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Conference Presentation-Rodriguez
- 1. Unheard and Heading Out The Disengagement of Rural Youth: A Case Study Hannah Rodriguez
- 2. About Me: Hannah M. Rodriguez BA Social Theory and Practice University of Michigan, 2013 MSW Candidate, 2015 Michigan State University Fifth generation Benzie County resident! What brought me here…
- 3. This Study… • Fulfills an academic requirement but also… • Demonstrates the importance of engaging rural youth in community •Demonstrates how youth participation sustains community • Provides supporting evidence of this through statements and anecdotes given by Benzie County youth.
- 4. The Current Literature 1. What is “rural”? 2. Engagement in rural communities is complex. 3. Assessment is a vehicle for rural change. 4. Community participation has implications of change. 5. Pathways for rural youth are limited.
- 5. Benzie County Benzie County serves as a great community to conduct a case study such as this… • Benzie County often operates in a regional context • There are issues of poverty that exist in Benzie County that are not often discussed but that are crucial to understanding how change can be created • Benzie County is unique because of its amazing natural landscape and successful tourism industry • Currently, there are very few spaces or resources carved out for Benzie County’s youth population
- 6. Methods Used • Case Study and Assessment: Mary Randolph’s community assessment model • Approach and Implementation: Core questions… • Used students in Civics (general education class) and AP Literature (Honors education class) •Also interviewed 5 students individually and more in-depth •Reflection…
- 7. Core Questions 1) How do you define the word, “community”? 2) What community or communities do you belong to? 3) What role do you play and/or how exactly are you involved in this/these communities? 4) Do you feel these communities make an effort to make you feel a part of them? 4a) If you answered yes, how do these communities make you feel engaged? 4b) If you answered no, what do these communities do (or not do) to make you feel excluded from them? 4) As of now, what are your plans after you graduate from high school? 5) How do you think your involvement in these communities affects your future plans? 6) Do you plan to leave Benzie County after graduation? 6a) If yes, do you plan to return to Benzie County at some point? 6b) If not, what are your reasons for remaining in Benzie County? 7) What are some qualities, ideas, or opinions you think you could contribute to the community of Benzie County, Michigan? 8) If you were to contribute these gifts, do you think other community members would listen and/or take them seriously? 8a) Why? or 8b) Why not?
- 8. Major Findings 1. There were multiple perspectives on “community.” 2. Roles students play in their community were often described primarily on a personal or familial level, as opposed to a greater community role. 3. Community engagement was also discussed on a personal/familial level instead of on a greater community level. 4. Any connections that do currently exist with youth in the community have a trajectory of fading over time. 5. There is a lack of youth voice in the community, and a lack of interest in that voice from the community.
- 9. Some Quotes… “I feel pretty included but not in the greater community...” “We aren’t really wanted around town so we don’t feel included...” “My feelings about community will help me when its time for me to leave because I don’t really have any connection to it which will make it easier when its time to move on.” “This community makes it harder to accomplish my future plans...” “How has my membership in this community affected my future plans?Well... I’m not really sure what it’s done for me...”
- 10. Moving Forward 1. Encourage students to speak more freely about their ideas and frustrations. 2. Create a space that allows these young community members to have a place to call their own and where they can carry out these conversations. 3. Encourage cross-generational collaboration amongst community members. 4. Start small in making community change efforts and include youth every step of the way. 5. Create community awareness around the importance of incorporating youth and encouraging them to participate.
- 11. How can we use this information? • I plan to use this information beyond just my thesis and eventually, I would like to implement this type of community change effort here in Benzie County. Thus, I would love to hear your feedback! • What are your communities doing currently to encourage youth participation? • What could they be doing to encourage this? • Which of the recommendations mentioned here do you think your community could implement? • Other questions/comments? THANKYOU!!!
