2025-12-04
- Art expression has always been important to Katie Shumway, the Senior Director of Engagement for the Illinois School of Social Work and FRC Collaboratory member. She brings this perspective to crafting community-university partnerships, which require a creativity facility for engendering productive relationships.
"Art expression activates a part of my brain that might not otherwise be activated," she said. "It allows me to process thoughts and emotions in a different way, and it helps me learn things about myself that my everyday routine might not uncover."
In her role...
2025-11-06 - FRC produced two more microlearning video trainings in October. These covered common issues in evaluation reporting practices—namely, how to avoid overwhelming a reader with irrelevant data and how to approach reporting on unexpected or surprising outcomes. The videos feature the example of a television weather news reporter who finds himself drawn toward leaning on these suboptimal reporting techniques. "I just love what you're doing," said Champaign County Developmental Disabilities Board member Susan Fowler at the October 22, 2025 meeting. "I taught research methodology for years at the...
2025-10-20 - Throughout her professional life, Beverley Baker's experiences have encouraged her to understand community from a systems perspective. Baker currently serves as the Chief Impact Officer at the United Way of Champaign County (UWCC) and will begin a new role in spring 2026 as that organization's President and Chief Executive Officer. She serves on the Family Resiliency Center (FRC)'s Steering Committee and is a member of the FRC Collaboratory. "What I have valued and enjoyed the most through my various roles here with United Way has been building bridges across our community...
2025-10-17 - Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Count to ten. Although these strategies for calming down during a stressful situation might be familiar to you, children do not inherently know them. Rather, they need to learn how to regulate their emotions and rely heavily on others to help. Beyond this, children need to experience what self-regulation feels like—what it means to be able to shift from tense to tranquil. A new paper from the Family Resiliency Center (FRC) outlines how to implement a mindful movement program that promotes...
2025-08-01 - On July 31, 2025, Unit 4 Youth Employment Services (YES) Program students celebrated the successful completion of an eight-week Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project at the University of Illinois Family Resiliency Center. The collaboration between Unit 4, the City of Champaign, and the University of Illinois provided students with invaluable career readiness skills and real-world research experience. Seven Unit 4 students from...
2025-07-31 - The COVID-19 pandemic upended life for individuals and communities worldwide. Social isolation, health mandates, illness, and economic hardships took a toll on the well-being of families and children, but there were also silver linings to people’s experiences. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at impacts of the pandemic among youth and parents across the U.S. Midwest. Their findings...
2025-07-22 - Performing research at the Family Resiliency Center (FRC) was nothing like what Tarie Somsak expected. A rising junior studying neuroscience and cognitive sciences at Tulane University, Somsak spent her summer at FRC as part of the Research and Education for the Advancement of Compassionate Healthcare (REACH) program, which matches undergraduates interested in medical school with research opportunities across campus. At FRC, Somsak worked with data from a mindful movement...
2025-06-11 - Rachel Jackson-Gordon is a postdoctoral research associate at the Family Resiliency Center whose work focuses on violence prevention, program implementation and community-engaged research. She spoke with IGPA about the potential benefits and implications of Karina’s Law, an Illinois bill that requires local law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from a person who has an order of protection against them. How might Karina’s Law impact...
2025-05-22 - A familiar name appeared in the program at this month’s commencement: Yuliana Soto, former trainee at the Family Resiliency Center (FRC), was graduating as a Doctor of Philosophy in kinesiology and community health. Currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago, Soto’s research strives to promote brain health and health equity across the lifespan, specifically among underserved populations. She advances this work through a number of projects—some new, some a continuation of her graduate studies. But whether old or new, Soto’s approaches are influenced...
2025-05-20 - Before earning her Ph.D. in epidemiology, Becky Smith trained as a doctor of veterinary medicine. This combination of disciplines grounds Smith’s approach to promoting research uptake. “One of the things we are taught in vet school is to be certain you know what the client wants from you,” said Smith, associate professor of epidemiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Health Innovation Professor at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. “You are part of a team. You are not the only one involved. So I am not doing research simply for the sake of doing research; I’m...
2025-05-19 - Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a decline in U.S. vaccine uptake, while widespread misinformation and distrust make it challenging to craft effective public health responses. In a new paper, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers discuss three case studies exemplifying different vaccine attitudes and behaviors. Their findings underscore the need for flexible approaches to reach diverse audiences with disease prevention strategies...
2025-05-01 - FRC researchers were especially active and engaged at this year’s Undergraduate Research Symposium. In the morning session for oral presentations, senior Sufiya Shazia and junior Anya Altangerel—both psychology majors—spoke about findings from their work with two separate FRC research projects. Shazia showcased data about how a mindful intervention in a preschool setting can reduce the risk of expulsion and improve teachers’ perceptions of and implicit assumptions about their students. (This mindful movement intervention is the same one that...
2025-04-26 - All semester, a group of students at Kenneth D. Bailey Academy in Danville have been studying the impacts that living in public housing can have on the mental health of those who live there. They presented their findings at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s annual undergrad symposium on Thursday. The student-led research project was part of the...
2025-04-16 - There is no typical day for A.J. Zwettler, director of employment services at the Developmental Services Center (DSC). Zwettler runs the Connections and Community First programs for DSC, one of the premier providers of services and supports for individuals in Champaign and Ford counties with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Every day, for upwards of 70 individuals, the Community First program offers over 40 weekly groups focusing on a variety of interests and recreational activities, like cooking or swimming. Connections is a complementary arts program that...
2025-04-07 - For youth of all ages, learning often happens beyond the formal circumstances and training of the classroom. Discovering one’s passion or connecting with an impactful mentor are important contexts for learning that can occur during Out-of-School Time (OST) programming, which comprises programs that take place before and after school and during summer break. Now, new Illinois research in the Journal of Youth Development shows how differences in the frequency and length of OST programs can make a significant difference in the...