Reflections on the Concept of Social Capital: Complex Partnerships in Refugee and Immigrant Communities

Linda Silka, Ph.D.
Linda Silka, PhD, University Professor in the interdisciplinary Department of Regional Economic and Social Development, co-directs the Center for Family, Work, and Community at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. A social and community psychologist by training, Dr. Silka develops programs that create and evaluate community and university partnerships. Recent partnerships include the Southeast Asian Environmental Justice Partnership and the New Ventures Partnership funded in part the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a Community Outreach Partnership Center begun through funding from U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Office of University Partnerships, and the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Leadership and Empowerment. Dr. Silka involves community residents, students, and faculty in using new technologies such as community mapping to address long-standing community challenges. She teaches graduate courses in research ethics with underserved groups, applied research, program evaluation, geographic information systems, and grant writing, and consults to partnerships around the country on capacity building strategies in program evaluation and community-based research. Dr. Silka co-chairs the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs/University of Massachusetts Working Group on Community Preservation and is a member of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs’ Environment Justice Advisory Committee. In 1999, she was honored with the University of Massachusetts President’s Award for Outstanding Professional Service. Dr. Silka was recently 1 of 8 faculty nationally recognized for Ernest L. Lynton Honorable Mention for her work with refugee and immigrant communities. The HUD Community-Outreach Partnership Center that she co-directs has received a HUD “Best Practice” Award and been featured in the HUD National COPC Newsletter for outstanding work using technology with communities and engaging in economic development with refugee and immigrant communities.

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David Turcotte
Reflections on the Concept of Social Capital: Complex Partnerships in Refugee and Immigrant Communities
David Turcotte is a program manager at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Center for Family, Work, and Community. He has managed the CIRCLE (Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Leadership and Empowerment) Program which provides technical assistance, community economic development, organizational development and capacity building training to leaders of the minority and immigrant community. Mr. Turcotte is fluent in Spanish, has a master’s degree in Community Economic Development and 19 years of nonprofit and project management experience. He is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Massachusetts Lowell Department of Regional Economic and Social Development.

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