South Country

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=200 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1278dfc3.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hamlet Study"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Hamlet Study</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Community Circles"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Community Circles</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Community Land Trust"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Community Land Trust</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1288dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Arial" ><B>New Directions CBRI</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Directions CBRI"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> back to <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Communities"><U><B>Communities</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>South Country</B></div> <div> <B>Discover South Country Calendar</B></div> <bR> <div> New Directions has a partnership with the South Country Central School District (see <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.southcountry.org/"target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.southcountry.org/"target="_bl"><U>www.southcountry.org</U></A></FONT> ), which serves a community of 26,000 population with about 5,000 school age children over an area of 16 square miles including all of Bellport Village, Brookhaven Hamlet and North Bellport,  a large portion of East Patchogue and parts of Medford and Yaphank.  The population is more diverse than most school districts on Long Island, offering a rare opportunity to work with questions of relations between affluent and poor neighborhoods, and race and ethnic relations in the schools and the community.  </div> <bR> <div> The District has established a Family Support Center, which aims to coordinate health, mental health and social services for the betterment of families in the community and thereby to develop a better learning environment for present and future students.</div> <bR> <div> Our role in New Directions is to serve as a research broker by meeting with people in the community to identify their research needs and recruiting academic and professional experts to come in and help address the questions that are brought up by the local citizens.  </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>DISCOVER SOUTH COUNTRY</B></I><B> </B></div> <div> <I>Updated April 28, 2005</I></div> <div> <I>INTRODUCTION</I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I>     </I></FONT></div> <div> <I>Discover South Country</I> (DSC) is a suburban school district cooperative education extension program for grassroots community building. It is designed to enable the citizens of South Country to learn about their community and take an active role in shaping its future. Over time, it will build an information base and growing community awareness by involving citizens, district students and area university students in projects of basic research, community conversations and “learning by doing.” These projects will increase community resourcefulness and bring into being a <I>learning community</I> that will be able to assess and respond to opportunities and challenges.</div> <bR> <div> In April, 2003, the Board of Education welcomed New Directions Community-Based Research Institute to be a partner with the Family Support Center and to implement a local version of its <I>Discover Your Community </I>program<I>.</I>  Several preliminary  team building meetings were conducted with local residents and New Directions' academic associates and professional associates during the spring and summer of 2003.  Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael C. La Fever announced three Discover South Country initiatives in July, August and September of 2003.  From early 2003 through the Spring of 2005, these initiatives produced (1) a self study by over 50 residents sponsored by the SCCSD and the Town of Brookhaven called the South Country Hamlet Study; (2) a pilot community circles dialogue program; and (3) a South Country Community Land Trust, formed to help address the local housing needs identified in the self study. In addition, New Directions connected the school district's innovative Family Support Center (FSC) to the educational and social work programs at Stony Brook. The FSC identifies needs of children and families and arranges to provide services in one convenient location.</div> <bR> <div>    </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>