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Maryland: State Strengthening Project Overview State: MarylandProject Title: Building Strong Communities in Maryland Location of Community Projects: Baltimore City, Charles County, Prince George's County Web Site Address: http://www.agnr.umd.edu/strongcommunities/
Description: Overview A community leader empowerment program is operating in three communities in Maryland in which a significant number of families live in poverty. In addition, the Maryland program strengthens state capacity toward working with low-income children, youth and families by addressing diversity, collaboration, cooperation, evaluation and staff development. The project centers on the goals of strengthening communities through community collaboration, community needs and assets assessment, citizen empowerment, youth development, and system/program development. Following leadership training, youth and adult leaders will establish support networks, resources and systems that will strengthen and support the community. In the three communities - The Samuel A. Mudd and Eva Turner school communities in Charles County near Waldorf, MD and the Langley Park community in Prince George's County. Family and Consumer Sciences Educators, 4H Youth Development Educators, EFNEP and FSNEP staff work as a team to introduce and support the project. A site Project Coordinator in each location handles the primary responsibilities for project implementation. Each project began its partnership with one primary collaborator, and later local advisory councils are in place to add support and guidance to the empowerment project, and serve and mentors to the trained volunteers to help facilitate their community development efforts and individually support the empowerment process. State support is provided by a portion of time from state specialists in Family and Consumer Sciences and in 4H Youth Development, from a project coordinator hired specifically for the project, and by technology support staff who provide direct computer support and technical training to the project and web site development. In Charles County, with support from the assistant superintendent of schools and the administration and staff at the respective schools, the Samuel A. Mudd School and the Eva Turner School are the home base of State Strengthening project activities. The People Helping People project originated in Connecticut is being conducted with mothers of children who attend the schools. The second series of classes for PEP began this spring, and participants from the 2001 and 2002 sessoins are now engaged in community leadership activities to strengthen family support for children's activities in the school setting In the fall of 2001, the state strengthening project coordinator conducted a series of meetings with the community leaders and providers of social services in the Langley Park and Takoma Park Communities in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties. The discussions focused on working with the predominantly Latino community of nearly 30,000 people which represents the fastest growing Spanish speaking community in the Washington Metropolitan area. With the assistance of Cheryl Czuba, University of Connecticut State Strengthening Project, the state coordinator secured Spanish translations of the People Empowering People Program. It was determined that the focus of the project would be in the Langley Park Community of Prince George's County. This Spanish only state strengthening site has received an enthusiastic welcome. The extension staff in Prince George's County is an excellent partner in the project. A ten-week PEP training was initiated in the spring of 2002. Classes were conducted by the state coordinator who is fluent in Spanish, with assistance from Spanish speaking staff in Prince George's Cooperative Extension and community translators. The Langley Park project site collaborates with Centro Hispanico Catolico, Centro Catolico de Langley Park, Langley Park Community Center, Maryland Cooperative Extension EFNEP program, Centro de Familias of Cool Spring Elementary School, La Esperanza Youth Club, Cooperative Extension at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut. Connectivity The connectivity initiative purchased, refurbished and installed computers in Charles County and Prince George's County. Training on Internet use and resources through CYFERnet has been conducted with project staff through the project year. Computer labs located in the Samuel A. Mudd School and the Eva Turner School provides computer access for the participants of the PEP program at those sites. Two community volunteers have worked tirelessly to support the computer installation in Langley Park Community. One volunteer has donated hundreds of hours to rebuild three computers to support the computer provided by the project. The computers are networked and the center has internet access. The other volunteer has provided computer instruction for youth and adults in the community that support learning English, building math skills and using the internet for accessing Spanish language resources, and CYFERnet resources. Outcomes Focus Community national outcomes are the primary focus of Maryland's state strengthening project. Systems development and citizen development indicators of the Community outcome are the eventual focus of the evaluations. Secondary outcome areas to be affected throughout the project are Parent/Family and Youth. Indicators related to effective parenting and strong families and youth development will be measured to demonstrate eventual program effectiveness. Collaboration Maryland Extension is collaborating with the University of Maryland Department of Family Studies, Institute for Governmental Services and CYFERnet. Individual projects receive support from state and local agencies. These relationships support Maryland's project through evaluation and technical assistance, provision of relevant research and literature, and training materials and staff. In the two project sites, and the YAR project site in Baltimore City local collaborators support the project through the provision of facilities and space, staff time, and participant identification. Added agencies for support are anticipated with the final project year, as are expanded opportunities for project support from collaborators. FY 2002 Accomplishments: FY 2002 Accomplishments in supporting and sustaining community-based projects for children, youth, and families at-risk. The Building Strong Communities in Maryland team utilizes quarterly meetings, electronic communication, site visits, monthly reports, and one on one consultation to support and sustain community-based projects for children, youth, and families at-risk. Specific efforts to support and sustain in each of the priority CYFAR areas are listed below. 