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Gatherings of Hope report released from the Kent County Congregations Study

Download the report (PDF, 100pp., 4.7Mb) Order bound copies from the Calvin College Campus Store.

Our report on the Kent County Congregations Study of 2007 is now online! The report, entitled Gatherings of Hope: How Religious Congregations Contribute to the Quality of Life in Kent County is downloadable now in PDF format and bound, full-color copies are available for purchase from the Calvin Campus Store. As reported on Sunday in the Grand Rapids Press, the KCCS is the most comprehensive study of religious congregations and how they contribute to the quality of life in Kent County. Inspired by the philanthropic vision of Doug and Maria DeVos and funded by their foundation, the project affirms the need for educational, community and religious sectors to collaborate in efforts to improve the lives of children and their families. These major findings of the report are found in the Executive Summary: Kent County is an unusually religious community. Compared to congregations across the country, Kent County residents are significantly more likely to attend religious services. Kent County congregations are larger in size, have more leaders, are better funded, and are more likely to have participated in or supported a social service program. Hundreds of congregations are located in areas of poverty and great need. Compared to majority White congregations, Black and Hispanic congregations in the county average three to four times the proportion of people with household incomes under $25,000. Local congregations transfer $75.6 million annually to denominations and to international, domestic and county aid and missions—but only 14 percent is clearly designated for Kent County. Worship services in Kent County take place in 28 different languages, reflecting cultural and ethnic diversity. At times multiple languages are spoken in the same congregation. Religious attendance is strongly associated with service to others. Almost 5,200 people from Kent County congregations—including paid staff and volunteers—participate in community service activities. Congregation leaders spend time worth $8.8 million annually on civic and social efforts. Congregations supply 2,827 volunteers for educational programs, but only a third of congregations report any involvement with public schools. Kent County congregations offer higher numbers of social service programs than comparable national averages—2,338 programs in all. Religious participation is not required by 70 percent of these programs. Other institutions would have to generate from $95 million to $118 million to replace the services and programs that Kent County congregations provide annually in their community-serving ministries. Gatherings of Hope is being distributed today to over 200 religious and community leaders at the Kent County Religious Leaders Symposium, held at the Pinnacle Center in Hudsonville.

Sara returns from a summer internship at ICPSR

One of our very own student researchers, Sara Achauer, was chosen out of an elite group of applicants to spend her summer as an intern for the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.  Read what she had to say about her experience:

“This summer I was an intern at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ICPSR is one of the largest dative archives and their mission statement is to: ‘Acquire and preserve social science data, provide open and equitable access to these data, and promote effective data use.’

I was a data processor for the Child Care and Early Education Resource Connection, one of the specialized archives within ICPSR. I personally worked with the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey 1988 and the Survey of Income and Program Participation 2004 data. It was my job to acquire the correct data and related documents, write the metadata for each study, and produce formatted files for the use of member institutions.

While working at the internship, I was provided the opportunity to participate in ICPSR’s Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research. I took two graduate classes: Regression Analysis I Introduction and II Linear Models. For more information see http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog/index.html . The skills I learned over the summer gave me a more holistic view of data and research that will positively influence my work at the Center for Social Research and my personal research as a Sociology major.”

We’re glad to have you back after this great opportunity, Sara!

Congratulations Graduates!

The CSR congratulates five of our student workers who graduated from Calvin this year. Gwen Einfeld, Kirsten Anderson, Jeremy Chacko, Gerald Egede and Emily Oosterhouse were each at the CSR for over a year, and now they seek to employ themselves in various exciting fields:
• Gwen, an Engineering graduate, is pursuing a graduate degree in Engineering at Purdue University.
• Emily, having completed Calvin’s Psychology, Pre-Law and Business programs, is going on to study Forensic Psychology at the University of Denver
• Gerald, an Accounting major, is pursuing a graduate degree in Business or Accounting in the United Kingdom.
• Kirsten, graduating with a degree in English will be teaching English in Cairo, Egypt and may continue working in the field of social research in English.
• Jeremy, graduate of Calvin’s History and Political Science programs, will be working at Yellowstone National Park.

During their time at the Center, the graduates handled projects ranging from data entry to survey design and administration. The CSR bids farewell to the graduates, who will be sorely missed.

PALS Teens at MPA

Last week, the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) hosted its annual meeting at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, IL. As the current CSR Research Associate, I presented a poster on some of my collaborative work with Calvin psychology professor, Marjorie Gunnoe.

Using PALS teen data, professor Gunnoe and I examined predictors of teenage expectations to marry. We explored several theoretical & well-established domains in an effort to compare our data with other national studies and to contribute to the growing body of literature on teenage development and attitudes toward marriage.

In addition to several poster sessions, I had the opportunity to hear a fabulous lecture by Washington University’s memory expert, Henry L. Roediger, III on how testing not only measures knowledge but enhances it. Visit the Washington University Memory Lab for more on this groundbreaking research.

Gwen Einfeld’s team wins Calvin bizPlan 2007

Congratulations to Gwen Einfeld, CSR’s omni-competent senior Research Coordinator. Gwen’s team won the first annual bizPlan entrepreneurship competition at Calvin in late November. An engineering major, Gwen helped Team Volturna propose a design for an electronic device that would receive wireless multimedia from computers and display it on a television.

Gwen is an outstanding veteran member of CSR’s student team. She became our “Research Coordinator” in 2006 and has continued to shine as an internal technical expert. At present, she is doing database design and team training for data cleaning for the Kent County Congregations Study (KCCS). Way to go, Gwen!