Project Timeline

Week 1: Orientation

As this was the first iteration of MSIC’s partnership with Impact Monterey County (IMC), there was no pre-determined orientation programming for interns once they arrived in Monterey. As Scholars, this gave us an opportunity to develop activities we felt were best suited to introducing the Interns to the county. Our focus for orientation week was to give Interns a sense of local history and the different communities found throughout the county today. We also encouraged each cohort member to consider particular areas of interest that they hoped to pursue over the course of the experience.

Week 2: Community outreach and survey release

Some cohort members focused on final edits and translations of the online survey while others began to create social media content and plan outreach strategies. Everyone attended a training on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), as well as a meeting with the Nutrition and Fitness Collaborative of the Central Coast and tour of the Food Bank for Monterey County.

Week 3: Assessment marketing campaign

The entire team focused on survey promotion and outreach throughout the county, attending City Council meetings to make public comments to local government leaders and ask for their support. The cohort also attending regular meetings for the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace and the Blue Ribbon Task Force for the Reduction of Youth Violence, using those opportunities to make announcements about the assessment to IMC partners.

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Week 4-6: Data collection and clean-up, analysis and adjustments

After laying the necessary groundwork in previous weeks, the team accelerated the process of data collection as part of the assessment effort. Interns and Scholars conducted KI interviews with leaders from diverse backgrounds, led Community Conversations, and visited community hubs throughout the county in promotion of the assessment. To insure quality data, the team produced full transcripts of all interviews as well as notes detailing each of the Community Conversations. The cohort also presented their work thus far to a group of Middlebury students, faculty, and staff at the MiddCore program taking place near Monterey. Group discussions every day allowed the team to take stock of lessons learned and reorient the assessment effort moving forward.

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Week 7: Data collection wrap-up and future planning

The group worked hard to fit in additional interviews and Community Conversations, while also holding promotional events in three county libraries and attending meetings for multiple community collaboratives. Some team members spent significant time combing through preliminary survey responses to assess respondent demographic trends. Those early findings would be shared as part of the team’s report to the IMC network the following week.

Week 8: Presentation at IMC and final reflections

The cohort continued to collect new data up until the very end, following through on commitments to IMC partners who hoped to contribute their perspectives to the assessment. After wrapping up final interviews and Community Conversations, the team regrouped to create a final presentation summarizing their work on the assessment. Presenting at a meeting of IMC partners, the team proposed strategies for the completion of the current assessment and offered recommendations for the IMC/MSIC partnership moving forward. Finally, the team tied up loose ends and reflected individually and collectively on the 8-week experience.