| Team Name | Team Members | Main Idea | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 211: A Resource for Wapello County | Chad Arnold, Trisha Doudou, Noah Eklund, Russ Hull, Jennifer Reynolds, Alysia Simmons | A 2021 community assessment was completed and highlighted that 30% of Wapello County parents were not able to access the resources they need to meet basic living needs. One of the major barriers to finding the necessary assistance is finding contact information for providing organizations. There are two key indicators for why these barriers exist. One, being the lack of knowledge of a resource system called 211 Iowa and another being the deficiency of data integrity for institutions providing services in Wapello County. Many agencies report that the major contributing factor is the speed at which their information changes resulting in inaccurate or missing information from the 211 database. Team proposed the solution to organize and increase Wapello County utilization of the 211 program by engaging community organizations to create and/or update their information in the database. Phase one should be done by creating and hiring a Community Outreach Coordinator position as part of the United Way of Wapello County who will create and maintain a local database of Wapello County organizations and contacts. This position will then begin making one one-on-one contact with each organization in Wapello County that is providing services to the community to gather information and educate the service providers on the 211 database process. The coordinator will also coordinate monthly meetings with community organizations until 80% of organizations utilize and update the 211 system. These meetings will then switch to quarterly meetings to maintain moving forward. The goal would be to have 50% of known Wapello County entities updated in 211 by April, 2024 and 80% updated by October, 2024. Another option if hiring a coordinator is not feasible, is to have current staff resource dedicate a percentage of their time to oversee this work. Phase two of the project would be to market the use of 211 to the community and should begin after phase one completion. | 2023 |
| The SCODA Project | David Bossou, Aaron McConnel, Karla Guerra, Sandra Pope, Meadow Ream | First Resources Corp. would like to address the widespread and growing substance abuse issue present in Ottumwa and Southeast Iowa. As an organization whose priority it is to serve those experiencing substance abuse, the issue facing our community is quite apparent. The goal of this project would be to help normalize sobriety -especially by reaching youth and teens. By delaying the urge to try substances, we can greatly reduce the number of people that do. A previous example of a social norming campaign would be "Natural High". The Steer Clear of Drugs and Alcohol (SCODA) Project team’s main objective is to develop a Coalition of community volunteers who will be present and active in the community. One focus of the team immediately was a peer-to-peer guidance program called “The Bulldog Belief Project”. The Bulldog Belief Project was tasked as being a pilot mentorship program which would be a joint operation with the Ottumwa Community School District. Our vision for the project was to have Ottumwa High School Student Council Members travel to the elementary schools and using the “Natural High” curriculum speak with the youth about abstaining and preventing alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use. The Bulldog Belief Project is for the older students to provide real life experience on how being “sober” and tobacco-free has provided a better quality of life for them. | 2023 |
| Icing on the Cake | Ashley Baum, Kelly Bennett, Jeny Herrera, Marlena Huycke, Stephani Stockton | Businesses have many job vacancies which they are having difficulty filling. Indian Hills Community College does not currently have a practical way to explore career pathways to make sure students are genuinely interested in their field of study. Students need hands-on experience to get a feel for what the job will be like in a real-world or simulated setting to understand if they want to choose this career path. Indian Hills Community College wants to bridge the gap between helping students learn more about a career field and learning more about local businesses to make a more informed decision on their future career. The career tasting came very natural to our team in an effort to bridge this gap. The objective of the career tasting is to connect students with resources to make a more informed decision and offer a 360-degree view of the programs and careers itself. Students in attendance would have access to career and financial advisors, current students, and employers in the field to assist in their decision-making process. The virtual career tasting delivers a highly engaging option for those unable to attend in person. | 2023 |
