Research Guides: PADM 689: Capstone Projects, Spring 2018: Community Enhancement, Chesterfield

Resource Sites

This project involves assisting the county in managing and disseminating county agency and community partner information. The links below are to examples of existing databases showing varying types of information and displays of that information.

2-1-1 Virginia
Lists government, nonprofit, community-based, and business that entitities providing health and human services to the citizens of Virginia. 2-1-1 Virginia is a service of the Virginia Department of Social Services. Browse or search by locality and/or service.
2-1-1 Maryland | MD Programs & Services Aid
Similar goals and resources to the 2-1-1 Virginia site. Resources are set up a bit differently.
What Works Collaborative | Urban Institute
This collaborative produces research reports, intended primarily for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to assist in producing evidence-based policy.

Of particular interest may be Building Successful Neighborhoods and Revitalizing Distressed Older Suburbs.

Finding Articles and Research Reports

The following VCU Libraries databases should be of use in finding articles on community enhancement in general, and on community partnerships in particular.

Social Services Abstracts
Current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development, 1979-present. (ProQuest)
ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts
Covering health, social services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. (ProQuest)
Urban Studies Abstracts
Covers trends in urbanization, urban affairs, community development, urban history, housing and real estate, and architecture and urban design. (EBSCO)
Public Administration Abstracts
Abstracts from the international literature on public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations. (EBSCO)

Start with vocabulary derived from your conversations with the county and from the Urban Institute reports described above. Sample search strings are listed below:

"community revitalization" OR "community redevelopment" OR "community enhancement"

"distressed communit*" OR "distressed propert*" OR "distressed neighborhood"

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Think tanks collectively study virtually all issues of any importance to policymakers. This customized Google search produces results from only think tanks. Think tank reports can be excellent sources of background information and they often will be sources of both sides of an issue.

Think Tank Search