| Cattywampus Puppet Council |
| Cattywampus Puppet Council (CPC) is a Knoxville-based nonprofit that uses celebration art, storytelling, and play as tools for community and individual resilience and transformation. CPC is partnering with the University of Tennessee for a second year to offer a second iteration of their Special Topics Community-Based Arts course. This course revolves around Cattywampus’s annual Giant Puppet Parade & Street Party and will once again provide UT students with an immersive experience in community-based art. Through both in-class studies and field work with K-12 public school students and community organizations at Cattywampus’s 10 afterschool Youth Art Residency sites, UT students will participate in a transformative dialogue and creative process that facilitates positive change and growth in neighborhoods, community organizations, and the social fabric of Knoxville. By making their Special Topics course a permanent spring semester-offering, CPC is continuing to foster equity and social justice throughout the entire K-16 public education system by bridging a traditionally compartmentalized and disconnected system. CPC is partnering again with Dr. Jason Brown (School of Art) and School of Art Graduate Teaching Associates to develop curriculum and document the project through photography, videography, and interviews. Cattywampus Executive and Artistic Director Rachel Milford is continuing to foster this partnership and co-lead the creative initiative at UT. |
| East Tennessee Freedom Schools |
| East Tennessee Freedom Schools aims to leverage child literacy to reduce summer learning loss, increase a love of learning, and develop thoughtful and engaged citizens. They offer a free six-week-long summer enrichment program with at least three hours of literacy engagement per day. ETFS is partnering with Dr. Francheska Starks (Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education) through CURCI to support ETFS scholars with literacy instruction and experiences beyond their six-week-long enrichment program by combining ETFS leaders and staff, families/parents of scholar attendees, and UTK faculty educators’ expertise. The goal of this collaboration is to 1) build a network of strong relationships among the entities to inform a holistic approach to supporting scholars’ cognitive, social and emotional development and 2) use the knowledge and expertise of the network to design a six-month curriculum supplement to extend the literacy instruction and experiences provided to students during the ETFS programming. |
| Grow Partnership Tennessee |
| Grow Partnership Tennessee (GPT) advances wellness economics to reduce healthcare and social disparities in communities across urban Appalachia. GPT collaborates with local partners to dismantle systemic barriers in healthcare access. GPT is partnering with the University of Tennessee through CURCI to implement a community initiative to address health disparities in East Knoxville through cycling. Specifically, the project seeks to promote physical activity through bicycling to reduce the burden of diabetes and obesity in the East Knoxville urban community. GPT plans to train a Community Health Worker (CHW) to develop structured cycling events and support broader infrastructure improvements. The CHW will collaborate with UTK, Bike Walk Knoxville, Two Bikes, and Kickstand Bicycle Collective to develop and implement all aspects of the project. Central to this project will also be the involvement of the ‘D9 Cycling Club’, a group of local Black fraternity and sorority members who want to promote cycling in underserved communities. Finally, the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) bicycling safety program, Smart Cycling, will be central to training all bicyclists participating in the proposed project. The CHW will be training as an instructor of Smart Cycling classes provided by the LAB. Grow Partnership Tennessee will work with Dr. Jon Shefner in the Department of Sociology and students in the Center for Transportation Research. |
| Hellbender Harm Reduction |
| Hellbender Harm Reduction improves wellbeing and builds solidarity in Tennessee by providing harm reduction supplies and advocating for policies that support people who use drugs. Hellbender Harm Reduction is partnering with Dr. Jessie Wilkerson (Department of History) through CURCI to begin a pilot project that focuses on oral histories of Knoxville harm reduction workers. During the first year of their project, Hellbender plans to collect approximately seven oral histories in Knoxville with the goal to eventually expand into other areas of Southern Appalachia. This project aims to preserve and share the stories of harm reduction workers to better understand how social service and public health work that prioritizes the self-direction and autonomy of the people who are served is articulated in a place where these services are not widely supported. This project will serve both the Knoxville and Appalachian harm reduction community, including workers and participants, by building community, revealing areas of connection, and providing stories that can be organized around. |