Editor's Notes
- Hello everyone! Thank you for coming to this presentation. As mentioned in the program, I am going to be presenting material and information that was used in creating my senior Honors Thesis at the University of Michigan. Before I get into that, here’s a little about myself:
- My name is Hannah Rodriguez, I am about to graduate from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Theory and Practice and a minor in Community Action Social Change through the UM School of Social Work. Continuing in this direction, I will be attending Michigan State University in the Fall (Go Green!) to receive my Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in Organizational and Community Practice. I am excited to be here today because I am the fifth generation in my family to grow up here in Benzie County, and the influence this community has had on me is what has brought me before you today. As a youth in Benzie County, like many youth in rural communities, I often felt my extracurricular activities and future opportunities were limited. Upon graduating high school, I thought my path would be to move way beyond Benzie County and that I would end up in New York or LA working in a troubled urban area. However, in pursuing my degree in social issues, I started to realize that many social issues affect rural communities as well but they are often harder to identify due to the somewhat closed off and spread out nature of these communities. Needless to say, I began feeling a push to return here to Benzie County and that this was the place my education and experience in social change efforts could best be utilized.
- Ghanaian diplomat, Kofi Annan once said, “Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace. If, however, they are left on society's margins, all of us will be impoverished. Let us ensure that all young people have every opportunity to participate fully in the lives of their societies.” I fully believe in this and in my pursuit of convincing others to understand this concept, have found many pieces of evidence claiming this to be true. Thus exists my choice to push my academic endeavors and career aspirations in this direction. I choose to theorize and demonstrate that engaging youth, particularly in rural settings, is crucial to the long-term sustainability of a community and to the quality of life for those who reside there. The primary purpose of this study was to demonstrate the importance of engaging youth in rural areas in order to secure their future participation and therefore insure the sustainability of the community. This purpose is supported by illustrating the current roles and pathways of youth in rural communities, laying out the implications their lack of voice can have in the community, and posing recommendations of how these negative implications can be resolved. Too often youth, as I experienced, fail to feel a connection to the community they are raised in. This failure to connect and lack of engagement can often lead to the permanent exodus of many young people and can diminish their participation in the community in the future. This diminished participation has negative implications for the community socially and economically, which in turn can lead to degradation. The core questions at hand included rural youths’ perceptions about whether or not they felt engaged in their community, their current opportunities and future trajectory, and how their level of engagement will affect their future community participation. In order to answer these questions and fulfill the purpose of this paper, I drew on the case study I conducted in Benzie County, Michigan and used the statements and anecdotes given by several youth living there to provide supporting evidence.
- Before delving into what I wanted to find out about rural youth engagement specifically, I had to look at what academic literature currently has to say on this topic. What I found is that while there are some topics studied relating to general youth engagement, and some related to rural community dynamics, the two are rarely discussed concurrently. Thus, it is my hope that my study will serve as a contribution to this sparse literature and that it can be used to spark more conversation on this topic. The summary of the literature I surveyed points to five major arguments that are important to the scope of my study: First, the term rural in and of itself is difficult to define as one rural community can not be compared to another, and each has its own unique set of community cultures and values, second, that engaging members of rural communities in social change efforts can be difficult due to the often close-knit and traditional community dynamics, third, that conducting assessments in rural communities to uncover the assets and potential weaknesses of a community can serve as a vehicle for creating social change, fourth, that encouraging community members, and particularly youth to participate fully in their communities often has implications of positive and lasting change, and finally, the future pathways rural youth are able to take are often limited. Taking the review of existing literature into consideration, my research aims to contribute the following: to describe a community that is, by some definition, rural, provide realistic examples in regards to the complexities of rural communities, use assessment to shed light on the lack of current change in Benzie County and communities like it, describe the current climate of community and, more specifically, youth participation and the implications it may have on the future development and sustainability of Benzie County, and finally, describe the various pathways currently taken by youth in Benzie County and the affect this will have on their future and the future of the community at large.
