FSCJ Diversity & Social Change Annual Report

ANNUAL REPORT 2018-2019

Promoting culturally inclusive environments through educational engagements.

Florida State College at Jacksonville

DIVERSITY & SOCIAL CHANGE

CONTENTS

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4 Mission 6 Goals & Objectives 8 Meet the Team 10 Retention & Mentoring 12 Allyship Development 13 Diversity & Inclusion Programs 14 H.O.P.E.Food Pantry 16 Volunteer Services 18 Communications Support

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MISSION

Diversity & Social Change Team

Diversity & Social Change promotes culturally inclusive environments through organic engagements achieved by understanding actual and perceived differences and by creating opportunities for educational excellence.

Core Values Collaboration • Equity & Civility Inclusive Excellence • Individuality • Social Justice

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Key Initiatives The mission of Diversity & Social Change (DSC) is supported by the following initiatives: • Allyship Development • Communication & Engagement • Diversity & Inclusion Training Programs • History & Heritage Celebration • H.O.P.E. Food Pantry • Retention & Mentoring • Volunteer Service Programs

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GOALS & OBJECTIVES FSCJ STRATEGIC PLAN In October 2017, the District Board of Trustees approved Florida State College at Jacksonville’s 2017-2020 Strategic Plan and associated Strategic Priorities and Key Performance Indicators. Incorporating feedback from faculty,staff, students and community members, the Strategic Plan’s singular focus is to increase the success of FSCJ students. This overarching goal is achieved by the realization of three Strategic Priorities: provide student-centered education, impact community and increase instutional capacity.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Retention Increase Fall-To-Spring Retention to Fall-To-Fall Retention to Certification Increase Increase the annual number of certificates and degrees awarded by

70.5% 51.9% 8,559

Job Placement & Continuing Education Increase the percent of students who are found employed or continuing their education.

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Establish training curriculums in the areas of diversity, volunteerism, and food insecurities for the FSCJ community.

• Implement educational presentation on food insecurity.

• Train Student Engagement advisors on effective allyship and communities through professional development trainings.

• Develop safe space curriculum for LGBTQ+ ally development.

• Facilitate diversity workshop series to provide awareness of underserved communites and advocacy.

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Create a comprehensive Health and Wellness Program which includes programing related to Federal compliance issues.

• Student Life & Leadership and Diversity & Social Change Staff will become certified train-the-trainers facilitators through NASPA. • Student leaders will take the Certified Peer Educators Program through a 12 hour over training split over two days.

• Develop advanced peer education/mentoring program for iEducators.

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Develop communication and marketing strategies to promote awareness of programs within Diversity & Social Change.

• Collaborate with more departments and agencies across the FSCJ and Jacksonville community.

• History & Heritage committee members to bemore inclusive of campus departments and to create a more robust calendar of events.

• Establish a marketing and branding campaign to raise awareness about initiatives within Diversity & Social Change.

• Develop social media and multimedia advertising strategy.

Diversity & Social Change adheres to the FSCJ Strategic plan through its goals and objectives.

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MEET THE TEAM

VEE BYRD ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Vee Byrd is the Associate Director of Diversity & Social Change within Student Engagement at FSCJ. She is a native of Paducah, Kentucky and received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky in Social Work. She has worked in Higher Education for over 15 years and has worked at Vanderbilt University, University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University, and most recently the University of Florida as the Director of Black Affairs. Mrs. Byrd is also a board member for the National Assoc. of Black Culture Centers, and a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority among other memberships and affiliations. She is currently writing a book called The Blueprint for CLASS which is a guide for first generation Black students on how to navigate the collegiate environment.

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ASHLIE BARKER-EMPLEO VOLUNTEER SERVICE SPECIALIST Ashlie is a born and raised Texan and she graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Psychology at the great Texas A&M University and earned her Masters of Science in Psychology at Angelo State University. Ashlie has a background working with At-Risk Youth and their families and case management in mental health. She is thrilled to be an advisor at FSCJ and have the opportunity to teach, learn, and grow from our next generation. Ashlie oversees the volunteer program and the H.O.P.E. Food Pantry where both community and student needs are addressed and met through the love of volunteering and donating time and resources. FSCJ has given Ashlie reward after reward in working with students on their professional and personal growth journeys.