| East Tennessee Equality Council (Knox Pride) |
| East Tennessee Equality Council, commonly known as Knox Pride, maintains a LGBTQ+ community and outreach center and hosts events designed to educate, represent, and support the LGBTQ+ community in East Tennessee. Knox Pride is partnering with the University of Tennessee Psychological Clinic for a second year to continue their project to provide mental health support to LGBTQ+ youth and adults. Knox Pride was able to fund 3 months of therapy for 16 Knox Pride community members and full psychological evaluations for 11 Knox Pride community members in their first year project. Knox Pride will once again partner with Dr. Leticia Flores, director of the University of Tennessee Psychological Clinic, to grow the program. LGBTQ+-affirming licensed supervisors and Graduate students will continue to provide no-cost mental health services to LGBTQ+ community members. Additionally, Knox Pride will allocate some funding to train Knox Pride staff on things like risk assessment and crisis call management as well as provide more general mental health-focused training for community members on managing emotions and navigating problematic interpersonal interactions with family/others around sexual orientation and gender identity. Knox Pride will partner with UT graduate students to continue to develop and collect data on demographics, referral needs, and diagnostic pictures of Knox Pride clientele at the UT Psychological Clinic to bring them closer to their goal of enhancing mental health for the Knoxville LGBTQ+ community. |
| The Lotus Program Experience |
| The Lotus Program Experience is a maternal health, women’s health, and reproductive justice practice rooted in holistic, community-based care. With a primary focus on maternal health, postpartum recovery, and womb support, Lotus integrates nutrient-dense food access with wraparound healing services, including spiritual and ancestral healing practices that honor cultural traditions, embodied wisdom, and intergenerational knowledge as essential components of wellness. Lotus is partnering with the University of Tennessee through CURCI and collaborating with University of Tennessee, Knoxville faculty to conduct research assessing program effectiveness. This research seeks to strengthen the evidence base demonstrating how comprehensive, culturally grounded care—encompassing nutrition, emotional support, and spiritual and ancestral healing—can positively impact pregnancy and birth outcomes, support postpartum recovery, and contribute to reductions in maternal morbidity and mortality. This work responds directly to the ongoing maternal health crisis at the national, state, and local levels. The Lotus Program Experience will work with Dr. Jon Shefner and students in the UTK Sociology Department to design, administer, and analyze entry and exit surveys with program participants. These surveys will capture both quantitative and qualitative outcomes, including clients’ experiences with holistic and ancestral healing offerings, to better understand how community-based, spiritually affirming models of care support maternal health and reproductive justice. |
| Nourish Knoxville |
| Nourish Knoxville’s mission is to cultivate healthy communities by supporting relationships between local farmers, producers, and the public. Their core pillars are supporting local farmers, increasing local food access, and providing educational opportunities about food and farming. Nourish operates farmers markets in Knox County, provides nutrition incentive programs such as Double Up Food Bucks and Nourish Kids in East Tennessee, coordinates produce recovery and donation programs, and produces the East Tennessee Local Food Guide. Nourish is partnering with CURCI for a second year to pursue an IRB-approved study based on their findings from year 1. Over the past year, Nourish began the process of evaluating its Nourish Kids program, which aims to increase children’s access to locally grown foods, empower them to make their own food choices, and build lasting positive connections with seasonal produce and farmers markets. With consistent participation from families over multiple seasons, they have a unique opportunity to conduct a more in-depth longitudinal study on the impacts of Nourish Kids. Their goals include evaluating how the program influences children’s knowledge of seasonal produce, their willingness to try new fruits and vegetables, and the extent to which healthy eating habits carry over into the home. Nourish Knoxville is partnering with Dr. Mackenzie Gill (Department of Agricultural and Resources Economics) to strengthen their methods through pre/post assessments, surveys, and focus groups that will produce meaningful, actionable data. These insights will not only guide program improvement but also support efforts to secure funding for expansion and sustainability. |
| One Knoxville Collective (OKC) |
