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy Program and Founding Co-editor of the upcoming Journal of Collaboration for Equitable Change. She is one of the first people in Connecticut philanthropy to have held the title of “knowledge development officer,” a still emerging field within philanthropy. For over 25 years, Angela has been working in the social change arena with a focus on how engaged research methods can contribute to equity strategies. Her passion stems from the deep belief that shared meaning making is at the heart of all positive social change.
For more information
Visit our website: www.urbanct.org
To get involved, reach out to Angela: info@urbanct.org
To sign up for updates and events, contact Erin: connecticut@urbanresearchnetwork.org
November 6, 2023