| City of Ottumwa Citizen Academy | Samantha Ulin, Angie Mach, Matt Selden, Tony Akridge, Heather Morehouse, Brenda Salter & Elizabeth Martinez | The City of Ottumwa was wanting a place where they can educate and connect citizens to the city leaders and information within the community. The project solution was to create a Citizen Academy where citizens can become better informed, gain trust in the city leadership and possibly become involved in our community’s future. The Citizen Academy consists of a 6-week course; 1 night a week for approximately 3 hours where citizens will learn all aspects of city government. There will be many different topics and departments covered. This is an opportunity to learn where funding for the City comes from, how projects are decided and learning about new or upcoming projects the City of Ottumwa is working on. | 2023 |
| Ottumwa’s Food Truck Initiative | Mary Pratt, Carrie Jaeger, Aiddy Phomvisay, Preston Potts, Sadie Waugh, Karla Galindo | Development of a city program that supports food truck entrepreneurs, connects existing employers with food truck providers, identifies and provides public support for required utilities and scheduling, promotes pandemic resiliency for food service small businesses, and helps to celebrate the diversity of the community by creating a quality of life and tourism amenity by expanding dining options. | 2022 |
| Hiring for Diversity – Building Inclusion | Ron Thomas, Ethan Lake, Mauri Martinez, Pla Moo, Sandra McReynolds, and Melanie Courtney | Indian Hills Community College is looking to improve our overall diversity efforts, as diversity lives within our mission. We want to better understand what is most needed or wanted in terms of action by our current and incoming students, employees and community. We need to see and understand where we fall short and how we can do better. | 2022 |
| Resilient Neighbors | Shelley Bramschreiber, Bronson Eick, Lindsey Gould, Jessica McCullen, Lorene Vilela | To develop a program where residents can submit work orders for assistance fixing up their homes. | 2022 |
| Volunteers: The Key to Local Food Distribution | Joe Shultz, Jennifer Wilson, Jill Lane, Jessie Mattingly, Sandra Trejo-Wirfs, Kala Mulder | The Food Bank of Iowa has a growing need for volunteers to assist in checking, sorting and packing food to be prepared for delivery to our partner agencies. This initiative involves the development of new volunteer recruitment strategies. The project would focus on finding low-cost and innovative ways to raise community awareness about the need for volunteer service at our Ottumwa Volunteer Center. | 2022 |
| Building a Sustainable Y for the Future | Lisa Fritz, Himar Hernandez, Michelle Russell-Graham, Mike Spieler | Creating a sustainable 6-12 month plan for the Ottumwa Family YMCA for success after the Covid-19 Pandemic. | 2021 |
| DEI Intentional Outreach Community Project | Lindsay Cale, Patty Galvan Ramos, Ryan Miller, Phil Rath, Maggie Sauer, Daniel Terrian | Develop strategies engage populations underserved by the United Way of Wapello, focusing on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. | 2021 |
| IHCC Career Readiness Center | Zenna Boyd, Cara Galloway, John Henscheid Justin Hunter, Michael Kral, Olson Miller | Creation of a Career Readiness Center at IHCC to better prepare students for entering the workforce. | 2021 |
| Job Corps, Providing the Future | Lisa Garrison, Cindy Kurtz-Hopkins, Ashley Lowenberg, Nicolette Proctor, Richard Tebbs | To increase enrollment from the Wapello County area students through a partnership with the Ottumwa School District and Job Corp. Identify opportunities to follow up with students who have visited the campus and have expressed an interest as well as identifying an avenue to recruit other students that can benefit from the programs Job Corps offers. | 2020 |