MICHAEL BERKSHIRE COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR Michael Berkshire is a FSCJ alum, having earned an Associate of Science degree in Digital Media technology in 2017. He’s currently continuing his education as he pursues his Bachelor’s degree. Michael has a freelance background in graphic design, photography and multimedia production.

In addition to his design experience, Michael has also been a dedicated volunteer with grassroots organizations such as the Greater Community AIDS Project and for the Central Illinois LGBT advocacy group, the 85% Coalition.

Since 2017, Michael has served as the Communications Coordinator for Student Engagement teams, designing and developing its visual comunications strategy. He also serves as a member of the Allyship Taskforce.

KEIRA MARTIN RETENTION & DIVERSITY SPECIALIST Keira is a Louisville, Kentucky native with a master’s degree in Education from Western Kentucky University. Keira top priorities as an educator is to promote self-efficacy through mentorship and leadership opportunities for students.

Currently serving FSCJ, Keira continues to develop mentoring, retention, and diversity initiatives.

CYNTHIA MORENO CULTURAL INCLUSION & ALLYSHIP SPECIALIST Cynthia Moreno has worked with FSCJ creating educational opportunities and promote inclusive environments since 2015. Cynthia holds a degree in Sociology with a minor in Social Welfare from the University of North Florida.

Her passion is in social change by addressing and raising awareness of sexual violence, child abuse and social justice issues. She spent 3 years as a social worker for the Child Abuse Prevention Program and is an advocate for several non-profits in the Jacksonville area. Cynthia currently oversees ally development and cultural inclusive programming.

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RETENTION & MENTORING ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS K.I.N.G.S and Project C.L.A.S.S. mentoring programs engage underserved students by supporting their educational and professional aspirations through academic enhancement, character enrichment, leadership and career development.

The academic enrichment programs are designed to work with FSCJ students of color to enhance their collegiate career focusing on communication, dress, etiquette, academics, and more. Both programs consist of a 12-week enrichment program designed to address specific issues for persons of color. Each programmeets once a week at discussing topics based on academics, relationships, budgeting, dress, and etiquette. Project C.L.A.S.S. began Fall 2018. K.I.N.G.S. begins in Spring 2019. Each program provides participants with mentoring, a business suit and an opportunity to be awarded a scholarship up to $1000.

The sessions were held every Tuesday from 2:30 p.m.5 p.m. at FSCJ’s Kent Campus. These weekly sessions provided students with tools to improve their academic careers, develop themselves professionally and also included interpersonal advice. Students would also meet with different professors and staff members, mentoring them with individualized tools necessary for their success in the program, as a college student and as a member of society. The tools students received incorporated a portfolio, etiquette book, a business suit, mock business setting, and many more life lessons.

Participants who successfully navigated their goals throughout the 12-week program are given a business suit, photoshoot, business cards and headshots.

Members of the cohort are video interviewed to discuss their progress and how they feel they have grown in the program. At the end of the term the cohort is given an awards banquet. A decision is then made on which student wins the scholarship.

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Project C.L.A.S.S. had 14 women who started the program. 8 students succeeded in completing the program.

K.I.N.G.S. began with 12 men at the beginning of the semester and ended with 6 students completing the program.

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ALLYSHIP DEVELOPMENT Ally Development provides support and brings awareness to LGBTQ+ issues by developing programs and Safe Space curriculums.

LGBTQ+ WEEK In an effort to provide LGBTQ+ students support, FSCJ’s Diversity & Social Change team has created programming to educate allies, bring awareness and inclusivity to the college. Many studies show that developing an inclusive environment through developing comprehensive curriculums, trainings and policies reduce harassment and improve the academic performance of LGBTQ+ college students.

This year we developed programming and included LGBTQ+ Week as part of our History & Heritage Celebrations.

HIGHLIGHTED PROGRAMS The ABC’s of LGBTQ An interactive presentation on LGBTQ+ language, terminology and how to be a better ally.

Defining Heteronormativity A discussion on the issues of inclusivity and de¬bunking the myths of what is “normal” and how to be more accepting of other sexualities.

Minority within Minority This program discusses the intersectional identity and issues of queer and transgender persons of color.

