Capstone group works with Community Foundation to help those in poverty

A senior capstone group from Trine University’s Ketner School of Business completed a project this semester to help those whom many feel are invisible.

The team worked in partnership with the Steuben County Community Foundation to help bring attention and assistance to those dealing with poverty in the county.

The project grew out of a poverty simulation and education event the foundation hosted on Trine’s campus last fall.

Carmyn Hottell, director of community engagement and leadership for the foundation, said area organizations feel clients dealing with poverty are invisible.

“Unless it’s something you see every day, it’s something that’s really easy to separate yourself from,” Hottell commented during a presentation on the Trine campus on March 21.

Though not top of mind, the issue is real, Hottell said. Ten percent of Steuben County residents live in poverty as defined by the federal government, and 46% of students in the Metropolitan School District of Steuben County qualify for free and reduced lunches.

Through the poverty simulation, leaders determined that the most important issues to be addressed are transportation options, affordable housing and coordination of services between different agencies.

Ongoing conversations

Linda Conley, associate professor in the Ketner School of Business, said the idea of having Trine students assist with the effort began during ongoing conversations between faculty and the foundation.

“We have done projects with them in the past and they have hosted internships,” she said. “During one of those conversations, we learned about the poverty simulation.”

“Carmyn was saying how she wanted to take the feedback from the simulation and create more synergy around the community input,” said Olivia Lusher, Ed.D., associate professor. “Carmyn knew it was an interest of mine, and Linda asked me to be a faculty capstone mentor, so the interests just married each other.”

The capstone group consisted of Abigail Yeager, a marketing major from Butler, Indiana; Sara Schannen, a management major from Auburn, Indiana; Elias Sandholm, a management major from Third Lake, Illinois; and Abbie Bost, a sport management major from Chelsea, Michigan.

Yeager and Schannen said they were drawn to the project from having worked with non-profit agencies in DeKalb County.

Sandholm recently moved from Sweden to the United States, and said the project helped him gain an understanding of the differences between social systems in this nation, while Bost enjoyed the opportunity to work on “something bigger than just myself, something many of us aren't paying enough attention to.”

Measuring attitudes

The group was charged with creating a survey of county residents to measure attitudes toward the issue of poverty and potential solutions.

Lusher commented, “it required a lot of research to establish the methodology.”

They conducted extensive research of other counties and cities that had administered a community impact survey.

“We found survey examples from not only other cities, but also national agencies, like the National Aging and Disability Transport Center,” the group said in an email. “This research not only supplied us with what other organizations are asking, but also how to (or how to not) effectively lay it out.”

The group released the survey following approval from the university’s Institutional Review Board and will accept responses until 11:59 p.m. April 12.

Once the survey closes, the team will examine the responses and provide analysis and recommendations to the Steuben County Community Foundation in a research paper.

Lusher said she hopes the project will continue next fall with a new capstone group that will help bring the recommendations to life.