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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (March 1, 2012) — Dr. Bert Allen and Dr. Joy Drinnon will present their research, “Warmer, Safer, Drier: The Results of Ministry by Appalachia Service Project,” as part of the Milligan College Faculty Lecture Series on Monday, March 12, at 7 p.m. in Hyder Auditorium, located in the Milligan Science Building. This event is free and open to the public.
Following the lecture, there will be an informal reception with Allen, professor of psychology, and Drinnon, associate professor of psychology. The professors will be available to answer questions and visit with audience members.
Appalachia Service Project (ASP) provides life-changing short-term Christian mission trip opportunities, bringing youth, adult and college volunteers into rural Central Appalachia to make homes warmer, safer and drier for families in need. The ASP ministry extends from southern West Virginia into southwest Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee and soon into western North Carolina.
Although ASP had been evaluating its ministry over the past 40 years, the organization had never directly assessed the effect of its work on residents of the rehabilitated homes or on the volunteers who completed each task. Every year, improvements are made to 400 to 500 homes by more than 12,000 volunteers. However, up until 2009, no one had stopped to ask how these improvements affected the recipients or providers.
In 2009, the budding partnership between ASP and Milligan professors sparked an ongoing examination of the ministry’s effects. The examination involved students in psychology and research that worked in conjunction with the two professors to develop interview and survey materials that would adequately measure the effects on both residents and volunteers.
“Our research shows ASP allows residents to feel safer and provide better lives for their children,” said Allen. “The ministry also allows those volunteers coming into the region to see its beauty and its needs as well as develop meaningful relationships with the people of Appalachia that continue years past the initial encounters.”
Allen and Drinnon will discuss the successes and failures in conducting this research and the sense of ministry involved. They also will share what they have learned about poverty, ministry and serving God through something as academic and quantitative as data collection and analyses. They also will describe the adventures of those going into the mountains to collect the data, the beauty of Appalachia, the threats to it and the extent of poverty evident throughout.
For more information about Milligan, visit www.milligan.edu. To learn more about Appalachia Service Project, visit www.asphome.org.