| Ottumwa High School Attendance Plan | Kaylea Adkins, Angela Fiscella, Jeff Greiner, Marcie Kamerick, Ashley Stagner | Develop strategies to reduce the percentage of chronic absenteeism at the secondary level for Ottumwa Community School District Students. | 2020 |
| CASA Volunteer Recruitment | Debbie Boyer, Edith Cabrera-Tello, Shelby Beheymer, Lexi Mitchell, Kelli Phillips, Erik Saaranen | Visibility campaign for the CASA program to help recruit and retain a diverse population of volunteers in the Ottumwa community. | 2020 |
| Then Mindfulness Project | Kayla Eckerman, Stacey Harland, Emma Kain, George King, Misty Gillette, Jeremy Skinner | To address an increase in mental health issues and the lack of qualified mental health professionals in the K-12 system, the team created and adapted curriculum for teaching mindfulness in the classroom by partnering with a teacher at OCSD and Cardinal School District to provide hands-on training to enable teachers to lead their students in mindfulness exercises using the prepared curriculum | 2019 |
| Millennial Mentoring Partnership | Mark Estes, Quincy Keck, A.J. Gevock, Charles Gordon, Travis Peel | To engage and empower youth in need of structure, support and encouragement through mentorship by millennials and specialized curriculum, we will help these individuals grow by: • Increasing community awareness and engagement • Providing career and education exploration • Peer to peer mentorship • Skill development | 2019 |
| Profession Matchmakers | Jason Eubanks, Todd Fiscella, Samantha Meinders, Michael Miller, David Will | Non-profits are challenged with not having resources. The United Way offers a Day of Caring to help provide an opportunity for community members to be of service in a coordinated effort during this specified day. The team identified a way to help United Way to prepare to serve while combining the talents and skillset that the volunteers bring to the table during the Day of Caring. By using a streamlined approach, a day of planning would take place and determine the needs of the organization thus utilizing the strengths of the volunteers. | 2019 |
| Bulldogs on the Move | Kimberlie Hall, Kasandra Humble, Lisa Morgan, Beth Riley | In order to address obesity in Wapello County, the Bulldogs on the Move team created a program with the purpose to engage elementary students in grades 2-5 in physical activity – specifically running – while teaching them about a healthy lifestyle through proper nutrition and safe exercising practices. | 2019 |
| IMPACT (Inspire Meaningful Partnerships with Action, Collaboration, & Thoughtfulness) | Kari Carter-Adamson, Austin Jones, Cathy Pringle-Maletta, Joe Schultz | Creating a collaboration of service organizations that meet quarterly to inform each other of upcoming events and needed support from other organizations. | 2018 |
| Financial Literacy | Michele Bremer, Andy Fuller, Rachel Kooistra, Cole Rushing, Melyssa Vanderburg, John Van Utrecht | To address the lack of financial knowledge in Ottumwa youth which is often caused by gernational poverty, this project provides engaging and interactive currciulum being adopted into OHS. | 2018 |
| Kinder'd Spirits | Rebecca Ellingson, DeJanee Kletke, Mendy McAdams, Brent Moughler, Garrett Ross | We see a growing generational gap with an ever increasing senior population that is losing touch with our community. Our project, Kinder’d Spirits, is designed to bridge the intergenerational divide by promoting the passing of wisdom from our seniors to our youth and supporting the mental wellness of our aging population. | 2018 |
| Project Embrace | Krista Carter, Cara Crall, Bianca Myers, Christian Ray, Ashleigh Richmond, Jody Williams | The statistics for Wapello County show high poverty rates, food scarcity, along with alarming trends in abuse and those not enrolling in furthering education there is a need for family mentoring. Embrace would partner families who need support with volunteers willing to step up and make a difference by mentoring the family unit. | 2018 |
| Embracing Diversity | Jatinder Kaur, Rich Kennedy, Rachel Thompson, Lisa Van Klavern | Create, implement and train persons for a Navigator Program for new cultures entering the community. Organizations would essentially house and use the Compass Navigator within their organization to meet the needs of various cultures entering their organization and the community. | 2017 |