Commemorating Stonewall An immersive presentation on the 1969 Stonewall Riots which served as a catalyst for the modern LGBTQ advocacy movement in the United States and around the world. The presentation included a documentary screening and museum exhibit of LGBTQ history.

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ALLYSHIP & SAFE SPACE Jacksonville has the highest population of LGBTQ+ persons per capita in the state of Florida, with a larger community than New York City. LGBTQ+ persons residing in North Florida are more likely to pursue a college degree.

With that knowledge, it’s been the primary mission of our Allyship Taskforce to develop a Space Training Curriculum. The curriculum was in development for over a year prior to its December 2018 role out.

The curriculum consist of two 4-hour sections Safe Space Basics and a Safe Space Facilitator Training, each. The Safe Space Basics training is designed for faculty or staff who may interact with students. It touches on terminology, gender neutral language, sex & gender basics, coming out, resource and statistics. The facilitator training is designed to train advocates in facilitating basics training. It includes topic and tools to better recognize microaggressive behaviors and scenario training.

Initial role out has been quite successful with buyin from student services, admissions, faculty and Student Life.

Certified Facilitators Trained Safe Space Basic Participants

80 120

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION PROGRAMS Diversity & Inclusion programs and trainings address culturally inclusive topics that affect our diverse student populations. We engage the College through History & Heritage month celebrations, diversity retreats, workshops, ally training and educational presentations. Students will also have the opportunity to assist with training and programs.

DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP For our students we have developed several diversity education opportunities including retreats, workshops, and leadership roles.

These programs are developed to increase diversity awareness, promote inclusivity and a secure social environment.

Diversity Leadership Retreat The DLR is a day long retreat that engages student in social justice issues. Students learn about language and communication, interpersonal violence, media literacy, the psychology of racism and the basics of social activism.

HISTORY & HERITAGE MONTHS The purpose of History & Heritage month celebrations is to provide a space to teach, collaborate, celebrate and learn about cultural history through collegewide events.

Events are planned through a collaborative effort between faculty, staff and students ass part of the H&H Committee. Programs are designed to touch on cultural issues, inclusivity, intersectionality and engagement throughout the college and the Jacksonville Community.

Fall Term Diversity Awareness Month LGBTQ+ Week National Coming Out Day

Diversity & Me Workshop

Hispanic Heritage Month

This workshop recognizes that not every student desire to be a leader in diversity and inclusion.

This workshop is designed to engage all students and faculty in a safe space about issues they face on inclusivity, bias and communication.

International Education Week Spring Term Humant Rights Week

Leadership Roles

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Day

Another way DSC engages students is encouraging them to have leadership roles within our college.

This includes positions across a variety of our programs that support, educate and assist in our mission. These roles include positions such as Student Assistants, Food Pantry Leaders, Student Volunteer Coordinator and Communication Leaders.

Black History Month Women’s History Month Asian-Pacific Island Heritage Month

Programs Per Year Participants Per Year

57 3,414 13

H.O.P.E. FOOD PANTRY The FSCJ H.O.P.E. Food Pantry is dedicated to serving students by providing food and educational programs to assist in the successful pursuit of their academic and personal journey. H.O.P.E. stands for Helping Out People Every Day and that is the goal of the pantry. The pantry allows students anonymous and free access to non-perishable food products made available by generous donations from the community.

YEAR END REVIEW We have served over 1,000 students in our first year and had over 7,000 pounds donated from faculty, staff, community members, and even students! What am amazing service to provide our students so they do not have to worry about where their next meal is coming from! The pantry is managed by Student Volunteer Coordinators who assist patrons with gathering the allotted 5 pounds of food (students are allowed to get up to 5 pounds of food every day the pantry is open) and tracking the donations we receive weekly.

HIGHLIGHTS The H.O.P.E. Food Pantry celebrated its one-year anniversary of being open to the FSCJ student body. The pantry recently expanded and opened its second location at the Downtown Campus. In the time the pantry has been open, it has received over 9000 pounds of donated food, fed over 1000 students, and provided over 7500 meals. The pantry received a generous monetary donation from the University of California Davis, became a member of the College and University Food Bank Alliance, and has been recognized as a new initiative in the 2019 Commencement Program.

