2022 – Worcester Community Project Center

December 13, 2022December 14, 2022 by mveccia

Trail Blazing the Worcester Intercollegiate Outdoor Initiative

Project Description Worcester college students do not spend enough time outside due to their workload and limited access to nature. This project improved the well-being of Worcester college students by creating a sustainable plan to revamp the Worcester Intercollegiate Outdoors Initiative (WIOI). We gathered data on college students through surveys and interviews, ran an outdoor…

November 2, 2022December 16, 2022 by jyi

Worcester Community Fridges: Following The Food – Developing a Data Collection Tool to Monitor Community Fridge Usage

Project Description This project aimed to better understand the usage of the Worcester Community Fridges by developing data collection tools for the organization. The main constraint was maintaining the hands-off, self-service mission of the fridges while still gathering a significant amount of data. We interviewed volunteers as well as researched similar projects done by other…

November 1, 2022December 17, 2022 by ceouellette

Legendary Legacies: Tracking the Reentry Phase for Post-Incarcerated Individuals

Project Description Reentry in the U.S. is a complicated and multifaceted issue with many challenges facing justice-involved individuals. In collaboration with Legendary Legacies, our team developed a new approach to evaluating data in the reentry space. While historically, data collected regarding program participants have been primarily quantitative, the secret to fostering positive change may lay…

October 25, 2022December 16, 2022 by idas

Worcester Cyanobacteria Monitoring Collaborative: Increasing Environmental Literacy through STEM Modules

Project Description Worcester has been experiencing an increase in cyanobacteria blooms in recent years. To counteract this, the Worcester Cyanobacteria Monitoring Collaborative (WCMC) has been releasing informational material to increase knowledge about this issue. Our team worked with the WCMC to create STEM learning modules that teach the youth different ways to identify cyanobacteria and…

May 20, 2022June 30, 2022 by cogbebor

Improving Water Quality of Green Hill Park Ponds and Investigating the Feasibility of an Irrigation System Using Pond Water

Project Description Water pollution in surface water is attributed to stormwater runoff, introducing nutrients and sediment into water bodies. This project researched the historical and current conditions impacting the Green Hill Park Ponds, as well as researched the feasibility of using Pond water to irrigate the adjacent golf course. Samples of the water from both…

May 12, 2022June 23, 2022 by Laura Roberts

Fostering Community Through Alumni Outreach: Design and Development of an Electronic Alumni Survey for the Latino Education Institute

Project Description While the Latino Education Institute (LEI) provide exceptional services to their students, the organization is relatively small and is currently investing in more insight in their programs via usage of a new internal database and solidifying communication from their alumni network. Our team has developed a system consisting of an alumni survey with…

May 11, 2022October 3, 2022 by Laura Roberts

Girls Inc. of Worcester: Developing an Outdoor STEM Curriculum for Camp Kinneywood

Project Description During this project, we researched and interviewed organizations to create environmental science STEM curriculum for Worcester Girls Inc. Camp Kinneywood summer camp. The team conducted focus groups and pilot studies to evaluate and assess the curriculum. They provided a binder containing all the lesson plans with activity instructions and information related to the…

April 13, 2022May 3, 2022 by dmgibson

Indian Lake Watershed Association: Modernizing Archival Management

Project Description The Indian Lake Watershed Association (ILWA), having organizational issues, tasked us with creating an Archive. Our objectives included gathering information on the best archiving practices, deciding the historical relevance of the documents, and creating an archiving manual. We created an Archiving structure, reorganized and scanned all physical documents, and implemented the structure to…

March 17, 2022May 11, 2022 by Laura Roberts

Transitioning El Buen Samaritano to a Digital Data Collection Platform

Project Description Through our project, we aimed to facilitate and simplify the food distribution and data management process for the local food pantry, El Buen Samaritano. By implementing a technological solution, we hoped to improve the inventory system that the organization is currently using. Shifting from the current pen-and-paper system to a digital system, the…

January 20, 2022March 4, 2022 by dpmurphy

Worcester Regional Food Hub: Helping the WRFH with Retail Expansion

Project Description Our project is to help the Worcester Regional Food Hub (WRFH) by recommending them a POS system as well as presenting research on online retail outlets such as Grubhub and Instacart. The WRFH is moving to Union Station in 2023, and will have a new retail store, thus prompting the need for a…