CuSAG has begun the development of ongoing research, technical assistance and training field sites in the communities in which CuSAG has been involved in the Capital Black Belt. This process has developed over the past decade through the work of students enrolled each semester in Dr. Whitehead’s Urban Ethnography class, which has a field ethnography company.

Dr. Whitehead found that the data collected by students in his urban ethnography class, especially assessment and evaluation data, could be added to ongoing data bases that will then be made available to organizations for securing funding and carrying out their own future projects.  Along with the development of the CAECHS, CuSAG plans to formally establish communities of the broader Baltimore Washington Urban Corridor as ongoing CuSAG field sites, based on the various communities in which CAEHCS members are carrying out research or other professional work. Though this develpment, these data will be able to be constantly updated with increasing detail.

As demonstrated through his urban ethnography class, ongoing field sites provide students with experiential training opportunities in real communities. The field sites will also facilitate the technical assistance component of the CAECHS, as students will be involved in assisting community based organizations (CBOs) with the community and cultural assessment research, and in planning, implementation, and evaluation of their (the CBOs) projects. Communities will also receive technical assistance from the researchers and other professionals who are carrying out work there, or through their supervision of their students working in these communities. 

This field site model will also be established in Jamaica, and perhaps other parts of the Caribbean, as the CNYCH is established. Similar field sites will be developed in India as that collaborative also develops.