| One Knox Collective’s (OKC) is the non-profit arm to Knoxville’s only professional soccer team, One Knox Soccer Club (OKSC). OKC is partnering with the University of Tennessee through CURCI to conduct their East Knoxville Soccer Club (EKSC) pilot program at Vine Middle School. OKC is creating an after-school program to meet the youth where they are (overcoming the barrier of transportation), to include soccer and curriculum. This soccer club includes an additional hour of curriculum that employs programs such as trauma therapy, tutoring, English support, STEM instruction, and cognitive development to enrich the lives of the youth. OKC will work with Dr. Lisa East and students in the social work field placement program to develop program metrics to accurately measure program’s effectiveness both quantitively and qualitatively and work with OKC to develop and implement program management in their first year. |
| Renounce Denounce Gang Intervention Program (RDGIP) |
| Renounce Denounce Gang Intervention Program (RDGIP) specializes in violence prevention, safe passages for children and proven risk preteen/teen/ peer mentoring by reformed individuals with lived experience. RDGIP is partnering with Dr. Lucybel Mendez (Department of Psychology) and Dr. Jasmine Coleman (Department of Psychology) through CURCI to conduct a project focused on integrating Gallup’s CliftonStrengths assessment into one to two of RDGIP’s 10-week cognitive behavioral cohorts, and workforce development programs. This project aims to enhance self-awareness and personal growth among at-risk youth and young adults, particularly those affected by gang affiliation, justice involvement, educational disengagement, or anger management challenges. By embedding a strengths-based framework into RDGIP’s existing programming, they seek to empower participants to recognize and leverage their innate talents, fostering resilience and positive life trajectories. RDGIP Knoxville youth mentors and staff will engage with the assessment to model strengths-based approaches, thereby reinforcing a supportive and empowering environment for participants. The research component will focus on identifying, cataloguing, and examining how strengths evolve among youth participants in the program. Key areas of focus will include increased self-efficacy and greater belief in their own abilities. RDGIP aims to uncover patterns with UTK researchers that show how recognizing and applying these strengths influences positive outcomes, such as consistent attendance and active participation in the 10-week cognitive behavioral program. |
| Rooted East Knoxville Collective |
| The Rooted East Knoxville Collective is committed to addressing food disparities in the East Knoxville community through self-sufficiency, gardening, food education, and overall wellness. Their vision is to recreate East Knoxville’s foodscape. Rooted East seeks to establish a self-sufficient and community-led food system through various programs including their Home Garden Program (HGP) (phase I & II), Ujamaa Bartering Market, Skill School (free gardening, cooking, and life skills classes), and immersive community events. Rooted East is partnering CURCI for a second year to document the successes and shortcomings of their programming through data collection and analysis to improve program efficacy and optimize resources to fulfill the organization’s mission of building a local, equitable food system in East Knoxville. Rooted East will continue surveys examining how much food folks are growing, how and who they are sharing it with, and how they feel it may affect their diet, health, and sense of belonging in the community, Rooted East will also focus on the logistics and efficacy of the Ujamaa market .by collecting data about harvest quantity and quality from their HGP and what is brought to market. Research in this second round of funding will be supported by Dr. Christina Ergas (Department of Sociology) and Dr. Sarah D’Onofrio (Department of Sociology). |
| Shora Foundation |
| The Shora Foundation serves the East Knoxville community with a deep commitment to addressing the pressing needs and challenges faced by its residents. Shora is partnering with CURCI for a third year to support their implementation of phase II of their mental health program, the Healing Pathways Clinic. Shora will continue to partner with UT’s Department of Psychology under the guidance of Dr. Jenn Bush to provide high quality trauma informed therapy sessions to disadvantaged youth. While Shora still focuses on youth in East Knoxville who face challenges such as poverty, racism, violence, and other forms of adversity, phase II will see the Healing Pathways Clinic expand to serve the East Knoxville community at-large. The youth therapy component of the program will continue to provide weekly individual and group-based therapy sessions facilitated by trained therapists skilled in trauma-informed care. The project continues to employ a holistic approach, not only targeting youth but also involving their parents or caregivers in the healing process. With support for the expansion of services, including adding additional students and another supervisor, Shora will improve mental health, enhance coping mechanisms, increase resilience, and improve relationships in East Knoxville. |