- I chose to use Benzie County as the location for this case study because I have a great deal of access to this community therefore it is easy for me to conduct research there, but there was much more to my decision to use it as the community I wished to study. In order to understand the dynamics that underlie youth engagement in Benzie County, it is important to see a snapshot of its socioeconomic climate. Benzie County often operates in a regional context. Many programs and services are provided to the “Traverse Bay Area” which consists of Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties. Programs that operate in this context include the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District and its Career Tech Center, the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, and several health and wellness organizations. While it is fantastic that all of these counties operate in unison, the actual services that are provided are available only in Traverse City which is about 40 miles from where we sit now and is a great length away from communities in many of the other counties as well. From a social standpoint, Benzie County has issues of poverty and unemployment that are often more extreme than those of the state or national average. 1 out of every 7 Benzie County residents was unemployed as of January 2013 (Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget, 2013). This figure is almost twice the current rate of unemployment nationally (7.6%) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). These statistics may seem astounding but are more comprehensible when considering the lack of employment diversity that exists in Benzie County. The Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce lists the top 10 Benzie County employers, of which most are agriculturally based. The other area of employment that is widely represented, yet is only seasonal, is that of the tourism industry. According to this list, Crystal Mountain Resort and Spa is the number one employer in Benzie County and yet again, it operates only on a seasonal basis (2013). These seasonal discrepancies not only indicate issues of unemployment, but also illustrate what sets Benzie County apart from other rural communities. Benzie County is unique in that its landscape, location, and economy make it the perfect place for many to plant their vacation home. Benzie County is far more than just the acres of produce and livestock, which is often what is associated with rural communities. With beaches or freshwater of some kind within a few miles of any location in the county, it becomes a haven for many. Tourism is the number one industry for Benzie County and yet it still faces problems associated with rural towns and villages of the United States that no one has ever heard of. It is interesting that a place that has been named one of the most beautiful on many tourism and travel lists of the United States can be rather appalling in so many other ways. According to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, and the Federal Register, students who are eligible for the Reduced Lunch Program must come from families whose income equates to 185% of what is considered the poverty line by the Federal Government. For example, a family of 4 at this level of poverty would have an annual household income of approximately $43,000. In order for a child to be eligible for the Free Lunch Program, they must come from a family whose income equates to 130% poverty, or for a family of 4, approximately $30,000 per year (Federal Register, 2012). To put this information into the context of Benzie County, one can look to data produced by the Benzie County Central Schools 2012 Annual Report. According to this report, 58% of the eighth grade class is eligible for the National Lunch Program (BCCS, 2012). Thus meaning, nearly 60% of the student body within Benzie Central Schools are living at 185% poverty or below. If this is the case for 60% of the students in school, it can easily be assumed that the amount of poverty existing in Benzie County is profound. If over half of the children in Benzie County are living in families who are unable to provide them with adequate food, imagine what this could mean for their long-term opportunity in life. Aside from basic resources for youth, there are very few school-based or extracurricular programs that currently exist in Benzie County that would allow youth to pursue interests in activities other than traditional athletics. The areas in which youth can participate outside of sports would be in service and volunteer organizations such as Key Club (the high school division of Kiwanis International) or student council, or in arts activities such as band, choir, or the spring musical. While these are all great programs for youth to be involved in, the lack of variety in them, and the lack of choice youth have in what they will participate in leave many young people to their own devices to find something to occupy their free time.
