Building Community in Arizona and Jamaica

Building Communityin Arizona and Jamaica Sherry Betts, Gelefer Bartley, Pearline Carr, Leonie Clark, Cynthia Flynn, Geraldine Hodelin, Steve Husman, Jean James, Dan McDonald, Donna Peterson, Clover Scott, Beth Tucker

Partnership • Cooperative Extension • Norton School of Family & Consumer Sciences • University of Technology and Vocational Education—Jamaica • Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development • International Federation for Home Economics

Overarching Goals • An experiential professional development opportunity, designed to: • Increase the number of faculty interested in and prepared to work in developing countries. • Provide faculty with the opportunity for an international project and domestic community development work. • Improve Extension programs by helping faculty expand their sensitivity to other cultures and apply their knowledge of Extension approaches to local problems.

Objectives at 3 Levels • System • County and Campus Faculty • Community • The work toward objectives will be described in terms of the project implementation

Implementation • Three campus and three county faculty formed Arizona team • Four campus and two public school faculty formed Jamaica team • March 2004 Arizonans to Jamaica • June 2004 Jamaicans to Arizona • Follow-up March – December 2004 • Next steps January – March 2005 and beyond

At the System Level we: • Are integrating international efforts into the Community Development program and the Norton School of Family & Consumer Sciences Dan with Hardrock community member, Navajo Nation

Have increased faculty knowledge of International work in Extension through 2 articles in the Director’s Tuesday Morning Notes, networking, and presentations Beth during workshop, Kingston, Jamaica

Also, at the System Level: • Strengthened the Norton School’s outreach through Extension and international programs through IFHE, the Innovation Center, and applications for additional funding Steve with Student at Papine High School, Kingston

IFHE collaboration has resulted in a model program for the Region of the Americas which can be used in other regions of the world Sherry and Geri, IFHE Officers

More at the System Level: • The “Building Community Toolkit” was distributed and used in Arizona and Jamaica and a full day training in Trinidad will use it with FCS faculty from the Caribbean Team meeting in Kingston

UTECH has strengthened its international outreach and shared expertise while gaining skill in community development Students at Papine High School, Kingston

Arizonans said… • I am “interested in what my co-workers in AZ were doing…different perspective on the same issue. I maybe learned more than the Jamaican team, don’t know.” • “This has been one of the most rewarding professional experiences I have had.”

Jamaicans said… • “Eye-opening, enlightening—in terms of the knowledge gained about Extension work of a university and excitement about what we can do locally.” Geri with Tucson High School student, Tucson

At the County and Campus Faculty Levels: • Faculty and staff from Pima, Navajo and Coconino Counties, Campus Ag Center, Maricopa Ag Center, Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Extension Administration, and the Norton School participated

Hopi Culture, Navajo County Our Hopi Host & Jamaican team members

Papine High School, Jamaica • The “Building Community” process was used and adapted for local application in Jamaica and Arizona Arizona & Jamaica Teams in Papine Classroom

Also, at the Faculty Level: • Future plans to share the training experiences in Arizona and Jamaica are being made • Follow-up with a training in Trinidad, jointly planned and implemented by the Jamaican and Arizonan team will occur in March 2005 • Funding for further follow-up is being sought

Grand Canyon, Arizona Jamaicans at the Grand Canyon School and the Rim

Exploring Native Cultures and Land Learning about Navajo weaving and in Oak Creek Canyon

Jamaicans said… • “I was surprised by the vastness of the State and the vastness of the coverage of your outreach!” Leonie experiences the “wide open spaces”

“Much of what I learned… • will be integrated in the Papine community…to review the way we evaluate their strengths rather than their weakensses.” Jamaicans in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona in Steve’s front yard

“The glass is now half full, not half empty.” • “My community focus will be to work with the positives …rather than the negatives.” Pearline with Tucson High students

Arizonans said… • “A conversation I had with Pearline indicated she really had a different model in mind for doing community work…while preserving culture. The depth of her feeling about respecting culture was touching.”

“I felt comfortable… • traveling and experiencing with the Jamaicans, like we were one big team. I was surprised at the impact of wide open spaces on them.” Visiting the Monymusk Rum factory in Jamaica

“I was also surprised at the joy • the Jamaicans felt when they were with the African American Council. They were really excited to be around people of their own race & I hadn’t really thought that much about race implications until then.” At Papine High School

At the Community Level: • The use of an asset model in community development has been adopted by the UTECH team • Training of facilitators to convene discussions among community groups in the Papine community will continue

Jamaicans said… • “We will train two people who will conduct training workshops in at least 15 other Caribbean regions and I hope the cascading effect will result in…new ways of doing community development.” Overlooking Kingston, Jamaica

Arizonans said… • “We established second stage learning—both ways for them and for us. Seeing may set the stage for new implementation, new practices and designs for working.”

How will this project influence your work? • “It already is influencing my work. I have started to apply some of the techniques and have registered to learn more.” • “I have developed relationships with my colleagues from Extension that will continue to contribute to my work beyond this project.”

“It is tragic that we tend to get fairly narrowed focused in Extension and either don’t have or make the time to expand our programmatic direction.” • “M.K. Bateson says, ‘Exposure to other ways of doing things is insufficient if it is not combined with empathy and respect.’”

5. “It always gives me greater enthusiasm and inspiration when working with international partners. It has pushed me to think about…how to strengthen communities using a family assets model like we saw in Jamaica.”

6. “Both visits, your coming to Jamaica and our coming to Arizona, changed our first concept of what we needed to do with the community with which we are working.” 7. “More of our course work could be geared toward working in communities and applying work to actual implementation.”

8. “This project brought out leadership qualities in our Jamaica team that were never before displayed. I appreciated watching my team grow and discover their own strengths as well as the strong qualities of the others with whom we all worked.”

Our Team Jamaican and Arizona Team with director of Maricopa Ag Center, Arizona

Building Community in Arizona and Jamaica