Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit

Community Connections is a resident-centered grant program working to strengthen civic engagement and grassroots leadership in six Detroit neighborhoods: Brightmoor, Chadsey Condon, Cody Rouge, North End, Osborn, and Southwest. It awards grants of $500 to$5,000 to local projects that mobilize residents' energies to improve opportunities and conditions for youth. Community Connections was launched by the Skillman Foundation in 2006 as part of the Foundation's Good Neighborhoods initiative, and is operated by Prevention Network, a statewide organization experienced in running resident-focused small grants programs. Since 2012 it has also received major support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.Rooted in the conviction that local groups and leaders are essential if neighborhoods are to create safe environments where children and youth can grow up successfully, the program is guided by a four-fold impact framework. At its heart is a commitment to expand residents' civic engagement. Through its project support and related learning opportunities, Community Connections helps strengthen community leadership in these neighborhoods. Projects offer positive youth development opportunities to children and teens in these neighborhoods. And some projects contribute to systems change by connecting with kids in ways that larger institutional systems currently miss, by helping to create alternatives to those established institutional systems, and by engaging in neighborhood planning, policy advocacy and other efforts to reform those systems

Design and Embodiment of a Novel Adjustable Active Cardiac Support Device System

The American Heart Association estimates that congestive heart failure (CHF) affects over 5 million people in the United States. Recent research indicates that current pharmacological therapies have limitations in their ability to treat end-stage heart failure patients. Device based therapies that provide passive support and active assist through altering the stress environment to reduce end diastolic volume and increase stroke work may be beneficial in overcoming the limitations of simply just increasing the use of pharmacological therapies; however, current devices are inadequate in their design to restore natural heart mechanics. Dr. John C. Criscione of Texas A&M has proposed a minimally invasive adjustable active cardiac support device (AACSD) that promotes natural heart mechanics using passive support and active assist. Design research, using FDA Design Controls, is necessary to supplement prototyping to develop and embody a design for manufacture for continued proof-of-concept studies in ovines. The design research consists of identifying user needs and functionality of the AACSD for the development of design specifications that drive the design process for the selection of a suitable concept for the AACSD. With a concept selected, geometry and materials of the device are selected to embody a design for manufacture. A parts list, engineering drawings, and assembly instructions allow for the manufacture of the device. Finally, a failure modes and effects analysis allows for evaluation of the design and recommendations for future design research. The design research successfully identified an embodied design for manufacture that will aid in further development of the AACSD as a future therapy for CHF

Letter to Mother

Letter from Mims Williams to his mother, Virginia Williams, regarding the will of Bill Douglass. Typed on a letterhead from Capital Lumber Company in Braxton, Mississippi.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1036/thumbnail.jp

Letter to Cammie Williams

Letter from Mims Williams to his brother, Cammie Williams, regarding the education of their sons.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1161/thumbnail.jp

Letter to Clerk of Jefferson County, Texas

Letter to the clerk of Jefferson County in Beaumont, Texas, regarding the will of William L. Douglas. At the bottom is a handwritten reply advising Williams to write E.B. Pickett, the clerk of Liberty County, Texas.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1041/thumbnail.jp

Letter to J. D. Banks

Letter to J. D. Banks of Kirbyville, Texas, from Mims Williams, regarding the will of William Douglass.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1037/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Mims Williams to His Mother

Letter from Mims Williams in Magee, Mississippi, to his mother, Virginia Williams, regarding timber sales.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1148/thumbnail.jp

Letter to Cammie Williams

Letter from Mims Williams to his brother, Cammie Williams, regarding the latter\u27s health and insurance.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1058/thumbnail.jp

Letter about Measles

Letter from Mims Williams, General Merchant and Cotton Buyer, to his mother, regarding cases of measles at Port Gibson, Mississippi.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1032/thumbnail.jp

Letter to Mote Williams

Letter from Mims Williams to Mote Williams in Terry, Mississippi, about hay baling.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1056/thumbnail.jp