Alliance for Learning: Good-Neighbor Policies

By Deborah L. Cohen

Clipboards in hand, a cadre of social-work students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham worked their way door to door through a section of the neighboring community of North Titusville. Chaufferred by their associate professor, Gayle Wykle, the students were querying residents about their housing needs. Their mission: to help the community get a grant for new housing.

Thanks in part to the students' efforts, North Titusville was able to raze some dilapidated houses and put up new units without dislodging residents. What's more, the data the students gleaned in their survey helped city housing officials reshape the architects' original plan to better meet residents' needs. Neighborhood leaders also took note of astute students' informal observations to monitor "hot spots'' for drug and crime activity.

Wykle's students also have taken to the phones to follow up with parents about hearing and vision screenings that health faculty members and students from the university have conducted at Titusville's Washington Elementary School. The students discuss test results with parents and offer them advice on how to overcome obstacles to...