Collaboration, Coo
During the 2006 Spring Break, eighteen Oregon State University students
(along with two professors and two teachers assistants) embarked on an
adventure into rural Oregon to study rural sustainability. We
soon discovered that "rural sustainability" is not easily defined,
i.e., nearly every stakeholder we interviewed in Harney
County had a different perception and definition of
"sustainability." This is a common issue among folks from every
corner of the country, e.g., see Rural Sustainability in
America, The Planning
Office of the Land is Ours, The
Macaulay Institute, Energy Bulletin, et
al. However, this conundrum did not become a problem because as
we began to understand these different perspectives of sustainability,
some common themes began to arise. From these various themes, we
were able to separate and reorganize the subjective experiences of the
stakeholders into quantifiable objective data. From the variety
of themes with which we ended, I have decided to focus on issues
pertinent to youth in rural communities.
Rural communities around the United States deal with a plethora of
issues very different from the issues dealt with in urban areas.
However, it is also the case that rural and urban areas share many of
the same challenges. For example, all communities deal with a
variety
of challenges surrounding issues relating to youth. These
challenges
range broadly from creating youth
activities to designing programs that properly assist troubled or Ò
In Harney County we discovered that an amazing infrastructure of
support exists for a variety of local youth programs from 4-H
and The Boys
and Girls Club to local school
athletics.
BURNS-HINES SCHOOLS SP
We quickly found that
two important factors contribute to the success of these
programs. Firstly, we learned that nearly everyone in the Burns
Paiute American Indian Tribe, the city of Burns, and the city of Hines,
non dependent upon age, attend the local sporting events, e.g., the
youth, the elders, and everyone in between are eager to attend these
events. One of our stakeholders told us that the local sporting
events are Òour entertainment.Ó Moreover, it is not only
"home-games" that the community supportsÑbut all games, i.e., many
within the community "pack up" and follow the teams to other schools in
order to demonstrate their support (which is often a very long
drive). Secondly, we discovered that over the previous couple of
years, due to budget crunches, the Harney County school district had
cut funding for all sporting programs. When this occurred, the
community stepped in, developed a program titled SODA (save our
districts activities), and, out of their collective pockets, generated
enough money to entirely finance the school sporting programs that had
been eliminated.
Lack of school funding
is not only a rural issue; however, in rural areas it has become more
of a problem because of the low number of students in rural schools
(which is
often the basis for state and federal funding). For more
information and a different perspective about the differences between
urban and rural funding issues see this funding
analysis performed by the University of Michigan.
Several rural program
studies are being developed and implemented around the country, such as:
- The
Illinois Rural Family Project
- Survival
Skills for Youth
- National Institute of Mental Health
- Southwest
Educational Development Program
There is also a wide variety of alternative school options available,
e.g.:
All the individuals in the Harney County area we had the opportunity to speak with demonstrated a genuine sense of not only support but also pride in their communities. It is my opinion that this intense collaborative community support is what has made, at least in part, the youth programs in Harney County so successful at helping adolescence overcome many of the challenges currently facing rural youth.
The folks of Harney County are a very welcoming and friendly group of people, i.e., they made us (outsiders) feel very comfortable and welcome in their communities. Spending four days in the various communities of Harney County was a great experience for me. I learned quite a bit about rural Oregon and the issues that are important to the folks who live there, and I also learned a whole lot about myself. Taking part in the learning through listening course taught me not only how to listen carefully, but it also taught me an incredible amount about teamwork and collaboration. Additionally, I have never been forced to exercise my mental faculties so intensively for such a prolonged stretch of time, i.e., it was four very long days of solid, active thought processing. The movement from a traditional, static learning environment, viz., the classroom, into the dynamic real world was an awesome learning experience. Ultimately, I would recommend everyone experience this alternative path of learning for at least four days.
**Thanks to all the wonderful folks of the Burns Paiute American Indian Tribe, the city of Burns, the city of Hines, and everyone else in Harney County who graciously accepted us into their communities.
**Thanks to all the great folks who, because of this course, I can now describe as "friends."
**Thanks to Professors Dwaine Plaza and Kurt Peters for offering us (students) the opportunity to experience education in such a nontraditional sense.
+Web page created by Mark Fillmore.