Projects
Our
Since its founding in 2019, JoY Lab projects have been unified by an asset-forward and human-centered approach to research and praxis inspired by our mission to advance justice in all its forms. Collaborations with youth, elders, community, and transdisciplinary partners have led to innovative and transformative co-created projects with meaningful impacts.
West Philadelphia Youth and Community-Driven Participatory Action Research Projects
West Philadelphia High School Archival and Preservation Project
The West Philadelphia High School (WPHS) Preservation Project is an intergenerational, community-led participatory heritage project concentrated on West Philadelphia High School, which has been a pillar of the community since its founding in 1912. Our project seeks to change the idea of a traditional preservationist through the integration of new media and digital technologies that center the community cultural wealth of both your and older adult alumni.
West Philadelphia Community
Dialogue Project
The West Philadelphia Community Dialogue Project (WPCDP) brings together community, academic, mediation, legal, philanthropic, and cross-sector partners in traditional indigenous dialogue practices to foster restorative justice, intergenerational connection, and communal healing in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone.
Arts-centered Community Action: AmeriCorps Seniors Community Researchers Project
This project brings together a bridge cohort of twelve Black elder community researchers from three distinct collaborative research projects along with the program curators, Writers Room artists, JoY Lab graduate research fellows, and Drexel staff to develop a toolkit of best practices as leaders of intergenerational research projects focused on arts-centered civic action.
Placekeeping
A Co-Designed Model for Intergenerational Co-housing and Coalition Building in a University-Adjacent Community
NSF CIVIC
Building on the work of the Anti-Displacement: The Untapped Potential of University-Community Cooperative Living, this Community-driven Participatory Action Research (CDPR) study, our cross-sector teams uses a multimodal narrative approach to examine the process of co-creating social cohesion and weaving civic fabric within a co-designed arts-centered intentional community of homesharers and new homeowners amongst diverse constituencies in a university-adjacent community. The project highlights a potentially sustainable strategy for equitable development and addresses the racial wealth gap in Black homeownership.
Arts-centered Community Action: Writers Room TRIPOD Program’s Research Project
Centering the strengths and assets of our intergenerational Community-driven Participatory Action Research (CPAR) team, this multi-modal narrative research study uses arts-based methodologies to investigate how Drexel University’s Writers Room, a university-community literary arts program and specifically its TRIPOD multimedia storytelling project, may influence civic engagement and community-driven civic innovation.
Black Women
and Families in STE(A)M
Black Girls STEAMing
through Dance (BGSD)
Black Girls STEAMing through Dance (BGSD) is a transdisciplinary after-school and co-curricular program for 7–12-year-old Black girls in (the West Philadelphia Promise Zone) that engages Black Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math-related activities encouraging the youth to discover knowledge about STEAM learning and self-concept formation.
Women in Natural Sciences (WINS):A Longitudinal Comparative Case Study of Black Women in STEMM
(1995-2015)
In partnership with the Academy of Natural Sciences, this comparative longitudinal study examines the life outcomes and narratives among 20 years of participants and non-participants in Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) cohorts.
Project REACH
The Project REACH study investigates the role of racism in the lives of Black caregivers and their autistic children using a mixed methods design, aiming to provide insights into their experiences and inform future tailored interventions by examining both risk and resilience.
Archived
Joy Lab Projects
Engaging Women in Engineering:
Training Mentors to Make a Difference (EngWINS)
Years active: 2018-2021
Under a three-year grant funded by the National Science Foundation, the EngWINS program supported the design of engineering knowledge and skill development in an out-of-school STEM program for women of color high school students across Philadelphia. The project explored the impact of mentorship where participants held internships in engineering labs.
Anti-Displacement: The Untapped Potential of University-Community Cooperative Living (“AmeriCorps 1.0”)
Years active: 2018-2023
This project brings together an intergenerational university-community research team to investigate the landscape of residential displacement and affordable housing options in the rapidly gentrifying, federally designated West Philadelphia Promise Zone. Our Community-driven Participatory Action Research (CPAR) study illuminates the existing housing options, how well these options are understood by residents, and community interest in alternative options, specifically in university-community cooperative living.
Youth Research Fellows Project
Years active: 2015-2017
The Youth Research Fellows project was the first YPAR project founded by Dr. Ayana Allen-Handy along with then graduate research assistant Dr. Shawnna Thomas-EL pre-dating the development of the JoY Lab, put the very rock upon which the vision of JoY Lab was born. This YPAR project engaged five amazing high school students during their junior and senior years at Science Leadership Academy Center City. Throughout the program students engaged in participatory research exploring critical issues impacting their local communities in Philadelphia. The program culminated with the fellows presenting their research at the International Conference on Urban Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico where they were featured presenters and supported local schools in Puerto Rico through their service project. The students’ research was also published in the book: Global Perspectives on Issues and Solutions in Urban Education
