The Impact of COVID-19: Understanding Basic Needs in the Redwood City and North Fair Oaks Community
"The pandemic has reminded all of us that we are in it together. We all have a collective responsibility to care for our youth and communities."
- Brandon Balzer Carr
Gardner Center Research Associates Brandon Balzer-Carr and Kristin Geiser provide perspective on a study underway to better understand the highest priority needs experienced by families in Redwood City and North Fair Oaks during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discuss the study's impact on the Gardner Center's broader strand of work in the area of youth health and wellbeing.
Youth Action Research Fellowships: A Win-Win-Win
Last year, we had the opportunity to build upon the Gardner Center’s legacy of community youth engagement and create an innovative summer research experience for first-generation college students in California’s Central Valley. Supported by a grant from College Futures Foundation, Liz Newman and Laurel Sipes led the partnership with Kern Community Foundation to design and pilot a Youth Action Research Fellowship. The Fellowship leveraged the Gardner Center’s expertise in youth-led research, adapting our tools and processes to engage six KCF need-based scholarship recipients in building youth voice and generating data to inform efforts to advance equitable college attainment. 
The Relationship of Moderate and Late Preterm Birth to Long-Term Educational Outcomes
An interdisciplinary team at the School of Medicine and the Gardner Center, including Executive Director Amy Gerstein, co-authored an article appearing in the most recent Journal of Pediatrics. The study found that, after adjusting for socioeconomic status and compared with full-term births, moderate and late preterm births are associated with increased risk of low performance in mathematics and English language arts, as well as chronic absenteeism and suspension from school.
Early Warning Indicator Systems in Action
Senior Research Associate Laurel Sipes and Hadar Baharav, researcher at the Levinsky College of Education in Israel and former Senior Research Associate at the Gardner Center, co-authored a chapter on Early Warning Indicators in the most recent Teachers College Record.
Congrats to Tom Dee & Steven Adelsheim
TOM DEE, Gardner Center faculty director, has been awarded the 2020 Community Outcomes and Impact Award from the International Association for Research on Service Learning & Community Engagement (IARSLCE). Tom is recognized with his colleagues Professor Emily Penner (University of California, Irvine), and Assistant Superintendent Bill Sanderson (San Francisco Unified School District) for their research on the impacts of ethnic studies courses on student attendance and achievement. Their scholarship has informed policy and practice in the development, adoption, and defense of ethnic studies requirements in K-12 schools. 
STEVEN ADELSHEIM, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and valued partner on Gardner Center mental health projects, was awarded a supervisor’s medals by Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian for advancing the well-being of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was honored for founding an early intervention mental health program for young people. The program, called allcove, is tentatively scheduled to begin offering services in San Jose and Palo Alto in the spring.