| Food Security Network | Barbara Lisk, Amy Nossaman, Mark VanVelsor, Michelle Bowers, Alex Morely | A way to network the food security safety net by focusing on 3 things: (1)Automate the manual processes by improving functionality and ease of the systems at the Food Bank of Southern Iowa, (2)Streamline the food pantry process with the Food Bank and its clients, and (3)Incorporate connections with the rest of Wapello County thru Growing Wapello Together. | 2017 |
| Inspire Youth: Mentoring Our Youth to Achieve | Jay Green, Andy Maw, Blaire Siems, Steve Zimmerman | Create a mentoring program for the youth of Ottumwa focused on post-secondary education attainment to address the need of middle-skilled labor force as well as the need to help students who "intend" to go to college, but perhaps do not have the knowledge and supports to follow a plan to get there. | 2017 |
| Step UP! Youth Leadership Experience | Shiloh Seim, Matt Woods, Liz Wilson, Dave DeMerritt, Kathy Reed | Create a program to encourage youth that may otherwise be overlooked for leadership postitions and to promote personal achievement. | 2017 |
| Attracting Creatives & Makers | David Camphouse, Trent Sheffield, Cassie Stewart | Develop a community center based in the arts to develop a stronger art culture, provide an outlet for local artists, attract and retain young talent and improve the quality of life for all residents of Southeast Iowa. | 2016 |
| K-3 Literacy Program | Taren Ferguson, Sean Flattery, Ruston Ford, Moncia McBee, Juanita Zavala | Increase reading level of 2nd graders who are identified as Strategic Readers in order to (1) address new legislation enforcing standards for reading grade advancement and (2) address that 1 in 4 children currently are not meeting reading proficiency level requirements through and after school reading program | 2016 |
| It's Not Over | Alex Barr, Rose Bean, Lisa Kent, Jody Williams | Increase awareness of the homeless population of Ottumwa and improve the lives of the homeless while advocatin for permanent solutions. It's Not Over will address immediate needs by providing sleeping bags that will be distributed through local organization serving this population. Anyone wishing to help purchase sleeping bags ($15 each) can go their GoFundMe page to make a donation at http://www.gofundme.com/23kx6xc8 | 2016 |
| Positively Ottumwa | Scott Hallgren, Chris Northcutt, Todd Robinson, Nathan Thordarson | A positive attitude campaign that combines the elements of a "pay it forward" challenge, activities that improve the image and perception of Ottumwa, and promotion & celebration of those activities through their FaceBook page: http://facebook.com/positiveottumwa | 2016 |
| Trail Blazers | David Rios, Dr. Elizabeth Tigges | Improve health & wellness of our community & its visitors by expanding awareness of the Ottumwa Trails system, improving cleanliness, improving functionality, and expanding ways in which the public can donate to the Trails. This will be accomplished through physical signage and information, online donation through PayPal on signage and digital information, and provide doggie clean-up dispenseries. | 2016 |
| Bountiful Buckets | Sheila Fetter, Branndi Krausharr, Brandon Gee | Assist the elderly with access to fresh produce that in turn provides valuable lessons to students | 2015 |
| Bulldogs Giving Back | Stacy Wasson, Leila Disburg, Dawn Benedict, Ashley Noreuil | Instill good citizenship and behaviors in Evans Middle School students by rewarding them for volunteerism and good citizenship. (Prequel to Silver Cord) | 2015 |
| CYAN: Community Youth Activity Network | Jill Budde, David Howard, Ashley Johnson, Wesley Krenz, Eric Sundermeyer, Michael Wright | Increase youth activity (specifically for 6th graders) through a network of adult volunteers and going to community functions with the ultimate goal to improve Iowa Youth Survey results | 2015 |
| Ottumwa Cares | Shane Molyneux, Brent Baker, Allie Gardner | Bringing together a single point of services of the "safety net" electronically so that they can be easily accessible for a one-stop shop type experience. | 2015 |
| The Art Collective | Barbara Sandstrom, Amanda McBirnie | Increase art culture in the community through an Art Collective where art is inventoried and also displayed at different businesses | 2015 |
| Empowering Wapello County Young Women | Lexie Farrell, Nichole Chickering, Sonja Ferrell, Mark Clark | Wapello Co has high rate of teen pregnancy. Want to increase community awareness about the effects of those statistics and create a plan to address the issue | 2014 |