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1,117

STUDENTS SERVED PER TERM

4,704 POUNDS OF FOOD DISTRIBUTED

PROVIDED OVER

7,500 7,675

MEALS

POUNDS OF FOOD RECIEVED

VOLUNTEER SERVICES Volunteer Services offers opportunities for students to connect with the community by encouraging them to take a few hours out of their week to volunteer. Students learn how to work cohesively with different people to form teams as well as how to be a leader.

MISSION Volunteer Services allows the unique opportunity for students to connect with the community while learning more about the world. Students have the opportunity to take a few hours out of their week to volunteer.

Students learn how to work cohesively with different people to form teams as well as how to be a leader. It also helps provide insight into a student’s future career goals by using these volunteer opportunities to build their resumes while exploring careers. Volunteer opportunities assist students in developing references or connections that can help them when they apply for jobs.

VOLUNTEER SERVICE PROJECTS

1,268

TOTAL SERVICE HOURSS

1,215 ATTENDEESS

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SERVICE DAYS

Jacksonville Beach Cleanup Bracelets for the Brave Campus Beautification Day Catty Shack Clean up American Diabetes Association Diabetes Walk T-shirt drive for K9 Veteran’s Day MLK Day of Service Stand Up and Stride 5k JASMYN Donation Drive K-9 Veteran’s Day First Coast No More Homeless Pets Take Back the Night Sexual Assault Awareness walk SGA Campus Cleanup Random Acts of Kindness Week Volunteer Fair

GIVING TUESDAY Giving Tuesday was a collaboration between the FSCJ Foundation, Student Engagement, and Volunteer Services.

This event is an annual, national event surrounding civic engagement and “giving back” to your local community.

Volunteer Services was tasked with the “giving back” portion of the event for FSCJ. Volunteer services coordinated 5 volunteer sites for students, staff, faculty, and administrators to give their time. We partnered with Berry Good Farms, Salvation Army, Teacher Supply Depot, Celestial Farms, and Beaches Habitat for Humanity. Roughly 118 FSCJ students, staff, faculty, and administrators rolled up their sleeves, and volunteered at the various agencies! We gave over 354 volunteer hours in one day alone!

VOLUNTEER AWARDS FSCJ Volunteer Services hosted the first Volunteer Awards Ceremony in the spring of 2018 to celebrate service in our community. Students, staff, faculty, and members of the community were recognized for their contributions to the Jacksonville and FSCJ community. Forty-seven FSCJ students were recognized for contributing 10-99 volunteer hours to the community, three FSCJ students were recognized for contributing 100-199 hours, and three students were recognized for contributing 200-1000 volunteer hours. The FSCJ Men’s Baseball Team was awarded the Athletic Volunteer Team of the Year, Professor Wayne and Rawlslyn Francis were awarded the FSCJ Cares Volunteer Award, Student Government Association was awarded the Student Organization of the Year, Mrs. Hellitz Villegas was awarded the Staff Volunteer of the Year, Professor Mike Holt was awarded the Faculty Volunteer of the Year, and Mentoring Families and Kids, Inc. was awarded the Community Partner of the Year. The event was a wonderful celebration of our FSCJ students contributing selflessly to their community!

VOLUNTEER STUDENT SERVICE COORDINATORS FSCJ students contribute a tremendous amount of time and effort to the northeast Florida community through the activities organized by the Student Volunteer Coordinators. The Student Volunteer Coordinators connect students with the types of organizations in which they would like to volunteer and keep track of students’ volunteer hours. The campus Student Volunteer Coordinator, a student position, can be contacted through each of the Student Life & Leadership offices.

NON-PROFIT COLLABORATIONS Presbyterian Social Ministries Teacher Supply Depot

Sanctuary on 8th

Catty Shack

The Arc Jacksonville

Berry Good Farms

Clara White Mission

Celestial Farms

JASMYN

Hubbard House Girls, Inc.

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COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT The Communications Support team coordinates the development of our marketing, programming and curriculm materials. The team connects with students by coordinating with the College through a variety of print advertisements, multimedia and social media platforms.