1. Use of CYFERnet Three individuals connected to the State Strengthening Project are also involved with CYFERNet. The evaluation coordinator is a member of the CYFERNet Child Editorial Board, and the management team for the Extension Cares initiative. The project director is a member of the Working with Teens Core Team, an outgrowth of the Extension Cares "Out of School Time for Teens" sub-committee. Maryland's state 4-H program leader is a participant in the core team of the National Network for Health. Additionally, a member of the state 4-H staff coordinates Maryland's Army/USDA projects, helped to develop the 4-H 101 curriculum and is a trainer for that curriculum. Each of these individuals is well acquainted with the resources of CYFERnet and routinely shares that information with community-based projects. The CYFERnet site is linked from the Maryland State Strengthening Project web site, making access easy for the community sites. Our newly designed web site will take CYFERnet's core components and personalize them for our client base. The CYFERNet site is also linked from the website of the Charles County project collaborator, the Judy Hoyer Center at the Samuel A. Mudd Elementary School. The CYFERnet TechNews is regularly forwarded to the community state strengthening sites and selected articles from that publication are also included in the electronic communications to 4-H and Family Consumer Science Educators throughout the state. Our project participated in a teleconference to learn about web-based collaboration and communication tools and is beginning to use the CommunityZero On-line Community Collaboration Tool. We received funding support to continue that work in the coming year and look forward to strengthened communications and program sharing as a result. 2. Evaluation Assistance The State Strengthening Project evaluation team is always available and present at state project meetings to address questions and offer suggestions on ways to understand how project efforts are making a difference. Meetings between site staff and the evaluation team have sought to clarify evaluation methods that are useful at capturing program aspects and participant interests to yield valuable information about project effectiveness. At the same time, these discussions have sought to determine methods that are also not threatening to community members who may have had negative experiences after sharing information with strangers, and consequently distrust the use of their personal information. Discussions with site staff have also centered on the extent and format of gathering background information on participants who have minimal literacy or disabilities that limit writing or speech. Dr. Susan Walker, Extension Specialist, Family Life, is the evaluation coordinator for the state strengthening project. Her knowledge of the project, intended outcomes, and evaluation methods has led to increased support for the evaluation component of the project this year. We have also brought on graduate assistants from the Family Studies department on our campus. They have responsibilities to both sites, and offer consistent evaluation team presence to state level meetings and at the community leader training sessions. 3. Technology Training and Technical Assistance The primary goal of the technology component of the Building Strong Communities project was to upgrade the project website. Again, we experienced a transition in the technology position. The project has enlisted the assistance of the college's web master who supervises an undergraduate student hired to work with the state project coordinator and with each community site to upgrade the web site. The project has relied on the support of an MCE Regional Information Technology Specialist for technical assistance, troubleshooting and supporting the community sites. Additionally two community volunteers have been enlisted to assist with technology at the Langley Park site. The undergraduate student met with the community site directors and community volunteers to gather information for the local project web presence and to participate in the design and appearance of the site. This will not only ensure greater connectivity of the project with its client communities but also allow for community "ownership" of the website. Such community participation should encourage continual use and updating of the website beyond the life of the project. As envisioned, the website will offer access to information, grants, mutual support groups and resources to address neighborhood issues. It will provide opportunities for learning from the challenges and successes of others. Quarterly meetings of the state strengthening team include time to introduce the staff to resources on the Internet and within CYFERnet that they will find useful. 4. Local Sustainability of Community Projects In Charles County, the partnerships with the Judy Hoyer Centers (see community description) and the Samuel A. Mudd School and the Eva Turner School (see community description) are strong and should result in project sustainability beyond the funding cycle. Because there are "Judy Centers" throughout the state, this collaboration between extension and the center can serve as a model for other sites. The People Empowering People (PEP) program provides opportunities to integrate the participants into local community-based organizations. The state project coordinator continues to support the community project director in her efforts to make PEP an ongoing training for parents in the school community. The Charles County Cooperative Extension faculty and staff are fully engaged in providing additional programs to the community, including 4-H clubs and nutrition education for youth and adults. One of the first graduates of the PEP program is working to engage her housing community in strategies that will make a difference there and it is possible that this community will become an active collaborator in project expansion. The PEP graduates participated in the statewide PEP conference to share success stories with participants from across the state. The sustainability of the CYFAR Community Project in Langley Park is assured by the development of the non-profit organization, "Latinos Unidos de Maryland, Inc." by the participants in the first PEP class. Latinos Unidos will continue to identify community adult and youth participants for subsequent PEP training classes and will become the trainers for the leadership development classes. In addition, Latinos Unidos will provide oversight and technical assistance for the community development projects that result from the leadership training. Small grants are being offered to sites throughout the state to intiate small scale community leadership development projects for youth and/or adults. The state project coordinator will provide support for the expansion of the Building Strong Communities program to new communities in the state in preparation for building a core of professionals and community partners who will have an interest in applying for the New Communities funding. 