BreakingGround Awardee: Engaged for Safety

Congratulations to Dr. Nkiru Nnawulezi and Jay Leveton for being awarded a BreakingGround grant! Their project – “Engaged for Safety: A Volunteer Training Pipeline for Partner Engagement in Abuse Intervention Programs” – will contribute to UMBC’s continued commitment to fostering collective thriving and civic agency.

This project creates a pipeline for advanced UMBC undergraduate psychology students to volunteer with the Gateway Project's partner engagement program at House of Ruth Maryland, a Baltimore-based abuse intervention program that helps people who use abusive behavior in their relationships learn nonviolent relationship skills. Through a volunteer training developed collaboratively by the UMBC research team and House of Ruth staff, students will build trauma-informed skills in active listening, transparent communication, and supporting survivors' decision-making, while deepening their critical consciousness about intimate partner violence and the contextual conditions that contribute to it. Two cohorts of three students each will complete the training during the 2026–2027 academic year, with evaluation after each cycle informing improvements to training content. The project is open to advanced psychology undergraduates pursuing relevant areas of study, with recruitment through courses such as Psychology of Women and Gender, Community Psychology, and Making a Difference. This seed funding will support the development of a training manual, recruitment materials, and evaluation tools that establish a sustainable, mutually beneficial volunteer pipeline between UMBC's Psychology department and the Gateway Project.

Jay Leveton said about this project:

I think this program will be an incredible way to create a lasting opportunity for UMBC students to create a difference in Baltimore and to support survivors of intimate partner violence. Students will feel more confident in their skills and ability to serve their community and will hopefully find both personal and professional growth.

The BreakingGround initiative provides grants of up to $2,500 to UMBC faculty, staff, and students who want to launch or strengthen educational and community-building projects. These projects should, as a part of their work, foster civic agency: the ability to initiate and make meaningful contributions to social change. For more information, visit the BreakingGround website at civiclife.umbc.edu/breakingground.