- Now that you hopefully have a better picture of the current academic climate in terms of studying rural communities and their youth, and the socioeconomic climate of Benzie County, I would like to discuss the findings this study produced. In order to understand how the findings and analysis of this study were drawn, it is important to describe the methods I used to collect data. As mentioned, I started by using Benzie County as a case study. Ideal results would be achieved by conducting this same study in as many rural communities as possible throughout the United States, but because this is not feasible, the results here can be taken as representative of many other rural communities until proven otherwise. How many people were at last year’s conference? How many remember hearing Mary Randolph’s presentation on community assessment and the Wyoming Rural Development Council? My choice of using assessment in this case study was directly influenced by Mary Randolph’s model as she described it. After last year’s conference, I spoke with her one-on-one about this process and chose to adopt some of her practices in my own research methodology. I felt that her questions and the way in which they were asked were very effective in a rural context and would be applicable to the group I was hoping to survey. After discovering Mary Randolph’s community assessment model, it became clear that the questions I had could be clarified using adaptations of her model. The primary difference would be that this assessment would occur on a much smaller scale and the scope of question would be limited to finding information about youth perceptions and youth engagement in the community. While Randolph’s questions are far more broad and geared toward an audience that has the life experience and knowledge base to understand the many different sectors and complexities of society, my adapted questions needed to be easily understood and accessed by students who may not be able to hold the same, broad view. However, Randolph’s assessment model provided me with the foundation to create a study that would fulfill not only the purpose of this project, but would also be fulfilling for the participants. The approach that was taken in conducting this study was to conduct focus groups with over 120 volunteer student participants at Benzie Central High School in two phases. The first phase of the interview process consisted of a set of questions that, after each was posed, every participant was given the opportunity to respond to. The first question was asked, students answered one by one around the circle (or passed on the question if they chose to do so) and then the next question would be posed. For the second phase of this process, I chose a select number of participants in the primary focus group that I felt brought up some intriguing points or seemed very interested in participating, and asked them to be a part of a one on one interview with me the following day. These interviews consisted of follow-up questions and took the shape of a more casual conversation. The specific questions asked in each primary focus group are defined here: (go to next slide) All of the students enrolled in Civics (that were present on the date of the focus group) were involved in the first phase of this process. Civics is a general education class that all students are required to take and therefore consists of the largest variety of students possible. To contrast this, I chose to conduct a focus group with students in an AP Literature class who were all high achieving. While most students in the general education Civics classroom were juniors, there were also a handful of sophomores and seniors in that group. The AP Literature group was primarily seniors with only 2 out of 16 students being juniors. The reason I chose to interact with students from these varying groups was because I understand the importance of variety in this type of research. If I were only to interview students in an AP class or who participate in an afterschool program such as the National Honors Society, I would most likely be receiving responses from the perspective of those who are inherently engaged in their community in some way. These students would most likely be high achieving and would therefore seek a path that took them beyond their current limitations. As much as I identify with this group and feel that their opinions demonstrate my main argument well, it would not paint a balanced picture. Therefore, it was also necessary to speak with students with perspectives on being disengaged from the community, and all those that lie in between. Reflection: In reflecting on this experience, I was quite nervous when entering the classrooms I sat in a few short years ago. I worried the students would not take my questions seriously, or would be caught off guard by them and would choose not to participate. Neither of these worries came to light. I learned a great deal from these students, and their choice to participate in an excited and engaged manner is further proof that opportunities for participation such as this one do not occur often.
- I asked 8 open-ended questions, all related to community, the meaning of community, community engagement, and thoughts on youths’ opportunities to participate in Benzie County. The final three questions asked, related to new ideas youth may have for Benzie County and whether or not they thought the community would allow them to implement these ideas and would assist them in this process. I used these questions as a measurement of how the community perceives youth and their ability to contribute to the community.
- So what were my major findings? There are five major themes that were easily identifiable and demonstrable on the basis of the responses given by the students. These themes were drawn from categories I created based on the responses, and are illustrated in my paper through direct quotes and some quantitative evidence. These major themes are crucial to the conclusions of this study as they serve as the primary evidence regarding youth perceptions of rural communities such as Benzie County, and the likelihood of their future community participation. The five themes are as follows: (Read and improvise…)
- The quotes shown here are not representative of the entire population surveyed, they are however representative of the majority. This is not to say that there were not some students who feel very included in the community and feel that their ability to participate in it causes them to feel a strong desire to return to it. Two of the students I interviewed separately (both from the village of Lake Ann) talked extensively about their involvement in volunteer and outdoor activities that involved multiple generations and how that made them want to go to college and use their future education to return to this community and provide their services here.