5. Integration Into Base Extension Programs This past year, work with children, youth and families at risk continued to be integrated into base extension programs. Adults and youth involved in the community sites have expanded participation into base programs that focus on volunteer development and 4-H youth development. In Charles County, 4-H adult and teen leaders worked with PEP volunteers to organize a 4-H club for children at the Samuel A. Mudd Elementary School. Several children were provided scholarships to attend the 4-H day and overnight camp programs in the county this summer. PEP graduates and their teen children participated in the Charles County Conversation on Youth, a part of the 4-H Centennial Celebration. The Langley Park community project and non-profit that resulted from the first training "Latinos Unidos de Maryland" have just completed an agreement with a local apartment management board to provide extension youth and adult programming, including 4-H clubs, in the recently completed community center in the apartment complex. This partnership will give great visibility to Cooperative Extension programs in this community and will expand the outreach of Prince George's faculty and staff to the Latino community. Volunteers from Latinos Unidos will receive training in the next month to become 4-H volunteers. Graduates of the financial counseling class currently being held in the community will be recognized for their completion of this in-depth training program. The Talbot Family Network in Easton, Maryland has introduced elements of the PEP program to directors of public, private, and ecclesiastical organizations who conduct family and parenting skills training on the Eastern Shore. Community ambassadors from this group participated in the PEP conference and will use the PEP program as a model for training and empowering other community leaders. The Talbot Family Network is that county's Local Management Board (LMB). LMB's exist in every county and Baltimore City in Maryland. Representatives of five additional LMBs participated in the September 2002 PEP training and will make connections with our project and the local County Extension staff for technical support and partnership development as they initiate this approach to community leadership empowerment. This is likely to be one of the more significant ways to integrate the work of our CYFAR project in to the ongoing work of Maryland Cooperative Extension, particularly in those counties where strong partnerships have been and can be built between MCE and the LMB. Another significant indication of the integration of work with children, youth and families at risk in to MCE base programming is the Maryland Cooperative Extension Strategic Plan and Plan of Work for the next 5 years. The project director serves on the strategic planning and plan of work committee as does an extension educator from the Prince George's county site. The Strategic Plan places much emphasis on community-based programming efforts to meet needs and build on strengths of communities. One of three programmatic themes in the Plan of work focuses on "Quality of Life". Maryland's evaluation coordinator serves on the writing team for this theme and provided leadership for the development of initiatives that can focus our work on vulnerable children, youth and families in Maryland. Another member of our "team" from the Charles County Extension Office is on the writing team for the theme of Organizational Development and provides input that is relevant to systems that are needed to support projects like the state strengthening project to ensure the most effective use of the resources and the greatest impact from programming. Outcomes: State-wide capacity: This year several activities served to increase state Extension faculty in their capacity to work with children, youth and families at risk. The State Strengthening project sponsored and supported faculty in training opportunities and conferences that were directed toward CYFAR principles. In September of 2002, the state sponsored at two-day training institute on the People Empowering People curriculum, the model used for leadership training in our two sites. The goal of the Institute was to present information and guidelines for participants to initiate and implement the PEP Program for their identified populations. Cherry Czuba, the woman who developed the program and the manual, facilitated the institute. The training was advertised via brochures, postcards, emails and person-to-person networking, resulting in 47 participants. Of those who participated, 26 (55.3%) completed and returned the Pre-Assessment/Post Evaluation forms. The institute attracted individuals from nine Maryland counties, two states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Nearly all (93%) of the participants plan to present the PEP program directly to community members, including parents, youth and low income families. In end of training evaluations, 92.3% of participants rated the training as "good" or "excellent" in increasing their knowledge about the PEP Program. Approximately of the participants reported the training was "good" or "excellent" at increasing their skills for facilitating the program. And, almost 90% reported "good" or "excellent" in rating the success of the training in providing resources that are needed to conduct the PEP Program. Further collaborations were fostered between Extension and the academic departments, and Extension and community partners. An undergraduate student from the Family Studies department did her internship in the Prince Georges county office in the spring, of 2002. Outcomes for Children, Youth, Parent/Families, Communities: The outcomes of our projects to enhance the well being of children, youth, families and communities can be best appreciated through the direct efforts of our community projects.
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Send Comments or Questions to: swright@csrees.usda.gov |
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