Trust

1
Trust Transformation Sustaining Extension
Relationships in New Wisconsin Communities

• Matt Calvert, Mary Thiry, Anthony Hooker, Jean
  Berger
• University of Wisconsin-Extension
• CYFAR Conference 2006

2
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

3
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
4
CYFAR in Milwaukee

• Goals
• Connecting youth with the rest of Wisconsins
  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

5
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

6
Milwaukee?

• It is the largest urban area in the State
• It has Wisconsins 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

7
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

8
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.
9
CYFAR in Milwaukee

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

10
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 Wisconsins barrier

11
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
12
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
13
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

14
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, Neighbors Place Community Center
  of Wausau

15
CYFAR in Wausau

• Supporting Newcomers this Summer
• High level of social capital helps at opportune
  moments

UW-Extension staff and community partners support
newcomers.
16
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.
17
CYFAR in Wausau

• Examples of activities
• Older youth working with younger youth
• Afterschool
• Newcomers

Older youth mentor younger youth in Wausau.
18
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.
19
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

20
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 dont have to look the same
• Dont get hung up on words or labels
• Wausau
• Church and government issue
• Leaders Federation
• Be inclusive of people as individuals

21
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?
• Dont bring the answers, bring yourself

22
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