New
England
Writings about
Civics
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Civic Participation & Citizenship Collection
A Team of Citizens Supports a New Learning Center
Chuck Poston, Hardwick Community Learning Center,
Hardwick, VT
Program/Area
Description
Hardwick, Vermont is a rural and isolated small community in Vermont's
Northeast Kingdom. Access to services has always been an issue here. Adult
education services, both traditional adult basic education and the Even
Start family literacy program are available both in students' homes and
in a newly-opened Learning Center located in the center of Hardwick's
business district. Although the new Community Learning Center has been
generally well received it is apparent that much continuous effort will
be needed to provide outreach and community awareness so that this new
resource will be well used and begin to meet the specific needs of the
community.
The Support Team
When thinking about how to involve students and community members in the
promotion of the learning center I began to consider the Sourcebook and
the Community Member role map in particular as a tool. My first step was
to organize a group. I purposefully selected a mixture of people (some
students, some learning center volunteers) with various skill levels,
all of whom had already expressed an interest in reaching out to their
community. The group was recruited successfully and agreed to meet monthly
with the goal of integrating the new learning center into the community.
Currently the support team consists of two former
learning center computer students and volunteers, an Even Start parent,
and a former teen mom who has landed an AmeriCorps job in the community.
At the first meeting everyone was given a copy of the Equipped
for the Future (EFF) Community
Member Role Map, and there was a discussion about its possible uses
in the context of the future work of the support team. The "Goal-Setting
with the EFF
Citizen/Community Member Role Map" activity was helpful, especially
the suggestion to look at the Role Map's "Broad Areas of Responsibility"
individually. These are:
• Become and Stay Informed
• Form
and Express Opinions and Ideas
• Work Together
• Take Action to Strengthen Communities
Each team member was asked to consider one Broad Area of Responsibility from two points of view: how each Broad Area might provide focus, ideas, and other assistance in meeting our overall project goals, and how each Broad Area might help the individual team members identify their individual strengths and talents.
This exercise helped us think about specific activities
that we could engage in for our project. For instance, in wanting to "become
and stay informed," we decided to review the findings of a local
community survey, and discussed whether or not we had all the information
we needed to move forward. Using the Role Map, the team was able to set
some realistic goals to promote the learning center. They included:
• to draft a simple
outreach plan featuring ongoing multi-faceted efforts;
• to consider each of the team members' "personal
networks" to be a valuable resource
and, as appropriate, to put these resources to work;
• to begin the compilation of a list of potential
volunteers from the Greater Hardwick, VT
community, with useful information on each, such as areas of interest,
expertise, pertinent experience, and availability;
• to obtain a copy of a recent community survey
which asked some specific questions about
adult education and community activities;
• to do some useful work within the context of
the project goals each month between team
meetings; and
• to continue to meet once a month as a team.
Teaching Reflections
In this project, a group varied in both experience and age worked together
well. Both low and high literacy levels were represented within the group.
All were included in the whole group from the start, all were provided
with the same tools and materials, and the message from the beginning
was an invitation to participate when individuals felt comfortable. The
strategy I used to get to the comfort levels quickly was to focus on and
openly discuss each team member's individual strengths. Each one came
to the project from a unique "personal community" within the
Greater Hardwick community. The Sourcebook's EFF Citizen / Community Member
Role Map was valuable in generating focused discussion regarding individual
team members' community connections, talents, expertise, and project-related
interest areas.
Barriers encountered within this project and with this group were few -- primarily arranging meeting times and dates convenient for all. But by the determination of the group, we worked it out.
I learned that with proper preparation, and given
the proper tools, adult literacy students and other community members
from widely varied backgrounds, with various talents, experience, and
expertise, and from different generations can be formed into a working
group and get on task in a remarkably short time. We all learned that
a great deal of "community work" can take place right in our
own learning centers.
New
England Literacy Resource Center
World Education
Boston, MA
(617) 482-9485