200

Creative Marketing Campaign Materials Designed for Print And Social Media

55

Creative Marketing Campaign Materials Designed for Signature Events

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Graphic Design Interns Trained

OVERVIEW The growth of the Diversity & Social Change team has led to an expansion of Student Engagement programs, initiatives, and curriculums. With this expansion, the need to reach students, faculty, and staff have been crucial for the success of the department’s mission. The Communications team has been essential in consolidating Student Engagement’s marketing efforts to communicate its programming to the College through a variety of platforms.

Since its development in 2017 Communications has become a pivotal role not just as part of the Diversity & Social Change team but to the overall Student Engagement department. The team has even been utilized outside of its Student

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Engagement role, taking part in developing marketing materials for Student Success, collaborating with the Library & Learning Commons, and as well as creating marketing materials for outside institutions.

Last winter, the Communications team implemented marketing focus groups which included over46 partcipants across 3 campuses.

Its purpose allowed us to determine student’s social media behavior and how they receive college marketing. The focus group, along with survey’s helped determine Student Engagement’s communications strategy. This included revisions to how we distribute printed materials, email and where to focus on our social media platforms.

This year we began implementing our Social Media Marketing Strategy.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY Since August, Communications has developed a social media strategy that has focused on growing reach, engagement and followers. Communications has charted audience traffic and has built a content schedule during those periods to boost not only engagement and followers, but to also effectively market programs by matching audience behavior. Communications uses or designs content that helps boost engagement by posting relevant video, links, resources, infographic memes and pictures reaching an average audience from 1,200-1,400 weekly. Since August, Diversity & Social change’s Facebook followers has organically grown from 96 followers to 144 followers. That’s a steady growth of 12 followers per month.

For Instagram the strategy has been to design content and post pictures relevant to Diversity & Social Change’s core programs. To increase profile views, follower’s engagement and reach the team has also utilized Instagram stories, posting or sharing content from FSCJ’s other social media accounts. In August DSC’s Instagram followers were around 352, we have now grown to around 416 followers averaging roughly 16 a month. Our profile views have continue to average between 34-46 people a week.

BUILDING COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS Building relationships and collaborating with other organizations has been a key strategy to improve FSCJ Diversity & Social Change community profile. There have been several to collaboration that the Communications Support Team has engaged in to promote or build on DSC’s mission.

The Communications Support Team facilitated a Social Media Strategy Workshop at the Urban Resource Center for the Mayoral Commission on the Status of Women.

The workshop solidified DSC’s Volunteer Services relationship with the commission, opening the door to future volunteer event with the commission. As part of Human Rights Week the team collaborated with the Oxfam Hunger Banquet’s marketing team to promote an event held at FSCJ. Additionally the team also helped design marketing materials for outside institutions such as NASPA Region III & SASCA’s National Conferences and for the Florida Association for Blacks in Higher Education.

Within FSCJ the team collaborated with Professor DeArriba-Montgomery’s Advanced Advertising class developing a curriculum that intersects the initiatives of Diversity & Social Change with multimedia production.

Students had to develop a research driven group advertising campaign that touched on DSC’s mission.

Each group had to design an information campaign surrounding these social issues using graphic design,

118%

Increase in Social Media Engagement in a 9-month Period

motion graphics, video production and web design.

At the end of the semester each group had to do a presentation before the DSC team, industry experts and the Dean of Business and Workforce. Results were impressive and students appeared to have learned more about social justice issues and how their role as digital media designers can be used to educate others.

INTERNSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM In just one academic year the Communications team has grown from just 1 Graphic Design intern to a team of 6 Graphic Design Interns per term. Many of the Graphic Design Interns that have worked on the Communications Support team have come from the College’s Digital Media program or were part of the Emerging Leaders Internship.

In collaboration with Digital Media Internship Professor Liz Thomas, Communications has also developed a training program for incoming interns. The program provides student interns with professional development and experience within their profession of graphic design.

The learning outcomes focuses on developing key skills in organization, collaboration, portfolio development, creative strategies, and branding, as well becoming knowledgeable with ADA compliance related to design.

Communications has had the privilege of recruiting and training a total of 12 interns throughout the academic year. The internship program has been successful with 3 interns using their portfolio to transfer to the University of Central Florda, University of North Florida and University of Florida after finishing their Associates Degrees. 4 interns recieved Outstanding Student Leadership and Outstanding Student Assistant Awards. 5interns stayed with the team after finishing their internship.

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