Trust & Transformation: Sustaining Extension Relationships in New Wisconsin Communities

Trust & Transformation: Sustaining Extension Relationships in New Wisconsin Communities Matt Calvert, Mary Thiry, Anthony Hooker, Jean Berger University of Wisconsin-Extension CYFAR Conference 2006

Trust and Social Capital • Social Capital: The process and conditions of social networking among people and organizations that lead to accomplishing a goal of mutual social benefit, usually characterized by trust, cooperation, involvement in the community, and sharing. --Centers for Disease Control

Educational Processes Scholarship of Discovery, Integration, Application of Knowledge high Transformational Education Facilitation RELATIONSHIP PROCESS Content Transmission Information low high CONTENT Adapted from Merrill Ewart Model, Process and Content

CYFAR in Milwaukee • Goals • Connecting youth with the rest of Wisconsin’s community including 4-H opportunities • Youth achieving academic and life skill success • Helping neighborhood adults share their skills with youth • Provide opportunities for youth and adults to demonstrate their valuable power to create transformation at all levels

Milwaukee Collaborators Communities at-risk in Milwaukee • CYFAR site is located within the neighborhood of 21st Street & Center • Affiliations with UW-Extension staff, community leaders, and • AmeriCorps/VISTA • IOU sports and other Community groups

Milwaukee? • It is the largest urban area in the State • It has Wisconsin’s most diverse yet segregated population • It has the highest drop-out rate of African Americans in the nation • In the CYFAR neighborhood 56.4% of the males are unemployed • It is a community of distrust in “the system”

Whose trust and what transformation? It is not our trust but the trust in themselves that causes transformation It is the white community valuing people of different ethnic communities It is Milwaukee and then the rest of the state overcoming their fears and mistrust that will help a larger transformation begin It is possible but not without a lot of work

CYFAR in Milwaukee • Valuing community resources and transformation within Local CYFAR staff are the reason transformation is happening Teen mentors show they want to help youth in academics. Local mentor shows she cares.

CYFAR in Milwaukee Activities • That focus on life skills • New or ones that the youth thought were not possible

Trust in Milwaukee ? • Creators of Trust • Understanding that it is not trust in us but rather it is trust in themselves • By consistently being there over time and providing life skills and opportunities that the adults and youth deem valuable • Hiring adults from the community to run the program • Not being a savior • Helping them understand and give pointers of walking through Wisconsin’s barrier

Transformation in Milwaukee • It can only come from within • We can only provide safe opportunities away from their neighborhood • CYFAR, Affiliates and community leaders provide time and resources • Input from the community Milwaukee youth sleeps on bus on the way home from a county fair made up of all whites, he clutches his hard-won blue ribbon

Safe Opportunities, and their trust in themselves At the UWEX camp in the woods Youth take action in protesting violence in the community At a predominately white county fair Cleaning up the community

CYFAR in Wausau • Goals • Provide an integrated program in an environment that is like the community • Provide opportunities for gaining confidence and leadership skills in a structured environment • Helping youth experience 4-H who would not normally be exposed to it • Experiential learning • Relationships – older youth support younger, connecting youth to community resources

Wausau Collaborators • Communities at-risk in Wausau • 21st Century grant and Wausau school district • Affiliations UW-Extension staff, 1st Hmong Missionary Alliance Church, 21st Century grant coordinators, Neighbor’s Place Community Center of Wausau

CYFAR in Wausau • Supporting Newcomers this Summer • High level of social capital helps at opportune moments UW-Extension staff and community partners support newcomers.

CYFAR in Wausau • Examples of activities • Summer Club community projects • Car Wash for Heifer Club International Wausau youth wash cars and use proceeds to purchase livestock they chose for families in Africa through Heifer International.

CYFAR in Wausau • Examples of activities • Older youth working with younger youth • Afterschool • Newcomers Older youth mentor younger youth in Wausau.

CYFAR in Wausau Mr. Josh Yang and Jean Berger work with Wausau youth in their afterschool program during its inaugural year. Mr. Xa Yang works with Wausau youth in 2005.

Trust in Wausau • Creators of Trust • Consistency in people working in/with/for the program, it becomes a personal commitment to the program • Choosing the right people in the community to work with us • Respecting the culture and that 4-H can include Hmong traditions

Overcoming Barriers to Trust • Us (4-H, Cooperative Extension) overcoming our own rules • Involve people in a generous way in the beginning • Milwaukee • All 4-H clubs don’t have to look the same • Don’t get hung up on words or labels • Wausau • Church and government issue • Leaders Federation • Be inclusive of people as individuals

Overcoming Barriers to Trust • Maintain core commitments – commitment to youth development • Transformation within our own staff – Who and what is 4-H? Whom does it belong to – those who pay their dues or to everybody? • Don’t bring the answers, bring yourself

Community Transformation • Milwaukee • Parents are not apprehensive with UW-Extension • Youth are now volunteering to help even when there is not a program • Ninety youth because of their trust are now involved in the CYFAR project • This is the first time the CYFAR youth went to 4H camp and it was commented that they were the best behaved youth there. • Wausau • United Way supported Leaders Federation • Change in the mindset and the transformation of the people and the people who connect their program to a larger community • Not “us and them” and “all of us” • Accepted, equal part of the 4-H program

Trust & Transformation: Sustaining Extension Relationships in New Wisconsin Communities