- Taking the time to evaluate all of this information, in the context of literature and history, that tells us that engaging our young community members is important may be time consuming and often challenging, but the most difficult part is going to be putting all of this into action. The implications of what I have heard and presented via many of Benzie County’s youth are crucial to finding solutions and moving forward. Not only are there implications for myself and the future of my work, there are also serious implications for Benzie County and other rural communities like it. For rural youth not only in Benzie County, but all over the United States, this means that their communities are doing very little to engage them. The current literature, as it is presented in my paper, suggests that feeling limited or put off by one’s community is a characteristic possessed by many youth living in America’s rural communities. This lack of engagement is creating a rural exodus that is not only causing some of America’s oldest and most historically rich communities to decay, but also creating an influx of people migrating to urban and suburban areas that may not be able to keep up in the long run. As rural youth are able, they are more willing to leave their small town life behind for one they feel will provide them with more opportunity, more diversity, and more chances to voice their opinions. While these implications seem dire, it is important to realize that it does not have to be this way. If and when rural communities begin to take new ideas or suggestions for improvement into consideration, they will be able to create vibrant and long-lasting places that all will want to live, work, and share together. Because this project and all those involved mean so much to me personally, I would be uncomfortable leaving my findings as they are. It would not behoove my community or myself if I were not also able to come up with some suggestions that would be feasible and have the potential to change these results in the future. While significant change is a long ways away, and will take a great deal of patience and understanding, being aware of the steps that will have to be involved and starting to think about incorporating them into daily life will be a great starting point. (Read recommendations) This should actually be the first step that is taken, and is probably the most important. Along with creating more youth-adult relationships, adults need to be aware of the importance of incorporating youth in community activities and how it can positively impact their community. Many adults that also grew up in Benzie County probably never had a voice themselves and are therefore accustomed to having a more dominant role over youth in the community. In all of society, and on the community level in particular, perception drives behavior. If attitudes that the opinions and voices of youth are insignificant are perpetuated, then youth will continue to remain silent. Until adults make the first move of saying, “it’s ok,” the youth will never begin to speak or start thinking on their own. All of these proposed strategies and solutions could happen easily in an ideal world with unlimited time and resources, but we all now that is never the case. Perhaps the best way to start implementing some of these strategies would be through a small, pilot project. Continuing to have conversations like the ones I was able to have in the focus groups would be a great starting point and from there these conversations would be able to go deeper and deeper. The youth should also be a part of the planning process if something like this were to happen. They should be at the forefront of determining how they would be able to gain community support. I never felt I had the voice or the opportunity to speak my mind or take part in activities like the one I am proposing. Until I came to the University of Michigan and was strongly encouraged to do so, I felt it inappropriate to jump in and contribute when a teacher, or a person in power, was speaking. Because I was not accustomed to this environment, I was put at a disadvantage at first since participation tends to be a large part of one’s evaluation in a class. Regardless of the negative feelings I had in the past, the truth is that if I did not think this community has all the heart and potential to make these changes, then why would I have taken on this project? I agree with many of the students I spoke with in that you do have to go away for a while and experience something new in order to appreciate what you have. However, feeling a push and desire to give back to a community that has, hopefully, given you so much can be so fulfilling. Now is the time for this change to happen. There is a common phrase in a lot of social change work that says, “I used to wonder why somebody didn’t do something... But then I realized, I am somebody...” These young people need to know they are all, “somebody.” “Somebody” that can make a huge impact in their community and that will be welcomed and wanted when they wish to return. Their heads are full of thoughts, energy and experiences they want to share and contribute, so we should let them. I am finally starting to feel like I can make my mark in my community... What could theirs be?