| Ottumwa First | Saunja Townsend, Ali Wilson, Neal Abbott, Barb Allison, Heather Ware, Davis Eidahl | Build support for Ottumwa businesses through a mutlifaceted campaign | 2014 |
| Ottumwa United | Doug Anderson, Suzie Morrison, Russ Herschleb, Schuyler Black | Improve community pride by establishing Neighborhood Associations | 2014 |
| YOLO: Youth Organization for Leadership Opportunities | James DeBurg, Rachel Dilling, Tish Reck, Jaque Humphrey, Nate Miller, Andrew Payne | Increase the senior completion rate of the Silver cord Program at the Ottumwa High School to 25 % by 2020 | 2014 |
| Food Insecurity | Joel Pedersen, Jon Disburg, Madonna Fisher, Marie Zoromski, Yvonne Baldwin-Greene | Understand food distribution to the food insecure | 2013 |
| Business Advocate | Kelly Genners, Cathy Penniston, Natalie Bolin, Tyler Baumgarten | There are many resources for new and continuing businsesses, however, there isn't a centralized point for a business person. Proposed a Business Development | 2013 |
| Sports in Ottumwa | Jane Martin, Lori Reeves, Donna Jeffery | Assess current athletic fields and make recommendations for change | 2013 |
| Welcome to Ottumwa | Abby Conrad, Linda Whittington, Megan Framke, Dave Humburg, Lisa Maize | Develop a systematic approach where ALL new comers to Ottumwa are welcomed and receive information that is relevant to them | 2013 |
| Volunteers: The Key to Local Food Distribution | Joe Shultz, Jennifer Wilson, Jill Lane, Jessie Mattingly, Sandra Trejo-Wirfs, Kala Mulder | The Food Bank of Iowa-Ottumwa location offers an important resource to a 55 county service area. Each dollar spent equates to four meals for Iowa families, children, and elderly populations. Ottumwa’s Distribution Center is a “best kept secret '' in southern Iowa. To get the word out, the Food Bank must use tools to market locally the effects this non-profit organization has on reducing food insecurities for Iowan’s. The team enjoyed working on the project, giving back through service, and collaboratively finding creative ways to increase getting the word out about the volunteer need. The team believes through the use of social media, expanding partnerships and utilizing the current benefactors the increase of volunteers will be at least twofold per shift. | 2022 |
| Food Truck Initiative | Karla Galindo, Carrie Jaeger, Preston Potts, Mary Pratt, Sadie Waugh | To enhance visibility and accessibility for food truck vendors the team created a public communication platform that provides the necessary information for vendors and customers. This platform will also help vendors to be in compliance with state and local regulations. | 2022 |
| Hiring for Diversity - Building Inclusion | Ethan Lake, Ron Thomas, Sandra McReynolds, Mauri Martinez, Pla Moo, and Melanie Courtney | IHCC recognizes that its current employee population does not match its student body in terms of diversity, socioeconomic status, and family college-going history. The team created the structure for an on-campus Diversity Council will consist of students, faculty, staff, and administration and be comprised of components from across the entire organizational footprint. The IHCC Diversity Council will reflect and amplify our diversity in order to create a community and culture in which all people are supported, welcomed, and valued. The IHCC Diversity Council will advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and awareness on campus, as well as help to ensure the integration of diversity into all aspects across the entire organization. The Council structure will include a chair or co-chairs, vice-chair, and treasurer which will comprise the executive board. The Council membership will be open to students, faculty, and staff from across the entire college’s region, with no restrictions on membership. Executive board positions will be held for one academic year, and be selected by a vote of the Diversity Council. | 2022 |
| Resilient Neighbors | Bronson Eick, Shelley Bramschreiber, Jessica McCullen, Lindsey Gould, Lorene Vilela | Resilient Communities of Wapello County has identified that there are families who do not have safe and appropriate housing. These families may have financial restraints, may not be physically able, and/or do not have skill sets to make necessary upkeep/maintenance on their homes. Resilient Neighbors, developed a network of community volunteers and referral sources to assist with housing needs in our community. | 2022 |
Past Team Projects
