Center for Social Research

Hellos and Goodbyes

A lot of new faces will be popping up at the CSR this month. Tom Sherwood, a Calvin grad who studied social work, will be taking on a leadership role as our new research associate. He’ll act as a project manager and student supervisor. We’re also welcoming Daniel Molling, a sophomore economics major; Traci Montgomery, a junior geography major; Brad Wassink, a junior political science major; and Kristen Napp, a junior social work major, as student research assistants. With these new additions, the CSR has students from nearly every social science offered by Calvin College. We’ll be a well-rounded group.

Some people are coming, and some are leaving. The CSR is bidding a fond farewell to three members of our team: Christina Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden, Debbie Velis Guzman, and Tyler Greenway. Christina, our fearless research associate, is going to grad school at University of Nevada, Las Vegas to study experimental psychology and music cognition. She is a genius, and she will succeed wherever she goes. Debbie, who was of great assistance to us in part thanks to her Spanish language abilities, will be heading back home to El Salvador for a while before she returns to the U.S. to take on a Management position at Walmart. Tyler, a three-year veteran of the CSR, will be across the street in Calvin Seminary. Each of these members of our team has been an important part of what we do. We appreciate what they’ve done, and we’ll miss them when they leave, but we wish them well in their new ventures.

Believe 2 Become Seeks to Boost Academic Achievement in Grand Rapids

Fifteen thousand children in Grand Rapids are being served by the Believe 2 Become initiative (“B2B”). The initiative focuses on four neighborhood “Hope Zones.” The Community Research Institute at Grand Valley State University is a research partner for the CSR, and they provide maps and demographic profiles of each neighborhood.

By supporting strong schools, community partnership, parent resources, and student experiences, B2B hopes to help students achieve success in school, work, and life by the year 2025. Believe 2 Become is a partnership of Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS), Grand Rapids Student Advancement Foundation, dozens of community‐based and faith‐based organizations, and the Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation.

These groups are investing in teacher training and system support at GRPS and are sponsoring after-school study programs and a summer learning program.

B2B is also sponsoring a Neighborhood Engagement program. In this program, staff members from LINC Community Revitalization, Inc. conduct community meetings, organize community events, and go door-to-door educating parents: all with the goal of promoting knowledge of and encouraging action toward student success.

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Report on 2009 Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Survey

Since 2004, CSR has been supporting the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) in its Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project, which has been funded by grants from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Three waves of surveys have been conducted on an approximately biennial bases, in 2004/2005 (which we're now labeling "2005" for simplicity's sake), 2007 and 2009. A full report is now available comparing all three survey waves and including statistical models of pastors' self-reported pastoral health (vocational satisfaction and sustainability), leadership skills, and congregational fulfillment of the CRC's mission statement. The report finds statistical stability across all three waves--excellence is indeed being sustained. But we also identify many areas of concern with room for improvement, especially council support through systematic feedback on preaching. The statistical models suggest that programmatic interventions per se have mixed effects, but targeting leadership skill development could stimulate improvements in pastoral health. The following resources are available from CSR; also see the SPE project's survey page. Full report (11.2MB; 78-page color PDF, with extensive bookmarks and hypertext cross-referencing) Printable PDF questionnaires for pastors and clerks of council. Online web-based questionnaires for pastors and clerks of council (shown in preview mode; data is not collected). Charts and frequencies of multiple choice items for pastors (56-page PDF) and clerks of council (26-page PDF). Comments and critiques are welcome! Click "read more" below to see a sample finding from the 2009 survey. UPDATE 12/20: The CRC Newsroom has a story about the survey. UPDATE 1/15: The Grand Rapids Press has written a story about the survey.

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Calvin Economics blog

Don’t miss the Calvin Economics blog from our colleagues in the Department of Economics.

Explanations for Church Mobilization against AIDS in Africa

Despite local, national, and global attention to AIDS in Africa, an estimated 1.4 million Africans died of the disease in 2008, the same number as in 2001. As central institutions in many African societies, churches have responded to AIDS in various ways, from ignoring the disease, to providing care for the sick, to demanding state responses.

Using data from news articles and interviews with AIDS activists, church leaders, AIDS policymakers, and donor officials in Zambia, Kenya, the United States, and Ghana conducted between 2007 and 2010, Professor Amy Patterson, Political Science, presents an analysis of these church AIDS activities in Africa. She argues that church organizational structures, pastoral leadership, and the opportunities provided by globalization and the continent’s presumed “dependence” on the West shape African church mobilization on AIDS.

Please join CSR for Dr. Patterson's presentation and the ensuing discussion.

Thursday October 7, 2010 3:30 p.m., Meeter Center Lecture Hall Calvin College Refreshments provided