Trust & Transformation:
Sustaining Extension
Relationships in New Wisconsin
Communities
Matt Calvert, Mary Thiry, Anthony
Hooker, Jean Berger
University of Wisconsin-Extension
CYFAR Conference 2006
1
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
2
Educational Processes
Scholarship of
Discovery, Integration,
Application of
Knowledge
PROCESS
high
Facilitation
Transformational
Education
Information
Content
Transmission
low
RELATIONSHIP
high
CONTENT
3
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
4
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
5
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”
6
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
7
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.
8
CYFAR in Milwaukee
Activities
• That focus on life
skills
• New or ones that
the youth thought
were not possible
9
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
10
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
11
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
12
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
13
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
14
CYFAR in Wausau
• Supporting
Newcomers this
Summer
– High level of social
capital helps at
opportune moments
UW-Extension staff and
community partners support
newcomers.
15
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.
16
CYFAR in Wausau
• Examples of activities
– Older youth working
with younger youth
• Afterschool
• Newcomers
Older youth mentor younger
youth in Wausau.
17
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.
18
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
19
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
20
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
21
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
22