| Tennessee Schools for the Deaf |
| The mission of Tennessee Schools for the Deaf (TSD) is a tuition-free state special public school with three campuses across the state. It serves preschool through 12 grade students that are deaf or hard-of-hearing. To support this mission, the faculty and staff work to ensure that TSD students are both linguistically and culturally competent. TSD is partnering with CURCI to begin the cataloging process of TSD historical items and artifacts. In years past, the school educated students in academic subjects along with printing, shoe repair (cobbling), rhythm and auricular training, woodworking, sports and home economics. There are an extensive number of artifacts reflecting the historical education and training methods in those areas. There is also a unique section of artifacts that are largely non-existent in historical records, and these belong to the segregated school for the deaf, previously called the “Negro Department of the Tennessee School for the Deaf and Dumb.” The TSD Archive team has curated the items and created the collections that are currently on visual display at the campus. This collaboration will allow for expertise from Dr. Sharon Hill of UT Deaf Studies and key staff in TSD to support the creation of a detailed cataloguing database as well as beginning the preservation efforts using current preservation methods. This will serve the extensive TSD alumni community, current TSD students and staff, Knoxville residents, Tennessee residents, UT students (specifically those majoring in American history, special education, architecture, museum and library studies). |
| Turn Up Knox |
| Turn Up Knox strives to interrupt cycles of gun violence in the Knoxville area by supporting, equipping, and empowering people to create safer and healthier communities. Since its creation in 2022, Turn Up Knox has served as a community-informed intervention program that reduces gun violence in Knoxville. Their programs focus on providing immediate intervention and support to individuals at high risk of involvement in violence, as well as offering long-term solutions through mentorship, counseling, and community engagement initiatives. Turn Up Knox is partnering with the University of Tennessee to establish a participant database that will aid in keeping track of services and participants’ progress. Turn Up Knox is partnering with Dr. Jasmine Coleman (Psychology) to examine 1) prevalence rates of basic descriptive and demographic variables for individuals served by Turn Up Knox, 2) rates of service utilization for community members, and 3) differences in risk and promotive factors for individuals who utilize services compared to individuals who do not utilize services. Turn Up Knox will use this data to better understand where they need to be focusing their violence reduction efforts. |
| Women with Vision |
| Women with Vision are launching a research project supported by CURCI to document the lived experiences of East Knoxville residents facing the intersecting challenges of gentrification and gun violence. Through a series of community-centered interviews, our project will gather first-hand qualitative data that captures the personal, social, and economic impacts of these issues. By prioritizing the voices of long-term residents, especially those from historically marginalized groups, we aim to highlight narratives often overlooked in broader policy and planning conversations. The primary goals of this project are to create a community-driven body of research that can inform local policy, empower residents with data about their own experiences, and build bridges between academic institutions and the communities they serve. Women with Vision will work with Dr. Jasmine Coleman and students in the Department of Psychology. |
| Youth Outreach in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (YO-STEM) |
| Youth Outreach in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (YO-STEM) is a nonprofit organization whose aim is to empower underserved students nationally by educating them through hands-on STEM experiences. They have served more than 3,000 students, PreK-12, through their programs and community involvement at no cost. YO-STEM offers three flagship programs to expose students to STEM: Girls in STEM (gSTEM), STEM Saturday, and a co-ed competitive robotics club. Their projects include 3D design and printing, robotics, coding, and various science and engineering projects. YO-STEM is partnering with the University of Tennessee through CURCI to expand their programming. With data collected from this project, YO-STEM will provide a blueprint for designing and implementing additional experiments and projects that will eventually be packaged for use with other schools and communities in East Tennessee and beyond. YO-STEM will work with Dr. Missy Cosby in the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education and students in the department. |