Calvin Students Research Kent County Congregations

August 16, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: A summer-long research project at Calvin College surveying hundreds
of Kent County congregations is nearing an end.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/kccs.htm

Summer work on the ground-breaking Kent County Congregations Study (KCCS), a
large research project funded by the Grand Rapids-based Doug and Maria DeVos
Foundation, is nearing an end at Calvin College.

Since the middle of June, 13 student and alumni research assistants, under the
supervision of 2006 Calvin graduate Nate Medeiros-Ward and Calvin Center for
Social Research assistant director Neil Carlson, have been contacting and
interviewing some 250 Kent County congregational leaders.

The project is documenting the social services each Kent County congregation
offers its members and the wider community. It also aims to enhance these
efforts by establishing a network for congregations to tap into, by identifying
areas of need in the larger community and by equipping the community in turn to
strengthen the efforts of congregations in area of need.

Carlson and his associates plan to convert the database of information on Kent
County congregations into an on-line directory in the spring of 2008, pending
approval from individual congregations. This resource will provide contact
information and a list of services for each participating congregation. There
are over 750 such religious congregations in Kent County.

For Calvin students, the opportunity to be part of this landmark study was
gratifying.

"This is the most comprehensive study that’s ever been done of congregations
in Kent County. It's cool to be a part of the field research, the actual work
of something that might have a greater effect in the future," says Calvin
senior Todd LaForest of Flint.

The research assistants go in pairs to interviews, with one person acting as
the primary interviewer while the other takes notes and facilitates
conversation flow when necessary.

Several summer research assistants will stay on board through the fall,
helping to wrap up the work the CSR is doing for the Kent County Congregations
Study. Carlson said that the team plans to do data cleaning and analysis in the
fall, followed by report-writing in the winter. Once these phases of the
project are complete, a report detailing KCCS findings will be published in
spring 2008.

Contact Carlson at 616-526-6420

-end-
Received on Thu Aug 16 08:17:04 2007