• 2007-2008 Dates & Deadlines  • How to Participate

Welcome To The Public Service Clinics!

THE 2007-2008 PUBLIC SERVICE CLINICS

The Evans School of Public Affairs celebrates the tenth year of the Public Service Clinics and introduces a new clinic on poverty and economic security for 2008.

The clinics enable public and non-profit agencies to propose applied research topics to be matched with a graduate student on a broad range of public affairs, management, and policy areas. These address the people, services, land, resources and communities in our region. Since inception, over two hundred student-agency projects have produced program evaluations, strategic plans, policy analyses, and new program designs that have been deployed in real world applications.

Please join us on Thursday, June 12th for the Public Service Clinics Presentation Day. Students will present their research and findings to their clients, peers, faculty, and community. The event will take place from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm in Parrington Hall on the University of Washington campus.

If you are a student currently enrolled in the clinics, the student resources section contains valuable information about research methods and Human Subjects Review policies. Potential students interested in learning more about the clinics can look at our library of completed topics and examples of clinic descriptions and syllabi from past years.

If you are an agency interested in the clinics, you can learn more by reading about how to participate and by visiting our library of completed topics. Our next call for topics will be in September 2008.

NEW LOOK FOR THE 2007-2008 PUBLIC SERVICE CLINICS!

To help students and agencies prepare for the upcoming public service clinic year, here are brief descriptions of the three clinics that will be offered in 2007-2008 with links to the professors leading them.

The Poverty and Economic Security Clinic will address topics such as income support programs, tax policy, child support, low income housing, labor market policies and programs for low and middle income workers, educational programs for at-risk children, teen childbearing, health insurance, and social services for low and middle income families. Agencies are invited to propose projects on suitable other topics as well.

The clinic will be led by Professor Robert Plotnick, co-chair of the West Coast Poverty Center, and will link to the work of this Evans School research center. Professor Plotnick is a social policy economist who has taught courses and written widely on American poverty, income inequality, and social welfare policy.

 

The Environment and Community Sustainability Clinic focuses on topics dealing with the natural environment and its protection in the context of metropolitan development. Can human activity sustain and steward the environment and the water, land, and air resources on which we depend? Can individual and community action in how we transport ourselves and build cities and neighborhoods be sustainable? Do answers to these questions lead to new definitions and practices in economic and community development? Topics related to these and other questions can be addressed in this clinic at the local, state, regional and national levels.

The clinic will be led by Daniel Carlson, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Public Service Clinics who draws on more than thirty years' experience with applied research.

 

The Service Delivery and Performance Management Clinic focuses on topics that involve improving service delivery, program efficiency, strategic positioning, and performance measurement. Topics in this clinic span a variety of substantive policy areas. This clinic's degree projects emphasize assessing and recommending approaches to develop more effective services and to improve organizational performance.

The clinic will be led by David S. Harrison, Senior Lecturer, whose recent assignments within Washington State government have focused on ways to improve agency program intergration and service delivery to better close workforce skills gaps.

2006-2007: A SUCCESSFUL YEAR!

On June 7, 2007, the Public Service Clinic students presented their research findings and answed questions from agencies, faculty, peers, and the Evans School community.  The event capped a very successful year with 32 students working on projects for thirty different public agencies and non-profit organizations. 

For an overview of the topics addressed in 2006-2007 clinics, you can view the program from Presentation Day.  You can also see examples of outstanding projects in complete form here. 

For further information, please contact the Clinics Coordinator.

MORE ABOUT THE PUBLIC SERVICE CLINICS!

A resource for public and nonprofit managers
How often do you wish you could assess a new program, survey how your counterparts are innovating, develop a new system, or explore the feasibility of an untested idea? If you are like most leaders and managers in the public and non-profit community, you see frequent opportunities for targeted, practical, applied research projects.  The Evans School provides an innovative resource to help you address some of those needs. It's called the Public Service Clinics and it links the skills and services of second year graduate students with projects you identify.

Public Service Clinics overview
The Public Service Clinics are two quarter, six credit courses which connect graduate student research interests with applied research, organization change, and capacity building activities identified by non-profits, public agencies or students. By linking the degree project requirement with real needs of community agencies, the clinics provide substantial benefits to the broader community and to the graduate studies experience.

Each graduate student will have a faculty advisor(s) with expertise in research and project design and the substantive field in which the student is engaged, as well as the advice and counsel of the agency project manager. Clinics meet as regularly scheduled classes providing a structured environment in which to identify research questions and methods, develop a workplan, design and implement the project, and present draft and final reports. The clinics span winter and spring quarters (approximately 250 hours) and end with a completed report/project for the client agency which simultaneously fulfills the degree project MPA requirement. Each degree project will:

• define a research question,
• provide historical and theoretical context to the issues being addressed,
• employ appropriate tools to analyze information, and
• offer findings and recommendations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Public Service Clinics
Daniel Carlson, Director
Katherine Killebrew, Coordinator
University of Washington
Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs
109D Parrington Hall, Box 353055
Seattle, WA 98195-3055

Tel: (206) 221-3676
Fax: (206) 543-1096
E-mail: psclinic@u.washington.edu