Dr. Robert Atkins is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing, Rutgers University where he received his Master’s of Science in Nursing. He earned bachelor’s degrees in Political Science from Brown University and Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Public Health at Temple University. He is the co-founder and president of the Camden STARR Program, a community-based non-profit youth development program for children and youth living in Camden.
Dr. Atkins was a school nurse at East Camden Middle School when he started the STARR Program with Rutgers professor Daniel Hart. The two hoped that they could foster the development of responsibility and resiliency in children and adolescents living in Camden through year-round recreational activity, community service, academic enrichment and the opportunity to form meaningful relationships with caring and consistent adults.
The Camden STARR Program is a non-profit youth micro-program which means it is a volunteer organization with a small budget that seeks to promote youth development. All of the adults who contribute to the STARR Program are volunteers, so every dollar donated to the STARR Program goes directly to improving the life chances for children and youth growing up in Camden, NJ. In addition, none of the several hundred youth who have participated in any of the STARR Program activities – such as camping and canoe trips and an annual weeklong summer camp in Vermont – over the past decade has ever paid to be a part of the program.
Dr. Atkins is the 2006 Concerned Black Nurses of Newark Research Nurse of the Year Recipient. His research addresses theory and practice for improving the life chances of children and youth living in high-poverty, urban neighborhoods. This interest grows from his experiences in Camden-one of America’s poorest cities–as a school nurse, the director of Healthy Futures for Camden Youth, a public health initiative, and as the co-founder of the Camden STARR program.
Dr. Atkins’ research with nationally representative longitudinal survey data illuminates the effects of urban poverty on child and adolescent development. his current work explores three questions about the development of youth living in high-poverty neighborhoods: 1) What social and institutional processes mediate the relationship of high-poverty neighborhoods to the health and well-being of youth living in those neighborhoods? 2) How does stress influence personality development in childhood? 3) How does childhood personality influence the emergence of risky and health-damaging behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood?
Dr. Atkins lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey with his wife Joy, a Rutgers University graduate, and sons R.J. and Pierce.
References/Citations
More information on the STARR program can be found on the web at: http://children.camden.rutgers.edu/STARR/about.htm