About Us
What We Want to Help Change
Poverty continues to very dramatically and adversely affect quality-of-life outcomes for nearly 20% of the U.S. population--including nearly 21% of all children--despite multi-sector, diverse efforts across many decades to reverse these alarming trends. Children enduring poverty often lack meaningful, sustained access to life-enriching opportunities in education and the arts as well as other critically-important opportunities and experiences impacting basic quality of life--the adverse ramifications of which continue in various regards throughout individuals' lifetimes. The life-eroding trajectory of persistently-high poverty rates within many urban and rural American communities annually impacts approximately 48 million families and 15 million children. These individuals often endure serious deprivation across multiple arenas of their lives, including disproportionately-high incidence of food insecurity and hunger, homelessness, infant mortality, chronic disease and disability, school drop-out, substance addiction, mental illness, incarceration, and shortened life expectancy, among multiple other adverse consequences. World-wide, nearly 50% of children (over one billion) live in poverty, and approximately 26,000 or more children die each day, many of whom never have tasted a single glass of clean water and most of whom have not reached the age of five. In the U.S. as well as other world regions, cycles of generational poverty have disproportionately impacted populations historically under-served and marginalized. These populations have endured varying levels of discrimination on many fronts throughout U.S. history, producing multiple deeply-rooted and systemic barriers to educational and economic opportunity. CIRPA is being organized to develop and promote the kinds of robust, multi-level human and community development interventions needed to reverse these trends, remove barriers, and collaboratively build sustainable infrastructures to 1) help alleviate generational poverty in targeted regions in the U.S. and abroad; 2) promote pathways to living-wage jobs and strategic community partnerships to sustain and develop these efforts; and 3) enhance educational and arts-based opportunities and quality-of-life outcomes for children, youth, and families living in poverty. How We're Pursuing this Needed Change
CIRPA is preparing to conduct a novel program of interdisciplinary, community-based intervention research incorporating multi-level student/parent intervention components integrated with strategic, sustainable community partnerships, supports, and philanthropy. The goal of this program of research is to build a replicable, evidence-based and highly-integrated model of child/family and community interventions and associated resources and tools to help alleviate pockets of persistent poverty, promote stronger more viable communities and improved quality of life, foster life-enriching expanded opportunities and student achievement in education and the arts, and promote improved overall educational, developmental, and economic outcomes for children, youth, and families. These integrated interventions will be designed to bring much-needed relief to regions and individuals enduring persistent poverty by building bridges and pathways to educational and economic opportunity. The interventions and associated tools and resources developed through CIRPA's research will be systematically informed and designed through successive research phases incorporating Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodologies. The CBPR process will provide ongoing opportunities for children/youth, parents, and other community members to collaborate with intervention researchers in the careful design of intervention protocols that are culturally-sensitive, community-based, and solution-focused. 
Join With our Efforts
CIRPA offers a variety of opportunities through which serious-minded, compassionate and committed advocates, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, community organizations, corporate partners, researchers, and volunteers may join with our efforts.
Click here to learn more about how to become involved. 
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Welcome Message from the CIRPA Founder and Executive Director
Thank you for visiting the CIRPA website. Please click here to read the Executive Director's "Welcome Message."
The CIRPA Organization
CIRPA's Current Community-Based ResearchAssessing Needs, Barriers, Goals, and Commitments through "Multi-Level Assessment Tools" (M-LAT)
The Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodology implemented in CIRPA's research will involve systematically gathering experiential insights and perspectives of parent/child research participants, schools, businesses, and service organizations to richly inform the development of intervention protocols and tools well-matched to the needs of individuals and communities. Through the CBPR process, community stakeholders not only will inform the development of the "Multi-Level Assessment Tools" (M-LAT), but also periodically will complete specified portions of the M-LAT to provide the ongoing data and perspectives needed to assure that parent/child and community interventions are well-monitored and revised as needed to remain responsive to the needs and challenges of individuals and communities being served. Developing "Protocols for Arts-Based and Other Educational Interventions" (PABE) Through collaborative, community-based research, CIRPA will work with practitioners, students, families, and community partners to develop and field test specific protocols for arts-based and other educational interventions to promote increased educational opportunities, participation/attendance, and improved educational outcomes-- including enhanced artistic and musical development as well as improved general educational achievement--for low-income students living in high-poverty regions. Developing "School Guidelines for Expanded Opportunities in Music and the Arts for Children and Youth in Poverty" (GEOMA) Through collaborative researcher-practitioner partnerships, CIRPA will work with school leaders, teachers, governing boards, and others to collaboratively develop and test new guidelines to increase opportunities in music and the arts for low-income students and students with disabilities. Promoting Concurrent Paths of Integrated, Multi-Level Intervention through the "Community and Family Intervention Model" (CFIM) CIRPA's novel, interdisciplinary program of research and philanthropy will strategically address issues of human and community development through a unified intervention approach that is richly-informed and well-monitored. This integrated approach will incorporate concurrent paths of child/parent and community development interventions and ongoing, strategic philanthropy. These integrated components will comprise the "Community and Family Intervention Model" (CFIM)--addressing interconnected, complex social issues through integrated multi-level interventions--helping to increase the likelihood of achieving sustainable, community-based solutions to poverty. Promoting Strong Community Partnerships and Linking Intervention Components, Community Partners, and Community Residents through the "Community Linkages Database" (CLD) Concurrent intervention paths and partnerships incorporated in the CFIM will be strategically linked and monitored through regularly-updated information regarding parent/child and community interventions maintained in the "Community Linkages Database" (CLD). The CLD is a novel community-level intervention tool being developed to (a) link community residents with employers, schools, service organizations, and resources; (b) match needs with opportunities; (c) establish strong, extended employer-worker alliances to promote sustained educational and career pathways; and (d) systematically support and guide human and community development interventions in high-poverty regions toward the goals of achieving sustainable alleviation of poverty and enhanced human and community well-being. The Role of Philanthropy in CIRPA's Organizational Support and Research
Individual and Corporate Philanthropy
Philanthropy not only is a critical component in CIRPA's ongoing community-based research and operations-support portfolio, but also serves as a core, integrated component of the "Community and Family Intervention Model" (CFIM) under development (please see below). Strategic Philanthropy as a Vital, Core Component of the Community and Family Intervention Model (CFIM) Each family participating in CIRPA community-based research will be paired with one or more project sponsors (e.g., social entrepreneurs, corporations, local businesses, employers) who will make specific, mutually-agreed-upon, sustained commitments of support to help further the educational and career development of parents and children/youth participating in CIRPA community-based research. Through strategic philanthropy and related entrepreneurship components of the CFIM, business development incentives and strategies will be identified to a) ensure capacity for strong viability and sustainability of community-based business commitments to specified family, school, and community development opportunities in education and the arts and corresponding objectives; b) help strengthen ongoing business profitability and growth in support of strong local economies, living-wage jobs creation, and poverty alleviation; and thus c) ensure the sustainability of enhanced, expanded opportunities in education and the arts for students and schools in high-poverty areas--strategically guided and promoted through CIRPA's community-based, groundbreaking research and research-to-practice efforts. |
